How my indexed pages are displayed in Google

[Guy]

Does anyone else get this problem with Actinic.

When I view the indexed site pages in google using "site:it-shop-online.co.uk" some of the descriptions are just coming up as useless and meaningless rubbish!

here are some examples;

IT Shop Online Ltd C9079A HP Deskjet 2360
spacer, DELIVERY, spacer. spacer, bullet Check Order Status, spacer. spacer, FAVORITES, spacer. spacer, bullet Search By Vendor, spacer ...
it-shop-online.co.uk/acatalog/copy_of_C9079A_HP_Deskjet_2360.html - 18k -
10/100/1000 Rackmount Switches
spacer, DELIVERY, spacer. spacer, bullet Check Order Status, spacer. spacer, FAVORITES, spacer. spacer, bullet Special Offers, spacer ...
it-shop-online.co.uk/acatalog/Gigabit_Switches.html - 38k - Cached - Similar pages

This obviously isn't much use to me, so if anyone can explain what I've done wrong or how to correct it, that would be fantastic....thanks!

[hobuk]

Guy,

Looks like you need to get some text in the Meta Description box in each section on your site, all the search engine is picking up is the first text it sees on your site.

[dave_finlayson]

It's also picking up alt tags that you really don't want it to read i.e spacer, bullet etc.

I believe current thinking, in terms of accessibility, is if the image is not important to blind users then you should include the alt tag but leave it blank (i.e alt=""), so really there is no point in filling them with 'spacer' etc, all you are doing is confusing Google (this is certainly we how design on our site).

Also remember that Google will display what it thinks is most relevant to the search. As you have just searched on your site, presumably seeing how many pages are indexed, it will, as said before, just be spewing out the first text it finds. When someone searches for a specific product the descriptive text will more than likely be different and more accurate to the search.

[pinbrook]

One of my hosting clients asked me for SEO advice awhile go, so i did my usual initial investigation.

One of my findings was their best showing was for the phrase "sealed empty box" this was because this phrase featured beside every product in place of a description. They sell miniatures so whilst this was something important to tell their customers no-one would ever search on this phrase.

Just goes to show you need to be careful how text, elements, alt tags, navigation etc are presented on each page.