-
Hi,
I’m trying to finish my new site, but the meta description is not showing in google and google doesn’t seem to index my pages. Is this an issue with my template or Rank Math?
Thanks
Dan-
This topic was modified 4 years, 10 months ago by
Daniel.
-
This topic was modified 4 years, 10 months ago by
-
Hi Daniel,
Thanks for getting in touch with us.
1. First of all, I am assuming that you have already changed the SEO Meta Title and Meta Description with the help of Rank Math:
Add a Meta Description in Classic Editor: https://i.rankmath.com/dhECkg
Add title and description in Gutenberg: https://i.rankmath.com/ZO21Cd2. Then, ensure that this is the setting in the Schema tab if Rich Snippets are enabled on your website:
https://i.rankmath.com/pG0pcSTo reiterate, the Schema title must show %seo_title% and the description should show %seo_description% – this will ensure your SEO title and SEO Description that you set up via Rank Math can also be used for your schema details:
3. The next step is to check if your title/description is properly set up in the page source:
https://i.rankmath.com/HwXR1oYou can use this tool for the same as well: https://www.heymeta.com/
4. If it matches your settings, then you must check if Google has seen the changes already or not.
For that, please check when the Google cache was updated for that page:
a. https://i.rankmath.com/9q6X0H
b. https://i.rankmath.com/R8N0UhIf the cache date is from before adding the new meta description, then you just have to wait for Google to re-crawl and re-index the page with the new info. If the date is after you made the changes,
Do note that if everything’s fine and Google still decides to show a different meta title/description for your search keyword, there is nothing you can do as Google sometimes ignores the custom meta info altogether and show something from the page’s content that matches the search intent better.
Here are some of the common reasons Google might not use the meta description you provided:
– The meta description is not relevant or useful (ie, just a collection of keywords).
– The exact same meta description is provided across a large number of pages.
– The meta description doesn’t match what the user is searching for, but other content on the page does.There is a whole article dedicated to this on SearchEngineJournal:
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-offers-suggestions-for-avoiding-meta-description-rewrites/359884/The best you can do is optimize your meta tags to try and match the intent of the search/keyword.
Hope that helps. If you have any further question(s), please let us know. Thank you.
HiTodd,
Thanks for the reply. Everything seems to be correct, any thoughts on why the site maps are not indexing?
Hi Dan,
What’s the issue with Sitemap? Could you please elaborate?
It hasn’t indexed all my pages.
Thanks
Hi Daniel,
Thank you for the reply.
Could you please share a link to your site on the sensitive data section so that we can check both issues first hand?
We are looking forward to helping you. Thank you.
Hello,
I have updated the sensitive data as requested. Can you please check further?
Thank you.
Why has google used my footer text from every page as my meta description?
Hi Daniel,
Thanks for the reply.
I’ve inspected your pages but some pages such as the homepage have the right description.
Please note that Google will not always show the description as it appears on your meta tags as we mentioned earlier.
Google sometimes ignores the custom meta info altogether and show something from the page’s content that matches the search intent better.Here are some of the common reasons Google might not use the meta description you provided:
– The meta description is not relevant or useful (ie, just a collection of keywords).
– The exact same meta description is provided across a large number of pages.
– The meta description doesn’t match what the user is searching for, but other content on the page does.There is a whole article dedicated to this on SearchEngineJournal:
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-offers-suggestions-for-avoiding-meta-description-rewrites/359884/The best you can do is optimize your meta tags to try and match the intent of the search/keywords.
We are looking forward to helping you. Thank you.
Thanks for the reply.
I understand what you’re saying, but it seems strange that it has indexed the footer for every page? I’ve tried to change the meta description for every page and use different titles for every page.
Thanks
Hi Daniel,
Thanks for the reply.
We may not have control over this when dealing with Google since the algorithms will control what is displayed. You can however check the kind of data that Google has saved for your site by entering site:https://domain.com on your browser.
We are looking forward to helping you. Thank you.
Hello,
Since we did not hear back from you for 15 days, we are assuming that you found the solution. We are closing this support ticket.
If you still need assistance or any other help, please feel free to open a new support ticket, and we will be more than happy to assist.
Thank you.
The ticket ‘Meta description and site map’ is closed to new replies.