: Meta Descriptions not working for google search I have unique meta descriptions on each of my pages, and when I search my site in google it will come up with no description. Any idea what

@Gail5422790

You may want to check your robots.txt often times if a page is blocked by robots.txt but Google finds it another way (external sites linking to it) they add the URL but do not index the content, the result is typically the URL showing up for specific queries such as "site:examplesite.com" search without any description.

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@Kristi941

You don't have control over whether or not Google uses your meta description tag in its search results. That content can come from various sources and it is up to Google to decide which it thinks is best for that result.

From Does Google use the Meta Description Tag for Description of Page?


Google will choose your search results snippets from the following
places (not necessarily in this order):


The page's Meta Description tag
The page's Open Directory Project (ODP) Listing
Page content relevant to the search query


If you do not want Google to use the ODP listing's description then
you can tell them not to do so with the following Meta tag:

<meta name="robots" content="NOODP">


If you want to encourage Google to use your Meta Description tag then
make sure it is unique to each page. Also make sure it contains an
accurate description of the page's content.

In thew absence of an ODP description and Meta Description tag, Google
will use a portion of the page's text as the description. This text
will contain the closest matches to the search query. I have not seen
any official limit to how long this can be but a couple of sentences
seems about right.

On a related note, if you don't want a snippet to be shown with a
particular page you can use the following Meta tag to prevent one from
being shown:

<meta name="robots" content="nosnippet">


See this blog post for Google's tips on using the meta
description tag.

According to this site, "The meta description should typically be
at most 145 to 150 characters in length as these are the maximum
number of characters typically displayed at Yahoo! and Google,
respectively."

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@Si4351233

You should review your site in Google Webmaster Tools, check for HTML suggestions and errors. They'll tell you if there's a problem with your meta tags. I would also check that your robots.txt isn't blocking Googlebot. View your site in your browser check the source see whats there. Maybe some scripts are conflicting and messed up your descriptions?

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