Google webmaster tools is stating that my index page has a short meta
description. I have checked this intensively with multiple tools and
there is nothing wrong with my meta tags. Why is Googlebot reporting
this as an error.
Thanks for posting. I'm pleased to hear you're making use of the
Content Analysis tool in the Webmaster Tools console. As you can see,
it will display duplicate, long, and short meta descriptions for your
site. This data is meant to be an easy way for you to discover what
Google sees on your site, rather than telling you that your tags are
wrong. When writing meta descriptions, we encourage webmasters to
think about content and quality of their tags - if your description is
short and sweet, then great! There's no need to lengthen it.
> Google webmaster tools is stating that my index page has a short meta
> description. I have checked this intensively with multiple tools and
> there is nothing wrong with my meta tags. Why is Googlebot reporting
> this as an error.
> If you're interested, Raj from the Snippets Team has written a post to
> our Google Webmaster Central blog, which offers some further tips on
> improving your snippets:
1) "Using identical or similar descriptions on every page of a site
isn't very helpful when individual pages appear in the web results."
That implies strongly that such duplication is detected (a.k.a.
checked for) in some sort of offline process so that this datum is
available durig SERPs assembly.
2) "The meta description doesn't just have to be in sentence
format; ..."
Hasn't been said with such clarity before. My definition of a
sentence - in English - is "begins with a capital letter and ends with
a full stop."
Full stops in meta descriptions - tip of the year?
And I think that piece is perhaps a little outdated. I believe I've
seen a GREAT improvement in the quality of snippets that Google
generates out of page text. I've deliberately shortened a few meta
descriptions and the results have so far been very good..
It says my meta tags are well formed. Google is displaying only
partial content of the tag and saying it is short. I am just trying
to understand why the Google tool is reporting inaccurate data about
my site.
> > If you're interested, Raj from the Snippets Team has written a post to
> > our Google Webmaster Central blog, which offers some further tips on
> > improving your snippets:
> 1) "Using identical or similar descriptions on every page of a site
> isn't very helpful when individual pages appear in the web results."
> That implies strongly that such duplication is detected (a.k.a.
> checked for) in some sort of offline process so that this datum is
> available durig SERPs assembly.
> 2) "The meta description doesn't just have to be in sentence
> format; ..."
> Hasn't been said with such clarity before. My definition of a
> sentence - in English - is "begins with a capital letter and ends with
> a full stop."
> Full stops in meta descriptions - tip of the year?
> And I think that piece is perhaps a little outdated. I believe I've
> seen a GREAT improvement in the quality of snippets that Google
> generates out of page text. I've deliberately shortened a few meta
> descriptions and the results have so far been very good..
> Google webmaster tools is stating that my index page has a short meta
> description. I have checked this intensively with multiple tools and
> there is nothing wrong with my meta tags. Why is Googlebot reporting
> this as an error.
Howdy,
It's not an "error" or a problem and the wording on that page needs to
be expanded to make the intent clearer. It is only a number the
programmer picked and the script has no idea what the Meta tags
actually say or if they match the web page.
Really good technical writers are hard to find these days. We all had
to change to other ocupations about fifteen years ago. However, the
skills come in handy as a web designer and programmer.
> It says my meta tags are well formed. Google is displaying only
> partial content of the tag and saying it is short. I am just trying
> to understand why the Google tool is reporting inaccurate data about
> my site.
> Thanks for posting. I'm pleased to hear you're making use of the
> Content Analysis tool in the Webmaster Tools console. As you can see,
> it will display duplicate, long, and short meta descriptions for your
> site. This data is meant to be an easy way for you to discover what
> Google sees on your site, rather than telling you that your tags are
> wrong. When writing meta descriptions, we encourage webmasters to
> think about content and quality of their tags - if your description is
> short and sweet, then great! There's no need to lengthen it.
> > Google webmaster tools is stating that my index page has a short meta
> > description. I have checked this intensively with multiple tools and
> > there is nothing wrong with my meta tags. Why is Googlebot reporting
> > this as an error.
