All in one SEO Pack - Meta Descriptions
Written by mbpage on August 25, 2008
One of the most popular wordpress plugins is the all in one seo pack. I have been using it for a while but noticed that the meta descriptions I created were being ignored by Google. Usually an indexed page is represented by Google as a snippet. The snippet is a combinaiton of the meta title and meta description. The meta description should be no more than 155 characters long and is your opportunity to include sales message to encourage a user to click on your link. A good meta description is essential if you are going to succeed with Build a Niche Store.
Rather than showing my meta description Google was displaying a random selection of menu items and page text making the snippet look spammy and imo discouraging a potential visitor from clicking my link. For this reason I had reservations about using wordpress in combination with BANS.
I searched long and hard for a solution to this problem posting requests for help on several forums. I also asked fellow BANS bloggers and also contacted the plugin author but no one had any suggestions. Frustrated, I started experimenting with the plugin settings and after two or three weeks of experimentation I have found the solution.
If you use this plugin, and every wordpress user should, and want full control over the Google snippet then you simply turn off the autogenerate descriptions option. Doing this requires that you enter a meta title and meta description manually but the result of having a meaningful meta description makes the effort worthwhile. The biggest advantage though is that you make more sales!
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Posted in: BANS Secrets, SEO, Strategies, Tools, Tutorials, wordpress
2 Responses to “All in one SEO Pack - Meta Descriptions”
Hi,
The pages that get messed up in Google, are they the store pages or your Wordpress pages?
I’ve noticed my store pages get messed up and they do not show the Meta description but they show:
Time: ending soonest, ———————-, Price: highest first, Price: lowest first, Time: ending soonest, Time: newly listed …
I hope your suggestion works.
Also it does not effect all of my pages but just some of them.
Randy
By Randy on Oct 25, 2008
Hi Randy
It should work fine it has for me. Remember it only affects Wordpress posts/pages. The BANS pages should still display fine as long as you’ve completed them.
By mbpage on Nov 4, 2008