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L Fiers
L Fiers
User

My websites won't display my meta descriptions in the search results! Please help!  en

Author: L Fiers
Visited 3830, Followers 1, Shared 0  

Hi,

When searching for my website on Google, no meta description or highlighted keywords show up as they normally should. It simply has my url and it writes "Underground Rap". That's it! I need it to show up.

In step 4 advanced settings and blog, I wrote this in the box where it says "Description" which I assume means meta description: "Listen to underground rap from around the globe or submit your own for a chance to be featured! Or buy hip hop beats! Where rappers and fans unite!" This should show up under the search results but it isn't. It's just blank. Here's the link of it in search results so you can see what I mean, it's the first one: 

https://www.google.com.au/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=beatsandrap.com

Notes: If it helps I have a 301 redirect to my blog which acts as the home page. Also in general settings in step 1, I have also placed this same description in the box where it says "Website Description". This will not show up either anyhere in the search results. What's going on? And yes I have fetched it at google webmasters to speed up and crawl my site too.

Thanks in advance and please help! I look forward to your replies. It's much appreciated. 

Posted on the
18 ANSWERS - 1 USEFUL
Paul M.
Paul M.
Moderator

Hello L Fiers,

When did you add the description to your blog?

Google is reporting that it last crawled your site on 2nd November.  If you added the description after that date then you will have to wait for the next crawl.

If you go into Google WebMaster Tools then there is an option there somewhere to try and force a recrawl of a specific page.  When I have forced a recrawl in the past it has usually happened between 24-48 hours.

Google can't display the description that you would like it to at the moment as the only information it has to go on is as follows:

<meta name="description" content="Underground Rap" />

Kind regards,

Paul

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Posted on the from Paul M.
L Fiers
L Fiers
User
Author

Where did you go to see what information Google has on my site? Yeah I did add the blog description after the 2nd November but I also changed it from "Underground Music" to "Underground Rap" after November 2nd as well yet that changed. I also did force a crawl a week ago too. So what you recommend I do now? So I do have it all set up correctly right? Everything is right on my end it seems so besides trying to force yet another crawl, what else can you recommend?

Thanks.

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Posted on the from L Fiers
Paul M.
Paul M.
Moderator

I've investigated this further and I don't think it's related to Google or crawl frequency.

If you view the source code of your blog/home page you will see that your expanded meta description isn't present there either.  Obviously Google can't pick it up if it's not on the source page to begin with.

So we need to take a closer look at your settings within X5.

Can you double-check that the description is actually present in the appropriate fields within X5, then do a CTRL-preview, then export the entire project to the web?

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Posted on the from Paul M.
L Fiers
L Fiers
User
Author

Not sure what a CTRL-preview is. What exactly us that? What I will do for you when I'm at computer next is open up X5 & take a print screen of each screens with the information such as web descriptions that I'm talking about to show you. That way you can see if it's in the appropriate fields. Thanks.

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Posted on the from L Fiers
Paul M.
Paul M.
Moderator

If you hold down the CTRL key whilst entering the preview mode then X5 will flush old files from its cache and build the preview afresh using the very latest data in your project.

If you export to the web after that then you can be sure that the files on your server are the most current, and reflect any recent changes and edits you've made.

I'm just suggesting this as a 'belt-and-braces' approach  

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Posted on the from Paul M.
Andre E
Andre E
Moderator

L Fliers,

Paul means that you should use the preview in x5 with ctrl button pressed.

This updates files (like F5 on internet) and can be helpfull in updating correct code.

It's an extra check to make sure all data is up to date.

BR A

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Posted on the from Andre E
Andre E
Andre E
Moderator

1 minute !

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Posted on the from Andre E
L Fiers
L Fiers
User
Author

Okay so I tried the CTRL+preview thing and re-uploaded my site and requested a crawl by google and nothing. Although if you check my websites source code, you'll see this extra HTML code that I inputted to try to force google to display the meta description I wanted: 

<meta property="og:description" content="Listen to underground rap from around the globe or submit your own for a chance to be featured! Or buy hip hop beats! Where rappers and fans unite!" />

But this still will not show up in Google search results annoyingly!

Here is a picture of how I wrote my meta descriptions I attached. Let me know if I wrote it correctly.

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Posted on the from L Fiers
L Fiers
L Fiers
User
Author

And here's another pic of my blogs meta description. 

I look forward to your replies. Thanks.

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Posted on the from L Fiers
L Fiers
L Fiers
User
Author

It still just shows up as this in my source code for my site: 

<meta name="description" content="Underground Rap" />

Very annoying as I haven't even written "Underground Rap" as my meta description as you can see by my attached pictures. How can I alter or override this source code with the description I want and why is it even doing this??

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Posted on the from L Fiers
Incomedia
Claudio D.
Incomedia

Hello L Fiers,

The description shown is the one of your category since this category is shown to the visitor.

If you open the main blog page you will see the description shown in the source code is the one you enterted for the blog.

Many thanks!

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Posted on the from Claudio D.
L Fiers
L Fiers
User
Author

Yes Claudio but this category (underground rap) of my blog is what I have & want as my home page & I need it to show the description I want. How can I do this & change my meta description to what I want? i don't want it to just say Underground Rap in the description. Let me know please as it's very important to me.

Thanks.

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Posted on the from L Fiers
L Fiers
L Fiers
User
Author

Also I can't open my main blog page because thats not how my blog works. As I've asked before I wanted to have it look like I have 2 blogs so my blog is split into 2 categories & that is how I want it. Example: "Music=Underground Rap" category of my blog & "Submit Your Music=Submitted Rap" category. Hope you understand what I mean and can help me.

I just need to show how to change the meta description for these category pages of my blog. Do you know how to do this? Do I need some extra HTML code or something? 

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Posted on the from L Fiers
Incomedia
Claudio D.
Incomedia

Hello L Fiers,

The only way to change it is to edit the exported file and change it manually.

The lbog shows as description in the categories the category itself and not waht you enterd in the main description which is used for the main blog page.

Many thanks!

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Posted on the from Claudio D.
L Fiers
L Fiers
User
Author

"The only way to change it is to edit the exported file and change it manually."

Could you please give me some more details on how exactly to do this? I am not sure exactly how to do this. Do you mean export an X5 file to my computer? And where do I go to edit it manually?

Thank you Claudio. 

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Posted on the from L Fiers
L Fiers
L Fiers
User
Author

Update: Claudio, I have done what you said and it still doesn't work! I have now used the main blog as my homepage as you can see at "www.beatsandrap.com". You can see in the source code that the meta description is what I want it to be but it will still not show up in the search results. It is still the same as before. Just writes "underground" and does not display what I need it to. Very annoying. Nothing I tried seems to be working and I have tried many things!

Why is this and what do I do to make my meta description show up??

Thanks.

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Posted on the from L Fiers
Incomedia
Claudio D.
Incomedia

Hello L Fiers,

The search results are not updated immediatly when you change it since the google crawler can take form days to weeks to crawl again the website page and you need to wait until this happens to see the updated content in the search results.

This depends on google and what you can try to do is to submit the sitemap again hoping the crawler checks your page soon.

Many thanks!

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Posted on the from Claudio D.
L Fiers
L Fiers
User
Author

Thanks Claudio. I will wait then until it crawls my site again & hopefully it shows up the way I would like. 

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Posted on the from L Fiers