Problems with Google results
-
Hi Everybody,
I ve been dealing with this issue for a while now. i have a multilingual website: www.vallnord.com
When a search for Vallnord in Google it always shows the result in Catalan, but it does not show what I specified in the meta description, it displays what it crawls from the home page.
I have 2 problems here:
-
It is not showing my meta description. What can I do?
-
It is not showing the language from which the search was made. Example: if you search from Google.com and your default language is english it should been displayed the result from the english HTML. www.vallnord.com/en but it is not like this. It is always the catalan (default language of the site) the one that is displayed.
I have tried several things already:
-
Inserting the Hreflang function
-
Changing the descriptions
-
Resubmitting the sitemap via Google Webmaster
I can not figure out what is going on because if you search: "Vallnord Castellano" it will display the spanish URL but still not the proper description.
Moreover if you search: "www.vallnord.com/es" on google , it will display the proper URL and description.
FYI, I am using 301 redirects for the languages: es.vallnord.com it is the sames as www.vallnord.com/es
In addition to this, If using Yahoo search engine there is no problem. it will show the proper language. from yahoo.com the first result is in english and from yahoo.es the first result Spanish.
So any idea what would be the problem?And furthermore, any Idea which would be the solution?
Thanks in advance,
Guido.
-
-
Mmm...
if I search "Vallnord" in Google.com, I see as first result http://www.vallnord.com/en and the description snippet is actually its meta description tag.
As second result I've the .com (the catalan version). In this case the meta description is generated by Google itself as the original one is everything but a description:
<meta name="<a class="attribute-value">description</a>" content="<a class="attribute-value">Arcalís | Arinsal | Pal. Andorra</a>" />
In the case of the spanish version, it doesn't appear in the google.es SERPs when I search both for Vallnord and Vallnord castellano. You have to click on "more results from Vallnord to see it.
In this case, I suppose it is due to the fact the catalan is a language that you cannot geotarget as you can do with spanish or english, for instance (I'm not going to enter in "nationalism" issues :D).
That means that it appears in any Googles, also the spanish one. And having the .com a stronger link profile than the spanish one, it appears in the spanish SERPs.
The reason why your meta description doesn't appear when you do a search for "Vallnord" is quite simple, imho: the word Vallnord it's not present at all in the meta description, therefore Google compose the snippet assembling phrases of your home page where Vallnord is present.
-
Hi Gianluca,
Thanks for your email.
Yannick answer did not solve my problem. Do you have any better solution? How can I tell Google to read my description?
Does this take a lot of time? or should it be changed immediately?
Thanks,
Guido.
-
Hola Guide, did the Yannick answers helped you solving the issue, especially the 2nd one? I say so, because I still see Google choosing to show a description other than yours in the SERPs. A description which is taken directly from the home page content (surely because it thinks it better respond to the queries done by the users).
-
Ah yes, didnt see the meta langauge tag. Sorry about that. Try the links approach. Takes more time, but works.
Your meta description is very short. Try to get close to (but not more then) 160 - 165 chars and see what happens.
-
Hi Yannick,
Thanks for your answer.
-
My descriptions are about skiing, so the content is relevant on one hand. In the other hand it is not showing DMOZ description. So i do not understand why google is not respecting my meta description.
-
I need to tell Google all the different languages urls have the same content. that is what I was trying to do with the hreflang. but it did not work.
That tag is already inserted
regard,
G.
-
-
1. Their might be a mismatch between what is in your meta description and what content there is on your site. If you talk about french fries in your description, but it's not in the content of your site. Google will more often choose a snippoet from your site. Second thing that could happen is that if you are listed in DMOZ, Google sometimes takes the description given there, to be your desciption in the search engines.
2. Try
<meta http-equiv="language" content="EN">
But number 2 is not so easy. If you get a lot of links to your homepage, google will just decide that the .com url is more relevant to users than the /en/ version when ppl search for vallnord. So getting more link with Vallnord as <a>to the /en/ version might help with that problem.</a>
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
-
How do you get a url to show as a tagline in google mobile search?
When searching in google via mobile, I am seeing urls changed to taglines. I have attached pictures that show the url in a web search, but a tag line from the mobile search. Does anyone know how to get a tagline to show in place of a url in a mobile search? Any advice would be appreciated! uLkYWRx.png wljXRI3.png
Algorithm Updates | | David-Kley0 -
Google's Presentation Yesterday
We hired a new website/marketing company that is a Preferred Google Partner (one of two in Charlotte according to them) and they hosted a presentation by Google at the Google Fiber office in Charlotte yesterday. As expected, there were lots of self-promotion by Google, accompanied with a plethora of data they created to support their PPC Marketing. It was an impressive performance with Molly Dince and Celena Fergusson, presenting Google Marketing Solutions: "Making the Web Work For You" and the keynote speaker Tim Reis, Director of Performance Agencies at Google: speaking on "Mobile Micromoments: Why Your Biggest Opportunities Are In The Smallest Moments" They ended with 15 minutes of Q&A and my question was answered with "I don't know" which I found surprising. So, here it is Thursday morning and I'm asking the same question to my Moz Family for some feedback: "Since the removal of Ads from the right column of a SERP, what percentage of Google traffic comes from Ads vs. the Organics?" I look forward to your comments. TY,
Algorithm Updates | | KevnJr
KJr0 -
Google Direct Answers Box - available in other languages aside from English?
Hi guys, Last year I wrote a post for the YouMoz blog (https://mza.bundledseo.com/ugc/google-s-direct-answers-how-to-keep-visitors-coming-to-your-site) about Google's Direct Answers box. Needless to say, I focused purely on English language queries but I'm curious to know if anyone has seen the box appear for queries in other languages. If you've seen this happening and could provide some examples, then please let me know! Thanks in advance! Daniel
Algorithm Updates | | Daniel_Morgan0 -
Google AMP (accelerated mobile pages), can it be used for non-Google news and Ecommerce Websites?
Mozzers, I've been doing a lot of research on Google's new Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) https://mza.bundledseo.com/blog/accelerated-mobile-pages-whiteboard-friday. From what I'm seeing, these AMP version websites are only for Google News-worthy websites such as New York Times, Cosmopolitan, and the BuzzFeeds of the world. But what about Ecommerce websites like Ebay or Amazon? Will AMP versions of "scotch tape" via OfficeDepot work in the SERP's on non-Google News cards?
Algorithm Updates | | Shawn1240 -
How to prevent my search results being affected by the previous searches I have made ?
How to ensure that the search I have made is not based on my past search history and the results in my cache ? I don't want to sign out of Google every time and then clear my cache. Does Incognito Mode in Google Chrome work or is there any other way of making my search results unbiased ?
Algorithm Updates | | EricMoore0 -
Why has my homepage been replaced in Google by my Facebook page?
Hi. I was wondering if others have had this happen to them. Lately, I've noticed that on a couple of my sites the homepage no longer appears in the Google SERP. Instead, a Facebook page I've created appears in the position the homepage used to get. My subpages still get listed in Google--just not the homepage. Obviously, I'd prefer that both the homepage and Facebook page appear. Any thoughts on what's going on? Thanks for your help!
Algorithm Updates | | TuxedoCat0 -
If you got hit by a google update what you do first?
I have not been known the Panda. My site statistics knows it. I manage to endure and get back where i felt everytime with change of design, ad placement, content... I am very curious: if i did nothing, my site will turn back? why i kicked in every big update? Simply if you get hit by update, without any act, could your site healed?
Algorithm Updates | | MaxCrandale0 -
Domain Authority and Google keywords
Hi there, We have a domain authority of 33, one of our competitors has an authority of 10, yet they appear to list higher on many keyword searches in google. Is there a reason for this? Our site is 5 months old, and their site is over 3 yrs old. Thanks for your feedback 🙂
Algorithm Updates | | PHDAustralia680