Google Cache shows bits of search words but not all of words

[Gemini23]

Anyone any ideas what is causing this, and anything to worry about?
If I search for any of my website search terms (2-5 words - that I am ranked in Google SERPS) when I look at the cached version the results are normally highlighted exactly as per words that are searched for. ie. 'great yellow widget' search for then those exact words will be highlighted in the cached page.

BUT --> example of current issue ... am number two in Google SERPS.. and when viewing cached page... coloured elements appear as parts of those words only.. ie.. at ow get

this is across all pages of the website... and no other websites appear like it... and Yahoo cache is normal....

very odd... any suggestions gratefully received...

[darkyl]

Tried, but can't reproduce what you describe.

Anyway it seems to be a browser techical/graphical glitch to me rather than something related to your site or ranking.

Have you tried with different browsers?

Btw, looking at the code of your site, do you see any strange formatting "inside" the words?

Have you tried checking the text only version of your cached pages? (link in the upper right).

[Gemini23]

Very odd.. my homepage seems to now resolve correctly (not sure if it now has newer cache than earlier - problem been there for a few days) I have tried with Firefox and same problem was there. Same issue showing with other cache of pages although they show fine in normal browser and are ranking fine in Google serps.

[Gemini23]

Very odd... am away in Germany at the moment (am UK based) and the same problem has arisen again in my last cache of page... all shows well in serps and page resolves fine.. but the cache of page shows only bits of search words... very weird and not sure what is causing it.. and whether it COULD create a problem...

[tedster]

By any chance does your page layout use absolute or relative positioning? When Google inserts their header for the cached version of a page, that can throw off the display's pixel count and sometimes hide bits of content.

[Gemini23]

A good question Tedster but am not totally sure... am away from my usual software for loading... although another visual 'problem' is showing in view source on all pages... with a large 'gap' (ie. about 8 line spaces) in the source code...
ie..
<style type="text/css">

(the 8 linespaces appear here) viewed on IE7 on different computers and in different countries...

.style2 {
font-size: x-large;

I am not sure that is relevant or indeed how to fix it....

[edited by: Gemini23 at 8:47 pm (utc) on Jan. 1, 2009]

[Gemini23]

ps for Tedster... 'absolute or relative positioning' which is best or recommended?

[tedster]

What's best depends on your purposes - they are two different things.

I find that layouts which allow the default positioning (which is "static") work best cross-browser and I avoid other kinds of positioning unless they are very much needed in the particular case. I see position rules being abused all the time.