Issue with importing seo data. Any suggestions?

Hi barnez,

I think you’re one of the few unlucky people which have encountered a bug I just fixed.

A quick confirmation question:
Which themes are those sites using, and are they different from the sites on which The SEO Framework work correctly?

Thank you in advance for the information!

P.S. A CDN is (almost always) only used for distributing data files, The SEO Framework makes no use of a CDN as it’s not outputting any links to files on the front-end :). Save yourself some bandwidth and only clear the CDN when absolutely necessary.

Hi Sybre,

Many thanks for getting back so quickly on this.

The themes in use are Enfold and Motif. You’re right of course, they were not listed in the importer options, so I went with Genesis as suggested. These are the only 2 themes I have tried so far, so I can’t compare this with other themes where the import was successful.

Also, thanks for the useful advice regarding the CDN and SEO Framework ??

Hi barnez,

Both themes are unfortunately “Doing it Wrong”.

More information regarding this issue is listed within the FAQ of this plugin under heading “My home page title is different from the og:title, or doesn’t do what I told it to.”.

On Site 2, the issue should be resolved with the next update (2.4.1). This update should be released this week. However, please check the Page SEO Settings beneath the content of the page in the edit screen. I believe the title might be double there.

Unfortunately, on both site 1 and 2 the title is like that on the Front Page and the Blog Page, this is because of a fundamental flaw within WordPress’ title function.
There’s a good reason the wp_title() function was considered to be deprecated in WordPress 4.4, and you’re now experiencing the exact cause.

Although there are several ways of solving this issue from within The SEO Framework, unfortunately, one solution will work for one theme and will be a major failure for another. I’ve found a middle ground where only those two exact pages will be off.

The FAQ of this plugin states that you should tell the theme author about this issue. I know for a fact that Automattic (author of Motif) will most likely not fix this issue, I read a reason somewhere for their motives but I’m unable to find it at the moment.

Either way, if you’re tech-savvy, you could change the wp_title function within header.php, this will solve the issue until an update for the theme is released.

All themes released after August 25 are required to do it right. Read more about this here. So if you’re willing to switch themes, be sure to pick one released after that day. There are many themes doing it right before then, but it’s a try-and-see situation at the moment.

I will give it another shot at fixing this internally for version 2.4.1 of The SEO Framework, but I can almost certainly say that I am unable to fix this.

Hi,

Thanks for the explanation. I’ve notified both theme authors, and will wait to see what they say …

I’ll wait to see the effect of version 2.4.1, but I don’t have the skills to do any coding to the header.php & functions.php other than drop/adjust code in the child theme files.

Here is the reply from Enfold:

I have added the issue to our git, so we can include that fix maybe as an upcoming update.
Thanks a lot for letting us know, we actually can consider update that, but in no case it is outdated, as WordPress is still using the title tag, as we using it.

Hi barnez,

Basilis is right, WordPress [Automattic] is still using the Title Tag, on old themes, for they don’t want to leave their users with unexpected results.

This reason might also hold true for the Enfold theme.
However, the WordPress core theme is considering adding a deprecation notice.

Whatever the reasons may be, I know The SEO Framework currently has no concrete solution.

Expect a separated plugin for The SEO Framework within a few days to a week to solve this issue all together. It will cancel the whole wp_title filter The SEO Framework uses when activated. Problem solved :D, in some way :).

A child theme alteration should be done with a copy of header.php, and from there the wp_title() function should be altered. Please be aware that this will require programming knowledge.

I will also add this link for theme authors (https://make.www.ads-software.com/themes/2015/08/25/title-tag-support-now-required/) within the FAQ in the next update ??

For now, there’s nothing more I can do. I’ll leave this thread open until it’s resolved with the next update and separated plugin.

Thanks and have a great day! ??

Expect a separated plugin for The SEO Framework within a few days to a week to solve this issue all together. It will cancel the whole wp_title filter The SEO Framework uses when activated. Problem solved :D, in some way ??

I think that is an excellent idea. It would be a shame to lose new users looking to move away to a leaner and more sturdy plugin for the sake of a companion plugin to resolve this minor issue on some themes. I’m not going anywhere, and will keep an eye out for the release of the plugin.

Thanks again for paying attention to this, and for your solutions approach ??

Hi barnez,

If you wish to be an early bird with fixing this issue (requires The SEO Framework 2.4.1, released soon) without the need for a plugin, please refer to the following filter to supply your needs:

add_filter( 'the_seo_framework_manipulate_title', '__return_false' );

The plugin suggested will do exactly that filter. It might be expanded to a complete buffer rewrite with options in the future. But this is still uncertain.

Are you still encountering issues with transferring SEO data?

I’ll give that a try (adding the filter to functions.php) once 2.4.1 is released and let you know the outcome.

Hi barnez,

I’ve just released 2.4.1 which has been tested with Motif, without the need of the filter.

I suggest you try the new update before activating the filter. If it all works out, please let me know ??

I’m marking this topic as resolved. If you’re still encounter issues related to this topic feel free to re-open and/or reply to this topic. I’ll try to get back to you as soon as possible.

Thank you very much and have a wonderful day! ??

Hi Sybre,

I’ve updated to 2.4.1 on the Motif theme site and cleared all the caches, but nothing changed unfortunately. I then tried adding the filter to functions.php, but that seems to override all meta data and results in:

Homepage: Blog name | Tagline
Pages: Page title | Blog name
Posts: Post title | Blog name

I’ve tried re-saving the settings in the Dashboard, but that hasn’t helped. I could try importing the data again through the SEO Data Migration plugin, but then the hard-coded site title/description set in the plugin is not being recognised. So something still not quite right it seems ….

Hi barnez,

That’s correct, the filter removes The SEO Framework’s interaction with the <title></title> tag. This also means that the custom fields are disabled for that tag.

It should however continue to work with the social meta data (og:title, twitter:title, og:description, etc.).

This is a last-resort filter, and I will make an extension that will do things better for these kinds of situations. It will only take a lot of time to get that right, The SEO Framework should work as intended for the themes you’re using.

I think something went wrong with the import of metadata.

Could you please contact me through https://theseoframework.com/contact/

Please include your site URL’s (although there’s only room for one, add them to the question field) where you encounter these issues with.

Thanks and have a great day! ??

Hi barnez,

As discussed over mail, I’m placing this information here to inform other users.

Please be aware that I do not have access to Premium Themes, many of which are doing things differently, outside of the coding standards set by WordPress.

When using the Enfold theme, please add this code to your theme’s functions.php, this will override the title and will use the Title generated by The SEO Framework.

As confirmed by barnez, this will not allow the Title and Blogname to switch.

if ( ! function_exists( 'the_seo_framework_title_from_cache' ) ) {
	//* The SEO Framework 2.2.5+
	if ( function_exists( 'the_seo_framework' ) ) {
		function the_seo_framework_title_from_cache_temp() {
			$the_seo_framework = the_seo_framework();

			//* Check if The SEO Framework is allowed to run.
			if ( isset( $the_seo_framework ) )
				return $theseoframework->title_from_cache();
		}

		add_filter( 'avf_title_tag', 'the_seo_framework_title_from_cache_temp' );
	}
} else {
	//* The SEO Framework 2.4.2+
	add_filter( 'avf_title_tag', 'the_seo_framework_title_from_cache' );
}

I will make a Compatibility reference webpage in the future, where users can search for known theme problems and how to fix those. For now, I’ll leave this here :).

Many thanks for your cooperation barnez. ?? Have a wonderful day!

Thanks for all your help and input to resolve this issue with Enfold theme Sybre. It’s much appreciated!

Hi!

I’m very sorry about the untested code above, it was using $the_seo_framework and $theseoframework interchangeably, which will cause a Fatal Error!

Here’s the correct code, including extra checks for when the SEO Framework isn’t allowed to run (so your title won’t become empty):

if ( ! function_exists( 'the_seo_framework_title_from_cache' ) ) {
	//* The SEO Framework 2.2.5+
	if ( function_exists( 'the_seo_framework' ) ) {
		function the_seo_framework_title_from_cache_temp( $title ) {
			$the_seo_framework = the_seo_framework();

			//* Check if The SEO Framework is allowed to run.
			if ( isset( $the_seo_framework ) )
				return $the_seo_framework->title_from_cache();

			return $title;
		}

		add_filter( 'avf_title_tag', 'the_seo_framework_title_from_cache_temp', 10, 1 );
	}
} else {
	//* The SEO Framework 2.4.2+
	add_filter( 'avf_title_tag', 'the_seo_framework_title_from_cache' );
}