Where does description come from?

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Karen

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Oct 6, 2008, 3:03:48 PM10/6/08
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There is no meta description tag for this site: http://www.namasteasheville.com/.
If you Google "Namaste Yoga", you'll see the description under it's
title on the SERP. Where does it come from?

Ty

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Oct 7, 2008, 4:26:36 PM10/7/08
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Someone evidently put this site into the Google directory:
http://www.google.com/Top/Society/Religion_and_Spirituality/Yoga/Teachers_and_Centers/United_States/North_Carolina/

YAHOO - And Dmoz:
http://www.dmoz.org/Society/Religion_and_Spirituality/Yoga/Teachers_and_Centers/United_States/North_Carolina/

If there is no description tag, they look for a description in OPD, or
DMOZ (However DMOZ may not be as important according to recent news,
Yet Yahoo uses it as a default too)

Question: Why are there no description tags???

Karen

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Oct 7, 2008, 5:17:33 PM10/7/08
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Thanks Ty.

How did you find their listing in Google directory, Yahoo and DMOZ
from the info I gave????? Did you just search those directories b/c
you knew they were in there?

If question you asked: "Why are there no description tags???" is for
me, I have no idea. Not my site. I was looking at it with a
colleague and we noticed it. I've noticed that with a lot of sites.
Am working on one right now where the designer didn't add one.

OPD? Online Paid Directory?

Corey

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Oct 8, 2008, 9:32:39 AM10/8/08
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I believe Ty meant ODP (Open Directory Project) which can be found at
www.dmoz.org.

Ty

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Oct 8, 2008, 12:51:26 PM10/8/08
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Yes, that's what I meant :)

I found this by tracing the snippet that shows up in the SERP's, to
these directories. I have always known however that Google & Yahoo
use their own directory, or DMOZ if there is no description tag. I
would always recommend listing in these directories....especially if
there is no meta info, this way you control what is displayed
(somewhat)

Karen

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Oct 9, 2008, 8:09:44 AM10/9/08
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I also noticed that they pick it up from the homepage if there is no
description tag.

You guys are the best. Thanks!

Corey

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Oct 10, 2008, 9:17:34 AM10/10/08
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Google uses DMOZ as their directory.

glaikit

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Oct 10, 2008, 9:31:12 AM10/10/08
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Hi Karen,
Given how well this site is doing in SERPS, you might want to consider
NOT adding custom description tags!

In fact Some SEO'ers will deliberately block search engines from using
the DMOZ description (by using robots.txt file) because it 'may be old
and outdated' or is otherwise not optimal.

You are correct - sometimes Google will choose to use snippets of text
from the webpage rather than the description tag. At least that's what
I've always "understood." However, I recently checked one of my own
sites to see what Google was using, and it was using the description
tag I'd written.

Given the big debate going on about whether Google will be dropping
DMOZ results, BOTW maybbe buying DMOZ, or directories going down the
tube altogether, I think I'll get a blinkin' blog post written about
it and bring it up here for discussion :-)

Fiona
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