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Google not using seo plugin for site description

by gjd6599
6 replies
Hi, I always used the all in one seo plugin, on every page of my wordpress blogs, and it used to work fine. But for the last few months, I notice that Google seems to ignore the descriptions I enter into the plugin, for each post, and they just grab the first sentence or two from the post.

I don't like this, because it is usually not what I want displayed in the listing. Is this another, I'll do what I want Google change, or do I need to use a different plugin.

Thanks Glenn
#description #google #plugin #seo #site
  • Profile picture of the author lotsofsnow
    Hi Glenn,

    Google grabs the snipped from the meta description tag.

    You should manually check your site whether that tag is there on each page and what it contains.

    Here is how you get that.

    If you are using Google Chrome:
    1. Go to one of the pages of your blog.
    2. right-click and select "view source"
    3. look for something like this:
    <!-- All in One SEO Pack 1.6.13.2 by Michael Torbert of Semper Fi Web Design[523,571] -->
    <meta name="description" content="YOUR DESCRIPTION SHOULD BE IN HERE">

    If you description is not in there check the plugin setting.

    If all looks fine and still nothing:

    Then you might want to try a different plugin.

    HP
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    • Profile picture of the author Sojourn
      Originally Posted by hpgoodboy View Post

      Here is how you get that.

      If you are using Google Chrome:
      1. Go to one of the pages of your blog.
      2. right-click and select "view source"
      3. look for something like this:
      <!-- All in One SEO Pack 1.6.13.2 by Michael Torbert of Semper Fi Web Design[523,571] -->
      <meta name="description" content="YOUR DESCRIPTION SHOULD BE IN HERE">

      If you description is not in there check the plugin setting.
      What HP said. I once had a theme that didn't work well with an SEO plug-in so the meta description wasn't being picked up. Even though everything looked good on the inside of WP, when I checked View Source, I could see the meta description was missing which was forcing Google to pick up the first few lines of the post instead of what I'd crafted for the meta description. As soon as I changed themes, it worked. Could be something else causing it to not get picked up but check View Source first.

      I run regular tests on my posts to see if Google is picking up my meta description or grabbing whatever they felt appropriate and I can't think of a time when they didn't show the description I chose.
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      • Profile picture of the author gjd6599
        Thanks for all the answers. It turned out that the meta tags plugin I recently installed, but never put any info into, over rides the all in one seo plugin. This made google grab content from my page. I deleted the meta tags plugin, and all is well now.

        Thanks
        Glenn
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  • Profile picture of the author Tcalp
    If Google's bots feel that your descriptions are inaccurate compared to the actual page content (not sure how exactly it comes to this conclusion) Google will use a snippet from the website instead of the meta description
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  • Profile picture of the author Abledragon
    Assuming your description tags are all in pace, if Google finds some text on your page that they feel is more relevant to the search term used, they'll use that text rather than the description tag.

    Cheers,

    Martin.
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  • Profile picture of the author jameskahon
    Google has a separate algorithm to fetch snippet for your website. Like what they said if your custom meta description does not tell what your page is all about then Google does it for you.
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