Meta tag description snippet which shows in search results for wordpress.com
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Have been researching this all day, just need a straightforward answer: Please confirm that there is no way to amend your Meta tag description if you are have a wordpress.com website (as opposed to a wordpress.org site, where you can use a Plug In or HTML code to change it), and that the description snippet which will appear in a search engine result will therefore just automatically be the first paragraph of text on your Home page? So the only way to amend your Meta tag snippet is to have the first paragraph of your Homepage be the snippet you want people to see on a search results page?
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Hi there,
Adding meta tags, like description and keywords, isn’t supported for blogs hosted here at WordPress.com.
What you can do is, add a descriptive Site Tagline from Settings > General and Google might show it in the search results.
Do note, it’s not guaranteed that search engine results will always pull the text from description meta tag, it isn’t guaranteed for tagline either, but in many cases, Google does consider it.
On-page content is also looked at, and if it’s more relevant, Google will rather display that:
Google will sometimes use the meta description of a page in search results snippets, if we think it gives users a more accurate description than would be possible purely from the on-page content.
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Hi,
WordPress.com does not offer a direct way to change the meta-description of your blog. However, you can change the description of your blog in ‘Settings > General’ and add a text of your choice. Chances are that, this description would be displayed underneath your search result. Also, like you said, most of the time, the first paragraph of your blog will also be displayed along with the search result. :)
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Ok, thank you ehtis and harishankerr.
You have confirmed what I thought was the case
Where do I find Settings on my Dashboard, so I can change my Site Tagline in the hope that Google will pick up on it and use it as the Meta Description, because the first paragraph of Content that it is currently capturing as the search results snippet is NOT relevant or accurately descriptive about the website.
Please also confirm then that one cannot edit/amend Page Titles on wordpress.com either? Or would you suggest changing the individual Page Tagline (just as you have suggested changing the Site Tagline above). If yes, is this also in Settings?
What about Alt text for images – can I change those on wordpress.com? And if yes, how?
Thanks in advance for your help
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https://lucypineapple.wordpress.com/ – is what looks like a 6 day old site with NO CONTENT – you will NEVER get a search engine to give you good results, there is simply nothing much for a search engine to grab onto. No way for a search engine to tell what your site is about
Search engines pick up things from your entire site, put some relevant content on your site and after a few weeks search engines will start to treat you better
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Hi auxclass, thanks for your response. I am posting these questions from my 6 day old account profile, but am asking the questions with regards to a completely different wordpress.com website that I am working on: http://www.byappointmentafrica.com – but thanks for looking into it anyway. If you want to look at that site and can give me any advice, it would be much appreciated.
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http://byappointmentafrica.com/ – Might be a WordPress.ORG install, but the code looks strange to me
But since you are not hosted on WordPress.COM your site code will work different than ours so there is nothing much else we can do to help you
You should ask over at WordPress.ORG
For more on the difference: http://support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org/
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Hi auxclass, thanks for your response, and the link to the article – it is one that I have already read while doing my research.
When I was researching whether the site is a wordpress.com site or a wordpress.org site, the two main things I read which would denote a wordpress.com site is that the site url ends in .com (which byappointmentafrica.com does) and that the Dashboard would not have a ‘Plug Ins’ panel (because only wordpress.org sites do), and the Dashboard for byappointafrica.com doesn’t have a Plug Ins panel, so I assumed that it is wordpress.com site, not a wordpress.org site (which I wish it was, because then I could just add a Plug In like Yoast SEO to do all my Meta descriptions/Page Titles/Image Al Text).
Is there any other way you know to test which one (.com or .org) that it is?
Also, would you be able to help me out by answering my original question of where I can access ‘Settings’ on the byappointmentafrica.com Admin site, so that I can amend the Site Tagline?
Many thanks in advance for your help
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A whois shows the name servers set to Godaddy: http://www.whois.com/whois/byappointmentafrica.com
I visited your site – there is a gray Nav. bar at the top of the screen when you are logged into WordPress.COM – the top Nav. bar was missing
I just went to your login page and it is a WordPress.ORG software install type page
Have not been inside a .ORG install in several years – but there should be a
Dashboard >> Home to start from
If you are not an Admin you will not see the Plugin option either
The domain name extension (.ORG – .COM – .NET – .GOV) has nothing to do with it being a WordPress.ORG install or a WordPress.COM hosted site
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Hi auxclass, thanks again for your response – am slowly getting closer to my solution!
Fantastic that it is a .org site, means I should be able to install the Yoast Plug-In to sort out the SEO and Meta data. However, now the issue is – I am definitely an Admin – I can log in and develop the site, but still can’t see the Plug In’s panel on the Dashboard, so that I could install Yoast, or the General Settings tab so as to change the Page Tagline.
Any suggestions?
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As already mentioned by @auxclass, yours is a self-hosted WordPress install and you can definitely install plugins, provided you have administrator access to the blog.
I am definitely an Admin – I can log in and develop the site, but still can’t see the Plug In’s panel on the Dashboard,
Direct link for plugins page: http://www.byappointmentafrica.com/wp-admin/plugins.php
Or from your admin panel, click the “Plugins” link which is at the left sidebar. If you don’t see plugins page, you’re probably as an author or contributor and not an administrator.
For more help, please head over to WordPress.org support forums, they deal with self-hosted installs.
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