Google has recently announced a new meta tag that it’s spiders will take notice of that allows you more control over the text snippet they use in the search results.
Basically, in it’s search results, Google uses the text in the Meta Description tag (well the first 155 characters anyway) as the description snippet and the underlined clickable title comes from the Title meta tag.
All well and good and basic webmaster stuff to set these up and make an appealing title and description to entice Google searchers to click on your link.
However, if your site is listed in the Open Directory Project (ODP) (
www.dmoz.org) then things are completely different.
Obtaining an ODP listing was always a top priority for savvy webmasters, as it always seemed to give an extra boost in the Google rankings (all other things being equal). However one drawback is that where a site is listed in ODP, Google takes the title and description from the ODP listing instead of website’s own meta tags.
Why does this matter?
As the ODP is entirely compiled by human reviewers, they generally edit the listings, so that the titles and descriptions are not overly hyped and sales orientated – in effect they “dumb them down”.
The result: a generally bland title and description.
Let’s look at example - First Choice Holidays (a major UK tour operator)
Their Google listing is:
Title: First Choice Holidays
Description: Services include holidays, flights, car hire and insurance. Contact information.
Now this comes entirely from their ODP listing.
However, their Meta tags from their homepage read:
Title: First Choice - Book your dream holiday online - Great value holiday packages - Family package holidays - Bargain all inclusive holidays - Discount online travel agent - Last minute holiday deals - Free kids holidays
Description: Find great value holiday packages and bargain all inclusive holidays from the online travel agent First Choice where last minute holiday deals and free kids holidays can be found.
Albeit the title and description are too long for Google, so they would shorten them, but still far more appealing to a potential customer when they see that in the search results, don’t you think?
So how do we force Google to use our Meta tags rather than the ODP title and description?
Simple. Use the following meta tag in the head section of your webpages:
META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOODP"
Not that not all search engine robots will recognise this metatag, so to specifically target Google you can alternatively use the following:
META NAME="GOOGLEBOT" CONTENT="NOODP"
It will take some time for Google to update it’s database after inserting this tag, but eventually your website should have the appealing title and description that you choose, rather than the watered down version of some anonymous ODP Editor.
Robin Porter is CEO of a Uk Ecommerce web site design company and advises web site owners on ecommerce website marketing
