Be Wary of How the Engines Use your Title and Meta Description Tags
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Check out this stellar example of how the major search engines display results for Netflix’s home page.
We see a high level of variation because while Ask & Google use the title and meta description directly from Netflix, Yahoo! and MSN are pulling data from the Yahoo! directory and DMOZ (respectively). I’d bet $50 that Netflix could get a 20%+ boost in their CTR at MSN simply by using the NOODP tag?
Currently, there’s no way to opt out of the Yahoo! directory listing. We’ve been trying to do it with one client for almost two years, but they won’t throw us out even when we don’t pay our dues! Someone at Yahoo! needs to fix that issue.
As search engines start to use metrics like CTR in the SERPs, you might lose more than just eyeballs – you’ll slide in rankings to boot. Here’s the strategy I’d recommend – look at your top 20-100 search referral phrases for the year, then search for each of them at the major engines. Note not just where you rank, but how well your “ad” (after all, what is a meta description tag if not ad copy) is written. Just as you constantly tweak and refine copy in your PPC listings, so too should you apply that same logic to the natural SERPs. You’ll probably find a far greater rate of return.
Octane
April 2nd, 2009 at 11:33 pm
“… They won’t throw us out even when we don’t pay our dues! Someone at Yahoo! needs to fix that issue.”
Shh .. some people might not think that’s a bad thing!
Lisadit
April 2nd, 2009 at 11:33 pm
Oh yes, now you’re talking my language! I think CTR will be a crusual metrics for SERPs in the future. And yes it makes so much sense that your organic ad (the meta description ad) will have a crucial role in getting you traffic. Yet so few SEOs pay attention to this, half of my clients thinks its fine to have the same description tag for every page, and some even think the meta description tag is there to stuff loads of keywords in. YIKES..
Also if the CTR of organic SERPs becomes more and more important people are going to have to start writing title tags that makes sense. I’m tired of seeing title tags stuffed with keywords that makes no sence at all as a heading. Imagine an essay with a heading just saying words from the essay…ermm…what? The reality is it’s not even that difficult to write a title tag that includeds keywords but yet makes sense.
Anyway, to sum it up:
Yes, yes, yes, YES…hmmm when Harry met Sally springs to mind..
EGOL
April 2nd, 2009 at 11:34 pm
Man, this is one of my favorite axes to grind… and my pet peeve is the Yahoo! Directory. For $300 those guys change your carefully researched title tag into the name of your company – not only in the Yahoo! Directory but throughout their SERPs. My traffic from Yahoo! went straight into the tank after I got listed in their Directory.
My vote for the worst investment on the web. Pay $300 and your return is $xx,xxx in lost sales.
kulpreet_singh
April 2nd, 2009 at 11:34 pm
I agree. Investing in Yahoo! Directory listing was also the worst move for our family business – and meanwhile we have excellent ranking in Google with relevant descriptions for our pages, pulled from our meta tags or page content.
MarketingInteractif
April 2nd, 2009 at 11:36 pm
Wow, I guess you guys just reopen the eternal Yahoo directory issue. I guess it’s good for some people and bad for others. But I tend to agree with some on the fact that it’s still a very valuable link to have…
MarketingInteractif
April 2nd, 2009 at 11:36 pm
But once and for all, do you guys use the description tag? Some advocates in it’s favor, some don’t, arguing that they prefer to let te Search Engines pick up the body text instead. Yourself Rand, you’re telling people about the importance of this tag while you don’t even use it?
What are your toughts on this?
Lisadit
April 2nd, 2009 at 11:37 pm
MarketinInteractif, I always use the meta description tag. And where I think necassary I use different meta description tags for different pages. The meta description tag is not essential for ranking well but can really improve the click through rate from the organic listings. Letting the Search Engiens pick up the body text can sometimes be a bit of a gamble..what do you think Rand?
randfish
April 2nd, 2009 at 11:38 pm
I’ve always said that with this blog, we don’t practice what we preach, but we also get fewer than 10% of traffic through search.
With clients, though, it’s a totally different story and yes – we always use the meta descrip tag if we know it’s a page that’s going to get search traffic. For blogs or sites where there are thousands upon thousands of dynamic pages, it can sometimes be wiser to let the search engines pick out the meta description rather than writing an automated one, but anytime you can do it yourself, I believe it’s worthwhile.
kulpreet_singh
April 2nd, 2009 at 11:39 pm
This also relates to the post before ( I think it was on this blog, that “every page is a landing page) .. whatever pages are going to be viewed through search engines at a hire rate of traffic – Rand, do you suggest giving them a meta description or letting the SE come up with one?
Will the meta description affect the ranking if it is used in your search results?
kulpreet_singh
April 2nd, 2009 at 11:39 pm
sorry I meant “higher rate of traffic” can’t believe i mispelled that… shows the effects of internet culture and reduction of reading books…
bookworm seo
April 2nd, 2009 at 11:40 pm
Lol, I mentioned this to Rand in an email back in the summer. I find it entertaining to see my favourite SEO blog actually not practicing SEO. Kind of says that you can get great traffic with content and relationships and natural surfer behaviour, without caring too much about SERPs.
Note: For the Title, I think a descriptive title tag can be sufficient without having keyword stuffing. It needn’t be a coherent sentence. EG Search Engine Optimization | SEO would be fine. Welcome to SEO… isn’t really necessary.
EmergenceMedia
April 2nd, 2009 at 11:42 pm
Rand,
Its nice to see you promoting this, as its something that needs to be heart of more.
We’ve been pushing through the concept that getting visibility on SERPs(building good content that can achive high rankings) is different than high CTR (optimizing for high CTR > getting traffic).
I think this is the role I see for SMO. While not a perfect analogy I see the following: Attractive copy that will generate buzz (building good content that people would want to spread) is different than SMO (optimizing to ensure that content travels/gets-viral easily).
Gladstein
April 2nd, 2009 at 11:43 pm
It may be worth noting that the meta description tag that Google and Ask are picking up is not from netflix.com. If you go to the default URL in WebBug, you’ll get hit with 2 302 redirects, ending up at one of those “you need to accept cookies” pages at http://www.netflix.com/entryTrap.html?why=cookieless That’s where they’re grabbing the meta description.
Affordable web hosting
April 3rd, 2009 at 11:16 am
i noticed that you are focusing about meta title tags, but i would appreciate if you please describe the meta description tags also, i think that is also important