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Meta description - better implementation
At the moment, if we want to create a description meta tag (a pretty common feature I’d imagine!), it seems to me there are 3 unintuitive options:
- Use a plugin.
- Use <txp:excerpt /> tag, but with ‘leave text untouched’ – but that limits how you can use the excerpt for other things, such as in article listings.
- Use a custom field, then maybe use bot_wtc plugin to move that field to the write page meta section so my clients know what it is.
There’s got to be a better solution to this, maybe…
- Add an optional attribute to the <txp:excerpt /> tag, which allows us to strip the Textile out at tag level not at article level like the advanced option does, or
- Add a field to the meta section of the write page specifically for meta page descriptions.
Or is there a solution I’m just not seeing, which allows this without jumping through hoops, without a plugin?
Last edited by philwareham (2012-10-01 12:20:24)
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Re: Meta description - better implementation
+1 for a better solution:
Unintuitive Option 3 above probably requires glz_custom_fields too, to deliver a text field, doesn’t it? One has to devise a separate solution for Section Landing pages too. Previously I used rah_output_sections for that but now that it is obsolescent, use Gocom’s core tage replacement which is pretty unintuitive for old duffers like me.
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Re: Meta description - better implementation
on a new site I am working on I am using the keywords field as it is pointless for the search engines. I’m also using wet_babble to rename the field so as to make it more obvious.
Yiannis
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Re: Meta description - better implementation
I’m leaning towards option 2 – adding an extra box in the meta group for descriptions. I agree the keywords field is superfluous these days but we can’t remove it or rename it for legacy reasons. Besides, I hide that keywoards field with Hive theme’s custom CSS toggles.
I’ll bring it up next time I talk to Robert and Stef.
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Re: Meta description - better implementation
philwareham wrote:
I’m leaning towards option 2 – adding an extra box in the meta group for descriptions. I agree the keywords field is superfluous these days but we can’t remove it or rename it for legacy reasons. Besides, I hide that keywoards field with Hive theme’s custom CSS toggles.
On another project I am using it with tru_tags so – although superfluous for SEO – it can still be of use until unlimited custom_fields are implemented.
Yiannis
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NeMe | hblack.art | EMAP | A Sea change | Toolkit of Care
I do my best editing after I click on the submit button.
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Re: Meta description - better implementation
I always thought custom field number 1 with name of Description or MetaDescription is easy to find and easy to understand by just about everybody. But not so? But as all articles should have a meta description, I like the idea of a new field just for this purpose.
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Re: Meta description - better implementation
zero wrote:
But as all articles should have a meta description, I like the idea of a new field just for this purpose.
Assuming you’re using articles as individual pages of content. (which is probably a majority of the time)
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Re: Meta description - better implementation
I’ve always just created a custom field for meta-description with glz_custom_fields to display it as a regular textarea input. Not really a big problem.
I also use sticky pages to provide my section / category pages with meta-descriptions etc.
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Re: Meta description - better implementation
@douglgm
Yes, not a big problem, but it seems unintuitive that you have to repurpose another field to accommodate it.
There is an valid argument that meta descriptions aren’t relevant any more – certainly they are not used for search rankings. But they are useful in providing a description to search engines that can influence whether a user decides to visit your page or not. Hmmm, I’m talking myself out of this change now.
For now I’ll remove the meta description (currently blank) from the Textpattern 4.6 default theme anyway.
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Re: Meta description - better implementation
Phil,
Meta-descriptions are important and often overlooked. While it’s easy to dismiss them because they’re not seen on the pages themselves or don’t affect rankings on search engines, the combination of well crafted titles and descriptions (the snippets seen in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS) are incredibly important to getting searchers to click on your entry.
I’d like to see meta-descriptions in the default theme, but fear the explanation regarding the implementation could be a bit painful. Especially when people start looking to see how they set their description on the home page or section lists…
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Re: Meta description - better implementation
philwareham wrote:
There is an valid argument that meta descriptions aren’t relevant any more – certainly they are not used for search rankings. But they are useful in providing a description to search engines that can influence whether a user decides to visit your page or not. Hmmm, I’m talking myself out of this change now.
They maybe not be relevant for search engine ranking (have they ever been ?), but they do provide a clue what to display in search result pages. Lacking this, the search engine will scan the page and pick-up whatever it feels, which may be relevant, or completely bogus. I always include them with the help of a plugin (the old jad_metadata).
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Re: Meta description - better implementation
I’ve handed this over to Robert and Stef to decide.
Personally, a couple of my clients are big into SEO on their sites and demand control over the meta description, and I dislike having to customise the system with a plugin and/or custom field just to support that. So I’d rather there was a core description field.
I’ve removed the empty meta description field from the default theme for now, primarily because leaving it in highlights a current weakness in Textpattern implementation.
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