632665 - [SEO] update/polish the homepage title and description

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(www.mozilla.org :: General, defect)

Description

[Kohei Yoshino [:kohei]]

<title>Mozilla | Firefox web browser &amp; Thunderbird email client</title>
<meta name="description" content="Mozilla is a global community dedicated to building free, open source products like the award winning Firefox web browser and Thunderbird email software." />

Right now, Thunderbird is not available at mozilla.com.

Also, the current snippet on the Google search results ("browser" or "Firefox") is from ODP/dmoz and not controlled by Mozilla:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Firefox
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=browser

http://www.google.com/Top/Computers/Software/Internet/Clients/Web/Browsers/Firefox/

> Official site of the open-source browser. Includes product downloads, 
> release notes, features overview, and information about switching from 
> other browsers. 

Just use <meta name="robots" content="noodp" /> to override the snippet with the page's meta description.

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35264

Comment 1

[Kohei Yoshino [:kohei]]

Or you may want to use the X-Robots-Tag HTTP header for all pages.
http://code.google.com/intl/en/web/controlcrawlindex/docs/robots_meta_tag.html

Comment 2

[John Slater]

Good catch, thanks Kohei. Laura, what do you think for next steps?

Comment 3

[Laura Forrest]

I'll tie this to the overall title tag project (I'm currently searching for that bug) and assign to me. 

That will cover the title tag portion but not the SERP sitelinks. There's another open bug 629778 to change that, which again, I'll link this to. 

Thanks for reporting, Kohei! I'll follow up if I have any questions.

Comment 4

[Laura Forrest]

I suggest changing the title tag to the following in order to clean it up for the short-term launch: 

<title>Mozilla | Mozilla Firefox Web Browser</title>

<meta name="description" content="The Firefox browser is created by Mozilla, a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote openness, innovation and opportunity on the Web." />

Note that we're aiming to launch more comprehensive title tag changes early Q2. 

Anthony - Assigning to you but treat this as low priority compared to all the other Fx4 launch projects.

Comment 5

[John Slater]

(In reply to comment #4)
> <meta name="description" content="The Firefox browser is created by Mozilla, a
> non-profit organization whose mission is to promote openness, innovation and
> opportunity on the Web." />

Slight suggested change for consistency with the brand language elsewhere:

<meta name="description" content="Mozilla Firefox is created by a global non-profit dedicated to putting individuals in control and shaping the future of the web for the public good."/>

Thanks

Comment 6

[James Long (:jlongster)]

Moving to 1.5

Comment 7

[Laura Forrest]

Hey Anthony - this is a pretty small change. Do you think you'll be able to get to it in this 2.0 release?

Comment 8

[Anthony Ricaud (:rik)]

The title seems redundant to me. Shouldn't it be "Mozilla | Firefox Web Browser" ?

Comment 9

[John Slater]

Do we have to have the | in there at all?

Comment 10

[Anthony Ricaud (:rik)]

No, we can also ditch it.

Comment 11

[Laura Forrest]

(In reply to comment #9)
> Do we have to have the | in there at all?

This is fine for this short-term fix.

Comment 12

[Anthony Ricaud (:rik)]

Committed r87502 on trunk and pushed to production with r87503.

Comment 13

[raymond [:retornam] (inactive)]

Attachment: screenshot

reopening as there is a JS error in IE6.

Comment 14

[Laura Forrest]

Anthony - Can you have a look at this? Would be nice to get it into the 2.3 release today, but I think you may still be traveling.

Comment 15

[Laura Forrest]

Any updates here Anthony?

Comment 16

[Laura Forrest]

Since this was re-opened and since we now have two main landing pages, I'm going to add more details to make sure we cover both. To summarize:

URL:
http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/fx/

Title:
Mozilla Firefox Web Browser

Description:
<meta name="description" content="Mozilla Firefox is created by a global
non-profit dedicated to putting individuals in control and shaping the future
of the web for the public good."/>

(Looks like this work has been done)

And then also change this one:

URL: http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/new/

Title:
Mozilla Firefox Web Browser | Free Download

Description:
<meta name="description" content="Mozilla Firefox is created by a global
non-profit dedicated to putting individuals in control and shaping the future
of the web for the public good."/>

Comment 17

[Anthony Ricaud (:rik)]

Added "| Free Download" in r88575.

Pushed everything in production with r88576

Raymond: I can't reproduce the error on IE6. Looks like it's a Webtrends bug so maybe not happening all the time and definitely not related to those changes. Could you open another bug if you can reproduce?