Title: Create excerpt for meta description
Last modified: August 20, 2016

---

# Create excerpt for meta description

 *  [ericr23](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ericr23/)
 * (@ericr23)
 * [14 years, 12 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/create-excerpt-for-meta-description/)
 * This code, residing in the head section of the “single” template page, creates
   an excerpt for the meta description (which is often the text that appears in 
   search results).
 *     ```
       <?php
       $post = $wp_query->post;
       $descrip = strip_tags($post->post_content);
       $descrip_more = '';
       if (strlen($descrip) > 155) {
       	$descrip = substr($descrip,0,155);
       	$descrip_more = ' ...';
       }
       $descrip = str_replace('"', '', $descrip);
       $descrip = str_replace("'", '', $descrip);
       $descripwords = preg_split('/[\n\r\t ]+/', $descrip, -1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY);
       array_pop($descripwords);
       $descrip = implode(' ', $descripwords) . $descrip_more;
       echo '<meta name="description" content="'.$descrip.'">';
       ?>
       ```
   

Viewing 13 replies - 1 through 13 (of 13 total)

 *  [Truth](https://wordpress.org/support/users/truth/)
 * (@truth)
 * [14 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/create-excerpt-for-meta-description/#post-2089210)
 * Thanks! I was looking for this.
 * Just wondering, is it possible to make it such that if it’s at the homepage, 
   it draws the description from WP blog Tagline?
 * Would appreciate your assistance.
 * Thanks!
 *  [esmi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/esmi/)
 * (@esmi)
 * [14 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/create-excerpt-for-meta-description/#post-2089211)
 *     ```
       <php if (is_home() || is_front_page() ) : $descrip = get_bloginfo('description');
       else :
       [...]
       endif;
       ?>
       ```
   
 *  [Truth](https://wordpress.org/support/users/truth/)
 * (@truth)
 * [14 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/create-excerpt-for-meta-description/#post-2089212)
 * ^ I’m sorry but how does that fits into the above?
 * By the way, I have this in the header.php which is out of the loop. Does it still
   works?
 * Thanks!
 *  Thread Starter [ericr23](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ericr23/)
 * (@ericr23)
 * [14 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/create-excerpt-for-meta-description/#post-2089213)
 * Using the header.php file, you would use esmi’s loop (probably with elseif as
   well) to set the meta description for different page types (e.g., single vs. 
   home or index).
 * get_bloginfo() does not have to be in the loop.
 *  [Truth](https://wordpress.org/support/users/truth/)
 * (@truth)
 * [14 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/create-excerpt-for-meta-description/#post-2089214)
 *     ```
       <php if (is_home() || is_front_page() ) : $descrip = get_bloginfo('description');
       else :
       $post = $wp_query->post;
       $descrip = strip_tags($post->post_content);
       $descrip_more = '';
       if (strlen($descrip) > 155) {
       	$descrip = substr($descrip,0,155);
       	$descrip_more = ' ...';
       }
       $descrip = str_replace('"', '', $descrip);
       $descrip = str_replace("'", '', $descrip);
       $descripwords = preg_split('/[\n\r\t ]+/', $descrip, -1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY);
       array_pop($descripwords);
       $descrip = implode(' ', $descripwords) . $descrip_more;
       echo '<meta name="description" content="'.$descrip.'" />';
       endif;
       ?>
       ```
   
 * Is the above correct? Sorry, I’m totally lost when it comes to PHP.
 * I only need to differentiate the home page from the rest.
 *  Thread Starter [ericr23](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ericr23/)
 * (@ericr23)
 * [14 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/create-excerpt-for-meta-description/#post-2089215)
 * Looks good! You just need to echo get_bloginfo() along with the html tag:
 *     ```
       if (is_home() || is_front_page() ) :
       echo '<meta name="description" content="'.get_bloginfo('description').'" />';
       ```
   
 *  [Truth](https://wordpress.org/support/users/truth/)
 * (@truth)
 * [14 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/create-excerpt-for-meta-description/#post-2089216)
 * Got it to work!
 * Thanks for the help.
 *  [drh16](https://wordpress.org/support/users/drh16/)
 * (@drh16)
 * [14 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/create-excerpt-for-meta-description/#post-2089244)
 * This excerpt function seemed to work for me when I initially used it in my header
   but then I found that the last word from the excerpt kept vanishing. To fix it
   I removed the line “array_pop($descripwords);” which pulls off the last element
   of the $descripwords array.
 * After removing that line the function works as i originally expected. I’m just
   curious why that line is part of the function in the first place. What is its
   purpose? Just looking to understand it more thoroughly.
 * Thanks.
 *  Thread Starter [ericr23](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ericr23/)
 * (@ericr23)
 * [14 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/create-excerpt-for-meta-description/#post-2089245)
 * Array_pop is used in case the last “word” is in fact a fragment, since the content
   is cut off at 156 characters without regard to actual words.
 *  [drh16](https://wordpress.org/support/users/drh16/)
 * (@drh16)
 * [14 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/create-excerpt-for-meta-description/#post-2089246)
 * Thanks ericr23. Now i understand the goal of the code snippet.
 * But wouldn’t it be better to only pop that last word after you’ve tested to see
   whether the description exceeds 155. By replacing the “mandatory” array_pop with
   the conditional version below the last word will only be dropped if the original
   excerpt is known to have exceeded 155 characters; otherwise it $descrip will 
   keep the full excerpt intact.
 * if ($descrip_more == ‘ …’) {
    array_pop($descripwords); }
 * Thanks for making me understand this better. I hope my addition is an improvement.
   It seems to work as it should.
 *  Thread Starter [ericr23](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ericr23/)
 * (@ericr23)
 * [14 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/create-excerpt-for-meta-description/#post-2089247)
 * That’s definitely a worthwhile addition. I knew it would never (famous last words!)
   be the case with our blog that the content would be that short.
 *  [drh16](https://wordpress.org/support/users/drh16/)
 * (@drh16)
 * [14 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/create-excerpt-for-meta-description/#post-2089248)
 * Eric, i now realize why i ran into this issue which seems so unlikely to occur
   since post content is unlikely to be under 155 characters. I had already made
   another slight change to your original function that allows for the meta description
   to be pulled from the manual excerpt that can be added to posts rather than just
   from the post content.
 * I replaced “$descrip = strip_tags($post->post_content);”
    with “if ($post->post_excerpt
   == “” ) : $descrip = strip_tags($post->post_content); else : $descrip = strip_tags(
   $post->post_excerpt); endif;”
 * In this case when you add an appropriate length manual excerpt to the post it
   would then appear in the meta description without the last word.
 * Sorry for the confusion.
 *  Thread Starter [ericr23](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ericr23/)
 * (@ericr23)
 * [14 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/create-excerpt-for-meta-description/#post-2089249)
 * Aha! That was indeed the only case where I thought this might be seen. And again,
   our blog doesn’t use (or very rarely) separate excerpts, and your adaptation 
   makes good sense.

Viewing 13 replies - 1 through 13 (of 13 total)

The topic ‘Create excerpt for meta description’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [excerpt](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/excerpt/)

 * 13 replies
 * 4 participants
 * Last reply from: [ericr23](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ericr23/)
 * Last activity: [14 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/create-excerpt-for-meta-description/#post-2089249)
 * Status: not a support question

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