Search engine giant Google has always been big on making initiatives to reach out to users and help them understand the whole ranking system better. An example of this is the recent site clinic held at London’s Tech Hub. I have come across a rundown of the topics that came up during the said forum. I found out that it all boils down to the basic principle that Google has been advocating – create a site primarily for the benefit of users, not robots…

While it is true that certain standards need to be followed in order to rank effectively, it is far more essential to come up with an online resource that will pique the interest of potential visitors. This being said, constantly updating your website’s look and content is certainly the way to go. To access the complete summary of the issues discussed, click on
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2011/04/sharing-advice-from-our-london-site.html.

The Web has become a complex and definitive playing field in the recent decade. If you want to be able to rise above the competition, learning as much as you can about the tricks of the trade is a definite must.

Last February, we wrote about how to use the Google Webmaster Removal Tool. While it comes in handy for blocking all those unwanted URLs, it is also useful for removing confidential data that you might have left exposed on the Web by accident.

Matt Cutts urges web guys to avoid sending too many requests or creating several GWT accounts for the sole purpose of URL clean-up. He stresses that if you want a site page to be taken down properly, moderation should be observed. Read the entire article here: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/overdoing-url-removals/.

So if you need a page deindexed right away, use Google Webmaster Tools. For the majority of cases, removing a page or using robots, combined with the correct redirection, is the best bet.

It can be very frustrating when Google decides to show a snippet of web content instead of the finely crafted Meta description you have created. Although Meta description is not a ranking factor, it acts as a sales copy on behalf of your website and can be the difference between high and low click through rates.

Where does Google retrieve snippets from?

Google retrieves snippets from three different locations, namely: (i) META Description, (ii) Page content, and (iii) Open Directory Project (ODP). It is up to Google to choose what they think is the most relevant to the search query.

Can we control search snippets?

Yes, below are some ways of controlling them.

• Avoid duplicate title tags and META Descriptions. Having multiple pages with duplicate title and META Description can result to Google’s ranking of wrong pages or filtering of the desired META Description.

• Optimise your META Description. Make sure that it is relevant to the page and appears to be convincing to the target audiences or users and including the target keywords on it is helpful to your SEO.

• Block ODP Listings. If Google displays a different snippet and if you think it came from Open Directory Project then there is a META tag you can use in order to block Google from using the ODP listing. The META tag is:

<meta name=”robots” content=”NOODP”>

You can check our previous post if you want to know more about META NOODP tag.

• If ever you want to block your snippet entirely for some reasons then this is the META tag to use:

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

This should be done with CAUTION as this will entirely remove your snippet in search results.

For more information about this topic, you can also read SEOmoz. The article comments can also give you a lot more problems that people have encountered with Meta descriptions.