Systeme D

24 October 2007

Google WTF (volume 8)

According to Google, adnams.co.uk is "a very modern web site, with more style than substance".

WTF? So there's a way to influence Google into displaying derogatory comments next to the results for someone else's site? Could someone tell me how you do this, please?

(Yes, we've just come back from a very nice few days in Suffolk. Whatever the merits of Adnams' website, I like the fact that all their pubs serve Aspalls. That makes them only the second pub owner, after Wetherspoons, to mandate real cider in their pubs.)

Comments

This page - sweasel.com/archives/265 - suggests the text is a remnant from a pre-release version of their front page.

Posted by Dave Holland on 25.10.07 09:42

Yet that's just supposition, as far as I can tell... and surely not even the most brain-dead web agency would put that in the meta tags?

It looks to me like it's a snidey comment by an editor at dmoz (aka Google Directory, which despite the cobwebs somehow still seems to be around). Searching dmoz.org also turns up the phrase. If I were Adnams I'd be furious.

(That last comment would work better if rephrased in American English: "If I were Adnams, I'd be pissed.")

By the same token, Googling for 'Charlbury' is also returning its dmoz listing at the moment.

Posted by Richard on 25.10.07 17:54

Although perhaps you shouldn'€™t have to, you can stop this with a meta tag in your pages; google "Google supports META NOODP tag" to see how.

Posted by Al on 26.10.07 12:06

When I Google 'Charlbury' I get your website first, and interestingly it appears they have also crawled your site in a way that direct links to seperate sections of the website are available from their search results - is this something you've deliberately manufactured or did Google do this all by themselves?

Posted by Ben on 27.10.07 19:04

Google does that by itself, though I believe there's a "Google sitemap" feature or somesuch that lets you specify what appears there. It's pretty nifty... though it doesn't say much for most sites' ease of navigation that Google feel they have to bypass it!

Posted by Richard on 7.11.07 12:25

I wasn't aware of Google sitemaps - had a peek and it does look good, so thanks for the recommendation.

Posted by Ben on 9.11.07 15:13

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