Meta Descriptions - Does Cutt's comment still hold true?
-
When looking through my old research on Meta's came across this article on Search Engine Land where Matt Cutt's stated...
"In fact, Matt said for his own blog, he doesn’t bother to make meta descriptions for his own site. In short, it is better to let Google auto-create snippets for your pages versus having duplicate meta descriptions."(http://searchengineland.com/googles-matt-cutts-dont-duplicate-your-meta-descriptions-177706)
Recently, I have seen Google continuously play around with my metas, pulling from some really weird places on the page, discrediting the meta that I have there..and more-or-less really f them up..
Does the community think that maybe what Matt said in 2013 still holds weight and we are just wasting time with metas since Google does what they want in that space anyways?
-
I write all of my own meta descriptions and spend good time on them. Much of the time, my meta description is grabbed and shown verbatim in the SERPs. In that meta description I can give a nice list of topics covered in my article or features of a product or value proposition on shipping. I read lots of meta descriptions and use them to decide if the page is worth a click. I don't think that I am the only person who does this,
Why would I spend three days writing an article and then not write a nice meta description? Or, not write a description with clever marketing for a product that I sell hundreds of per year. Why would I not shoot finely-crafted arrows when I can?
Keep in mind that Google has a mentality to do everything with an algo.
And that can be a huge problem.
How many people have their adsense accounts banned unjustly with no possible appeal? How much adwords advice is given poorly? How many times does google email me that my traffic has fallen off a cliff the day after Thanksgiving? How many times does their program send adsense policy violations in error? How many times do they give the wrong person credit for images in image search? How many times does their parameter management in WMT not work and you fix it yourself using htaccess? Google is even know to list wrong numbers for police stations in knowledge boxes! (Stopping here, I could keep going but you get the idea.).
Google has a philosophy that "we would rather do stuff half-ass at scale, than have a human tool do it right most of the time". Doing stuff with algos at scale is OK much of the time and Google is quite good at it..... but my advice is do not allow google to do anything important for you that you can do for yourself.
I am going to bet on me, and if you think that you are a reasonably smart person, then maybe you should bet on you.
-
I think Matt's point was that he'd prefer to let Google generate meta descriptions - in the hope they'd be unique - rather than using the same one repeatedly.
My view? You should be writing unique meta descriptions for all of your key landing and sales pages.
Not for SEO - far from it. But because it's the shop window that people will see before they reach your site via organic search. You have a great opportunity to make it compelling, to attract the click away from others around (or above you) and to get your unique selling points across.
Google can never do a better job at that than you.
-
I'd rather have as much control as possible over how my result is displayed in the SERPs. I think if you make your meta description relevant enough to your page that Google doesn't consider it not as good as theirs (at least for the more obvious queries. Can't please all those longtails), then you can use the description to really sell the page to the searcher.
I think Matt's saying though that it's better to specify no meta description at all than use duplicate descriptions across multiple pages.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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
-
Shopify websites. I've been asked to do some SEO work for a client.
They have a Shopify site. It's been running a year without getting really any listings. Anyone else had this problem? Should we just build them a new website? Or do shopify site have a poor record of listing highly.Thanks
Conversion Rate Optimization | | BraveThinking0 -
When to determine that a change DIDN'T affect conversion rates
Hi everyone, Description of test: We're a lead gen site trying to add more value by providing users with real, live quotes after they submit a lead. However, we don't want showing the quotes to tank our lead conversion rates. So we're running a test where 50% of leads see quote results and 50% don't, and we compare the lead conversion rates for each. The best possible outcome is to show that showing the quotes DIDN'T negatively affect conversion rates. My issue: When do we conclude the test? In the end, we're hoping to see that the change didn't cause a statistically significant difference between the control and version B, which is the opposite of every other test I've ever run. So, at what point do we conclude that the changes in version B didn't have a significant effect on lead conversions? Currently the control is doing 5% better than the variation with a p-value of .379
Conversion Rate Optimization | | ted-zarceczny0 -
Has anyone ever used Adwords' Forwarding Numbers as a Call Tracking Service?
Hi, I was taking over a client's Adwords account from a previous agency. It appears the former agency added the Google Forwarding Number (for call tracking on call extensions) and added it to the client's website. Therefore, if anyone calls that number from the website, it would register within Adwords (just not as a conversion but as a click under "call extensions") The problem: you can't filter by phone number (the same number calling +1 would indicate spam) you can filter by device (so tablet / computer) can be considered spam generally. Questions: Anyone ever used this before? Your thoughts? Does anyone know if there is spam coming from mobile devices now-a-days? Please tell me what I'm missing. Any advice / anyone else seen this / done this? Thanks Moz Community, Cole
Conversion Rate Optimization | | ColeLusby0 -
Why Google Analytics is still showing data for edited/old "Goals"?
For example, I edited "Goal #1" (goal type=event) with new values/event conditions last Nov. 20, 2014. Why Google Analytics is showing numbers from Nov 1-19 for Goal #1? Does Google Analytics show old data?TIA!
Conversion Rate Optimization | | zpm20140 -
I've got one good offer (I think) from one site that i want to advertise my site and i have few questions
Hi guys, I've got one good offer (I think) from one site that i want to advertise my site and i have few
Conversion Rate Optimization | | WayneRooney
questions. How can i test the results of the ads ?
Do i check all the datas only trough Google analytics ?
Can i check the CPM or the CPC with Google analytics ? Any tips or recommended tools will be more then welcome. Thanks guys0 -
Has anyone heard about Facebook's Revenue Problems? Duh right. Well have you seen how they are losing money yet?!?!
So about a year ago now (maybe more/less), Facebook changed the way their ads are displayed. On the desktop version of Facebook (for me at least), the Sponsored ads in the right sidebar display anywhere between 3 and 7 ads at a time. Well in the case of 7 ads, that is a lot of ads to look at and read through. All seems pretty ok right?? Well, here is the problem. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen an ad that interests me, and then read through the others below them, then before I can go back to click on the one that interested me, the ads automatically refresh, and I don't get to click on the ad. Maybe they figure that by refreshing ads, it gets them more chances to catch your interest, and that the value of that is higher than the value of me getting to click what I wanted. (It kinda upset me honestly. I thumbs down things that tease me.) Either way, they could have both. My solution? A small button that you can click to view the ads that were previously displayed. (imagine how much money that could bring them. Especially if I saw the ad yesterday, left the window open for 24 hours with the computer on, and just sat there clicking until i found it. You are BOUND to find MORE ads that interest you, and click on those too.) ((ok, ok, ok, maybe 24 hours is a little ridiculous, but at least SOME amount of time and a button is necessary)) If we were really going to build a marketing playground, then we could also throw in a "More Like This" button. It would open the doors to some AMAZING data. Full to the brim with advertisement related feedback coming happily from your users. When you are talking about positioning your brand, it doesn't get much more important than to talk to them while they are enjoying themselves. (i.e. they click button, and next page has 10 links. you show the links, based on how many times people are clicking them. Not to mention, when you are that big, you can look at the value of what they do immediately after, the next day, and even the next week, and really tell what is the most valueable add, in terms of egagement, and further CTRs and Conversions for later in your relationship ) Anyways, I thought everyone would find that interesting, and hopefully it would inspire some people to get analytical with their thoughts today. Do you think that Facebook could use some conversion rate optimization? Do you think that Facebook could be doing more than they are to make more money? Do you think that Facebook (being such a powerful site), could make a lot of money by implementing an SEO/Content strategy?
Conversion Rate Optimization | | TylerAbernethy0 -
Google Adwords Quality Score Driving me I-N-S-A-N-E
Here's my issue, I have an Air Conditioning client for whom I've been managing their SEO and Adwords PPC for the past year. The SEO is going good, we are seeing tangible results every month will soon be on page 1 for their most competitive keyword. On the adwords side, we are having some major issues though and I'm racking my brain. We are somehow getting quality scores in the 2's and 3's on the regular. I've streamlined my campaigns down to the city and within those I've streamlined my keyword groups into the following groups: City (Campaign) - AIr Conditioning (keyword group) - AC Repair (keyword group) - Fix AC (keyword group) - Contractor (keyword group) - Air Conditioner (keyword group) Every keyword we're bidding on falls nicely into one of these keyword groups and we're putting about 10 key words in each. Landing pages have exact phrase match in page title, h1, bold words, contact form and a coupon image with all the meta tags indicating the image offer matches the offer in our ads. We are running 3-4 ads in each keyword and testing new ads almost daily. Still getting 2s and 3s on the highest trafficked keywords (air conditioning & ac repair). I've read everything out there, I signed up for wordstream which had some decent recommendations (basically break your ad groups into smaller verticals) which I've implemented to no avail. I'm beginning to think Google is just hustling all these companies in service industry who they know rely on adwords to get phone calls in the summer - especially the HVAC industry. I'm running out of ideas here other than just going to Vegas and putting all my client's on black at the roulette wheel. Seems like a much more fun way to piss away thousands of dollars and at least they'll give me some cocktails.
Conversion Rate Optimization | | BrianJGomez0 -
Thoughts on meta descriptions - best click through rates
Hi All, I recently heard a tip from a prominent SEO'r that meta tags should be custom written by professional copywriters. Well, I want to head down that path. What are your thoughts on these two options: Buy the top-selling <xyz product="">. 20 year warranty, 30 day money guarantee + free, fast shipping! Includes <1-2 features or included accessories of product></xyz> or Buy our top-rated <xyz product="">today</xyz> & save! Over 20 5-star rated reviews + free, fast shipping! Includes <1-2 features or included accessories of product> Would you focus on the warranty, reviews, product accessories, money back guarantee, free shipping over a certain cutoff, customer service (which we have a toll free number for) or another factor? Are there any good articles out there outlining this? Do you think the way I've structured it is good/readable? What about the use of '+' instead of '&'? Is the cutoff limit still 156 chars? Any thoughts/views/ideas are most appreciated! Thanks
Conversion Rate Optimization | | bradkrussell0