Today I decided to add an additional meta tag from Yahoo to one of my sites in order to track link-backs. When I went into my pages to add that, to my alarm I noticed that ALL of my meta tag information – keywords and description – had vanished. The only thing remaining is the generator being Freeway Pro 5. But something new had been added, and not by me because I don’t even know what it means. That somethings is
I swear I haven’t touched or removed or otherwise altered my meta tag info in months. I had no reason to.
However, my client’s IT people swapped out physical servers on Thursday and Friday. Could that possibly have impacted my stuff? But why would it no longer be visible in Freeway’s meta panel?
I’m floored by this and haven’t a clue how this might’ve happened.
Hi Laura,
I’m unsure where your meta data has got to as it wouldn’t have just
disappeared from your site without it getting deleted from Freeway
somehow and the pages getting uploaded again.
Could the file you are seeing on the server be an older file restored
from a backup possibly?
The viewport meta data you can see has been added by Freeway. This is
part of the application’s features to display your web site in the
best available fashion to iPhone and iPad users. Viewport allows the
iPhone or iPad to scale the page top fit the view on the device.
You can read more about this feature here; http://www.softpress.com/tny/x
Regards,
Tim.
On 26 Apr 2010, at 20:37, LauraB wrote:
Today I decided to add an additional meta tag from Yahoo to one of
my sites in order to track link-backs. When I went into my pages to
add that, to my alarm I noticed that ALL of my meta tag information
– keywords and description – had vanished. The only thing
remaining is the generator being Freeway Pro 5. But something new
had been added, and not by me because I don’t even know what it
means. That somethings is
I swear I haven’t touched or removed or otherwise altered my meta
tag info in months. I had no reason to.
However, my client’s IT people swapped out physical servers on
Thursday and Friday. Could that possibly have impacted my stuff? But
why would it no longer be visible in Freeway’s meta panel?
I’m floored by this and haven’t a clue how this might’ve happened.
I just spoke with my stepson who is quite well versed in IT (much of his career devoted to it) and he said that with the switch in servers from the client side, indeed an older copy could’ve been re-instituted. I’m gong to continue to probe, however. I’m very, very diligent about my uploads and I don’t know how my metadata could’ve been overwritten to its former version without my intervention and yet still have actual page updates appear as they should.
Quite the mystery. (It IS helpful to know that Freeway added the viewport meta generator. But that kind of makes me wonder if in doing so it didn’t overwrite my original metadata.)
Guess I’ll be back to the drawing board to restore all that was originally in my metadata, without quite knowing why.
But thank you, Tim. Really.
Laura
P.S. My client uses an SEO service that has access to the server log-in, etc. But they swear they didn’t change anything and indeed it would not have been to their advantage if they did. The keywords and meta description I loaded was per their specs.
Quite simply it automatically adds a name and time stamp to the page
when you upload. It won’t help you get your meta data back but it will
tell you when the page was last modified.
Regards,
Tim.
On 27 Apr 2010, at 00:34, LauraB wrote:
P.S. My client uses an SEO service that has access to the server log-
in, etc. But they swear they didn’t change anything and indeed it
would not have been to their advantage if they did. The keywords and
meta description I loaded was per their specs.
I was previously having this same problem. Sorry I don’t remember exactly why the meta was being lost, but seem to recall that it was due to using the Page menu command “Reapply Master” to the page whenever I mistakenly changed master items while not on a master page. I errantly reapplied the master instead of fixing mistakes using the inspector pallet to keep items in sync with the master settings. Thanks to Freeway Talkers for pointing the error of my ways!
Tim, thank you. I’ve downloaded the action and will stick it on every relevant page. That will definitely help me track things like this. I hope.
And cosjr – or anybody – is that indeed the case? If I reapply my master page it will overwrite meta data??? Why would that be when meta data seems to be applied on a page-by-page basis, since what goes on each page might be different. I thought the reapplication of the master page was primarily to straighten out design or placement changes inadvertently made on a single page.
Like I said, I’m unsure about it. But, Master Pages may contain their own meta data. Pages based on a master can have their own meta also. Otherwise you would need a master for every different page if you wanted meta just for that page, which wouldn’t make sense. So, I think the master overrides the child page with the master meta causing your loss.
“I thought the reapplication of the master page was primarily to straighten out design or placement changes inadvertently made on a single page.”
No it is not for this purpose. Use Reapply Master only (actually never-ever-only-rarely) as a “last resort” to get a page back to sanity. Use the inspector pallet options “Use Master Content” and “Use Master Items” to revert items back to the master settings.
Well, then this is probably what happened. Early this month I did a major overhaul of the site. No problem there, but because in using CSS menus the drop-down box blocks so much on any given page, I regularly (on some pages) removed it to comfortably make changes in my text that no longer was hidden by that box, and then hit reapply master page to put back the menu.
This one is a surprise to me, but live and learn, I guess.
Thanks. It’s a lesson I won’t soon forget.
One last thing: What’s the difference between “use master content” and “use master items?”
I’ve never even paid attention to those because once the master is identified for the page, those are always checked by default. What would I do? Uncheck them and then recheck them?
What’s the difference between “use master content” and “use master items?”
An HTML/Graphic box may appear on your Master page at a specific size/position with certain text/picture in it.
On your child page you may wish the text/picture to be different - if you change the text/picture on the child page then the Content box will then be unchecked. Rechecking will restore it with the same content as on the Master.
Similarly for Settings which controls position etc.
And to go back to your MetaData - a lot of this will remain the same site wide so should be in the Master, page specific stuff can be added on a page by page basis.
What’s the difference between “use master content” and “use master items?”
That’s “Use Maste Content” and “Use Master Settings”. The content
refers to the content of whatever object you’re working with; graphic
or textual. The settings refer to things directly to do with the
object itself, for example size and position.
Put a box on a master page and then take a look at it in a regular
page. Move the object then reapply “Use Master Settings”. Then change
the content (text or image) and then click “Use Master Content” to
reinstate the original master page item’s content.
Thanks David and Keith. I guess I’ll learn to be much more careful about what I’m doing with those settings. All these years I’ve never understood any of this and didn’t realize I had to. But then, I’d never before used CSS menus, which obscure stuff beneath them, and I’d never had specific meta data requirements for various pages. Thus, what I was doing as a handy convenience for me turned into this thread. And now I know how to grapple with this stuff. I think.
Again, thanks to all who helped me straighten out one path in my never-ending learning curve.