HtmlMetaDescription Only Half Working

Support
#1

Hi there everyone

This is the sort of thing that could be in support and/or bugs. I am having bugs-like issues with the HtmlMetaDescription for a particular site. Several URLs with identical html markup for meta description, but SEO Tools only finds the meta description for some of them.

I can see the formula I built works, but randomly only half the time (H4 is the cell with the URL):

=HtmlDecode(IF($H4<>"Not available"; SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(HtmlMetaDescription(H4); "ø"; "ø"); "æ"; "æ"); "å"; "å"); "Not available"))

But even the simpler =HtmlMetaDescription cannot find the meta description for both URLs on my end.

Two examples of URLs where it only works for one of them and not for the other, for me.

  • blogg.expedia.se/en-kaffe-tack-pa-20-olika-sprak/
  • blogg.expedia.se/tagluff-europa-2014-har-ar-allt-du-behover-tanka-pa/

Can anybody crack why this is happening? When I use tools like this one to test if that can fetch the meta description for both it works fine.

Thanks a lot, Christian.

#2

Hi Christian,

Yes, the first URL returns blank for me too. It might have something to do with the text size since it's 352 characters.

Can you try =HtmlMeta(url;"og:description")? This works for me. As a temp solution while we figure this bug out.

/Victor

#3

Looking at the HTML source, that first URL (/en-kaffe-tack-pa-20-olika-sprak/) doesn't have a meta description, only the opengraph description as Victor mentioned.

You can use the following to automatically fetch the og: version if the meta is missing:

=RegexpReplace( HtmlMeta(url; "description"); "^$"; HtmlMeta($B5; "og:description") )

The RegexpReplace() will simply get the og:description if the first is blank ("^$"). I prefer Regex over using IF() because IF forces the original request to run twice when true.

-Tim

1 Like