[Web4lib] seriously mundane questions

[Richard Wiggins]

The conventional wisdom is that Google ignores Meta Keywords, and a Google
official has confirmed this in public.

For some reason people extrapolate from this that Meta Description is
ignored.  This is not true.  Recently for some reason www.msu.edu/  lost its
Meta Description.  Without it, the abstract on the SERP was random, chosen
based on what happened to be on the home page.

When we restored our Meta Description, the abstract once again exactly
matched.  It's great fun, you type it into your page, and Google magically
shows what you typed the next time it crawls..

To see for yourself, search for:

   michigan state university

What you'll see on the results page is:

   *Michigan State University*: Advancing Knowledge. Transforming Lives. *
MSU's* teaching and research serve *Michigan*, the nation, and the world.
Est. 1855.

This exactly matches our Meta Description.

I checked a number of large universities and found that of those who use the
Meta Description, only about the first 150 characters show on the Google
SERP.  So ours is 149.

As for Meta Keywords, I don't think it hurts to put them in, whether Google
ignores them or not.

/rich

On 8/2/07, Araby Y Greene <araby at unr.edu> wrote:
>
>
> 2. True. You can blame it on SEO weasels who have abused meta tags to
> manipulate search engine placement. Descriptions seem to show up in Google
> entries, although theoretically they are ignored. It's important to keep the
> description and keywords around 150 characters, and not over 250 characters.
> Once the wrath of the Googlebot is incurred, a site can be in indexing limbo
> for a long time. None of the big search engines care about D.C., but it
> has other uses.
>
> -araby
>
> __________________________________
> Araby Greene
> Web Development Librarian
> Getchell Library/322
> University of Nevada, Reno
> http://www.library.unr.edu
>
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org on behalf of Sharon Foster
> Sent: Thu 8/2/2007 5:54 PM
> To: web4lib at webjunction.org
> Subject: [Web4lib] seriously mundane questions
>
>
>
> 1. Is anyone using the new Google CSE as their library website's
> search engine? Do you have any control over when it indexes your site,
> or do you just have to wait for Google to do its thing? Or any I
> missing something? We have the "original" Google CSE, but our site
> hasn't been re-indexed for quite a long time, and no one knows who
> owns the account that set up the CSE. I looked at the new CSE, but it
> doesn't look like I would have much control over what it does or when
> it does it. I'm thinking of using FreeFind instead.
>
> 2. (this is a school question) I recently completed a course in
> Digital Libraries, and it seems to me from my reading that most of the
> standard (non-specialized) search engines do not look at any of the
> fancy metadata--Dublin Core, DOAP, etc.--schemas they we used in our
> projects. They only look at Description and Keywords (sometimes not
> even those) and the actual page content. Is this your understanding as
> well, or did I once again miss something?
>
> Thanks for all your help. Listening in on this list is the real education.
>
> Sharon
> --
> Sharon M. Foster, B.S., J.D., 0.5 * (MLS)
> F/OSS Evangelist
> Cheshire Public Library
> 104 Main Street
> Cheshire, CT  06410
> http://www.cheshirelibrary.org
> My library school portfolio: http://home.southernct.edu/~fosters4/
> My final project for ILS655, Digital Libraries:
> http://www.vsa-software.com/ils655
>
> Any opinions expressed here are entirely my own.
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