Support for Meta Descriptions without the need for a plugin

META description and tags are meant to be added at the theme level or through a plugin. Search wordpress and meta tags and you’ll find their justification for not implementing them.

Hi nice to meet you!

I have to say your response is, to me, ungrounded, and rather an arbitrary statement. Whyever should “META description and tags (be) meant to be added at the theme level or through a plugin”? I see no logical reason for this. Such metadata is not a theme- or plugin-related or dependent topic. Attributes such as description are ubiquitous to all websites, search engines, CMSs, social sharing platforms, etc. Thus a website CMS should support basic metadata entry for users. Do for example Squarespace users need to install a third party app to write meta descriptions? No. Should they? Of course not.

The only thing I’ve been able to find so far is this article (https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Meta_Tags_in_WordPress), which is a rather obtuse treatment of meta attributes.

I get it, WordPress is free. But core meta attributes are a staple of the web and all users should be able to work with them without needing to install or buy additional, third party software (which is sometimes bloated, can cause other issues, etc.).

I dropped a feature request in https://core.trac.www.ads-software.com/; we’ll see how that goes.

Thanks for interfacing with me on this! All the best.

Meta descriptions are not supported by the default WordPress editor, which is why you need to add a plugin (Yoast SEO, Rank Math) to write a description for your pages and posts. This is because meta descriptions are not part of the WordPress core, but rather an add-on that can be implemented by plugins or themes. For my happy magazine i always use rank math which is best so far!

On our website (All IT Limited) we have used the Yoast SEO plugin and it’s performing well. I don’t think this metadata should come with the WordPress core system. Because every webmaster thinks SEO on their way of achieving. I think this is why WordPress doesn’t provide SEO things by default and I think this is why WordPress is unique in SMS’s work.

I hope most of the community users will agree on it. Example: Some people like Yoast, some may like RankMath, even some users prefer other SEO plugins depending on their preferences. Hope you understand it.

Hi allitinfomail!

Meta descriptions are standard thing for HTML documents and have been forever. You don’t have to use them, but there should be a field for them.

I agree SEO plugins are useful for fixing indexing issues with WordPress due to plugins (like template files being indexed, etc.)! I think plugin developers should be aware of this issue and keep internal things out of the sitemaps and have a “noindex” tag on them—instead of needing an SEO plugin though!

All the best.

@xroox I respect your opinion. Maybe different people have different thoughts. WordPress authority is responsible for any final decision. Cheers

Definitely on point with the meta descriptions: they’re a staple of good HTML and shouldn’t be neglected, even if optional. Having a dedicated field for them in any website building tool is just good practice.

And I completely agree that SEO plugins can be a lifesaver for fixing WordPress indexing issues: especially those pesky plugin files sneaking into sitemaps and causing havoc. It’s frustrating to need an extra plugin just to clean up after another one.

Your suggestion for plugin developers to be mindful of internal indexing is spot on. By keeping internal pages and files out of sitemaps and applying “no index” tags where appropriate, they can prevent a lot of headaches for users. It would be fantastic if this became standard practice in the WordPress plugin community.

Ultimately, the goal is to make website management as smooth and SEO-friendly as possible like my magazine. Minimizing the need for additional plugins and ensuring clean indexing out-of-the-box would be a huge win for everyone.

• This reply was modified 11 months, 2 weeks ago by SEO Factor.