Google using copy as search result headings

[Tiggerito]

While I was assessing a new client I noticed that Google was showing nice headings for then in the search results, even if they had a blank title tag!

It looks like Google is pulling the headings from the copy if the title is of no use.

My example. If you search on "Consult with clients to explain investment strategy" (with quotes) you will get my new prospective as the only result. Check their page to see it has a blank title tag and the search result heading comes from initial text in the copy.

[morestar]

This really is an interesting find. It says a lot about what Google might choose as the Title for a search snippet. Examine it a bit. It's interesting that the title is actually the first bullet point on the page.

[PhilipDunn]

I've never noticed such a thing, probably because I optimize for competitive keyword phrases...
I can't imagine a site without a title ranking for a popular term..

[chrisJumbo]

And now this forum post is #1 and the client is #2. :O)

With a few targeted links, the site can probably be #1 again. :O)

Of course it may have been somewhat lucky that Goog picked what they did. I've seen results at times, where you really had to wonder how Goog make the "decision" to display what it did.

I hope one of your first orders of business will be to add good title tags. Seems like otherwise, you are at the whim of the SE.

[mrbongos]

Thanks for sharing mccreath, I've not seen this before but am not surprised considering Google is constantly tweaking the way they display their SERPs.

[subsystems]

This may have changed but to the best of my knowledge Google uses at least 3 different sources for SERP link text.

1. Title Meta Tag.
2. Relavent viewable page text with some text removed to improve link text relavence.
3. DMOZ.org

There are articles on WPW describing the process. You should be able to find them by searching for DMOZ in WPW.

I believe I glanced at a recent article posing the question of whether or not Google still relies on DMOZ.org. May have more up to date reasoning.

Maybe one of the WPW pros or mods could help by post the links for you.

[mjtaylor]

Hey, I don't mean to be dismissive, but this is simply the first text on the page. 'Prosperity Plan' is not a heading; it's just the first text. Absent any other element this is not surprising. Now if there were an h1 tag that was placed *below* this text or something in bold or in a bulleted list and Google skipped the first content and chose one of those elements, then I would be a little more intrigued. But there simply is nothing else from which to choose, I think.

[edhan]

I think if your title tag and the heading of your content is the same, then it will be likely to be listed as that. I may be wrong about this.

[murphypj]

My understanding, particularly in recent times, is that Google will use the Meta Description tag as its SERP description, if the phrase being searched for is a close match for the description text ( the Title tag being more relevant for inclusion of keywords for indexing purposes ). In the absence of the Meta Description Tag, and obviously provided G has conveyed relevance on the site for the search phrase, Google will almost always snip the parts of the home page text which include the words being searched for - if the entire phrase isn't present you will often see a couple of partial sentences seperated with ... For my guitar site, as an example, searching for: pjs guitar chords and lyrics should show it at #1 with exactly the text from the Meta Description Tag for the home page. A search for: pj murphy shows the site in about 3rd place, but the description is just a snippet from the home page text which includes that particular phrase.

I have only recently eased myself into the SEM waters, but have been working with success on these premises ( which I'm pretty sure I gleaned from this forum ) for all of my clients - populate the Title Tag with a catchy sentence which incorporates the top 2-3 targetted search terms for each page, and aim to structure the META Description tag to contain the top 4-5 targetted terms, so that for the majority of searches, you have control of what the SERP description will be, and can include the desired "Calls to Action".

The description shown for the page you mentioned doesn't actually show the initial text in the copy, it shows a slightly disjointed 'snip' of the best phrase Google could find which included the very specific search terms used - i.e. the description begins midway through your 2nd Bullet-point text, and continues until it reaches the search phrase at the end of the 4th Bullet-point. While in your case, and using the quoted search term, this might be a pretty ok SERP description, I think if you had used the META description tag and included your targetted phrase in an "easy on the eye" short paragraph, you would be keeping control of what the searcher sees, and describing your site/page as you would wish it to be seen, with the desired 'Calls to action', USPs etc.

Just my $0.02 worth. I'm sure there are battle-hardened SEO/SEM veterans here who can expand on this ( or dismiss it! ). My own belief is that the Title tag is hugely important in helping to achieve better results, and that the META Description tag allows you to control to some extent what is effectively your 10-second advertisement of your site for the searcher deciding on which of the SERP links to click.

[arius]

You nailed it I think. So Google when can not see a HTML title for the page, just skips and gets the first text that she sees on the page. I guess that shows you that after title, they consider the first text on the page as second most important.