Headings bizarrely HTML-encoded in Google results

[taylor-hunt-kr]

https://www.google.com/search?q=whitespace+site:markojs.com

The top result for the Marko docs includes jump links to:

if>, <else-if>, <else> · ‎for> · ‎while> · ‎macro>

So not only are the angle brackets being unnecessarily escaped, they’re also being trimmed?

Not sure why it’s happening, though. As seen via View Source:

<h2 id=if-else-if-else><a name=if-else-if-else class=anchor href=#if-else-if-else><span class=header-link></span></a><code>&lt;if&gt;</code>, <code>&lt;else-if&gt;</code>, <code>&lt;else&gt;</code></h2>

Indented for readability:

<h2 id=if-else-if-else>
  <a name=if-else-if-else class=anchor href=#if-else-if-else>
    <span class=header-link></span>
  </a>
  <code>&lt;if&gt;</code>, <code>&lt;else-if&gt;</code>, <code>&lt;else&gt;</code>
</h2>

There’s also the Table of Contents HTML, but that’s well-formed too:

<li><a href="#if-else-if-else">&lt;if&gt;, &lt;else-if&gt;, &lt;else&gt;</a></li>

I guess while I’m at it, the result titles are also unhelpful, but it’s obvious why: the Marko docs don’t update titles between pages; they all have <title>Marko</title>. (Which is annoying when you have multiple docs open.)

[taylor-hunt-kr]

Some research:

• Google Search Central: Using named anchors to identify sections on your pages
• Google Blog: Jump to the information you want right from the search snippets

As for diagnosis, if anyone at eBay could look at the Webmaster Search Console (or whatever they call it nowadays), maybe there’s a warning/error?