On a legacy website, one Meta Description and one set of Meta Key Words apply to every page. Set them under SEO Meta Data at Administration > Configurations > Analytics & SEO and click Save; to ask Google to find your website, use Google Search Console.
Applies to: Admins whose role includes Administration > Configurations · All plans · Legacy content editor websites
Where: Administration > Configurations > Analytics & SEO > SEO Meta Data
Set your meta description and keywords
- Go to Administration > Configurations > Analytics & SEO.
- Under SEO Meta Data, in Meta Key Words, type the words people would search for, separated by commas: your organization's name, your city and state, your sport or sports, and your league affiliation.
- In Meta Description, type a short description of your organization: who you are, what you offer and where. Search engines may show it under your website's name in their results.
- Click Save.
Example Meta Key Words: Your League Name, Your City, Your State, ST, Baseball, Your League Affiliation
Example Meta Description: Your League Name is a recreational youth baseball league for kids in Your City. Practices and games are at Your Park.
What you'll see: "Analytics & SEO configurations have been updated." Your description and keywords are added to every page of your legacy website, and search engines pick them up the next time they read your website.
Help Google find your website
Google decides when your website is listed and how it ranks, and a new website can take days or weeks to appear. Google no longer takes website submissions through a "submit your URL" page. Use Google Search Console, Google's free tool for website owners, instead:
- In Google Search Console, add your website's address as a property. Use the address visitors use, usually your own domain, such as yourleague.org.
- Verify that you own the website by following Google's prompts. If you've entered your Google Analytics ID on Analytics & SEO, the Google Analytics option is usually the easiest. The DNS option needs whoever manages your domain.
- Inspect your home page's address with URL Inspection, and request indexing.
Search Console then shows whether your pages are in Google's index, the searches that bring people to your website and any problems Google finds.
If it doesn't work
- "Google Analytics account must start with "UA-" or "G-"." Save checks the Google Analytics Acct field on the same page first, and saves nothing, including your description and keywords, until it's right. Correct the ID, or clear the field, and click Save again.
- A field won't take more text. Meta Key Words and Meta Description each hold up to 250 characters.
- Your website uses Editor 2.0. These fields don't apply to Editor 2.0 pages, because the Site Editor serves them. Set each page's title and description in the Site Editor's SEO tools: see CMS: How to Improve Your Website's Visibility on Google (SEO & AEO Tools).
- Google still shows your old description. Google updates a result when it reads your website again, and sometimes shows text from your page instead of your description. In Search Console, inspect your home page and request indexing.
- Your website doesn't load at its address. That isn't a search problem: see Why isn't my website loading? (custom domain or site down).
Good to know
- The title search engines show for your legacy website's pages is your organization's name. There's no separate title field.
- Google doesn't use meta keywords to rank pages, so keep the list short and accurate. Your description and the words on your pages matter more.
- Links to your website from other websites help people and search engines find it. Ask your city or recreation department, your league's governing body, schools and sponsors to link to it.
- The same page's Google Analytics Acct adds Google Analytics to your legacy website: see How to add Google Analytics (GA4) to your website (Legacy content editor).