Google's Description

[willtell]

We are trying to understand how to make our descriptions in Google better for users.

Out site has a short description at the top that describes exactly what it is about, but Google seems to ignore the first sentence. This happens almost every time. There is no hidden text or any 'tricks' that we are aware of, but in the Google descriptions it starts with '... blah blah blah'. The first sentence is also the same sentence we use in our meta description because it does describe the site exactly.

Any ideas?

[bnhall]

It seems Google scans ahead in your page text to "find" and display the blurb that contains the searcher's terms. It may display your chosen text if it is brief and contains the search kw's.

You can also make your dmoz description as you like it. Google often displays that in addition to other text for our site.