Changing meta tag web page description
-
I am using WordPress.com and am unable to change my site’s meta tag that was written several years ago. I no longer see the option to change it. My account type does not allow the installation of plug ins. Any workaround available to change meta tag description? Thanks
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
-
The answer is “no”.
This is a multi-user blogging platform. Our WordPress.COM blogs on this multiuser blogging platform share a common architecture and we bloggers cannot access metadata. http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2013/03/22/seo-on-wordpress-com/
That being said it’s of interest to note meta titles, meta descriptions and keyword metatags are not required for SEO purposes and Matt Cutts of Google has said that as far back as 2009. Search engines are focused on keywords in your content. What is important is keywords found in your content. http://onecoolsitebloggingtips.com/2012/03/01/revisiting-keywords-and-tags/
WordPress.com SEO is very good. If you had two identical sites, one hosted here and one self-hosted using that same plugin, the site hosted here would have better SEO than the self-hosted site. WordPress.com has huge SEO and you get the benefit of that by having your site as a “subdomain” here.
http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/04/11/seo-and-your-blog/To verify blog ownership of a WordPress.com blog with the major search engines you must use this process > http://en.support.wordpress.com/webmaster-tools/
Note: Even if you do not verify the blog the content will be indexed by search engines so don’t feel panicky about this please.Note also that WordPress.com automatically supplies sitemaps for our blogs to search engines – we do nothing. http://en.support.wordpress.com/sitemaps/#xml-sitemaps-for-search-engines
There is no FTP access and no blogger installed plugin capability on any free hosted WordPress.com blogs.
http://en.support.wordpress.com/ftp-access/
http://en.support.wordpress.com/plugins/See here for a full comparison WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org
http://support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org/There is no upgrade you can purchase here that provides FTP access and the ability to install plugins and or any third party themes.
If you want FTP access and to install plugins or third party themes into a site then you will have to hire a web host http://wordpress.org/hosting/ and set up your own WordPress.org install. -
Thank you for this info. I understand that the meta description is not necessary for SEO purposes, but the description that is coming up in search advertises outdated info. Sounds like I will need to return to a private web host to change this. Thanks again.
-
Looking at some of the meta tags associated with my site here – they relate to the Title & Tagline of my site – try updating them – the meta tags here don’t just pop out of thin air – and while you can’t change them directly – you can change the info they come from
-
but the description that is coming up in search advertises outdated info
In the case of WordPress.com hosted blogs the keywords in our site title and our taglines are very important.
This is what I see in the SERPs:
Stephanie Roman – Copywriter, Freelance Writer
http://www.stephanieroman.com/favicon.ico
I am an Atlanta based freelance writer and blogger. Hire me for clean, innovative copy, fearless editing, and singular social media!This is what I see on the blog:
Stephanie Roman – Copywriter · Stephanie Roman is an Atlanta-based copywriter, blogger, and freelance writer.A blog is a post based website designed for interactive communication. As the posts are frequently updated and appear on the front page of the site it’s very attractive to search engines.
What most people call a website is merely a page based site that functions as a one way noticeboard. As the structure is page based and as pages are for static content that rarely changes, and as pages do not have RSS feeds it is not as attractive to search engines as a post based blog structured site is.
As the blog is not actually a blog but is restructured as a website and is not being updated with fresh content there’s no reason for search engines to be pinged, visit the site, and re-index it.
-
Hi auxclass. Thanks, I did update the Title & Tagline to display correct information. Unfortunately, WordPress is not respecting this update and is continuing to pull from an outdated meta description that I no longer have access to.
-
I don’t believe this is a WordPress.com issue. New Content? WordPress.com Pings for You. As I said above the search engines do not have much interest at all in a site that’s virtually “dead”. All you are using it for is a one way noticeboard. There is no “blog” content http://romaninfurs.wordpress.com/blog/
-
I doubt your site searches very well – as @TT notes it is a static site
the site has great potential – make Posts for some of the items in the Portfolio – what was unique about the assignment – challenges etc. you are a writer should be easier for you than for me – use keywords like “copywriter” etc. so when someone searches for a copywriter your site pops up – Posts search well
case in point – I met a person last year – does Audio visual stuff – lives in Seattle, got a job in Portland (175 mile away) – why? well – he had a Post that talked about a job he did in Portland and mentioned the venue and that he did AV stuff – his site popped out at the top of the search results – beat out 100’s of Portland AV folks just because of that ONE POST –
make a bunch of Posts – that draws search engines – then they will update your info
make your site / blog work for you – don’t worry about the meta thing – also – some things are cached here and sometimes take a bit of time to update
-
Hi romaninfurs,
To add my bit here. I looked at the source code of your site and the meta description field which WordPress is publishing is currently set to “Stephanie Roman is an Atlanta-based copywriter, blogger, and freelance writer.”
That looks the same to me as what is in your footer and title which I’m guessing is set as your Tagline.
Is this what you want your meta description to be? Is it just not displaying in Google?
If it just isn’t displaying in Google, it can take time for Google to re-index and update the description field they display. That time is totally at Google’s will, not much you can do to but wait for them to update it.
-
@sandymcfadden
I checked the source code too. :)
This is what I see in the Google SERPs:
Stephanie Roman – Copywriter, Freelance Writer
I am an Atlanta based freelance writer and blogger. Hire me for clean, innovative copy, fearless editing, and singular social media! -
Hi sandymcfadden,
Yes, I want the description to say:
Stephanie Roman – Copywriter · Stephanie Roman is an Atlanta-based copywriter, blogger, and freelance writer.But that’s not displaying in Google. I updated it over a week ago and forced Google to crawl the site. Hopefully it will catch up. Cheers!
Sidenote: my wordpress is more of a landing page at this point since I already have 2 blogs set up on tumblr. Until I’m able to migrate everything to wordpress, I was just looking to update the description.
-
It takes Google (and other search engines) a bit of time to update some of the info – Posts are quick to be added – then it takes a bit of time (depends on how active your blog is) for the Post to be fully indexed
- The topic ‘Changing meta tag web page description’ is closed to new replies.
WordPress.com Forums 