Have you ever wondered what would happen if you had multiple page title tags in the head of your webpage? How about multiple meta description tags? In this article, I am going to show you the results of my Google search experiment. I’m sure there are a few other related questions that I will try to forecast and address, but if I am not able to read your mind, please submit a comment and I’ll address each question one as quickly as possible.
Setting up the experiment
I uploaded a simple HTML file to my web server which included two title tags and two meta description tags. To make it easy, I gave the title and description tags values that represent their order in the code. A screenshot of the head section is represented below:
I wanted this test to be independent of the rest of my site and I wanted this to be the first time Google indexed this file rather than experimenting on an existing webpage. I started with a brand new HTML file and after it was prepared, I uploaded it to my web server. In order to speed up the indexing time, I used Google Webmaster Tools to tell Google to fetch and index my new file.
Below is a screenshot of Google Webmaster Tool’s Fetch tool. It’s a really cool tool. All you have to do is enter the filename of your new file and click Fetch. Make note that Google allows 500 fetches in a given week per Google account.
I also wanted to take note of what Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool would show. Here is a screenshot. Notice that the first page title tag is represented. This tool is also available in Google Webmaster tools.
And here is screenshot of my Firefox browser. Notice that the first page title is represented again.
Now that we have the experiment all setup we wait for Google to index and see what is displayed in the search engine results pages (SERPs). In the meantime, let’s address a few questions.
Why would a web page have multiple title or meta-description tags?
Scenario 1
The first scenario that comes to mind is WordPress. Out of the box, a WordPress theme is going to have a title tag in the head of the header.php file, most likely closer to the opening head tag. It will look something like this:
The wp_title function calls the page title defined in a page or post. The screenshot below might look familiar to WordPress users.
Let’s say, for example, you’d like to write some PHP code to dynamically generate your page titles from variables, such as location and keywords. If you are writing your PHP statement in a page template that is also used by other webpages you’d need to place your code either above or below the native WordPress title tag. But which one is it? Above or below?
Scenario 2
Another scenario might be a website that requires multiple include files to make up a webpage. Sometimes this can get confusing and developers will accidentally, or carelessly, add a page title tag to one of the include files resulting in multiple title tags when the web page is compiled.
Scenario 3
There are numerous content management system (CMS) platforms out there, most are free, and they all strive to make their platform as search engine friendly as possible. The CMS platforms, as well as hundreds of third party developers, have created a slew of SEO plugins, extensions, add-ons, etc. These SEO tools allow you to customize your page titles, meta descriptions, and meta keywords. They also write code to your webpage dynamically when it loads up often times leaving your webpage with multiple tags. Those tags will display your custom data if and only if the code is added in the correct place in the head of your webpage.
Google doesn’t use meta descriptions as a ranking factor, so why bother?
Yes, there has been controversy over whether or not meta descriptions are a ranking factor in Google. Regardless, your meta description is 150 characters, give or take, you get to encourage website searchers to click-through to your website. Use those 150 characters wisely. Also note that Google is not the only search engine available. Many other search engines still use meta descriptions as a ranking factor.
With a properly crafted meta description Google is more likely to use it when displaying search results for your targeted key phrase… and click-throughs on targeted searches are every SEO’s goal. So be sure that your meta description is written informatively for your target key phrase to increase your click-throughs.
In either case the chance to add more information to a page is not a chance any web developer should pass up; so, be sure to make the most of your meta descriptions.
Let’s see the results of the experiment already
I was able to test my experiment in just under 24 hours using the Fetch tool in Google Webmaster Tools — what a time saver. After a Google search for “Multiple Title & Meta Description Experiment”, I have found that the first page title as well as the first meta description are presented in the SERP as shown in the screenshot below.
Before I began this experiment I took a guess that Google would utilize the last page title and meta description tags similar to how a CSS stylesheet works. I asked one of my programmers in my network and he thought Google would use the last tags too. I enjoyed this experiment and hope that I have saved other Webmasters and SEOs from the headache of spending weeks optimizing their page titles and meta descriptions only to find out they were being ignored by Google.
Bonus experiment: Forcing an alternative page title and meta description in the SERPs
While I was at it, I wanted to explain that when you spend weeks optimizing your page titles and meta descriptions, you are merely making a suggestion to Google. By all means, don’t stop researching, analyzing, and optimizing your tags. This is actually a good thing as Google is displaying a more relevant result based on the user’s search query.
In my second experiment, I chose to do a Google search for a phrase that is not represented in my page title or meta description tag, but is an exact match to content in the body of my page.
Here is a screenshot representing the “suggested” page title and meta description. In my first experiment, the first page title and meta description tags were used by Google.
Now make note of my H1 tag and the last sentence on the page, both are highlighted.
I performed a Google search for “Attempting to force an alternative page title and meta-description tag in a Google search”. Talk about a long-tail key phrase, funny thing is, my page came up #2 in the SERPs. Now take a look at the page title and meta description that is represented in the SERP. Google chose to display more relevant content than what I’d originally “suggested”.
The screenshot below shows that Google used my H1 tag for the page title and displayed the exact match of the last sentence for the meta description.
Final thoughts
I’m curious about similar experiments and the use of page title & meta description tags that have generated an unexpected outcome in the SERPs. Have you seen any interesting search results? Is there an experiment you’d like to try?
Here are some interesting results reported by my friend Bryant Jaquez of BrewSEO
“One interesting thing I’ve observed is the following: When Aaron first launched his site, slingshotyou.com, he did not write meta descriptions. When he was finished with the design, he went back and started writing meta descriptions. Here is the interesting part. When he started writing meta descriptions, he started with a few low traffic pages (this wasn’t on purpose, it just happened like that.) Now, it should be noted that the pages he wrote meta descriptions on were not linked to, nor were they the most authoritative pages on his site. Here is the good part: When he wrote meta descriptions, those pages jumped to the top of a “site:slingshotyou.com” search, and even out-ranked pages that had more authority, and links.
My hypothesis is that Google views the lack of meta descriptions as a quality factor. I know they have publicly stated that they don’t use meta descriptions as a ranking factor, but I think they use them as a quality signal. As in, not having them is bad.”
About the Author
Matt Morgan is the founder and CEO of Optimize Worldwide, an SEO company based out of Northern California. Matt has built a team of experts who help companies nationwide and globally gain more online visibility in the major search engines through post panda/penguin website optimization, content marketing, and creative link building strategies. Offline Matt enjoys enduro motocross riding, networking with like minds, and hanging out with his wife Holly.
