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D
Dax_Trajero
Inspiring
June 28, 2011
Answered

Google anomaly - search results pulled through to meta description?

  • June 28, 2011
  • 1 reply
  • 1372 views

Had anyone noticed over the last month or so, Google search results page is pulling in "showing 1 to 20..." to the main block of text they use for each website description ? ie. the meta description is being corrupted ?

It's only affecting a small percentage of websites, but mineis now one of them.

I was wondering if anyone has come across this and has a fix for their coldfusion code ? Looking at my code the meta descroption is correctly formatted, so I don't understand why my "showing records 1-20" is being pulled into that ?

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Adam Cameron.

    Adam

    Is it possible to get Google to 'skip over' / ignore a section of code on a page ?


    Google do not disclose how their algorithms work.

    But the basic rule of thumb is to not try to trick or manipulate Google when it spiders the page: just make the page contextually relevant, and composed in a way that would be sensible to humans.

    One can also add "Rich Snippets" to your mark-up which flags to Google the intent of some parts of your mark-up, so they know how to better display them in the search results: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/05/introducing-rich-snippets.html

    You might find some useful stuff in there.

    --

    Adam

    1 reply

    A
    Adam Cameron.
    Inspiring
    June 28, 2011

    Can you post an example search results URL that demonstrates this.  I can't actually work out what you're saying from your description of it.

    --

    Adam

    D
    Dax_TrajeroAuthor
    Inspiring
    June 28, 2011

    Sorry, here's what I mean

    http://www.internetdynamics.co.uk/media/search_results_anomaly.png

    A
    Adam Cameron.
    Inspiring
    June 28, 2011

    Right, I see.

    I think youre running under a false assumption that Google uses the meta-description for its search results summary.  It doesn't.  Never has (or at least hasn't for a very long time).  It might use it if it coincidentally is what Google thinks is particularly important text in the context of your document, but usually the lead-in para (which you don't have one of) would be more important.

    http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=79812

    Google tries to assess what is relevant to HUMANS.  And the meta-description isn't.

    Also, you'd improve your search rankings if you had some SEO-friendly text on that page.  A para at the top which describes what the page is about.  It doesn't have to be particualrly human-friendly, but being keyword-dense is a good thing ;-)

    --

    Adam

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