Site description: how to change, and how did Google find the site?

[Adam5000]

I've just started posting material on my web site after having a "Coming Soon" page up for a few months. I also found the stats section, and it said that my site was listed on Google. So I Googled the domain name, and to my surprise, there it was. I say surprise, because I've never contacted Google and didn't realize they knew I was alive. It's not a problem because I was going to contact them to be listed anyway, but for the description of the page, they've just taken a few words from my home page. It makes sense and gives the viewer a general idea of what my site is about, but I'd like to describe it a little better.

Questions are, how did Google know I existed, and how can I change the description when my site comes up in a search.

Help!

[Receptional Andy]

Hi Adam5000,

The two quick answers are that you can add a meta description element to your page to alter the snippet, and Google found you via a link or reference to your site.

Both of these are pretty common subjects on the Google forum, and you can find a lot of info via a site search [webmasterworld.com], the Google Hot Topics [webmasterworld.com] and the library of this forum [webmasterworld.com].

One recent thread on Google snippets was "How does Google Pull the Description Info? [webmasterworld.com]".

Regarding Google finding your site, the vast majority of pages in the index are found because another site links to them. There's no need to tell Google about your site or submit it for this to happen. Even if there aren't links, there may be a plain text reference to your URL and there are other methods of content discovery, such as recent domain registrations and the like. Some sites actually publish lists of recently registered domains which Google can also pick up on. Finally, if your domain was previously in use, there's likely a number of references to it out there.

Again, try a few Google site searches if you need any more info, e.g.:

description site:webmasterworld.com/google [google.com]
find site site:webmasterworld.com/google [google.com]

[Shaddows]

Another way G can find you:

Someone (perhaps you) visted your domain using Chrome or with Google Toolbar installed

[dstiles]

Google picks up new domains from the Registrars - at least, they do for .COMs from tucows.

Took them three or four days to find a new one of mine and visit it (mentioned elsewhere in WWW) with absolutely no online link to it. Since there wasn't, at that time, a site there (got put up a few days later) they got rejected (404, I think). Since then (a couple of weeks ago) they've sent the bot around several times, read the sitemap several times and totally failed to index it - anywhere! I guess they're still sulking.