Thread: Title (Meta Description) Etc.

Google doesn't lock itself in to a meta description, but you should add it anyway - of course, that's your choice. If you're already at number one, that alone is a good enough reason not to mess with it.

Even if you add a meta description, there is no guarantee Google will use it. They try to pick the "best" description based on what the user is searching for. Also, adding a meta description may force Google to use it instead, but it may not impact the rank -- although you can never be too sure. It's kind of one of those things that "If it ain't broke...." ya know?

It's kind of one of those things that "If it ain't broke...." ya know?

Yea If it was me honestly I would not mess with it. If you are number one its not worth risking.

Ok so here is the thing...We are ranking #1 for the original keyword I chose to target for the niche. I have since learned that there are actually bigger keywords that not only we can compete in, but we are. We are on page one of google for one of these bigger keywords, but the problem is with the title that is showing on google. The title is targeting the original niche directly which we are ranking #1 for now...

It was easy for me to change a few words to make it so that the original niche keyword is still there and in fact the entire title is the same except for a few added words. With these few added words I believe the people seeking our site through the larger keyword I was talking about would now click on our page more. I believe we are getting many less clicks because the wording is not drawing the people who are coming for the larger keyword in enough.

If we could get google to recognize the new title, (which has been changed only in the actual wording of the first paragraph of the page the keywords are going to) then this could give us many more clicks. Is there a way to get google to see you have new wording in your first lines of content so that they change it in the search results???

Should I just write a meta description? I am concerned this might effect the keyword we are #1 for...Even though it is practically the same with just a few words added I have not added a meta description for this page ever and am concerned this might mess with the ranking we already have....

If you are ranking #1 for something, my initial reaction is to leave it alone. How about just building more supporting content on the other keywords you've discovered and perhaps over time, those pages will begin to rank as well.

Are you saying that you have already changed the title but Google is still showing the previous title? If so then just wait, they will recrawl and reindex the new site title soon enough. They display results based on their cache of the last time they crawled the site, this can take a while to get updated after you've made a change.

Yes Bozz, But I haven't changed a title necessarily or the meta description as I haven't made a meta description for the page yet. Google is using the first lines of the first paragraph in the page which has worked well so far. I changed those first lines by simply adding another two words to include the new keyword we are ranking for. Which is amazing, because since this post first began we are now sitting at the #2 spot for the new keyword and are still #1 for the original keyword I was targeting when I created the website.

Maybe you are right and it is just that google hasn't recrawled the page yet? I think this page which is the home page of our site maybe gets recrawled monthly and I am not sure it has been that long.

(In this example I am using weight loss recipes, which would be the original keyword I targeted at the beginning and we have been ranking #1 for a few months. The keyword how to lose weight quickly in this example would be the new keyword we are now ranking #2 for.)

Example: It is kind of like if someone types in the keyword how to lose weight quickly, and our site ranks #2 when they type this, but the description says something like "Welcome to weight loss recipes! Here we are all about weight loss recipes and helping you to make your weight loss recipes taste better!" and then our website url is something like weightlossrecipes.etc -Not our actual url this is just an example.

So I know some people will click on our site for that, but many more will not because that is not specifically including what they are looking for. So I included(again an example) "Welcome to weight loss recipes! Here we are all about weight loss recipes, how to lose weight quickly and helping you to make your weight loss recipes taste better!"

So I added the "How to lose weight quickly" specific keyword into the first wording of the first paragraph now. I could be wrong, but I am pretty sure this will get people to click the page more...and the cool thing is once they do...They will find what they are looking for, because darn it we have been writing content related to this!

So you think possibly it is just that google has not recrawled the page yet for this? I would write a meta description it is just that the page description alone has been working so well and I did not think just adding one extra line like that would harm anything. If anything it should make the page feel more inclusive.

(PS: once again the terms I used are just examples and are not our actual website, but they describe the situation pretty accurately)

Thanks

Google will pick what it thinks is most relevant if you're missing a meta description. Best to write your own if you want something specific to get displayed.