8 replies to this topic

[blue]

For my main keywords there is one site that has been #1 for a very long time but the wierd thing is when he comes up in yahoo his title on the SERPS reads "Best WIDGET in the world" and when he comes up in google his title reads "Widgets for everything running, eating, dancing and sleeping". Both of these title are from his index page.
My question is how come his title tag on his index page reads different on yahoo/google serps but when you read his source code it reads it how google sees it "Widgets for everything running, eating, dancing and sleeping" What is this guy doing and why is yahoo showing a different title tag then google?
-blue

[qwerty]

If the site is in the Yahoo directory, then any listings on Yahoo for the home page are going to use the directory description. However, Yahoo directory descriptions rarely use the word "best" (unless of course, the name of the company is "Best Widgets").

If it's not a matter of the directory description displaying, then maybe the home page's title tag was changed, but Yahoo's spider hasn't picked up on that yet.

[Gatorhardware]

Some one correct me if I am wrong but I have seem our site do the same thing. Sometimes Yahoo will pick up content on the page and use it as a title if it matches the search term more then what is in the title. I am not sure if this is normal. I have not seen yahoo do that in a while though.

[kology]

Is is possible that you changed the title of the page and Google and Yahoo are just looking at different variations (by date) of the same file. SE don't update their data at the same time.

Let me know if this could be the cause or if it's something else.

[OldWelshGuy]

Is Yahoo displaying the description meta?

[blue]

Qwerty what do you mean by yahoo “directory description”?

I have been watching this site for 2 years and it has had different titles for yahoo and google. Google showing the title tag he has in his meta, so it really cant be a web site update issue. Also it is Not displaying the description meta.

The wierd thing is, i checked out some other sites that are listed on yahoo under the same keyword and there meta title tags are what is showing in yahoo serps and in google serps, just this guys site has different title listed.

Could he be using cloaking on his web site?

[qwerty]

Qwerty what do you mean by yahoo “directory description”?

Yahoo was a directory before it was a search engine, and the directory is still there. It's human-edited, and commercial sites have to pay just to be considered for a listing.

If a site is listed in the directory, the description for its home page, even in Yahoo search results, will be the description that was approved by the directory editor. It will not be the meta description, or a snippet of the text from the home page.

[BrianR]

And to round out qwerty's post...

The same goes for the website's title. If the site is listed in Yahoo's Directory, the the title for the home page in the Yahoo Web Pages SERPS will not be what is contained in that's page's title tag, but what is contained in the Yahoo Directory listing title - ie. the company name.

BrianR

[qwerty]

For example, the number one result in this Yahoo search is "Strategic Name Development" but that site's home page's title tag reads "SND - The Naming Company: Naming a Business and Product Name Creation"