Google Meta Discription tag

Is google changing search parameters?

[otnot]

I have recently noticed that Googles discription of my web site only includes the top portion of text from my index page. Is this an indication that the meta discription is being ignored now and that the text portion is even more important than ever?

[Ove]

Hi and welcome to WebmasterWorld

We have seen that google will take the meta description if the kw's are in the searches and the text in the search result will change for diffrent searches if its in the text of the site.
But i dont thing that tyhe meta text are so important to google but you should have them other se's are using that part very hard.

/Ove

[jbrausch]

Google has always used snippets of text from your site in preference to the description meta-tag. Starting in about June 2002, Google did use the description meta-tag for the listing for some unknown period of time for a selected number of sites. I don't know if they are still doing that, nor do I know what criteria they used to decide whether to use the description meta-tag.

The contents of the keywords meta-tag and the contents of the description meta-tag have always been ignored by Google for purposes of ranking (or so the data suggests).

[makemetop]

>I don't know if they are still doing that..

Yes, they are.

If the search phrase is in the title and meta description I see them both appear if it is an exact phrase match. If the search phrase doesn't exactly match the phrase in the meta description it shows a snippet.

[Digimon]

This fact is on my mind from the last update. I've got a site ranking pretty well for several terms. For one of my best KW (ranking #1 for 310.000 sites) Google shows as sample of my site one sentence from my meta-description and one sentence from my body. Obviusly the KW appears several times in the body with Headings, linking, and all that stuff. BUT Google has pickep up my meta description....
Yet wondering:P
Digimon

[hotice_2002]

As I know, google does not look Description as is an important portion of any website. I have learned that if a keyword only appear in Meta-Description, but not be mentioned in page body, google will not return the page as a search result while someone searching the specific keyword.

[Digimon]

That's not completly true hotice_2002. Sometimes the KW is not in the body but in the anchor text of links pointing to this page. So you can get rankings without having the KW in your body if you have improved a good Link Reputation campaign.
But, the question is still in the air.

Why google picks up part of my meta description if the KW is in my body?

[jbrausch]

Digimon: We should separate the various issues.

1. Google does sometimes use the meta-tag description. Others have posted the conditions this occurs...

2. It is possible to rank well for a keyword that doesn't exist on the listed page, but is used in the link text on linking pages.

3. However, the data suggests that Google does not ever use the contents of the meta-tag description as a criteria for ranking... even when the keyword doesn't appear on the page.

[Digimon]

jbrausch
I think what you say is what we have been talking about. But I'm yet wondering about the Google's reasons to pick a sentence from my meta description instead of a sentence from my body...

[Brett_Tabke]

The excerpt is strange and mysterious at times. I think proximity is most important when it chooses - that includes the meta description.