How to edit your page titles and descriptions

When your church appears in search results, two pieces of text do all the work: the page title, which is the blue headline people click, and the description underneath it. Both are yours to write, site-wide or page by page.

Editing titles and descriptions site-wide

1. Log in to your web office and open the Settings area, then find the Page Titles and Meta Tags option under the General category.
2. Choose the type of page you want to change on the left: articles or group homepages. Each type has its own title pattern, so changing the group entry updates every group homepage on the site.
3. Edit the page title using free text, and use the merge fields on the right to drop in details like your organisation name, so the pattern stays correct everywhere.
4. To set the description shown in search results, add a meta tag named Description and write your text in its content box, or use the pencil icon to edit an existing one.
5. Click ‘Save’ at the top right when you’re done.

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Overriding them for one group or one article

1. Key pages deserve their own wording: your welcome page, your what’s-on page, anything people search for directly. For a group (and optionally all the articles in it), open the group’s settings cog, click the ‘Tasks’ button and choose ‘Edit the page title and meta tags for’ the group, then select the override option and write the specific title and description.
2. For one article, open the article’s Properties tab and use the Page Titles and Meta-Tags section there.

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Good to know

• The defaults are already sensible: your site name plus the page’s own title, which is exactly what search engines like. Overrides are for adding what the default can’t know, like your town or a key activity.
• Search results truncate long titles, so keep the whole thing comfortably short; remember your site name is part of it.
• The description is your shop window: results typically show only the first 150 or so characters, so lead with the words that would make a local person click.
• Google sometimes composes its own snippet from your page text to match what was searched, so a good description improves your odds but can’t guarantee the display. If the snippet looks wrong, improve the text on the page it’s drawing from.
• Changes take a few weeks to appear, because search engines only re-read your site periodically. Titles and descriptions are one part of the picture; the rest is in how to help people find your church online.