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1. Mark
   Member
   Posted 7 years ago #
   

   Hi All..

   For SEO reasons, I'd like to be able to (when viewing a single article) have the excerpt of that article in my meta 'description' tag of the header.

   I assume there'd have to be a <?php ?> command that'll pull this in from the database..

   Can anyone guide me as to what this command would be??

   Thanks very much

2. Kafkaesqui
   
   Posted 7 years ago #
   

   See this plugin of mine:

   http://wordpress.org/support/topic/35875#post-203626

   Note it has two user variables now: $post_desc_length, which sets the length of the description in words; $post_use_excerpt, which tells the plugin to use the excerpt text if it exists, or force the use of the post's content at all times.

3. Mark
   Member
   Posted 7 years ago #
   

   Perfect that works.. thanks Kafkaesqui...

   another question.. you mention i can set the amount of words etc.. how do i do that?? do you have an example line of code that'll show me my options??

   i have limited php knowledge..

   thank you :)

4. Kafkaesqui
   
   Posted 7 years ago #
   

   If you can edit the plugin files online, go to Plugins > Plugin Editor in your WordPress admin pages, and select Head Meta Description*. Right after the

   function head_meta_desc() {

   line in the plugin, you'll see

   $post_desc_length = 20; // description length in # words

   Change the value of $post_desc_length to the number of words you want displayed in your description.

    
   * You can edit it offline as well, and then upload the modified version.

5. Mark
   Member
   Posted 7 years ago #
   

   !doh...

   why'dn't i think of that.. :)

   another spanner in the works.. would it be possible to have a default description? for example on the index page, there is now no description because of the lack of a excerpt..

   any suggestions??

6. Kafkaesqui
   
   Posted 7 years ago #
   

   A spanner? Nah...Actually, the script already outputs a description for:

   - posts and Pages => abbreviation of excerpt or content
   - category queries => category description
   - everything else => blog "tagline"

   Possibly the only things missing are the ability to override single posts/Pages with a custom field, and a different default description than the blog's tagline. Easy peasy:

   http://guff.szub.net/downloads/head-meta-desc.zip

   Version 0.4 now has 4 user-configurable variables:

   $default_blog_desc
   Default description (if set, will override use of blog tagline).

   $post_desc_length
   Length in # of words for a post/Page description.

   $post_use_excerpt
1 (default) = use excerpt (if exists) for description. 0 = force use of content at all times.

   $custom_desc_key
   Custom field key; if exists, overrides use of excerpt/content for post/Page description.

   Have fun. :)

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