While most metatags are ignored by most search engines nowadays, as I understand it, the "description" metatag is still used in the text of search results. Is that true?

If so, has anyone tested different description metatag wordings and the degree to which they inspire clicks?

Thanks,
Marcia Yudkin

Hi Marcia,

I actually work at a search marketing firm, so I asked one of the guys in the search department. He said (in terms of the major search engines) the description meta-tags have no bearing whatsoever in Google, but that they still seem to carry some significance in MSN and Yahoo.

Susan,

It's really easy to misunderstand my question since I'm not asking about the usual thing, so let me restate it.

I'm not interested in whether or not what's in the description metatag influences where a web page shows up in Google rankings. That seems to be the answer given to my question by your guys in the search engine department. I know that. That's the usual question.

What I'm asking is whether, irrespective of where the web site lands in the Google rankings, does Google display what's in the description metatag with the search engine listing for the site. And if so, have any site owners tinkered with the site description and increased the rate at which those who have seen their site come up in the search engine rankings click to go explore it?

It may be that your guys were answering this quite different question as well, but maybe not.

Thanks,
Marcia Yudkin

Hi Marcia,

Ok I see what you're saying now.

The theory is that Google completely ignores and 'skips over' what's in the description meta-tags when spidering a site, therefore their content won't even display in the actual results listing.

However, other engines such as MSN and Yahoo do tend to pick up what's in the description tags and display them in the listings.

As far as tinkering with the description tag text for the purpose of increasing your click-through rate, in theory this is a valid idea, however ... no one seems to be quite sure when the search engines re-crawl the web and therefore update the search listings. My team speculates that it's normally done on a monthly basis; but they've seen new description-tag data show up in the search results in as little as two days.

Apparently there are no hard-and-fast updating schedules which the engines adhere to.

Sue and Marcia,

Great thread - thanks.

In terms of when sites are spidered or respidered, I'm wondering if who your webhost is has any bearing on it. I've moved 3 sites to a new hosting company and they were all spidered by google within 48 hours. Sue, would you mind asking your team if they know whether this affects it or not? This is purely speculation on my part. The only related information I've learnt is that sites with their own IP address tend to fare better in the engines, but all my sites are on a shared IP address (as are most people's).

Thanks,
Jane

Hi Jane,

Good point. Where a site is hosted actually can make a difference. Apparently much depends on the host company's settings.

Meaning ... some hosting companies block spiders or have their spam filters set so high that search engines have a difficult time getting to the sites they host. Some hosting vendors will also have a robots.txt file in the root of their server which "tells" spiders to come and do their spidering every 30 or 90 days.

I guess to figure out what search engines' access is to your site, it'd be best to call your web hosting company and ask them what kind of spider access they allow to their server and their customers' website directories.

Hi all,

I don't mean to impose, but figured I could add some info here.

There's a partial screen shot at the following url that should clear up a bit of the conjecture here:

http://www.getblogs.com/getblogsgoogle.jpg

In that shot you can see that Google has indexed and listed the description meta tag for the main page of my site at http://www.getblogs.com as recently as a couple days ago. Google does not skip over meta tags in all instances, in fact I have run split tests in the past that prove a well written meta tag increases click through rates from free search engine listings, moreso now than ever before.

Since Google gives meta tags very little if any ranking consideration, they can be changed and tweaked the same as a classified ad, without having to worry about ruining your position in the results pages.

Also, on average googlebot and the other crawler engines hit my site more than 30,000 times last month combined. Of course it will be different for all sites, especially if you use a robots.txt file or the "revisit" meta tag.

So Marcia, keep in mind the search engines that do consider the description tag when ranking your pages, by using your primary keyword phrases, but also use a compelling call to action right in the tags as well.

Hint: If you've ever managed or written ads for a google adwords campaign, the same copywriting & selling principles apply.

Paul Short

Paul,

Thanks! That's exactly what I wanted to know.

The context is that I have a key phrase on which I was not able to get onto the first page of Google results without spending more than $1 per click, which I didn't want to do.

However, I just noticed that the page to which I wanted people to click had risen to #8 or so in the regular search engine results, but the entry wasn't displaying a message that is enticing enough to searchers. I've just added a description metatag thinking that maybe that would help, and if this works, it'll be cheaper than that pay per click stuff!!

Marcia Yudkin

OK, let me tell you guys some facts here

> Googlebot and other bots will visit your site when THEY feel like it - not when you tell them

> Sometimes Googlebot will have a rest while Google is compiling new indexes (ie: dont get more stuff whilst the compiler is running)

> To get a site spidered more often you need a high PR - in general sites with a PR of 5 or above should get visits every 2 days (obviously if a site is more important Google and others will come by more often)

> A robots.txt file can do some damage if you set them up incorrectly (search for robots.txt in google) you do not need one of these -- only really to keep away unfriendly bots or to tell spiders what not to index (like private sites etc)

> As for having robots.txt files in the "root" of hosting companies .... well, I can't swear on this board but suffice to say that is incorrect

Get more links and your PR will increase (well, links from good sites)

Get more links and googlebot will follow those links so will visit your site

Trust all this helps and trying to put some myths to rest

Peter

PS - oh yes, back to the original question. YES, MSN, Y! and Google will include the most relevant snippet in your search engine listing -- most times this IS what you put in your meta description tag -- However, Google has recently been adding in your description from your listing in DMOZ (if you are listed there) -- but changing your description could improve your click throughs,

Ok, I take everything back. I'm just reiterating what I've been told, thinking I was being helpful. It's quite possible I was misinformed ... I am no search expert myself.

I suppose there are different theories/interpretations of the search engine behaviors, depending on who you talk to. Perhaps this is why the guys in my group are always arguing with each other.