Perfect WordPress Title Tags Redux

21 responses to “Perfect WordPress Title Tags Redux”

1. 

   Simon 2008/12/10 1:38 pm

   Hey Jeff, can’t hold back, but your stuff is once again incredibly interesting to read. And congrats on the css gallery!

2. 

   Jeff Starr 2008/12/10 3:50 pm • Post Author

   Thanks Simon! Always great to hear from you! Happy Holidays! :)

3. 

   Donace 2008/12/11 8:18 am

   very intersting article man, so even if we have allinone or platinumseo can we still benefit by bunging this in the header.php.

   Also would it matter if you add it on the end pt top of the header?

4. 

   Jeff 2008/12/11 8:19 am

   When I tried to use your snippet, I ended up without any output. Turns out the $paged variable isn’t defined in my theme. If I remove that lat check, everything works fine. Is $paged supposed to be available to themes or is there something else missing?

   Great site too. I’ve been reading most of the morning!

5. 

   Jeff M 2008/12/11 10:13 am

   More fine stuff there, Jeff — BUT. Seasons Greetings notwithstanding, I hereby head-butt you with this question: what’s perfect about a bunch of pages whose titles all begin with the same phrase?

   Surely one should strive to ensure that every page title begins with the most specific and relevant ‘keywordy’ text for that page?

   Hoo’s aboot: ‘Pink Floyd’ – Page 1 : Tag Archives at My Glorious Site’ or similar?

   Just shuffle the cards a bit. Whaddaya think?

   Happy holidays to you and yours, and keep up the quality we’ve come to know and love!

6. 

   CHTRC Webmaster 2008/12/11 3:51 pm

   This works for me thanks
   http://digg.com/programming/Perfect_WordPress_Title_Tags_Redux

7. 

   Jeff Starr 2008/12/11 4:42 pm • Post Author

   @CHTRC Webmaster: Very kind of you to Digg it! Thank you!! :)

8. 

   Jeff 2008/12/13 8:26 am

   I figured out the problems with the $paged code. Missing period to join the string. I also noticed that your use of single_tag_title is incorrect. By default it echos the output instead of returning a string. Here is a cleaner version of your title tags redux that can be cut and paste into a blog.

   <title><?php if (function_exists('is_tag') && is_tag()) { single_tag_title("Tag Archive for ""); echo'" - '; } elseif (is_archive()) { wp_title(''); echo ' Archive - '; } elseif (is_search()) { echo 'Search for "'.wp_specialchars($s).'" - '; } elseif (!(is_404()) && (is_single()) || (is_page())) { wp_title(''); echo ' - '; } elseif (is_404()) { echo 'Not Found - '; } if (is_home()) { bloginfo('name'); echo ' - '; bloginfo('description'); } else { bloginfo('name'); } ?><?php if ($paged>1) { echo ' - page '. $paged; } ?></title>

   HTML encoded version just in case this comment system chomps the tags all up:

   <title><?php if (function_exists('is_tag') && is_tag()) { single_tag_title("Tag Archive for &quot;"); echo'&quot; - '; } elseif (is_archive()) { wp_title(''); echo ' Archive - '; } elseif (is_search()) { echo 'Search for &quot;'.wp_specialchars($s).'&quot; - '; } elseif (!(is_404()) && (is_single()) || (is_page())) { wp_title(''); echo ' - '; } elseif (is_404()) { echo 'Not Found - '; } if (is_home()) { bloginfo('name'); echo ' - '; bloginfo('description'); } else { bloginfo('name'); } ?> <?php if ($paged>1) { echo ' - page '. $paged; } ?></title>

9. 

   Jeff Starr 2008/12/15 10:26 pm • Post Author

   @Donace: As a matter of fact, I have AiOSEO and continue to use this code for the title tag. When AiOSEO is working, the title tag is overwritten; however, the hard-coded title tag works great for pages not covered by the plugin and also in the event that it should fail. There may be a slight performance hit because of the processing, though; so keep that in mind when considering using it. Frankly, I would be surprised if Louis didn’t criticize me for this strategy! ;)

   @Jeff M: Excellent points, of course — I highly encourage users to “mix” things up according to their needs, SEO skillz, and personal preferences — the more creative, the better! The best part of this code is that it is pretty easy to customize the output by simply rearranging and editing a few things. Many thanks for the idea — the improvement will definitely be integrated into the next related post!

   @Jeff: Ahh, good catch — thanks for pointing that out and even providing an improved version of the code. I am updating the article with your version and dropping a credit link to your site as well. Thanks again for the help, it is greatly appreciated! :)

10. 

    Jeff 2008/12/16 1:56 pm

    @Jeff Starr: Thanks so much for the link! You did all the real work, the least I could do is help fix a little typo. :)

11. 

    Jeff Starr 2008/12/17 5:13 pm • Post Author

    @Jeff: I look at it as much more than that — you have helped to improve the overall quality and accuracy of the information presented in the article. Crediting you with a link is the least I could do! ;)

12. 

    jidanni 2009/02/08 2:13 pm

    OK, you may have now nice s, but there should be a one to one relationship with your ,,s.

    I.e., your should do

    $a=...; $b=...; $c=...;
$b - $c $a
$c
$a
$b

    I just randomly typed the a b c’s above. My point is and ‘s need to be part of one coordinated “gestalt”.

Comments are closed for this post. Something to add? Let me know.