Google search descriptions are incorrect

[ghost]

What

When searching for the 'NHS digital service manual' on Google, some pages search description returns the content of the cookie banner (as this the first body copy on the page). However it should be returning the description meta data, that each page has.

This seems to be only happening on some pages.

Why

Further details

https://www.google.com/search?q=+site:service-manual.nhs.uk+nhs+digital+service+manual&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi62tqPk7_nAhXLa8AKHZ2mDdUQrAN6BAgHEA8&biw=1680&bih=916

Pages where the cookie banner content is appearing as the description on Google:

• Content style guide
• Patterns
• Components
• Skip link
• Select
• Fieldset
• Colour
• Text input
• Search
• Use a readability tool to prioritise content
• Get the questions in order
• 11 Choose the right tools and technology
• 17 Make your service interoperable
• Consider the sensitivities around your questions
• Use filter questions to route users
• Write the supporting content for your form
• Sitemap

From Jenifer Hern: Google can take information from the page to display as the meta description if it believes it is “better” than the meta description that is set. Some things to try include: Write longer meta descriptions – fill the ~150 character limit. Deprioritise content by: changing the h2 heading to a lesser priority heading on the page (h4 or h3 for example), adding the cookies banner to the footer of the page. She offered to look into this if we make a ticket in the SEO Jira board, however I don't have the authority to do so just waiting on that.

Tasks

[sarawilcox]

Example: