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Google uses meta description?

Discussion in 'Google' started by Kaabi, Jun 22, 2007.

  1. #1
    I put a meta description tag on my site just because I heard that it may work for smaller search engines, but now Google is using that meta description tag as the snippit for my main keyphrase. If they use meta description, does that mean they also use meta keywords, at least a little?
     
    Kaabi, Jun 22, 2007 IP
  2. trichnosis

    trichnosis Prominent Member

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    #2
    meta description and meta keywords is not a criteria for the serp but using is allways better because as you said the others are using it and i think adsense is also using it too
     
    trichnosis, Jun 22, 2007 IP
  3. TxDon

    TxDon Active Member

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    #3
    Yeah, Google will use Meta's. I find it funny every time someone says "metas are useless, don't use them".

    I think they're used more often than some of us would like to believe.

    TxDon
     
    TxDon, Jun 22, 2007 IP
  4. minstrel

    minstrel Illustrious Member

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    #4
    No.

    Google does use the meta description tag as the snippet, depending on the search term.

    They do not use the meta keywords tag at all.
     
    minstrel, Jun 22, 2007 IP
  5. mvandemar

    mvandemar Notable Member

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    #5
    Actually, minstrel, that's might not be entirely true. They might recognize the meta keyword and use it for content matching. I keep meaning to test this, but it has to do with the changes earlier this spring... remember the algo change affecting Google Bombing, where you could no longer make a page rank on links alone, except in extreme cases? It might be that having a keyword in the meta might be enough to count as it actually being in the page. I know that it does count in the meta description (ie. in desc + in links, can = in serps).

    -Michael
     
    mvandemar, Jun 22, 2007 IP
  6. Blanket

    Blanket Peon

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    #6
    google just uses the meta for the desriptions in the serps. If you dont have meta tags, it will default to your DMOZ description.
     
    Blanket, Jun 22, 2007 IP
  7. mvandemar

    mvandemar Notable Member

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    #7
    That's not true on multiple levels.

    -Michael
     
    mvandemar, Jun 22, 2007 IP
  8. samayahuja

    samayahuja Active Member

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    #8
    different title, des., keywords for each page will help you get better search results.
     
    samayahuja, Jun 22, 2007 IP
  9. oseymour

    oseymour Well-Known Member

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    #9
    not true at all...
     
    oseymour, Jun 22, 2007 IP
  10. Barre Tire

    Barre Tire Peon

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    #10
    I don't think anyone really knows. I do know that they do use it for your description in many cases. So if they use it for the description then one must assume that they are using it to some extent for rank.
     
    Barre Tire, Jun 23, 2007 IP
  11. heinlein99

    heinlein99 Peon

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    #11
    If you have very little text on the page, Adsense may use the meta keywords to find 'suitable' ads to serve. Those seem to be relying more heavily on words in the address & context lately, though.
     
    heinlein99, Jun 23, 2007 IP
  12. stOx

    stOx Notable Member

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    #12
    I put an obscure word (a word which had 0 results in a google search) in my meta keywords, Waited for google to reindex the page and then i searched for the word. It still had zero results.

    Surely if they used meta keywords even slightly it would have returned that page for that search term, Especially as it was the only page on the internet to contain that word.
     
    stOx, Jun 23, 2007 IP
  13. mvandemar

    mvandemar Notable Member

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    #13
    No, that's not the case. We know they use meta description... yet if you search on an exact quote from a meta description that page won't come up.

    Look at this search:

    ["highly selective, liberal arts university offering distinctive synergies"]

    You see 10 results that come up. What you don't see is the University of Richmond, which actually has that text in their meta description (but not on the page):

    http://www.ur.edu/

    Now, we do know that pretty much links alone won't get you ranked for a phrase, and meta description alone won't... but links plus meta description can. Therefore it might also be the case that links plus meta keywords would act the same way. Would need to test to know for sure.

    -Michael
     
    mvandemar, Jun 23, 2007 IP
  14. stOx

    stOx Notable Member

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    #14
    Yeah they use the description, But only for the text snippet, Not for ranking, As your example shows.

    So if they don't use the description for ranking why assume they use keywords for ranking?
     
    stOx, Jun 23, 2007 IP
  15. minstrel

    minstrel Illustrious Member

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    #15
    Yes, we know Google will use the meta description tag for snippets, depending on the specific search query as I said earlier.

    That does NOT mean that the meta description tag is used at all for ranking. Indeed, every "test" I have ever see as to whether the description tag figures in Google ranking has come up negative, confirming what stOx stated.

    Anything is possible, I suppose, but I'd like to see some evidence to support these speculations.
     
    minstrel, Jun 23, 2007 IP
  16. Dionisi.US

    Dionisi.US Guest

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    #16
    Agree with you because one of my very old websites is indexed in Google using its meta tags as descriptive text.
     
    Dionisi.US, Jun 23, 2007 IP
  17. mvandemar

    mvandemar Notable Member

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    #17
    They do use the meta description as one of the factors to determine if they should rank a page or not. I said this.

    -Michael
     
    mvandemar, Jun 23, 2007 IP
  18. minstrel

    minstrel Illustrious Member

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    #18
    No.

    1. You may be seeing your meta description tag as a snippet, which does not mean it's used in ranking: See above.

    2. The meta description tag is NOT the same as the meta keywords tag.
     
    minstrel, Jun 23, 2007 IP
  19. mvandemar

    mvandemar Notable Member

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    #19
    Do you agree that due to the change in February having to do with Google Bombing that you can no longer rank in links alone like you used to be able to do?

    -Michael
     
    mvandemar, Jun 23, 2007 IP
  20. Freewebspace

    Freewebspace Notable Member

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    #20

    how do you say that it does n't comes up in rankings ?

    Also Google adsense uses only Meta keywords and descriptions for displaying ads



    Godaddy's meta description above!


    see here the search results
    for Domain Registrars

    Godaddy is 4th on the ranking and I can see only Godaddy's meta description in the rankings and not other things!


    There are some guys here always advocating against meta tags so beware of them!I do not know what is the real motive behind this?
     
    Freewebspace, Jun 23, 2007 IP