Page Title & Meta Description On No-Index Pages

[ChristianRdz]

Hello!

When creating landing pages for ads, I normally set these pages to no-index, no follow, using the Yoast SEO plugin on WordPress, as I don't want them to appear in SERPs and I occasionally use content from within my website to build these (don't want duplicate content issues). There are no internal website links that point to these pages either as I only want ad click users to see them. I really haven't concerned myself with optimizing the page title or meta description on these since these aren't pages I want to rank nor to be seen in SERPs.

My question is, am I in any way hurting my website performance with Google by not paying attention to the titles and meta description on these pages?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Tim Kahlert]

Hi Christian!

No! Simply because Google doesn't know if a title is a good title or not if it´s not indexed - it gets the information (if a title is good or bad) from clicks. Also, meta-descriptions aren't a ranking factor so Google wouldn't care anyway. No-index pages have zero influence on the performance of your website. Sometimes there are heaps of unoptimized no-index pages on a website. Plus, Google´s most valuable asset is the ads platform - if creating ads would mean a decline in search experience, Google would do itself more harm than good.

 

[ChristianRdz]

Hi Christian!

No! Simply because Google doesn't know if a title is a good title or not if it´s not indexed - it gets the information (if a title is good or bad) from clicks. Also, meta-descriptions aren't a ranking factor so Google wouldn't care anyway. No-index pages have zero influence on the performance of your website. Sometimes there are heaps of unoptimized no-index pages on a website. Plus, Google´s most valuable asset is the ads platform - if creating ads would mean a decline in search experience, Google would do itself more harm than good.

Thanks for your response Tim! I figured that might be the case but I was curious to know what others thought. I appreciate your input.

 

[AndySimpson]

Great comments from Tim and agree that you're not hurting the site in any way. One thing I would do is give the page a good title as users will still see your page in the browser tab, so you might still want to stand out there.
Also just check that your page is not listed in the sitemap of the XML sitemap otherwise your page "may" get indexed, don't always rely on plugins to do what you think they should be doing. Periodically check from time to time by doing a site:yourdomian.com/landpage to see if your page(s) have been indexed.

 

[caveman75]

Hi Christian!

No! Simply because Google doesn't know if a title is a good title or not if it´s not indexed - it gets the information (if a title is good or bad) from clicks. Also, meta-descriptions aren't a ranking factor so Google wouldn't care anyway. No-index pages have zero influence on the performance of your website. Sometimes there are heaps of unoptimized no-index pages on a website. Plus, Google´s most valuable asset is the ads platform - if creating ads would mean a decline in search experience, Google would do itself more harm than good.

I've read this as well, but it's still recommended to use them? I'm in the process of adding MD's to each page o. my site and wondering if it's still worth it. thanks, Jeff

 

[AndySimpson]

Interesting, just out of interest Caveman, why would you still use them if the page isn't going to display in the serps?

 

[Ross Barefoot]

but it's still recommended to use them?

It seems that you might be asking about using them on pages that are also indexed, because of the line you put in boldface when you quoted @Tim Kahlert and you said that you are inserting them into all the pages of your site. If that's correct, then my response would be that I normally do use meta description tags and spend time on them even though they are not a direct ranking factor.

Reason: when it comes to indexed pages they are useful because they frequently show in the SERPs (unless Google thinks a snippet on the page is more relevant to the searcher intent). This means that meta description tags can become a conversion factor and it's best to write them in a compelling way that will encourage a searcher to click on your listing instead of the other listings around it.

 

[caveman75]

It seems that you might be asking about using them on pages that are also indexed, because of the line you put in boldface when you quoted @Tim Kahlert and you said that you are inserting them into all the pages of your site. If that's correct, then my response would be that I normally do use meta description tags and spend time on them even though they are not a direct ranking factor.

Reason: when it comes to indexed pages they are useful because they frequently show in the SERPs (unless Google thinks a snippet on the page is more relevant to the searcher intent). This means that meta description tags can become a conversion factor and it's best to write them in a compelling way that will encourage a searcher to click on your listing instead of the other listings around it.

That's kind of what I thought. we offer 3 different services right now. I have an individual page for each service. I treat each page as a landing page so I want to optimize each service page as best as I can. This would include MD's.

 

[Tim Kahlert]

I've read this as well, but it's still recommended to use them? I'm in the process of adding MD's to each page o. my site and wondering if it's still worth it. thanks, Jeff

It´s definitely recommended to add MD´s to indexed pages. As @Ross Barefoot correctly said, it´s a conversion factor and increases click-through rates on SERP. MD´s on no-index Google Ads landing pages, however, aren't of any help since the publisher is forced to create a customized meta description inside of Google Ads anyway. So they don't appear anywhere publicly.

 

[Tiggerito]

There is the chance that these pages get shared. The system they are shared on are likely to use the title and meta description (or og tags) to create the snippet shown to other users.