My SERP meta description is displaying 315 characters...
-
Hi Mozzers,
We have recently taken the #2 spot for our main keyword in Google UK serp. I just checked again and we have dropped to #4 and our meta description is no longer there as it has been replaced with some homepage content... 315 characters of homepage content right up to the full stop.
I'm a little confused. A couple of our competitors meta descriptions are showing the same, extra long homepage text instead.
Is there something totally normal and harmless causing this or do I need to be monitoring/changing something? Has Google made an update to allow for longer meta decs?
Any advice appreciated!
-
Jamie
I had a look at the source - ie the description. "Car Warranty designed to be the UK's best by Quentin Willson. 95% satisfaction rating for Warrantywise award winning used car warranty. Get a quote today" I just did a character/ pixel check and it is perfect. 153 ch / 1329 px
I am only thinking out loud, but google might not like the first sentence - it probably does not really respond to any searchers query match any intent. Hence google substitute the answer snippet taken from the page. Maybe google is more advanced than we think they are with the ever changing SERP.
On a positive CTR is positively enhance by the size of the Organic search result - so you are on a winner their. I would just monitor it at present on GA and webmaster and see whether action needed.
-
Hi Patrick,
Thanks for the reply. Here is the screenshot, I'll read over the Dr Pete article too!
We are the 4th result. See also gocompare's meta desc. The ranking often fluctuates so this isn't my real worry it's just the description that I'm concerned with.
Cheers!
-
Hi there
Can you send a screenshot? I want to say sit tight, monitor, and see what happens, it could just be a test or Google is changing something.
My vote - monitor and hang tight, especially if your meta description in your code is fine. I would also read this resource from Dr Pete if nothing changes as far as Google just using homepage content.
Hope this helps! Good luck!
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
If you use canonicals do the meta descriptions need to be different?
For example, we have 3 different subsites with the same pages. We will put canonicals so they reference the main pages. Do the meta descriptions have to be different for each of the three pages? How does Google handle meta data when using canonicals?
Technical SEO | | Shirley.Fenlason0 -
Google not pulling correct Meta Description
For some reason Google is not pulling the meta description for one of our key pages. Instead it just takes the first sentence from the page which makes the description horrible. Why would it be doing this if the meta tag field is populated?
Technical SEO | | inhouseninja0 -
Multi-domain content and meta data feed
Hi, I am working with a client whose web developer has offered to build a CMS that auto-feeds meta-data and product descriptions (on-page content) to two different websites which have two completely different URL's (primary domain names) associated with them. Please see screenshots attached for examples. The entire reason this has been offered is to avoid duplicate content issues. The client has two E-Commerce websites but only one content management system that can update both simultaneously. The work-around shown in the screenshots is the developers attempt at ensuring that both sites have unique meta data and on-page content associated with each product. Can anyone advise whether they foresee that this may cause any issues from an SEO perspective. Thanks in advance wM3ngsj.png KtBun98.png
Technical SEO | | SteveK640 -
Javascript/CSS popup description box
Hi guys, I am trying to upload the following popup code on my server: http://jsfiddle.net/3wyHJ/ However, I cannot seem to upload the Javascript code on the right place, because the popup is not showing. Here is an example with what I am doing: _ Cookies?_ # of Votes: 123
Technical SEO | | petbiv
% Liked
_ [See User reviews](product review link)_ Could somebody help me?0 -
Miss meta description on 404 page
Hi, My 404 page did not have meta description. Is it an error? Because I run report and seomoz said that a problem. Thanks!
Technical SEO | | JohnHuynh0 -
Duplicate title tags and meta description tags
According to GWT, it seems that some of the pages on my website have duplicate title and meta tags. The pages identified by Google are nothing but dynamic pages: http://www.mywebsite.com/page.php
Technical SEO | | sbrault74
http://www.mywebsite.com/page.php?param=1
http://www.mywebsite.com/page.php?param=2 The thing is that I do use the canonical link tag on all pages. Should I also use the "robots noindex" tag when the page is invoked using a GET parameter? Again sorry for my english. Thank you, Stephane1 -
Warnings for blocked by blocked by meta-robots/meta robots Nofollow...how to resolve?
Hello, I see hundreds of notices for blocked by meta-robots/meta robots nofollow and it appears it is linked to the comments on my site which I assume I would not want to be crawled. Is this the case and these notices are actually a positive thing? Please advise how to clear them up if these notices can be potentially harmful for my SEO. Thanks, Talia
Technical SEO | | M80Marketing0 -
Meta keywords
I heard that Google doesn't use 'meta keywords' for ranking. Is that true and does it harm to use the meta tag? And how do the other big SEs use the tag?
Technical SEO | | kortingsplanet0