Hub Summaries Not Showing Up In Searches

1. 95

   watergeekposted 10 years ago

   Boy, now I'm really confused. Our hub summaries (just under the title) are supposed to be what shows up as a description in Google searches, right? So I just launched a new hub. It's reading a 94 hubscore right now and is not an Editor's Choice (yet).
   
   Here is what my summary says:
   
   "When it comes time to purchasing supplies for a do-it-yourself irrigation project, buyers can be stumped. Amazon.com and other online stores sell finished products, but where do you get parts?"
   
   Here is what's showing up in Google:
   
   "Orbit has been manufacturing and distributing residential and commerical irrigation products since 1986. Orbit is the leader in the DIY irrigation industry . . . "
   
   This statement comes from a section almost 1/3 of the way down this 1900 word article, after 2 photographs, a poll, a section of links, and three sections of text with two or three paragraphs in each. How is that happening?  What are our summaries for?

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   1. 31

      Writer Foxposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Google will use your Description Tag (Summary on HubPages) most of the time but will create its own snippet to match a webpage's content to a specific search query.
      
      To increase the probability of Google showing your Summary, put the text at the top of your Hub.  (That's what I do.) Also, you must limit your Summary to only 160 characters (or less) including spaces.  Right now, your Summary is way too long. Having a question mark is a bad idea in a Description Tag because your Description is supposed to accurately reflect the content of your Hub.  It is supposed to answer a question, not ask one.

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      1. 96

         DrMark1961posted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Will this also work for Bing? I get plenty of Google traffic but when I typed my best performing hub into Yahoo I found lower on the page and the summary was so poor that I would not have chosen to look at it (if I did not know the author!). The summary they used seemed to be some random sentences, and had nothing to do with what I typed into the search query.

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         1. 31

            Writer Foxposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            It works most of the time but not all of the time.  You do have to write a Description Tag which search engines accept (see: 'III. A. 3. Meta Tags' from the Table of Contents on my SEO Hub.)
            
            If a search query does not contain the keywords or the meaning of the key words in the query, the search engine will find text on the page to show the searcher why the webpage was recommended and what can be found on it.

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            1. 96

               DrMark1961posted 10 years agoin reply to this

               Thanks. I have read that but will go look at it again to see what I need to change.
               This is all your "fault"! I have a lot more PVs than you but when I saw the amazing rate at which you are proceeding I figured I must be doing something wrong. (Bing seemed to confirm that for me.) At the rate you are going here your profile will be getting that new accolade months before I do.
               I appreciate your help.

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               1. 31

                  Writer Foxposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  You're welcome.  (If you are doing well on Google, I wouldn't worry about Bing at all!)

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      2. 95

         watergeekposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         So even though Hubpages has a character limitation built in, it's still too long? Or are you referring to the snippet Google chose (i.e. the first couple of sentences of Orbit's section down the way)? What this tells me is that I need to include the Google Adwords keywords I'm targeting somewhere in my description tag, not just the hub.

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         1. 31

            Writer Foxposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            That's right.  HP allows a summary which is too long.  In fact, when the Description Tag shows up as the snippet, more characters/spaces are taken off because HP inserts the date in your tag too, so you really have less than the 160 characters and spaces to advertise your Hub.
            
            
            
            Most definitely insert your keywords in the Description Tag!!!!

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   2. 71

      Matthew Meyerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      You can see better information about how Google sees a Hub using the Google structured data testing tool.
      It is briefly mentioned in the FAQ related to Google+ authorship.
      http://hubpages.com/faq/#google-authorship
      
      Here is a link to that tool.
      http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets
      
      You can enter the URL for your Hub.
      The summary is based on search terms used and that is indicated in the results for your Hub.
      The excerpt from the page will show up here. The reason we can't show text from your webpage is because the text depends on the query the user types.

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2. 67

   jeseremposted 10 years ago

   The snippets shown are dynamic and will depend on what was typed-in by the searcher. Google will show what it thinks best summarizes the content of your article and does not necessarily show what you wrote in the meta description--IMHO

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3. 59

   The Examiner-1posted 10 years ago

   I got the same thing on Bing and Yahoo when I checked yours.
   I then checked my latest published Hub and it did the same thing as you.
   My older Hubs were giving me different things for each searcher.

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   1. 95

      watergeekposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Looks like they're applying their ad selection technology to searches now. Pretty clever.

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