Hi everyone. I'm the owner of http://wegotthiscovered.com I have a question about Meta Descriptions. For some reason, the Meta descriptions on my posts aren't working. Google doesn't display what I put down for the meta descriptions. I'm using the Wordpress SEO Plugin by Yoast. In the settings, I went to titles and post meta description and put in %%excerpt%%, which is supposed to make it take the excerpt for the meta description. Now for those familiar with the plugin, in the add new post screen there is also a meta description box where you can fill in your own custom meta description, which I do as well. BUT, for some reason it doesn't work. Google still shows my meta description as something messy and random. Look below at the examples. http://www.google.com/search?q=http://wegotthiscovered.com/news/mass-effect-3-details-courtesy-game-informer/&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8 - Result #1 http://www.google.com/search?q=http://wegotthiscovered.com/news/mass-effect-3-details-courtesy-game-informer/&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#sclient=psy&hl=en&q=wegotthiscovered+nicki+minaj+pink+friday+review&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=7c9f4fa6ed867460 - Result #1 http://www.google.com/search?q=http://wegotthiscovered.com/movies/jessica-biel-set-play-female-roles-total-recall/&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8 - REsult #1 None of these use the meta description, none of my posts seem to. Any idea why? How can I get Google to show the proper meta description? Thanks
I believe your descriptions are too short. There is no guarantee that Google will use the Meta Description tag and use it in their results as the description of your site. Often, Google will take the first few sentences of your website content and use that as the description. Try using longer descriptions with 2-3 sentences.
Hey, in the little meta description box it says there's a limit of 155 characters. So I try to keep it short. And there's no guarantee they'll use it? Really? Why wouldn't they?
Usually Google displays Excerpts from Wordpress post intsead of Meta Description. Google will display META DESCRIPTION for your wordpress homepage only, not for the posts.
Ok well if it's taking an excerpt then it still is wrong. My excerpts are just the first three sentences of my article. What Google is showing is random and messy, not the first bit of my articles. I've been looking at other sites and there meta descriptions seem fine, not sure why mine is messed up. @ForgottenCreature, really? Can you post a link or screen?
Google's search result display depends on your keyphrase that you used on search. It will take the part where the crawler finds most relevant. Hence it may be random. Moreover, the same doesn't happen to many who claims as 'yes it works fine for me'. Because they are having META DESCRIPTION set for each pages in customized manner. Even you too can do that in Wordpress, with All-in-One-SEO-Pack Pro version. Just disable the auto excute META Description for the posts and pages and create your own through the All-in-One-SEO Pro box bellow to your each posts.
Hey I used to use the All In One SEO but I switched to the Wordpress SEO Plugin. And with it I have been creating my own through the box below my posts but it still doesn't work.
Search any keyword then. Meta descriptions still work. http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&...=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=384aef4afa8e1652
Hold on. I am uploading the attachment for your help here. http://picpaste.com/Edit_META_DESCR-MWuAjdMy.png
Try post post link properly. You are insulting the newbies, and you yourself don't know how to post a Google SERP link? And this is what you so-called SEO experts are. I have another fiew examples/proofs also against those all who are shouting against, abusing and insulting the newbies. Those proofs are enough to prove what kind of SEO Experts(!) they are. Do you want to see?
Hey Here's another example, I check the source code on the page and there is definitely a meta description, for example on this post http:// wegotthiscovered. com/movies/liam-neeson-replaced-hangover-part-ii/, it has the following in the code: <meta name='description' content='Variety is reporting that Nick Cassavetes is replacing Liam Neeson in The Hangover Part II. Find out why here.'/> Yet when you search it on Google, it doesn't display that. Look below. http://www. google. com/search?q=Liam%20Neeson%20Replaced%20In%20The%20Hangover%20Part%20II%20&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8 Mine is #6 and as you see, it looks like it's posting the image name first. Any idea why? A lot of my posts show up like that on Google, where the image name comes up first.
My site is We Got This Covered Also like type this into Google "Screen Rant The Social Network", that's how I want my meta descriptions to look
Searcing for "Screen Rant The Social Network" I am getting the Excerpt of the indexed pages. Just have a thorough look.
Nothing to get confused mate. Leave Google to display your contents from posts in SERP. And it is displaying your set META DESCR for homepage for sure.
What's SERP? I know it displays it right for my home page but for the actual posts it isn't displaying it right and that's what concerns me.