Manage Titles & Metas

Manage all your title tags

Go to SEO, Titles & Metas.

Browse all the tabs, and set the titles you want for your homepage, posts, pages, post types, archives…

Available dynamic variables

You can use these dynamic variables in your metadata:

In the fields of SEO > Titles & Metas, each variable is displayed as a label with its readable name (hover it to see the technical name, e.g. %%post_title%%). The buttons below the field insert the most common variables, and the arrow button (More variables) opens the full list with a search field.

Since SEOPress 10.4:

• a space between two variables is displayed as its own small label (Space). You can see at a glance whether two variables are separated, and remove or move the space like a variable;
• a variable saved under an alias, such as %%sitename%% or %%title%% (often after an import from another SEO plugin), is displayed with the readable name of the variable it stands for, and its value appears in the preview.

Don’t forget to click Save changes.

Learn more about using WooCommerce product attributes in your metadata here.

You can also create your own dynamic variables using this guide.

Which custom fields and user meta can be printed

Anyone allowed to edit an SEO title or meta description chooses the key written after %%_cf_ or %%_ucf_. To keep private data out of your pages, since SEOPress 10.4 these two variables print nothing (an empty value) for the following keys:

• protected (hidden) meta: keys starting with an underscore, such as _edit_lock, or declared protected with the WordPress is_protected_meta filter. Exception for %%_cf_%% (posts and terms only): the WooCommerce and The Events Calendar fields their pages display anyway remain available: _sku, _price, _regular_price, _sale_price, _stock, _stock_status, _global_unique_id (GTIN), _wc_average_rating, _wc_review_count, _EventStartDate, _EventEndDate, _EventCost, _EventURL, _EventVenueID and _EventOrganizerID;
• keys that name a credential or a role: any key containing token, secret, password, passwd, nonce, api_key, apikey, two_factor, 2fa, activation_key, capabilities or user_level (case insensitive);
• for %%_ucf_%% only: any key containing billing_ or shipping_ (the addresses WooCommerce stores in customer accounts), or community-events-location.

Your own fields keep working as long as their key does not start with an underscore and does not contain one of these words. This is the case of fields created with Advanced Custom Fields: ACF stores the value under the field name (e.g. subtitle), so %%_cf_subtitle%% is not affected.

To print a key refused by default, use the seopress_meta_tag_key_is_allowed filter. It receives the decision, the meta key and the meta type (post, term or user). For example, to print the hidden custom field _my_subtitle with %%_cf__my_subtitle%%:

add_filter( 'seopress_meta_tag_key_is_allowed', function( $allowed, $key, $type ) {
	if ( 'post' === $type && '_my_subtitle' === $key ) {
		return true;
	}
	return $allowed;
}, 10, 3 );

You can also replace the default rules with your own list of allowed keys. Only list keys whose value can be published:

add_filter( 'seopress_meta_tag_key_is_allowed', function( $allowed, $key, $type ) {
	$allowed_keys = array( 'subtitle', 'city', '_price' );
	return in_array( $key, $allowed_keys, true );
}, 10, 3 );

Add this code to the functions.php file of your child theme or to a must-use plugin.

For developers

• Since SEOPress 10.4, the filter of the value of a %%_ct_<taxonomy>%% variable is seopress_get_tag__ct_<taxonomy>_value, with two underscores, like the custom field and user meta variables (e.g. seopress_get_tag__ct_genre_value). The previous name, seopress_get_tag_ct_<taxonomy>_value, still runs but is deprecated.
• To turn off the page builder fallback of %%post_excerpt%% and %%post_content%%, return false from the seopress_excerpt_builder_fallback filter. Another page builder can supply its text with the seopress_builder_content filter (it receives the text and the post ID).

add_filter( 'seopress_excerpt_builder_fallback', '__return_false' );

Manage all your Meta descriptions

This is the same process as for title tags.

You can use the same dynamic variables too.

Don’t forget to click Save changes.

Manage titles and meta descriptions individually

Edit a post, a page, or a custom post type.

In SEO metabox, in Titles settings tab, set your custom title and meta description.

Save the post.

Manage your shop title / meta description (WooCommerce)

Change your default separator

When using the %%sep%% dynamic variable, out of the box, we’ll use this one: -

To change this, go to your WP admin, SEO, Titles & Metas, Home tab, and enter your custom one to the Separator field.

Save changes and clear your cache.

Common errors

My title/description tag is empty!

You have entered a title tag and a meta description from the SEO metabox, but these are not displayed correctly in your source code. Make sure you have entered global title and meta description settings from SEO, Titles & Metas, Post Types, Taxonomies and Archives tabs. Save then clear the cache.

A custom field or user meta variable prints nothing

Since SEOPress 10.4, %%_cf_%% and %%_ucf_%% print nothing for hidden keys (starting with an underscore) and for keys that look like credentials. Check the key against the list of refused keys in “Which custom fields and user meta can be printed” above, and allow it with the seopress_meta_tag_key_is_allowed filter if its value can be published.

My title tag is not updating

You have entered your title tag globally and individually but another tag is displayed. Or, you have two title tags that appear in your source code. Make sure your theme uses the correct way to generate the <title> tag.

My meta tags are correct, but Google doesn’t display them!

Read our explanatory guide on the subject.