• dvm1
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Topic: How do I create a customized search-results Description?

Hello~ I've got Simpleviewer Pro. How do I create a customized Description that can show up in search engine Description results? As it is currently, the search results DESCRIPTION for my Simpleviewer art gallery say:

"SIMPLEVIEWER." (Safari, Chrome)
and the more repugnant version in Firefox is: "Gallery XML Not Found." - even though the link works properly to the functioning gallery.

The custom Title of the page comes up properly in search results; I just need to know how to create a customized Description to replace the ones above.

Thank you for your help.

  • Registered: 2008-07-06
  • Posts: 6,334

Re: How do I create a customized search-results Description?

Each search engine will have its own algorithm for indexing web pages and different search engines may take information from different places to populate their search result pages.

Try adding meta tags to the head section of your web page. Please see the following web page for more details.
Meta tags that Google understands: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/79812

For example, Google's own description for the meta 'description' tag is as follows:

<meta name="description" content="A description of the page" />

This tag provides a short description of the page. In some situations this description is used as a part of the snippet shown in the search results.

You could also make SimpleViewer-Pro more SEO friendly by implementing the PHP script on the following web page.
Making SimpleViewer SEO friendly: http://www.mkwebdesign.ca/tutorials/mak … endly.html

Steven Speirs
SimpleViewer Support Team
  • dvm1
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Re: How do I create a customized search-results Description?

Hi Steven,

Thank you for your help.
With regards to "the head section of your web page" - do you mean I would edit the "index.html" file between the <head> and </head>? There is already the following text there in that file:
_________

<head>
    <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
    <title>[my gallery's name]</title>
</head>

_________

...Where exactly in that would I add a description, if that it is the proper place for that? I don't want to mess anything up and I don't know that code language.

Re: the PHP Script, since I'm pulling images from Flickr, I'm guessing that part might not be appropriate.

Thank you!

  • Registered: 2008-07-06
  • Posts: 6,334

Re: How do I create a customized search-results Description?

With regards to "the head section of your web page" - do you mean I would edit the "index.html" file between the <head> and </head>?

Yes. That is correct.

There is already the following text there in that file:

That's OK. You can add other <meta> tags (as many as you like) alongside the existing one.
Try something like:

<head>
    <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
    <meta name="description" content="A description of the page" />
    <title>[my gallery's name]</title>
</head>

Re: the PHP Script, since I'm pulling images from Flickr, I'm guessing that part might not be appropriate.

That's right. The PHP script would not work for a Flickr-sourced gallery. It reads the gallery's XML file and uses the information from the <image> tags to populate new SEO-friendly HTML tags. In a Flickr-sourced gallery there are no <image> tags in the gallery's XML file.

Steven Speirs
SimpleViewer Support Team
  • dvm1
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Re: How do I create a customized search-results Description?

Thank you. i tried that and waiting for google-god to reflect it in the search results.

  • dvm1
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Re: How do I create a customized search-results Description?

Hi ~ this remedy has not worked. I submitted the amended page with a custom "description" added in the way we discussed, to google-webmaster, and the "view source" of google's cache of the page does show the updated meta description added in the code, but the front-end google results still give just "SIMPLEVIEWER." - as the Description. Yahoo results also still say "Gallery XML Not Found." - (worse, since the gallery does work fine).

Specifically I added the line in the space you suggested, as follows:
<meta name="description" content="[i added custom description here, in-between quotes" />
...and the view-source of the reflected page is showing that, it's just not showing on the front-end.

Any insights into this and how I can remedy it so the search-results show the description?

Thank you for your help.

  • Registered: 2008-07-06
  • Posts: 6,334

Re: How do I create a customized search-results Description?

Unfortunately, only Google really know how their algorithm indexes pages and where the snippets of information that populate search results come from. (It was Google's own suggestion to add a <meta> 'description' to your page although they do not guarantee that this information will be shown in search results.)

Try adding some HTML content to your gallery's web page. If you place HTML code inside your SimpleViewer gallery's container, it will not be seen on screen (unless the user's browser has JavaScript disabled) - it will simply be replaced by the gallery when the page is displayed. However, it will still exist in the source of the page and will be seen by Google's indexing bots/web crawlers.

I cannot be sure what Google will do with this information but it is certainly worth trying.
This is essentially what the PHP script I mentioned above does. However, the script would enter information for each individual image - you would just be adding information for the gallery as a whole.

Try something like the following.
Change:

<div id="sv-container"></div>

.. to something like:

<div id="sv-container">
    <noscript>
        <h1>Gallery title goes here.</h1>
        <p>Gallery description goes here.</p>
    </noscript>
</div>
Steven Speirs
SimpleViewer Support Team
  • dvm1
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Re: How do I create a customized search-results Description?

argh! i just wrote a whole reply and it got erased/lost when i pressed "submit reply"! it said i wasn't logged in but i was. maybe it was a time-out on the log-in. wish there would have been a warning so i wouldn't have lost all my work! here's an attempted re-creation:

Hi Steven -

Thank you for your continued help, it is appreciated.

It looks like Google just needed some more time as Google search results are now showing the meta description added via the first fix with the <meta> code. However, Yahoo and Bing are still showing the particularly undesirable "Gallery XML Not Found." in their search results for the description. I do not know if they have re-indexed since I added the <meta> code you suggested and do not want to open another webmaster tools with them. So I - just now - added in the second fix you suggested, as follows:

<div id="sv-container">
    <noscript>
        <h1>my gallery title without any quotation marks</h1>
        <p>my gallery description without any quotation marks</p>
    </noscript>
</div>

Please let me know if that is a good idea (adding that second code) to try to get Yahoo and Bing's descriptions right, and if I got the code right since I am not code-knowledgeable and don't want to mess anything up, and also if you have any other ideas for getting Yahoo and Bing to give a proper description (without having to make another webmaster tools account). Google does take most of the search traffic but Bing/Yahoo has enough of the percentage (for example off of Facecrackbook) to be worth something.

---------> Thank you!  :)

  • Registered: 2008-07-06
  • Posts: 6,334

Re: How do I create a customized search-results Description?

maybe it was a time-out on the log-in.

The forum will log a user out after an idle time of 30 minutes.

It looks like Google just needed some more time as Google search results are now showing the meta description added via the first fix with the <meta> code.

That's good to hear.

Please let me know if that is a good idea (adding that second code)...

Yes, indeed. I would use both the <meta> 'description' and the HTML code.
The more standard HTML code you have on your page, the more information the web crawlers will have to index and if you do not want the extra content to be displayed on you web page, then the best place for it to go is within <noscript> tags inside the 'sv-container' div. (Anything within the 'sv-container' div will be replaced by the gallery when the web page is loaded and anything within <noscript> tags will be displayed only if the user has JavaScript disabled in the browser.)
Also, as you have hinted, your gallery title and description (within the <h1> and <p> tags) should just be plain text. There is no need to enclose this text within quotes.
Hopefully, in time, Bing and Yahoo will have a more meaningful description of your web page in their search results.

Steven Speirs
SimpleViewer Support Team
  • dvm1
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Re: How do I create a customized search-results Description?

Thank you.