If you read the post about Matt Cutss and Meta Description Tags�and looked at the video, you now that Google does use these terms for their Index.
Wel, they just made that more clear than ever…. giving you a big help on improving your site for their results pages!
Just login to Webmaster central en check your website diagnostics, and then “content analysis”
You will see a new screen that give you a lot of information about any problems that your site may encounter that way Google looks at the website:
So you might find out about:
Title problems
- Missing title tags
- Duplicate title tags
- Long title tags
- Short title tags
- Non Informative title tags (Are you using the standard “contact” page of Joomla, you will see just “contact”…
Meta description problems
- Duplicate meta descriptions (real Joomla problem that easily be�fixed by NOT filling the Global Metatag function and filling every page tags�!)
- Long meta descriptions
- Short meta descriptions
Non-indexable content�
- Flash ?
To find out what pages have problems click through the on the issue line:
The next screen will show if you click on the indicated link:
For every issue reported, you can check the pages that should be corrected and work on a better ranking website.
And of course there are some helpful pages at Google about this tool:
What is the Content analysis page
After you have corrected all the errors and problems, this is what you would like to see…
Hi – wondering if you could help? When you display a blog content category in Joomla it adds ALL the meta descriptions for every single article on the page together- thus creating a huge list. Is there any way of preventing Joomla from doing this?
@Jim
It looks like you used the standard metatag information in the Global settings.
This description is added with other metadescriptions.
First.. get ride of them, don’t use the Globals.
Just Cut them and save them for later use.
But you want good descriptions.
So the best solution is to use the SEF patch of Joomlatwork.com
Make sure you use the ones for your Joomla version!
The patch exists of some files wich you FTP over the extisting ones of the core Joomla files.
Please make a backup of your site before implementing this patch, its not hard to install and you probaly wont have any problems, but just make sure you can roll-back.
Especially if you use some extensions from Phil Taylor, because these sometimes overwrite the standard index.php with some special settings.
After you installed the patch, go throught the different menu itmens and add your Metatags (right bottom part of of your screen).
For your Home menu item you can now add the descriptions also in the new fields at the bottom.
Please check if this has the effects you want.
I don’t have any issues with my Joomla sites, but a always install this patch, and for my larger sites I get the paid version, becouse that gives me (among other things) a greater control over the HTML title tag.
You can check this on http://www.hummerbie.com/joomla-search-engine-optimization/ a new site I am building packed with all my knowledge… which I hope is enough to start with.
if everything works out please leave a new comment here.
Oke, looks like I have to write this comment into an article I guess…
Thanks Hummerbie – I’m using Artio JoomSEF which has been customised for use with a customised version of JEvents so I can’t use another one. I get the idea with the globals, even when those are removed then in a blog content category view you get all the metatags from all the articles in that category added together. Probably going to have to pay someone to fix.
Thanks for your help
I am a novice and have had three pages detected with short meta description tags. I created my site using Mr Site and have no concept of what I need to do to get the content diagnostics message to say the content is fine. Grateful for any advice.
@Fiona: I checked your site and I guess the pages that had short meta descriptions are Gallery, Prices and Contact Us?
I don’t know the Mr Site Software, but looking at your source code I think it uses the Site Name + Page Title as the metadescription.
That means that you hade to add extra words to that pages for example you could change the Title form “Prices” to “Seasonal Cottage Prices”
Then wait for Google to recheck your site and see what they say then. If you then have only two pages with short url descriptions you know what to do.
And if I don’t write meta tags and let google to make description by himself?
@neville: That is an option, but you the thing is that it will just take a part of your article that they think is best suited to put into their sniplet.
Writing metatags yourself gives you the possibility to put your keywords first and create a small advertisment like introduction to your article to get people to click on your link instead of your competitors.