Meta Description on Page Options

[badcat]

Would be nice to have a user specified Meta Description and only generate a description if they fail to submit content on the page options. See my related get_header() generated meta desc problem .

[crashfellow]

Yeah this is an utter must!

be able to set:

title
description
keywords

On a per page basis. and fall back on a default.

[Derek]

I would agree on this also. I think this should be part of the CMS and not left up to the developers of the themes

[ccagle8]

Well, three out of three people say yes to meta descriptions. it should be a quick add if we do add it - any objections to it?

Personally I think that the way it works now is great. The avg joe doesn't know what a meta description is and since it's easy to produce via the get_header() function ... I thought it was a field that could be omitted.

[Derek]

Well, it all depends if the average joe (ie the customer) is setting up the page or if we are. If we are, then geeks like to know more stuff, I am sure the avg joe could care less though. I guess it all comes down to who you think will be targeted

[badcat]

The 'avejoe' may not be a codedev geek but they might actually have a bit of SEO savvy... so allowing custom descriptions seems fair, especially given Google's newest sandbox changes which appear to re-weight meta desc higher again.

[Derek]

The 'avejoe' may not be a codedev geek but they might actually have a bit of SEO savvy... so allowing custom descriptions seems fair, especially given Google's newest sandbox changes which appear to re-weight meta desc higher again.

I saw that today too....oh google.

[someone]

putting little bit of a SEO options is always great count me as +1

[badcat]

oh google.

:: snort ::

[badcat]

Side Note FYI on the meta stuff. Meta keywords are useless for ranking from Google's point of view - as per statement from Matt Cutts : http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.c...a-tag.html

So hopefully GetSimple's "Tags & Keywords" will get updated to allow manual entry of Meta Description.

[ccagle8]

well... haha, very convincing article badcat. Definitely something to ponder now...

[andymci]

Meta keywords aren't used by Google, but Yahoo! still uses the meta keywords tag.

Add meta description and keep the keywords, imo.

[badcat]

What's a Yahoo!?
Seriously though, Yahoo! may use it, but all I was after was a way to put the meta DESCRIPTION in place.

[andymci]

I was just worried about the pondering. Didn't want to see the keywords field removed from the interface.

[ccagle8]

i think keywords are good - as they can be used for custom features such as tagging etc. The only thing I don't like is giving the user yet-another-thing to fill out when creating a page for the description. I just hate to muck up the simple UI with more and more fields.

[hopethisusernameisgood]

Would love to have this feature sooner the better. I now use get-simple for 3 customers and this question arose every time it came about SEO and is a feature wish of them all. I did a lot of tweaks in the app, would be most greatful if it can be implemented.

@Chris:

Thanks for your effort, i agree the UI should be pretty simple, but i think this will be an improvement for each customer.

[ccagle8]

ok, I've given in. haha. It was an simple request and was easily one of the top 2 features requested by everyone. The other being how components work/function, which is much more difficult.

So meta descriptions will be in version 2.0 when it comes out.

[GetSimple.RU]

Hi!
I wait for this function too

[Texta]

That's a good Idea! And it should be possible to hide such things behind a more or expert button...

[Nigel]

As of the typing of this message, yahoo does not use the keyword tag. No one does. It is useless but might as well keep it for good measure. The title attribute is the only factor considered in the ranking of the site. Meta description is for marketing purposes so that is still inherently helpful to grab the attention of folks searching for things.

Nigel....

It would be nice to have complete control over the title attribute. Folks don't really need the site name in it all the time.

[Zegnåt]

Yahoo does not use the keyword tag. No one does.

Well, you would be free to take it out of there. Just remove line 118 from theme_functions.php and there will be no keyword meta-element in your head any more.

It is useless but might as well keep it for good measure.

It’s not useless if you are to extend GetSimple yourself. There is already a tag cloud generating function available.

Meta description is for marketing purposes so that is still inherently helpful to grab the attention of folks searching for things.

Just marketing? This fully depends whether you see every extra click from Google to your site as marketing… I don’t, I like to think a better click-through rate from Google is thanks to content.

“Use site-level descriptions on the main home page or other aggregation pages, and consider using page-level descriptions everywhere else.” — Google’s advice, not just for marketing.

Folks don't really need the site name in it all the time.

“Folks” are free to change the way the title is displayed in their template. On my website I made sure that the homepage only has the site’s name displayed while all other pages first have their own title followed by a pilcrow and then the name.

Don’t underestimate how much you can already change GetSimple’s capabilities. I’ll be happy to tell you how you can remove your site’s name from the title element if you make a separate topic for that.

[internet54]

It would be nice to have complete control over the title attribute. Folks don't really need the site name in it all the time.

This is what I can help you with. If you personally believe that the meta tags are pointless, then there is no helping you with that. You just have to learn the hard way.

As for the title. Since you don't want to use the keywords, use the keywords box for each page as the title attribute. Then change your template to reflect this. Wallah!

[kotos]

Agree. Its must have function!

[Jamz]

Would also love this addon...

[andymci]

Any word on whether or not this is going to be followed through with?