# Search engines & sharing

URL: https://pro-weather.com/docs/customizing/seo-social

> Control how your site appears in Google results and when it's shared on social media.

Your weather site is built to be found: published sites get clean titles,
structured data, a sitemap and social share previews out of the box. The
**Search engine & social** card on your site's **Settings** page lets you tune
how that looks - or opt out of search engines entirely.

## What search engines and shares show

- **Meta title**: the page title shown in the browser tab, in Google results
  and on social shares. Leave it blank to use your site's title. About **60
  characters** works best (the field allows up to 70).
- **Meta description**: the summary search engines show under your title.
  Leave it blank to use your tagline. About **155 characters** works best (up
  to 200 allowed).
- **Share image**: when someone shares your site on social media, the preview
  uses your **header banner** photo, or your **logo** if you haven't set a
  banner. Both are uploaded on the
  [Appearance page](https://pro-weather.com/docs/customizing/appearance).

> **Tip: name your place**
>
  Put your town or area in the title and description - for example *"Ardooie
  weather - live conditions & records"*. Most people who find a station site
  search for the weather **somewhere**, and your structured data already tells
  search engines where your station is.

## What's handled for you

For every published site, Pro Weather automatically provides:

- A **sitemap** (`/sitemap.xml`) and **robots.txt** on your site's own address,
  including your custom domain.
- **Structured data** (JSON-LD) describing your site and - when your station's
  coordinates are known - its **location**. This helps your site show up for
  local searches like "weather in your town".
- A **canonical URL**, so search engines index one address consistently.

## Keeping your site out of search engines

Prefer to share your site privately? Turn on **"Discourage search engines from
indexing this site"** in the same card. Your site stays reachable by anyone
with the link, but asks Google and other search engines not to list it. This
works on every plan.

## Draft and expired sites are never indexed

Only **published** sites are indexable. While your site is a draft, or if a
trial or subscription lapses, visitors see a
[Coming soon page](https://pro-weather.com/docs/troubleshooting#my-site-shows-coming-soon) and search
engines are told not to index it.

## Next steps

- [Add Google Analytics](https://pro-weather.com/docs/google-analytics) to measure your visitors
- [Use a custom domain](https://pro-weather.com/docs/custom-domain)
- [Appearance & branding](https://pro-weather.com/docs/customizing/appearance)