🔍 What Is Happening?
After OTTO deploys image alt text to your site, you may notice that Google is displaying that alt text as the meta description snippet in search results — even after you have rolled back the alt text or updated your meta descriptions. This is a known behavior tied to how Google selects page snippets, not a bug in OTTO itself.
Google does not always use the meta description tag as the snippet. Its algorithm dynamically picks the text it considers most relevant to a searcher's query. If your page has prominent, keyword-rich alt text and a weak or missing meta description, Google may prefer the alt text as the displayed snippet.
⚙️ Why OTTO Alt Text Gets Selected by Google
There are three common reasons Google chooses alt text over your meta description:
- Alt text is keyword-dense. OTTO generates descriptive, SEO-optimized alt text. If that text closely matches a user's search query, Google's snippet algorithm may rank it as the most relevant excerpt.
- Meta description is too short, too long, or missing. If your meta description is under 70 characters, over 160 characters, duplicated across pages, or absent, Google is more likely to override it with on-page content — including alt attributes.
- Crawl cache lag. Even after rolling back alt text or editing your meta description, Google may still be serving a cached version of the page. Full re-indexing can take days to weeks depending on your crawl frequency.
🛠️ How to Resolve This
- Verify the rollback was applied correctly. In Search Atlas, confirm that any OTTO alt text deployment has been rolled back and that the changes are no longer active for the affected pages. If you are unsure whether the rollback completed successfully, contact support using the instructions at the bottom of this article.
- Audit your meta descriptions. For the affected URLs, ensure each page has a unique meta description between 120–160 characters that clearly summarises the page content. A strong, specific meta description significantly reduces the chance Google will substitute other on-page text.
- Check that alt text is fully removed from the live page. Use your browser's View Source (Ctrl+U / Cmd+U) or a tool like Google's URL Inspection to confirm the OTTO-generated alt text no longer appears in the page's HTML. If it still appears, the rollback may not have propagated — contact support using the instructions at the bottom of this article.
- Request re-indexing via Google Search Console. Once the meta description is correct and the alt text is removed from the live page, submit the URL for re-indexing in Google Search Console using the URL Inspection tool. This signals Google to re-crawl and update its cached snippet sooner than the natural crawl cycle.
- Allow time for Google to update. Even after re-indexing is requested, it may take several days for the new snippet to appear in search results. Monitor the affected URLs in Google Search Console to track when the updated snippet is reflected.
If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.