Meta Description Not showing up in Google?

22 replies
  • SEO
  • |
Guys, I have a clients site that was built with css and wordpress built into it. I have added the all in one seo plugin but I can not get the meta description to show up in the search results.


What can I do to make this meta description appear as it is really affecting our click through rate? Currently nothing is showing and it only shows the Title Tag (which changes depending on the keywords you search).


Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
#description #google #meta #showing
  • Profile picture of the author Careygee
    Have you actually went to the site and checked the "source" and
    looked at the html and meta tag codes to see if they're actually there
    in the page code?

    Best I can do at this time, I do not use Wordpress for sites.
    Carey
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    • Profile picture of the author Rocketguy
      <!-- All in One SEO Pack 1.6.11 by Michael Torbert of Semper Fi Web Design[303,312] -->
      meta name
      meta keywords


      It shows these in the source code with the description and keywords I inserted into the plugin. It is just not showing up in google.
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      • Profile picture of the author thecableguy
        Google doesn't update in real time wait a few days, if it's showing in the source code it'll show up when Google updates.
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        • Profile picture of the author Rocketguy
          Originally Posted by alanfukuda View Post

          Google doesn't update in real time wait a few days, if it's showing in the source code it'll show up when Google updates.

          It's been almost a month. We are number 1 spot in Google, but it won't show the meta description. Plus something really weird happens as the title tags that appear in Google change depending on the keywords you use to search.
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          • Profile picture of the author paulgl
            Originally Posted by Rocketguy View Post

            It's been almost a month. We are number 1 spot in Google, but it won't show the meta description. Plus something really weird happens as the title tags that appear in Google change depending on the keywords you use to search.
            They may show your meta description, they may not. If your site is crawled often and
            valued by google, it should eventually show up. But google cannot be forced to show
            your meta. They show what they want. Sometimes, "they" feel the meta is not what they
            should show.

            Paul
            Signature

            If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.

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  • Profile picture of the author woweb
    Try adding this:

    <metaname="robots" content="noodp,noydir" />


    Without looking at the site, I couldn't tell you what's causing the problem but Google could be pulling info from the open directory, this tag will force Google and Yahoo to use the description you give them.

    Another option is that Google could be still using data from the cache.
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  • Profile picture of the author rahulr
    Just check the source and also fill the configuration page of All In One SEO
    Signature
    {$5 ONLY}750 word article written on your keyword.
    GET IT NOW -http://goo.gl/gXH4m
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  • Profile picture of the author alldaylinks
    Would have to see the URL to be able to tell you what the problem is. Could you add the URL via a url shortner if you dont want to post it?
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  • Profile picture of the author Rocketguy
    I just can't figure this one out. Something really weird going on.
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  • Originally Posted by Rocketguy View Post

    Guys, I have a clients site that was built with css and wordpress built into it. I have added the all in one seo plugin but I can not get the meta description to show up in the search results.


    What can I do to make this meta description appear as it is really affecting our click through rate? Currently nothing is showing and it only shows the Title Tag (which changes depending on the keywords you search).


    Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

    That is typically what happens when Google knows about the a blog's home page because of it's very first ping but their crawler has not yet crawled the blog. Or you'll see such listings when a page on a site is blocked from being displayed in the SERPs using a meta robots NOINDEX element but the page is linked to by lots of other sites (so Google can infer from the inbound link text that the blocked page appears to be relevant to the search).

    There is no way to make meta description appear is the snippet all of the time anyway. If you understand how Google choses search snippets, you would know that all you can really do is optimize your meta description to maximize how often it appears. To do this you need to have already optimized the page (title, h1, h2s, content, URL, etc.). Knowing which keyword phrase drives the most traffic to a URL will help you to optimize your meta descriptions so they show up more often.
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  • Profile picture of the author roger123
    Please pm your URL. let me have a look
    Signature
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  • Profile picture of the author Rocketguy
    I sent a PM if you can take a look. I really need help with this.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rocketguy
    My meta description still isn't showing in Google. Is there anyone that can help me out with this?
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    • Profile picture of the author InTheMaking
      Originally Posted by Rocketguy View Post

      My meta description still isn't showing in Google. Is there anyone that can help me out with this?
      This exact same thing happened to me, all I did was edit my meta description and make it shorter (It was over 200 characters) and it appeared instantly.

      Maybe this is what is happening for you?

      Best of luck,

      Jeremy
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  • Profile picture of the author RichardHK
    As noted earlier, Google do not always show the meta description. If they feel a more meaningful snippet can be had from the content, it will take something from there. If you have little or no content (say just images) the Google does not have much to show if the description is spammy/similar.

    Have you checked to see if you are getting hits from others? Maybe just you and the client are typing in the keywords that show this. Try some differerent keyword combinations and see what happens.
    Signature

    Richard, Hong Kong
    Business Consulting

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  • Profile picture of the author gaush007
    Hey friend it is not necessary that google will look at your meta description. It will sometime ignore in some of the websites. Google only reflects quality data. If google feels that your meta description carries quality data then only it will reflect on the search engine.

    The best option in this is add a quality and unique content on your webpage. Just try to target the keywords in the content with <strong></strong> tag. Google gives priority to the <strong> tag. This will definitely work and google will show your webpage content with keywords highlighted as it is ignoring the meta description.
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  • Profile picture of the author cryptone24
    I am having the same problem, my site is indexed, attracting about 70 visitors a day but i see no meta description for my home page.

    Can anyone tell to check if the other post meta descriptions? I only have about 15 light plugins installed.

    This is really troubling.
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  • Profile picture of the author My Art broker
    Hi,

    I have a Joomla site and google takes some of my meta descriptions but not all of them, 1 in 3 have the meta descriptions I have spent hours doing but the other 2/3's google has taken random snippets of text and I need to work out how to have my own meta descriptions for all my URL's - any help really appreciated.

    Many thanks

    Joe
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  • Profile picture of the author My Art broker
    Hi,

    Anyone help re the above?

    Thanks

    Joe
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  • Profile picture of the author Arushi
    [DELETED]
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  • Profile picture of the author fernades
    Have you submitted your website in any directories like dmos before?
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  • Profile picture of the author bryncllc
    Hey Everyone,

    Newb here (first post!) - I'm also having this problem on my first attempt at an affiliate site. Just the url showing up in the google results. The preview for the site that google does just to the right of the serp is also empty (it says preview not available).

    I've included meta title and description tags. One possibility I thought could be that at one point I had both All In On SEO Pack as well as Yoast SEO installed. I also have Easy WP Pro installed and the plugin is telling me that I have both meta tags filled out properly. Could there have been a plugin conflict with those that caused this?

    Does anyone know any more info about this problem than whats in the thread above and what can I do to resolve this? Thanks so much - glad to be a member of this forum, what an amazing resource!
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