How to add meta description in my blog post

  • nagaharish2share · Member ·

    Hi,
    I own an blog and pay for domain map too. I want to add meta description and if possible meta keywords too.

    I am always writing something in post excerpt. But there is no use of it. Even it is not adding in meta description also.

    I am looking for positive reply from you guys. Else I will plan to host in webhost servers.

    Thanks,

    The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

  • thesacredpath · Member ·

    We cannot add meta to the sites here.

    On meta descriptions, search engines might MIGHT use that as a snippet in a search result, but there is no guarantee, and in my experience they only use it about 40% of the time, even if it is finely crafted.

    The search engines quit paying any attention to meta keywords quite a while ago due to abuse. See this post on the official Google blog where they say they no longer pay any attention to keywords.

    1. Include a short description in the “tagline” field at settings > general.

    2. Categorize and tag your posts appropriately with no more than a total of 10-12 tags + categories and you will do very well. WordPress.com has some of the best SEO there is.

    3. Use keyword in your titles and in the bodies of your posts, but don’t overdo it.

  • pitchforksandcode · Member ·

    This is absurd. WordPress.com does not offer a way to edit the description of your blog for Google Search? When someone searches for my site in Google, the description is the entire blog description + my links + my posts. It looks like garbeled text. How can I edit the description for my blog as it appears on Google?

    And yes, Google search does use meta tags like description. Without it it appears as it currently does on Google. Very disapoointed with this as I have a full hosting package with wordpress.

  • pitchforksandcode · Member ·

    LOL even huge blogs like Paul Kedrosky’s Infectious Greed, one of the most popular blogs on the internet has the same problem when Googled. You guys need to fix this, it shouldn’t be too hard.

  • timethief · Member ·

    @pitchforksandcode
    Oh really? Then tell that to Matt Cutts of Google who clarified in 2009 that meta tag descriptions are no longer used by Google.
    http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/keywords-meta-tag-in-web-search/
    http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/09/google-does-not-use-keywords-meta-tag.html
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK7IPbnmvVU&feature=player_embedded

    To this day, you still see courts mistakenly believe that meta tags occupy a pivotal role in search rankings. We wanted to debunk that misconception, at least as it regards to Google. Google uses over two hundred signals in our web search rankings, but the keywords meta tag is not currently one of them, and I don’t believe it will be.

    After you have read those and watched the video you might consider how this could be done on a multiuser blogging platform like WordPress.com in any event. Here all blogs wearing the same theme are using the same underlying template. Only Staff cane access those meta data files and edit and every edit they make affects all blogs wearing the same theme.

    I suggest that you use the verification process provided here on then practice ethical on page SEO techniques. > http://en.support.wordpress.com/webmaster-tools/

  • pitchforksandcode · Member ·

    Google DOES use Metatags for description purpose, not always for keywords, on other sites hosted my own server the description alters the Google description. This is a fact. You are confusing the keywords with the description.

  • timethief · Member ·

    @pitchforksandcode
    I am confusing nothing. I am well aware that Google may use some meat description data in snippets as Matt Cutts informs of of this. The bottom line here is that this is not possible on a free-hosted WordPress.com blog on this multiuser blogging platform where all blogs wearing the same theme are using the same template and where users cannot access meta data files. I have explained that above. I

    f you want to access meta data files then you need to hire a web host and set up a free software install from WordPree.org because what you want is not possible here.
    WordPress.com vs WordPress.org: The Differences

  • panaghiotisadam · Member ·

    Yes, there is some confusion here: description meta tag and keywords meta tag are two different stories.

    As TSP and TT said, Google (and not only Google) doesn’t pay any attention to the keywords meta tag. See here for more details:
    http://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2011/04/04/adding-meta-tags/

    What Google picks as your blog’s description varies, and may depend on the theme you’re using, so you can experiment with your theme and see if there’s something that might work for you. In some themes, for example, your blog description will be the text of a Text widget you place at the top of your sidebar.

  • pitchforksandcode · Member ·

    LOL, you’re confusing nothing? A direct quote from you, a supposed blogging expert:

    “Oh really? Then tell that to Matt Cutts of Google who clarified in 2009 that meta tag descriptions are no longer used by Google.”

    Matt Cutts never says they don’t use the description meta tag. He said they don’t use the keyword meta tag. You seem to think description = keyword or don’t have a nuanced understanding of these systems. You then proceeded to post all this evidence about the KEYWORDS meta tag, which is unrelated to this discussion, since the KEYWORD meta tag is different than the DESCRIPTION meta tag. My advice to you is to learn more about SEO and blogging coding techniques because only then will you actually understand what is going on.

    Nice backtrack too on your part: “I am well aware that Google may use some meta description data in snippets “

    Is it nice being a posuer? Of course it’s possible to set up meta data file information for each site to be edited. WordPress has just chose not to code that into their system for their users. If you are saying this isn’t programatically possible, then you are even more out to lunch on blogging then even your last gaffe leads one to believe.

  • pitchforksandcode · Member ·

    @panaghiotisadam, can I just enter the description meta tag in an “empty” text widgit on the sidebar?

  • timethief · Member ·

    That may work if it’s at the very top of the sidebar. However, I have found that if one has an effective blog title and tagline containing keywords that less than 65 characters including spaces > Settings > General the odds are higher that it may be displayed.

  • panaghiotisadam · Member ·

    @pitchforksandcode: No, it will be immediately stripped out upon Save. When I said text, I meant regular text! But the text widget was only an example, as it depends on the structure of the theme (the text of the widget is more likely to be picked up if in the sourcecode the sidebar comes before the main content). In other themes Google may pick your tagline, or the beginning of your latest post, or a custom excerpt, or I don’t know what…

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