Google Meta Description not changing?

[forresthowie]

Hi all,
Happy New Year (to those who celebrate it).
I contacted support earlier but can't work out what to do based on their answer. I'm trying to change my google meta description (the thing that comes under my website link on google). I had written this using Incomedia Web Designer but it seems as if Xara won't let me change this text. Support said to go through google webmaster tools...surely there is an in-built way in Xara to let me do this?
I thought Xara let me do this on the 'Page Description' but it doesn't seem to change anything now?
Any advice, especially at this time of year when everyone is busy, would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Robert

[gwpriester]

I just looked at my home page description in Google search and it shows the text that appears at the bottom of the page. There is no other text on my home page.

The text in the page title appears on the tab in the browser.

[steve.ledger]

I thought Xara let me do this on the 'Page Description' but it doesn't seem to change anything now?

Correct [and remember to click Apply before republishing]. But how long are you waiting before checking Google to see if it the updated description appears??

[forresthowie]

Hi there,
Really appreciate the help. The meta text that appears under my link on Google isn't on my page, it is just on the old version of the website made using the Incomedia software. This new website went 'live' in July/August - I'd have hoped the text would have changed by now. PS I can't see where the 'apply' button is Steve - any pointers are hugely appreciated!

[steve.ledger]

PS I can't see where the 'apply' button is Steve - any pointers are hugely appreciated!

Here.



But it's grayed out so the changes have been applied to the .web file.
As far as it not appearing on Google, well that has nothing to do with Xara software. If you've made the changes and re published then it's just a matter of time.
Have you checked that your changes have actually been published by looking at the source code for the pages online?
What's the URL to your site?

EDIT: OK, I found it (on Google )
► http://www.historicedinburghtours.co.uk/

Looks like your meta description matches that I see in your screenshot..

<title>Historic Edinburgh Tours - Explore the history of the Old Town and Greyfriars Kirkyard.</title>
 <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" />
 <meta name="keywords" content="edinburgh tour, edinburgh guided tour, historic edinburgh tour, history of edinburgh, edinburgh history, greyfriars kirkyard"/>
 <meta name="description" content="Edinburgh tours with a 21st century twist!  Passionate, knowledgeable and local guides help you discover Edinburgh's Old Town, revealing stories and locations not usually covered by other companies."/>

[Cloud]

One solution is - If whichever software you used to create your website in initially has the homepage as index.html then google will give precedence to that rather than your xara created homepage which will have a index.htm name. If this is the case then delete the index.html page using something like filezilla or the hosting company's filemanager, then if you have setup a google webmaster account (this is essential so do it if you haven't already) and under google index use the 'remove urls' option to remove the index.html and use Crawl >fetch as googlebot to add your new index.htm page. This will speed things up.

[forresthowie]

Thanks so much for the help.
Ok I've deleted the index.html (there was no index.htm) and also the index.xhl files. Done the webmaster remove webpage thing (I've included a screenshot) then republished everything on Xara.
Have I done everything correctly?
Much appreciated as always.
Thanks
Robert

[Cloud]

If you had published the site from xara then there should have been a index.htm file. But from your screenshot it looks like you are removing the index.htm url, it is the index.html one you need to remove and fetch as googlebot the url http://www.historicedinburghtours.co.uk/index.htm. This should take about a week to 10days to get crawled and listed.

[makroben]

Hi all,
Happy New Year (to those who celebrate it).
I contacted support earlier but can't work out what to do based on their answer. I'm trying to change my google meta description (the thing that comes under my website link on google). I had written this using Incomedia Web Designer but it seems as if Xara won't let me change this text. Support said to go through google webmaster tools...surely there is an in-built way in Xara to let me do this?
I thought Xara let me do this on the 'Page Description' but it doesn't seem to change anything now?
Any advice, especially at this time of year when everyone is busy, would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Robert

Before writing meta description, make sure your meta description follows these rules as said by Matt Cutts here: http://techleaks.us/write-compelling...or-blog-posts/ . Sitewide meta description will not be unique, so take care of that, these are the points that are quoted from Matt Cutts.

Meta description for each page on your blog Must be unique (different).
Instead of writing a duplicate meta description, leave the meta description tag empty.
Meta description must contain your target keywords (They boost your rankings).
Always try to write a compelling meta description for your visitors. Write for your visitors (never for search engines)
Never try to stuff your meta description tag with your targeted keywords.
Always keep the meta description tag complete and brief.