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How Do I Edit A Meta Description In WordPress?

griser12
Posts: 139
Joined: 26 Nov 08
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How Do I Edit A Meta Description In WordPress?

Hi,

I went to WordPress and I can't find the theme template or the html area where I can edit my meta description tags?

Does anyone know how to access it, or where do I need to go so I can add them or edit them?

Thanks,
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clarafaie
Posts: 32
Joined: 17 Aug 09
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There are WordPress themes that allow you to edit meta descriptions through theme options and there are those that don't. For the latter, you will need to install a plugin that will allow you to do that. You can try the All in One SEO Pack. That plugin will allow you not only to edit your meta descriptions but also set your meta keywords and meta titles.
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markling
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Other than the All in One SEO plugin, you could get yourself a header plugin that allows you to customize the header and add the meta description tag.



Try and limit it to about 160 characters as most search engines only read that much, and use it to get people to click through to your site as thats what theyll see in the search results pages.
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griser12
Posts: 139
Joined: 26 Nov 08
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Hi Mark,

I have the All In One SEO plugin installed, but when I click on it, I don't see any options for meta tags.

I read on the Internet that there's an Ultimate SEO plugin with a Meta Editor

Thanks,
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markling
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If you click the link in my post (above) you'll get taken to a page that has a WP plugin that allows you to directly edit your header information.

Thats where youll add the description tag.
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marklincoln
Posts: 6
Joined: 11 Nov 09
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Yup and like Mark said, your meta description is the text that appears under your site's URL on the search results page (SERP). So it's best to write your description for people first and search engines second.

Image

In the example above, I've searched for "website design Sydney" in Google. The top result in this image has used exactly 160 characters in their meta description to give a brief intro to the company. Info that can't be gathered from the URL name alone.

The second result has been written for search engine robots rather than humans. It's been stuffed with keywords (although each keyword has been varied slightly to cover a wider range of search terms) which may help it climb up the rankings but doesn't really tell the reader much. Plus it's full of incorrect language - e.g. "Need professional website designer in Sydney, creative web site design at an affordable web design rate?" - plenty of keywords but you wouldn't want these people to be writing the copy for your website if they can't string a proper sentence together!

While looking at these, also note the importance of the page titles themselves. Each of these titles features the searched-for keywords. The earlier they appear in the title, the higher kudos they receive from Google. If your company name does not contain keywords in itself, you don't want to be using up this prime real estate with your company name when it could be better used for important keywords.
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vitality555
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Joined: 09 Mar 11
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I have a WordPress blog and cannot see where the Tags or Categories are. I am reading Issue 1 Affilorama Magazine which states that the tag box will be on the right of the post. I cannot see anything there. Do I need to add a plug-in?
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faradina
Posts: 1895
Joined: 01 Jun 09
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Where you will see the tag cloud will depend on the wordpress theme that you are using. Perhaps you would like to post your blog URL so that we can take a look. Of course, if you did not add tags to your post, then you will not see any tags.

Categories would be visible on the sidebar if you set it up that way. Again, the setup will depend on the wordpress theme that you are using.
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This topic was started on Oct 21, 2009 and has been closed due to inactivity. If you want to discuss this topic further, please create a new forum topic.