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Google Search Results Descriptions - Who chooses what appears?

Google Search Results

Often times, people wonder how Google gets the actual content for the search results that are returned on a query.

I get asked repeatedly how a particular description turned up on Google because it may not be correct or as thorough as the client wished it was.

Google has also added many new features in their search results, or snippets that many people arent aware of, such as the little (+) symbol, indicating a video or map that can be popped up to the surface on the results page.

This Matt Cutts video explains in detail how certain information gets chosen for the SERPS for those who are curious.

One thing he touches on is the problem when Google uses the Open Directory Project (DMOZ.org) description instead of the one specified in your META tags. However, he does not explain that there is a way to have that description removed and replaced with your custom description.

A single META HTML tag on every page will overrule the DMOZ description, and from the next time your pages are crawled, will show the lines from the META description tags unique to that page. The proper syntax of the NOODP tag may have different variations, in general, an HTML tag placed in the HEAD section of the pages will be recognized by both Googlebot and Yahoo Slurp. <META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOODP"> is a directive for all web crawling bots, while <META NAME="GOOGLEBOT" CONTENT="NOODP"> is a directive for Googlebot only.

Posted by Fred Light - Real Estate Video Tours for MA and NH on 11/27/2007 07:58 AM

Comments (32)

google, search results, universal search

32 Comments on Google Search Results Descriptions - Who chooses what appears?

NOV

2007

Great post. I got it !! Thanks

cool. thanks for keeping me up to date on google. they are always changing.

Hi Fred-I love these video explanations...they are very easy to understand. I appreciate the great info on Google..

Hi Fred. Great post and thanks for the video.

Video is great...even I can get that.

Thanks you Fred that was awesome- I am going to go change my meta description tags right now!!!

This is info that we all need. Awsome and thanks!

I have often wondered about this process. Thank you for sharing and explaining.

Hi Fred,

How and where can I change my META description tags? Many of mine when googled are just name and company address, etc. That's not what I want showing. Thanks for any help!

Good to know. Thanks for the update...

Google is so significant that it's great to keep up with the changes. Thanks for sharing, Fred.

The computer I am using has no sound right now, but I am currently using the "NOODP" tag, as well as the "NOYDIR" tag. Both seem to be helping my primary site. Good information!

Dan:

The tags on your site now are:

You should change the TITLE tag to something like Cincinatti, Ohio (OH) real estate homes, condos, property and relocation information or something that is descriptive of your site AND filled with the proper keywords

You should add keywords to your meta tag (below)... not all search engines look at them, but some do. It can't hurt (Google does not look at them however).

The description meta tag is what you want to change to something that describes your site. This doesn't help your rankings, BUT does determine if someone clicks through your site based on the description they read in the search results. Your webmaster should be able to adjust your tags for you (do it on EACH page, not just the home page)

Hi Fred, Thanks for the video. Always good to know more about the Google "process" and there logic in the search engine process. thanks again. Bob and Lisa Hammerstein

Thanks, Fred, for the help and insight.

Fred,

Great Video.. this helps with alot.

Nice.. thank you for sharing

Thanks for this very informative post

Thanks for this Fred... classic Matt Cutts...

It blows me away how many people ignore the meta description tag

Fred is the best! He does our website and he gets results! I think it is great that he has shared this important information with the Active Rain community. Thanks, Fred!

Hello Dan,

Great post. I love your postings, they ae very informative.

David

Fred - Great post! Matt Cutts is the man, or at least he is at Google. I try to read his blogpage when I get a chance because he always has the latest Google News.

Fred,

As usual, a quality, insightful video. Thanks for the information. In regards to DMOZ..... trying to get something changed there is like.... well... I hate to say it... pulling teeth? I think that the editors there have all gotten old and have forgotten to edit. It takes months (lots of months) to get listed let alone get a change made. The best thing to do is to make sure you have your meta's in place.

Thanks for a very informative post. Off to check my tags right now.

I appreciate this video. It's helpful to understand a little more about how the search process works.

Martin: It's NOT about getting something changed in DMOZ...that's nearly impossible, but it's about changing the DMOZ description that Google sometimes pulls from their site instead of what YOU choose. Many of the descriptions in Google SERPS are actually from DMOZ.org.

There is always new stuff to be learning. Thanks for sharing this with us all.

Fred,

Awesome explanation! Thanks for making the difficult easier to understand.

NOV

2007

Great post ... thanks for the time putting this together

Nice information. it was my understanding the dmoz was of less value in googles eyes now.

Thanks for sharing, Fred. Nice and helpful.

Brian Wilson, Zolve.com

AUG

Hi everyone. His priority did not seem to be to teach them what he knew, but rather to impress upon them that nothing, not even... knowledge, was foolproof. I am from Mali and now study English, give please true I wrote the following sentence: "You can find valuable suppliers and buyers." :-D Thanks in advance. Amara.

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