Google 100% Using Description Meta to feature your website.

With only one change to the description tag I rank differently in Google.

[sandpetra]

I carried out a test last week to see if Google would place a page that was buried in my site, but indexed, on the SERPS when carrying out my site:command on my main url.

You know...before it displays:

"In order to show you the most relevant results, we have omitted some entries very similar to the 34 already displayed.
If you like, you can repeat the search with the omitted results included."

With only one change to the meta description content for a page (which was part of a collection all of which had the same meta-description) I managed to get it promoted onto the first page in my serp for the site:command.

So lifting it from a possible 'meta description duplicate content' surpression?

[sandpetra]

And it ranks on page 1 for a key term

[Quadrille]

Great, isn't it?

It's recently become essential to have a meta description - and highly desirable to have a unique one that reflects page content.

Nice to hear evidence of the benefits of it!

[Atomic]

Have you considered that Google had things going on under the hood and that your actions did not cause the ranking to change?

[sandpetra]

Well it was pretty glaring. I have 100 pages in a sub-directory all named 1.htm and 2.htm etc.

Only pages with a meta-desription ranked above the fold in my site:command. I specifically picked one page that was in the index but 'below the fold' and changed the meta description to acurately reflect the page.

Bang! - no. 95.htm now appears above the fold. I'm going to carry out a test to see if affects rank especially in the SERPS using another page and examining the page keyword. while I have it in this little bubble.

I will reply to this thread in a week or two with the results.

[Atomic]

I am wondering if the pages were already in the index. I could see the description meta helping in indexing but ranking? And considering that, at least on the sites I monitor, a lot has been going on with Google this last week.

[sandpetra]

I am not sure what you mean?

I am TELLING YOU - the page was in the index - but showing below the fold when using the site:command.

You know - Google deemed it too similar to other content.

Now Google deems it of suitably different content to mention it above the fold - I am wondering if this allows it to better rank for a particular keyterm.

This is wahat I will examine with another page.

Working late? :)

[Halfdeck]

Below the fold - I assume you mean hidden in the "omitted results"?

Unique description snippet will lift you out of omitted results, but if it was previously listed in the main index and not in the supplemental, I don't see the change having any kind of effect on your ranking. Note that even if a description snippet is unique, if its similar enough to other description snippets, it'll remain in the omitted results.

[g1smd]

Using the site: command, for a site with the same meta description on every page, Google showed "1 to 3 of about 60" in the results.

After that was the message about "hiding similar results - click here to see them"...

Changing every meta description, to be unique, had the site showing up as "1 to 55 of about 70" in just a few weeks in Google results.