Whenever my site is found on google, it always shows text that was in my news on the front page, not very descriptive of my page.

for example, i am 4th here:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=after+him

Now, what I am wondering is can i use my background color #DDDDDD and font color #DDDDDE and put the text I want google to show in my header?

Will google see me as hiding font, as when people used to put white font on a white background?

Give me your advice/opinions/experience. I don't want google mad at me...that is #1 priority.

Brandon

Is that very christian? WWJD? I don't think he would try and cheat his way to the top of search engine rankings.

Originally Posted by cptnwinky

Is that very christian? WWJD? I don't think he would try and cheat his way to the top of search engine rankings.

I am not trying to cheat my way to the top. I am trying to get google to put relevant text under my listings.

Anyone have a response to my original question?

Personally, I wouldn't risk it. Nobody really knows Google's anti-spam measures but I don't think it's worth risking a good ranking by doing that. Google chooses what text to show by taking what it thinks is a relevant snippet from the page. Try writing some text with:
after him
in it and you will probably get it as the snippet (your bit at the top doesn't have the search term in it (no space)).

David, that was just more of an example...I don't get that search term very often, but I knew I was at the top.

I decided to just keep the text black.

Originally Posted by AfterHim.com

I decided to just keep the text black.

That is good for safe side, you never know when you get banned, there are lot of site banned due to bad seo.

That is what I figured, better safe than sorry, especially with google

A few weeks ago I was following links to my competitors site, and came across a page, well ranked in google, with about 50 white links on a white background. Not close to white, but #000000.

I think it all a bunch of balogna. They are just trying to scare us. The thing is Im scared, I would not come even close to serious spamming. The consequences are too dire.

Afterhim,

The challenge here is your description tag (only Meta tag used by Google unless you count Title) doesn't seem to have the keyword/phrase you are using as an example. Therefore, the tag cannot show in G what you desire. Even the text you placed at the top of the page doesn't have the phrase in your example.

Realizing that on-page content used by Google consists of:

• Title tag
• Meta tag - Description
• Heading tags - H1, H2, etc.
• Empasis tags - Strong, Bold, Italics, etc.
• Body content

It only makes sense to ensure these have within them the keywords/phrases you desire to be displayed to both site visitors and SEs. Hiding the text on page by any form of "cloaking" or other means only reduces the opportunity for either visitors or SEs to build that "comfort level" with your site. Getting Inbound Links (IBLs) to point to your site is one part of the equation, having the "proper" text on your site visible is the other which is exactly what you seem to be dealing with here and now.

Hope this helps!

>>Now, what I am wondering is can i use my background color #DDDDDD and font color #DDDDDE and put the text I want google to show in my header?

Dont do that!!!!

Google's algorithms change more often than politician's agenda, but it's still too risky to try and fool them. I've noticed some sites are ranked quite highly despite using naughty techniques (i.e. white text on white background), so who knows. Suffice to say they do check for irrelevant sites that have been indexed by cloaking and adjust these algorithms accordingly.

To address the original question of why Google flags up relatively unimportant text on your site in the description......last time I checked, a lot of importance was placed in keywords in the body section of the homepage.

So why not check whereabouts on your page the text flagged up by Google is (in this case "... But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also —Matthew
5:39 This verse reveals the humiliation of being a Christian. ... ", and replace it with the description you want, including all your keywords? Hope this helps!

Dom

www.nordicarts.com

I've noticed some sites are ranked quite highly despite using naughty techniques (i.e. white text on white background), so who knows. Suffice to say they do check for irrelevant sites that have been indexed by cloaking and adjust these algorithms accordingly.

That is true, most sites that manage to trick google don't stay on top for very long.

another thing to consider is being reported. if this is for business, competitors might not enjoy someone cheating themselves to the top of search results and probably won't hesitate to send a cheating page to abuse.

DON'T use very similar text colour

you might as well fill you page with 1x1 gifs...

instead, at the very top of your page, use this...

<noscript>
<h1>description of website</h1>
</noscript>

put that immediately below the <body> tag...and hopefully google will pick it up and use it as your description

also put in a description meta-tag