Effect of Good Meta Descriptions in Google

Can it hurt click-thru?

[dataguy]

Can having a good meta-description on a web page hurt click-thru rate from Google's SERP's? Reading another thread got me thinking. Here's the background:

I have a site with about 10,000 pages of informational content on a wide variety of subjects. Previously I was regurgitating the titles to use as the meta-descriptions, though the results were often awkward.

The site has always gotten good traffic from Google, but about 6 weeks ago I decided to get smart and I started using the first 230 characters of body text for the meta-description, thinking this could only help.

Over the last 6 weeks, traffic has dropped to about 20% of projections and I have been scrambling to figure out why. I don't target specific keywords and I can't possibly monitor all 10,000 pages in the SERP's, but the pages that I do watch have been rock-solid, remaining in their normal positions. It seems that the only thing that has changed is that fewer people are clicking on these listings in the SERP's.

At first I thought this was the summer slow-down, but I hadn't been able to confirm this. Then this morning I read a post by vincevincevince in another tread stating that he prefers to force Google to use snippets for their descriptions in their SERP's.

Is this possible? Does anyone have any similar experience with this?

[janethuggard]

Perhaps the problem is, with 10,000 pages you have content that has not been updated on pages, and during the past index, some of those pages dropped like a rock in the serps... those you don't monitor, and that constitutes your 20% drop.

When I see a 20% drop on a site, it tells me the site has many pages not being updated. Otherwise, the traffic should maintain, and in fact increase, due to each page's longevity increase cycle. Pages continually updated will maintain their ranking, at the top. Pages that are not updated, will slide, on a quarterly basis, as site traffic for 'popularity' is calculated quarterly. What you do, or don't do, affects you in bulk, 3 months down the road. It is the main reason for Dog Days Of Summer Syndrome. Spring low traffic finally catches up to you in the summer.

What then happens,is the outdated pages, lose ranking, traffic lessens, because ranking dropped and traffic lessened, ranking drops again because popularity is less. The cycle will continue, unless you stop the free fall. Also, Google will not come as often, and that means once you begin to correct the problem, and update your pages, you have a long wait before Google will index those 'dead' pages again.

You can have no meta at all, and rank #1 at Google. The problem is the click through rate. We use our meta tag description as alt text on the logo. It then becomes the first paragraph of the page, and is also the page promo that explains what is on the page, so the searcher can decide if they want to visit the page. That Alt text on the home page linked logo, is the only alt text we use.

It is important the first 3 words in the meta title, are also the first 3 words in the meta decription, in the exact same order, and that those 3 words are found in the top of the page content, and in density throughout the page.

While having 10,000 pages is alot. It is not unreasonable to think you can update each page within the year, each year, enough to keep it 'fresh' in the engines. I personally do over 25,000 page updates a year. At that rate you could update your pages, twice a year.

Those unmonitored pages, are likely poison in the bloodstream of your site.

[dataguy]

Each of these 10,000 pages are constantly updated. The site hasn't had a 20% drop in traffic, traffic has increased overall, but traffic has dropped 20% from what we were projecting, and we are normally dead-on in our projections. Every indication we have shows our listings remaining in the same position or better than they have been, but for some reason we are not getting the clicks that we normally get.

Is there any index that shows seach engine traffic over different times of the year?

[Reid]

If you have 10,000 pages and it's only been six weeks then what you are saying is that you experienced a 20% lull last month when you made the change.
I wouldn't worry about it - thats just the time when your old description was cleared and the new one established, I bet next month will more than make up the difference.

[sit2510]

>>> but the pages that I do watch have been rock-solid, remaining in their normal positions. It seems that the only thing that has changed is that fewer people are clicking on these listings in the SERP's.

One of the best things that I love about Google is its use of snippets with bold keywords in its description; then I don't have to worry about meta description.

There are often high possibilities that the pages show up in SERP for the keyword phrases that we aren't expecting, so let snippets do its job. Having meta description, and at some circumstances, Google uses it, then you restrict yourself in your own decription box.

[dataguy]

Having meta description, and at some circumstances, Google uses it, then you restrict yourself in your own decription box.

Yeah, this is what I'm thinking. Maybe I can come up with a way to A/B test this....

[mahoogle]

I personally like it when google uses my meta description tag where I have control over the wording. By tweaking these descriptions we have been able to increase traffic significantly. The key for us has been to promote benefits that match the content in the meta description.