Pleased with Your Google
Description?. . . if not, consider these tips for getting the Google description
that YOU want!
Part Two of Two
By
Robin
Nobles Copyright © 2004
(Continued from Part 1. If you missed part one, you can
read
it here)
Let's look at another example:
In a search at Google for the keyword phrase "search engine marketing training"
(no quotes), you'll find these first three results:
Online Search Engine Marketing Courses ... experts and trainers you can trust
do the research for you? Through our search engine marketing training courses,
you'll learn: ... www.onlinewebtraining.com/ - 33k - Cached - Similar pages
Search engine marketing resources training optimization software Professional
search engine marketing training, Web site optimization education optimization
software, and search engine marketing resources. ... Description: Search
engine marketing resources. Category: Computers > Internet > Web Design
and Development > Promotion www.academywebspecialists.com/ - 8k - Cached
- Similar pages
Onsite search engine workshops taught by industry leaders Robin ... ... top
ten positions within the major search engines;. ... Earn search engine marketing
certification of your skills ... for jobs for professional search engine
marketers;. ... www.searchengineworkshops.com/ - 37k - Dec 27, 2003 - Cached
- Similar pages
In the first example (onlinewebtraining.com), the snippet description is
being pulled from further down in the body text, which is the first instance
of the use of the keyword phrase.
In the second example (academywebspecialists.com), the snippet description
is being pulled straight from the META description tag, which is the first
instance of the keyword phrase on the page.
The third example (searchengineworkshops.com) is the most interesting of
all (and the most confusing). Here are the search results again:
Onsite search engine workshops taught by industry leaders Robin ... ... top
ten positions within the major search engines;. ... Earn search engine marketing
certification of your skills ... for jobs for professional search engine
marketers;. ... www.searchengineworkshops.com/ - 37k - Dec 27, 2003 - Cached
- Similar pages
On the page itself, the only place that the keyword phrase is being used
is in the first ALT text on the page. However, Google isn't pulling the snippet
from that area. Instead, it's picking up bits and pieces of the body text
and combining it to make the description. This description would obviously
be more difficult to change, if we wanted to do so.
Let's try a slightly different approach. Let's search for the name of one
of the companies above, and let's see what snippet description is being used
then.
In a search for "Search Engine Workshops" (no quotes), here are the search
results:
Onsite search engine workshops taught by industry leaders Robin ... Onsite
search engine workshops offer personalized SEO training and certification
in search engine marketing strategies. ... Search Engine Workshops . . .
... www.searchengineworkshops.com/ - 37k - Dec 27, 2003 - Cached - Similar
pages
Look at the differences in the snippet description compared to the other
snippet description for the same page! Remember that the snippet description
depends largely on the keyword phrase, so your page could have a different
snippet description based on whatever keyword phrase you're searching for.
In our example above where we searched for the name of the company, the snippet
description was pulled from the META description tag and the first heading
tag on the page.
And the moral of the story is . . .
Visit Google and search for your most important keyword phrase for each of
your Web pages. What does the description look like? Do you like it? Determine
from where on your page Google is pulling the description. You'll probably
notice that, in most (but not all) cases, Google pulls the first text surrounding
the usage of the keyword phrase, wherever that text may appear on the page.
If you don't like the description, try modifying the area where Google is
pulling the description, and see if Google will pick up the changes and use
the new description as the snippet in the search results.
Why? ...because your description plays a crucial click factor!
Remember that the description of a page is crucial when it comes to increasing
click throughs to your site. If your description is compelling and designed
to produce clicks, you may even get more traffic than a competitor who is
ranked higher.
To a greater degree than most are aware, you can manage some control over
your Google descriptions. This is clearly a case where a little research
and some easy tinkering can make a big difference in how your site is presented
to potential customers, thereby increasing your click-through traffic coming
from Google.
Give it a try!
(Writer's Note: This article offers tips for changing your Google description
in order to increase the click throughs to your site. However, this has nothing
to do with trying to increase your page's search engine rankings.)
Copyright 2004 Robin Nobles. All rights reserved.
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