Serps for some searches suddenly show dmoz site description

[pshea]

How can Google think it is a good idea to overlook the current meta desc on the page and use the dmoz description from 1999? What am I missing?

Now I have to go to dmoz and pull my hair out trying to get them to update our site description. What business description is the same in 2016 as when dmoz had relevancy?

I'm lost to understand why Google would be be tapping into dmoz as a resource.

[Robert Charlton]

What am I missing?

a) Google's choice of whether to use the description element is query specific. Usually, but not always, if Google doesn't find a good match in the description, it will look at other sources, including inbound anchor text and ODP/DMOZ.

b) Using the NOODP attribute in the robots meta tag on your page will keep Google from using the DMOZ description and title...

<meta name="robots" content="NOODP">

It's possible, I suppose, that RankBrain is now interpreting some queries (note, I'm not saying "rewriting"... there is a distinction) in ways that your page might rank for a query which the snippets team isn't matching up with your description, but I think this is unlikely.

See this thread, from years back, but not as old as your dmoz description, which discusses NOODP and descriptions in more detail....

Has Google Started Ignoring noodp Robots Meta Tags?
March 2008
https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/3600177.htm [webmasterworld.com]

[pshea]

Thank you Robert. I did implement that solution, googlebot has already come and reflects the change in the serps. Pretty quick.