I’ve just run into the page title and meta description (didn’t see this one discussed) problems with Yoast SEO.  It’s apparently overwriting my SP setup.

Is there a function or patch I could add that would fix this now, while i wait for the SP new release? I’m starting to get threads going now and I’m afraid of what Google will do to my rankings when they see all the duplicate titles and meta.

If there is not a fix for it now, how long do you think I’ll have to wait for the next release to come out?

find this line in the sp-load-forum.php file

        add_filter(‘wp_title’, ‘sp_setup_browser_title’, 99, 3); # want it to run last

note, it will not have the 99 in there…  change teh current value to 99…

not aware of a meta description issue… can you elaborate?

Thanks, I’ll make that change.

As for the Meta Description, it’s not creating a proper one for the the page.  For example, on this topic’s page right here on your forum, it’s this (properly):

<meta name=”description” content=”I read somewhere before that there was a problem with Yoast’s WordPress SEO plugin and Simple Press, but now I can’t fin” />

But on a topic on my forum — and any page of my forum — the meta description is incorrectly showing as:

<meta name=”description” content=”Discussion forum dedicated to 3D printers and all that is associated with 3D printing. Come chat with others about the additive manufacturing revolution.”/>

That happens to be the meta description I gave (in the Yoast SEO area) the /forum page on which I embedded SP.  So every page on my forum has duplicate meta descriptions. 

So, as with the title problem with Yoast SEO title field, it looks like the Yoast plugin is overwriting the proper meta description with the Meta Description field found in the Yoast SEO’s SEO box on the Edit Page.  I’ve attached a screenshot of the Yoast SEO panel from the Edit Page of my /forum page.

Hopefully, it’s as simple as another filter statement change like the title.

Mr Papa said
find this line in the sp-load-forum.php file

        add_filter(‘wp_title’, ‘sp_setup_browser_title’, 99, 3); # want it to run last

note, it will not have the 99 in there…  change teh current value to 99…

not aware of a meta description issue… can you elaborate?

Uh Oh.  I made the change as you described — changing the value of ’10’ to ’99’ in that statement, and not only did it not fix the Title field, but it echoed the title field on the the page, above my header.  See screencap. You’ll see the title that starts with “Sorry Investors…” up at top left corner.

I set the value back to ’10’ and it stopped doing that.

what screencap??  guess I need to see it to understand what you are saying…  its possible there was more to the title fix, but I dont think so… what are you page title options in the forum?  forum – options – general display settings..

as to meta description, what options did you select on the forum seo admin panel?  forum – components – seo…

Mr Papa said
what screencap??  guess I need to see it to understand what you are saying…  its possible there was more to the title fix, but I dont think so… what are you page title options in the forum?  forum – options – general display settings..

as to meta description, what options did you select on the forum seo admin panel?  forum – components – seo…

 

Sorry, didn’t realize it had exceeded max upload size and didn’t upload it. Here is is now. Look at the line right above my header

As for the meta, I’ve tried both “Do not add meta description to any forum pages” and “Use custom meta description on all forum pages”

The line that says ‘Sorry Investors Business Daily…’ ??  What is that?  its not the page title or browser title?  what is that text from?

assume on the custom meta description that you actually entered a description?

on the wp page the forum is entered, do you have a meta description entered into the yoast field?  you shouldnt if you want the forum to control…

sorry, what is the issue? its wrong?  or getting two?

The line that says ‘Sorry Investors Business Daily…’ ??  What is that?  its not the page title or browser title?  what is that text from?

That’s the topic title of the topic I was showing for the page when I snapped the screeshot.  It would place whatever the page title should be up there.  If it was the forum, it would be the forum title, for example.

assume on the custom meta description that you actually entered a description?

No, if you are talking about the Custom Meta Description on the same SP SEO page. That sounds like whatever I place in there would go on every SP page’s meta description, as duplicate meta descriptions.

on the wp page the forum is entered, do you have a meta description entered into the yoast field?  you shouldnt if you want the forum to control…

Yes. Figured your software would override this.  However, I just went and removed the meta description and the same thing happens.  

Now that I took it out, Yoast SEO places the following comment in the page you can see if you view source for any of my pages:

<!– Admin only notice: this page doesn’t show a meta description because it doesn’t have one, either write it for this page specifically or go into the SEO -> Titles menu and set up a template. –>

sorry, what is the issue? its wrong?  or getting two?

The issue is that I am not getting proper titles and meta descriptions for my SP pages. I see on this support forum, you do. For example, for a topic page, the title is the topic title and the meta description is the beginning words of the first post in the thread.  I am not getting these.  Problem #2 is that the fix you gave me (changing ’10’ to ’99’) caused the echoing of the page title to the top left of the page, as shown in the screencap.

If you want an admin account to my site, I’m happy to give you one.

Yea! I figured out the problem with the meta descriptions.  I had the wrong option selected, I need to select this one:

“Use custom meta description on main forum page only, use forum description on forum pages and use first post excerpt (120 chars) on topic pages”

or this one:

“Use custom meta description on main forum page only, use forum description on forum pages and use topic title on topic pages”

For SEO purposes, and for Google Webmaster Tools to not give people lots of warnings, you might want to make either of these the first and default choice.  It’s really the only choices that Google will like, the rest will give dup content.

PS. I know I’ve been on with a lot of questions, but now got it almost all figured out it looks like and I want to reiterate how much I like your product.  It’s a very elegant and powerful product. And your support is unparalleled. I will surely tell others about it.

PSS: So, all we have to do is get the titles working right.

I would still like to know what your various title rewrite options are in sp seo…  forum – components – seo… upper right the title stuff…  are you overwriting the title with the SP?

Here’s a screencap of the SP SEO page.

sorry, getting long in the pages here… what theme is this?  does it do any custom title rewriting too?

been testing out yoast more this afternoon and its not it doing it – nor us – at least not without interaction from something else…

I do have to go back and look at the changes and see if there was anything else to get it working with yoast…  dont recall such, but maybe…

The theme is Catalyst. And I’m using Yoast SEO plugin. 

yeah, knew you had yoast…  not familiar with that wp theme… does it doe url title writing?

just be sure, you changed

add_filter(‘wp_title’, ‘sp_setup_browser_title’, 10, 3);

to

add_filter(‘wp_title’, ‘sp_setup_browser_title’, 99, 3);

in your wp theme, take a look at the header.php file and see how its outputting the meta title… is it a free theme?

Catalyst is a pretty popular framework, and the developers are really good about working in a standard method so they their product gets along with plugins. (unlike themes like Thesis)  I don’t know about “utl title writing” and no, it’s not a free theme.

I do know the theme is meant to work with Yoast SEO and there is a setting in Catalyst to let Yoast handle the SEO (including titles). So it seems Yoast is in charge of titles.

Yes, that add_filter line is exactly the line I changed.

I hope we can get this figured out, as if it doesn’t get worked out, it’s something that would kill my project — can’t run the forum with dup titles. It seems to be the last thing to get get working properly. And I REALLY like your plugin and want to keep it running. With about 5-10K visitors a day to my site, I’m sure the forum can get really popular.