Stay organized with collections
Save and categorize content based on your preferences.
July 13, 2006
The way we generate the descriptions (snippets) that appear under a page in the search results is
completely automated. The process uses both the content on a page as well as references to it that
appear on other sites.
One source we use to generate snippets is the
Open Directory Project,
or ODP. Some site owners want to be to able to request not using the ODP for generating snippets,
and we're happy to let you all know we've added support for this. All you have to do is add a
meta tag to your pages.
To direct all search engines that support the meta tag not to use ODP information for the page's
description, use the following:
<meta name="robots" content="noodp">
Note that not all search engines may support this meta tag, so check with each for more
information.
To direct Google specifically from using this information to describe a page, use the following:
Once you add this meta tag to your pages, it may take some time for changes to your snippets to
appear. Once we've recrawled your pages and refreshed our index, you should see the updated
snippet in search results.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],[],[[["\u003cp\u003eGoogle's automated process for generating search result descriptions utilizes page content and external website references.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eWebsite owners can prevent Google from using the Open Directory Project (ODP) for generating descriptions by adding specific meta tags to their pages.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe \u003ccode\u003enoodp\u003c/code\u003e meta tag can be used to instruct all or specific search engines, such as Google, to avoid using ODP data for snippets.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eAdding the meta tag may require time for changes to reflect in search result descriptions due to recrawling and index updates.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe blog post is outdated and may contain broken links or missing images.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],["Website owners can prevent search engines from using Open Directory Project (ODP) data for search result snippets. Adding `\u003cmeta name=\"robots\" content=\"noodp\"\u003e` to a page's code directs all supporting search engines to avoid ODP descriptions. For Google specifically, use `\u003cmeta name=\"googlebot\" content=\"noodp\"\u003e`. Changes will appear after the search engine recrawls the page and updates its index. Search engines generate these descriptions automatically, based on the page's content and external references.\n"],null,["| It's been a while since we published this blog post. Some of the information may be outdated (for example, some images may be missing, and some links may not work anymore).\n\nJuly 13, 2006\n\n\nThe way we generate the descriptions (snippets) that appear under a page in the search results is\ncompletely automated. The process uses both the content on a page as well as references to it that\nappear on other sites.\n\n\nOne source we use to generate snippets is the\n[Open Directory Project](https://www.dmoz.org/),\nor ODP. Some site owners want to be to able to request not using the ODP for generating snippets,\nand we're happy to let you all know we've added support for this. All you have to do is add a\n`meta` tag to your pages.\n\n\nTo direct all search engines that support the `meta` tag not to use ODP information for the page's\ndescription, use the following: \n\n```\n\u003cmeta name=\"robots\" content=\"noodp\"\u003e\n```\n\n\nNote that not all search engines may support this `meta` tag, so check with each for more\ninformation.\n\n\nTo direct Google specifically from using this information to describe a page, use the following: \n\n```\n\u003cmeta name=\"googlebot\" content=\"noodp\"\u003e\n```\n\n\nFor more information, visit the\n[webmaster help center.](/search/docs/appearance/snippet)\n\n\nOnce you add this `meta` tag to your pages, it may take some time for changes to your snippets to\nappear. Once we've recrawled your pages and refreshed our index, you should see the updated\nsnippet in search results.\n\nPosted by [Vanessa Fox](https://www.vanessafox.com/)"]]
