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When we search for the company name and the company snippet shows up as a result, it takes a text from the HTML as description.

On the other hand when we search a keyword and the homepage shows up as a result, the meta description will show up.

It happens in Google, Bing and Yahoo. How is it possible?

--EDIT:

I found the solution, but since a MODERATOR, marked this question as duplicate, I will write my answer here:

The problem was that: We didn't have the company name in the description, while the first word in the html body was the company name.

Therefore, where we searched for the company name only, search engines found the html body a better match for the query and show the body (which was not a human readable text)

However, when we searched the company name + a keyword that we mentioned in description, the description was chosen, not the html body.

To fix the issue, we both changed the description to include the company name, and remove the company name from some html tags like logo's alt in the very first part of the page.

Summary: Include all the keywords that you want to be searched in description including the company/website name.

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    @JohnConde Actually, this question is not about tags or meta-tags, but rather Google SERP format. In particular, the recent change in the site links being smaller for non-brand searches.
    – closetnoc
    Commented Sep 5, 2014 at 15:25
  • Based on their question and comments I don't see anything here that isn't covered in the linked to question or others already asked here.
    – John Conde ♦
    Commented Sep 5, 2014 at 15:35

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This is completely normal.

It may help you to refer to this page: http://moz.com/blog/mega-serp-a-visual-guide-to-google It is a breakdown of everything you can see in a Google SERP (search engine result page).

The search https://www.google.com/search?q=kitco is a brand search and the results are all the things you should expect/want and you are Blessed to have concerning your brand.

  • The knowledge graph on the right is for brand searches only.
  • The site links are very common for brand searches.

The search https://www.google.com/search?q=kitco+gold is a keyword search and is as expected. You are not going to get the brand advantages on searches that are not brand searches.

Google has been experimenting with SERP design lately. In this second search result, the site links are formatted differently. It took me a minute to realize this because they are understated where as with the other search, the format is more bold. Previously, both searches site links would have appeared the same.

The results of both searches are exactly as expected.

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  • I am not talking about the knowledge graph on the right (which is from wikipedia). My issue is with the company snippet on the left (which shows the homepage and some major pages)
    – Afshin Moazami
    Commented Sep 5, 2014 at 14:40
  • @AfshinMoazami Yes. The site links. There is nothing you can do. You do not have control over this. The larger format is displayed for brand searches and the smaller format is displayed for non-brand searches. Google has been experimenting with SERP redesign changes. This is just one of them. There is nothing out of the ordinary here. Sorry. I prefer the larger format, but understand why Google may have made the change- it took up too much real-estate for a non-brand search. It was a matter of relevancy.
    – closetnoc
    Commented Sep 5, 2014 at 15:23
  • But, still it is strange, because I have exactly the same issue with bing and yahoo. I know they are copying each other a lot, but I am not sure if all of them experimenting the same thing!
    – Afshin Moazami
    Commented Sep 5, 2014 at 15:27
  • @AfshinMoazami I am not a Bing user, but I do check out the SERPs for my sites from time to time. Yahoo! search is Bing for the most part. I would expect that Bing and Google are competing for style especially after the Bing-it-on campaign. Google lost some share to Bing and I know that Bing has done some redesign. But I cannot tell you what any of that redesign has been. Mostly because Bing rarely returns any visitors to my site so why should I spend the time? I have paid attention to Google however. I knew that it was a possibility that a smaller site links profile would appear.
    – closetnoc
    Commented Sep 5, 2014 at 15:45

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