Why has Google removed meta descriptions from SERPS?

[Websensejim]

One of my clients' sites has just been redesigned with lots of new URLs added. So the 301 redirections have been put in place and most of the new URLs have now been indexed. BUT Google is still showing all the old URLs in the SERPS and even worse it only displays the title tag. The meta description is not shown, no rich snippet, no text, nothing below the title. This is proving disastrous as visitors are not clicking on a result with no description. I have to assume its got something to do with the redirection, but why is it not showing the descriptions?

I've checked the old URLs and he meta description is definitely still in the code, but Google is choosing not to show it. I've never seen this before so I'm struggling for an answer. I'd like to know why or how this is happening, and if it can be resolved.

I realise that this may be resolved when Google stops showing all the old URLs but there's no telling how long that will take (can it be speeded up?)

[katemorris]

Can you give us an example of a SERP result?

[jdeb]

Howdy!

We're having the same issue with an important url. About a year ago, I slapped a 301 from

http://www.ashridgetrees.co.uk/Lavender

to

http://www.ashridgetrees.co.uk/Lavender-Plants

I've updated all the links on our site that pointed to the old URL and even managed to update some external backlinks. I've also built a new backlink from a respected, relevant site to the new URL, as well as tweeted & facebooked at it. Finally, I've updated our sitemap.

Despite all of this and the amount of time that's passed, the old url is still in the serps.  We have a good crawl rate and whenever we make a new page, even one that's quite deep in the site with no direct access from the main navigation, it's in the SERPs in less than a week.

Any ideas?

Our company is  Ashridge Trees

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=lavender+plants&pws=0&hl=en&num=10

Thanks!

[katemorris]

When did you change the links on your site and the backlinks? I ask because OpenSiteExplorer still sees them which tells me it was in the last few months I think. Is that right?

[jdeb]

That's right: I updated the internal links a little over a month ago & the other stuff was during the last 3 weeks, with the last changes over a week ago now.

[jdeb]

But the 301 is still about a year old!

[katemorris]

Yeah, the 301 should be taking effect, but apparently Google thinks that the 301 is more of a 302. We have seen Bing come out and say sometimes they will ignore commands and treat a 301 like a 302. Do you 301 things often?

Regardless, since there are no more links pointing to the /Lavender page, you can 404 or 410 that page and let it drop in the index. The new one should take it's place. You do risk losing traffic for a little time though, just be aware of that. Should fix the issue though.