Strange search engine results

When i search google for my website, it says the page title, which is fine, but for the description, it shows the category names, and not the main page text or description?

Anhy ideas please?

Thanks

Redirect your question to Google... nobody here has any influence on what Google does... It DOES NOT necessarily use meta description text, or even page text to compile its search result...

Go ask Google.

Yahoo does the same too

Can anybody else help me here please?

Many Thanks in advance

We don't know what you want to be helped with...

If you don't like the way Google is treating your site, then go ask Google why they are treating it the way they are doing...

Besides... you have not told us what you PUT into Google search field for the result you are not happy with.

Unless/until you tell us EXACTLY what keyword/keyphrase you put into Google before hitting the "Search" button, we cannot even hope to guess at why Google returned the result it did.

... and you have not even told us EXACTLY - WORD FOR WORD - what that result was...

You can only try your best, read Google guides e.g., http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35769
and help them find your content with Webmaster Tools https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools
There are no easy answers with search results. Also, the Google description for a page can relate to search terms which may not be part of the product description (sidebox, modules, etc).

Ok, thanks guys.
If my website is cheese.co.uk, then when i type into google search ww.cheese.co.uk, it brings up my site, but in the description, the first thing it says are my categories.
eg:
My categories might be cheddar, edam, stilton etc

so i get in google/yahoo etc...

Cheese.co.uk
Cheese.co.uk : cheddar edam stilton

that's what i mean :(

Those sound a lot like sitelinks. The search engines are smart enough to know when your site has product categories and if someone searches for your site name the first result can come up that way. If you're concerned about Google/Yahoo/Bing then you should have a google/yahoo/bing webmaster accounts - they're free to set up - and sitelinks are explained clearer there (on the google one).

joejoejoe:

Those sound a lot like sitelinks. The search engines are smart enough to know when your site has product categories and if someone searches for your site name the first result can come up that way. If you're concerned about Google/Yahoo/Bing then you should have a google/yahoo/bing webmaster accounts - they're free to set up - and sitelinks are explained clearer there (on the google one).

Thanks for the useful info joe :)

You don't need to worry about that, it's all fine.

This is what i mean.
I have a car site, and when i search in a search engine, i get my title, and under it, no meta description shows up, just the categories, like so...

Alfa Romeo Audi BMW Citroen Fiat Ford Honda Hyundai Kia Land Rover Mazda Mini Mitsubishi Nissan Opel Peugeot .

How can i change this please?

Thanks

You cannot change it, and nobody on the zencart forum can offer you advice.

If a result appears on a search engine, then that search engine has decided how to configure the result.

In my first post I mentioned this. If you do not like the way a search engine is compiling its results, then you will need to discuss the matter with them.

schoolboy:

You cannot change it, and nobody on the zencart forum can offer you advice.

If a result appears on a search engine, then that search engine has decided how to configure the result.

In my first post I mentioned this. If you do not like the way a search engine is compiling its results, then you will need to discuss the matter with them.

How come nobody elses seems to look like it then?

Anyone?

Are you still fretting over this?

First question is "why" ?

And as has been stated, if you don't like the way Google handles your site's indexing, then go ask GOOGLE to tell you why they are listing the way they are listing it.

What you are seeing has nothing to do with zencart, so there is no way that people on this forum can assist you.

This is a forum for ZENCART issues. There are forums and blogs for GOOGLE, so it may be a good idea to post your concerns on those forums.

Sorry to be so blunt - but I don't see that there is any problem with the way Google is returning your SITE result (different from PAGE-SPECIFIC results) and the likelihood of someone putting in your site URL as a search term are as remote as someone making thirst-quenching tablets with the instruction to "take two with a large glass of water..."

I just typed cheese.co.uk into google and received this result:

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&output=search&sclient=psy-ab&q=cheese.co.uk&oq=cheese.co.uk&gs_l=hp.12..0i10j0i5i10j0i5j0i5i10l4j0i33i30j0i5i33i30l2.2693.2693.1.6088.1.1.0.0.0.0.216.216.2-1.1.0...0.0...1c.gofB8WZq6P4&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=7e6e5a5facfcc609&biw=1680&bih=945

The description looks okay to me. But I don't even recognize the site as a zencart. Is it?

Now, if you're only hypothetically using cheese.co.uk as your site, without an actual link or typed text to your site, it makes it much harder for anyone to see what may be going on. And I don't understand why so many ask for help (not necessarily you) without a link to their site. As if their site is harboring the greatest ecommerce idea of all time that must be kept hidden? I don't know.

I can suggest that what google may use can also depend upon whether or not you are using custom metatags. If not, google may just take what it can from your site...and may do so anyway.

I think thread owner should accept the fact, that it's doesn't matter what search results shows as long as it shows your website. You get traffic anyways and people can find your website and you can't change how your site displays in search results.

schoolboy:

You cannot change it, and nobody on the zencart forum can offer you advice.

If a result appears on a search engine, then that search engine has decided how to configure the result.

In my first post I mentioned this. If you do not like the way a search engine is compiling its results, then you will need to discuss the matter with them.

Of course you can change it. You log into Google Webmaster tools (or make an account if you havent got one) and demote whatever site links you want. Personally though its a good thing to keep, they help with rankings.

And I don't know why people are worrying what comes up when you type in your exact site name into google. What does it matter? If they know your exact site name, they arent looking for you in a search, they are trying to get directly to your site. What is more relevant is description text that comes up when Google etc bring up products from inside your site on a search.

dgent:

Of course you can change it. You log into Google Webmaster tools (or make an account if you havent got one) and demote whatever site links you want. Personally though its a good thing to keep, they help with rankings.

DELETING sitelinks is not the same as CHANGING site links. If you read Google's explanation of what sitelinks are, you will see that the decision to render them is ENTIRELY GOOGLE'S. It is NOT POSSIBLE to change them - which is what the OP is asking.

To suggest he puts in a request to DELETE them is NOT the same as a request to CHANGE them (which he cannot do).

It would be appropriate to make sure you interpret the objectives of a poster's questions, before you offer advice.

schoolboy:

DELETING sitelinks is not the same as CHANGING site links. If you read Google's explanation of what sitelinks are, you will see that the decision to render them is ENTIRELY GOOGLE'S. It is NOT POSSIBLE to change them - which is what the OP is asking.

To suggest he puts in a request to DELETE them is NOT the same as a request to CHANGE them (which he cannot do).

It would be appropriate to make sure you interpret the objectives of a poster's questions, before you offer advice.

You are not deleting, you are demoting. And Google will then pull up other site links, which you can accept or demote at will, so in fact you can filter what is showing. You can't specifically choose the exact links, but you can go a good way to getting what you want.

So stop telling everyone on this thread that no body knows anything about it :/