Skip to content
    Moz logo Menu open Menu close
    • Products
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Pro Home
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Home
      • STAT
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Home
      • Compare SEO Products
      • Moz Data
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis
      • Keyword Explorer
      • Link Explorer
      • Competitive Research
      • MozBar
      • More Free SEO Tools
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
      • SEO Learning Center
      • Moz Academy
      • MozCon
      • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers
      • Agency Solutions
      • Enterprise Solutions
      • Small Business Solutions
      • The Moz Story
      • New Releases
    • Log in
    • Log out
    • Products
      • Moz Pro

        Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

      • Moz Local

        Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

      • STAT

        SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

      • Moz API

        Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

      • Compare SEO Products

        See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

      • Moz Data

        Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis

        Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

      • Keyword Explorer

        Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

      • Link Explorer

        Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

      • Competitive Research

        Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

      • MozBar

        See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

      • More Free SEO Tools

        Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO

        The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

      • SEO Learning Center

        Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

      • On-Demand Webinars

        Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

      • How-To Guides

        Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

      • Moz Academy

        Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

      • MozCon

        Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
      Moz API

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

      Find your plan
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers

        Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

      • Small Business Solutions

        Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

      • Agency Solutions

        Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

      • Enterprise Solutions

        Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

      • The Moz Story

        Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

      • New Releases

        Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

      Surface actionable competitive intel
      New Feature

      Surface actionable competitive intel

      Learn More
    • Log in
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Dashboard
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Dashboard
      • Moz Academy
    • Avatar
      • Moz Home
      • Notifications
      • Account & Billing
      • Manage Users
      • Community Profile
      • My Q&A
      • My Videos
      • Log Out

    The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. Home
    2. SEO Tactics
    3. On-Page Optimization
    4. Does using Yoast variables for meta content overwrite any pages that already have custom meta content?

    Moz Q&A is closed.

    After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

    Does using Yoast variables for meta content overwrite any pages that already have custom meta content?

    On-Page Optimization
    3
    7
    1305
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
    • rootandbranch
      rootandbranch last edited by

      The question is about the Yoast plugin for WP sites. Let's say I have a site with 200 pages and custom meta descriptions / title tags already in place for the top 30 pages. If I use the Yoast variable tool to complete meta content for the remaining pages (and make my Moz issue tracker look happier), will that only affect the pages without custom meta descriptions or will it overwrite even the pages with the custom meta content that I want?

      In this situation, I do want to keep the meta content that is already in place on select pages.

      Thanks!

      Zack

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • rootandbranch
        rootandbranch last edited by

        Amazing. Thanks so much, Nigel. Very helpful!

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • Nigel_Carr
          Nigel_Carr @rootandbranch last edited by

          Hi Zack

          With Yoast and Woo the shortcodes are difficult to find as they are specific to Woo. The product description one I used for my client was:

          Shop %%title%% %%page%% %%sep%% part of the %%currentyear%% %%ct_product_cat%% collection, with free delivery on all items at Sitename!

          This would give for example:

          Shop 'Yello Widget', part of the '2018' 'widget category' collection with free delivery on all items at 'sitename'

          Then title:

          %%title%% %%page%% %%sep%% %%ct_product_cat%% Sitename

          For the non Ecomm pages I would actually write them myself as there would only be a few but if I was pushed:

          %%page%% %%sep%% Sitename

          The problem here is that it might be too short.

          I hope that helps

          Regards Nigel

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • rootandbranch
            rootandbranch @TucsonAZWebDesign last edited by

            Thank you Sean. This didn't exactly answer my question (Nigel did below!), but this is still great information and useful context.

            Much appreciated.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • rootandbranch
              rootandbranch @Nigel_Carr last edited by

              This is great. Thank you Nigel. This answers my question perfectly. The client I'm thinking of also has a Woo store and has a very similar situation.

              Bonus question  Do you have a favorite variable you use for meta descriptions for ECommerce pages and non EComm pages?

              Nigel_Carr 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • Nigel_Carr
                Nigel_Carr last edited by

                Hi Zack

                If you add default variables for post Meta title and description this will effectively add Meta for all those posts and pages where you didn't. If you added any custom Meta then that will stay the same.

                I had a client who had 467 products in his Woo store without Meta descriptions - a little magic and boom! they all had one. Those that were custom written stayed the same.

                Simple process with a simple yes/no answer!

                I hope that helps!

                Regards Nigel.

                rootandbranch 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                • TucsonAZWebDesign
                  TucsonAZWebDesign last edited by

                  I had to make several hundred pages for a video tube at one point. And what I did to expedite the process is use the clone post/page plugin. Then I created a clone with 3 things.

                  The first thing was the templating for the meta description and title for each video**(naturally I did that with Yoast)**. The second thing I did was create a short code with php to place the page title in several areas using simply [template]. Then for the final automation aspect, I appeased the alt tag necessity with a js script to dynamically add alt tags with the page title on all images.

                  I don't know what the outcome of the said feature your describing is, however the way you would accomplish your desired end result is by adding a bunch of generic meta title/descriptions with the bulk editor feature of yoast. Naturally skup over the 30 pages, you'll simply need to make a template one time then copy it to clipboard and paste paste paste like a madman! Wont even 5 minutes with 200 pages.

                  rootandbranch 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                  • 1 / 1
                  • First post
                    Last post

                  Got a burning SEO question?

                  Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                  Start my free trial


                  Browse Questions

                  Explore more categories

                  • Moz Tools

                    Chat with the community about the Moz tools.

                  • SEO Tactics

                    Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers

                  • Community

                    Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!

                  • Digital Marketing

                    Chat about tactics outside of SEO

                  • Research & Trends

                    Dive into research and trends in the search industry.

                  • Support

                    Connect on product support and feature requests.

                  • See all categories

                  Related Questions

                  • REIT

                    How do you add meta data to dynamic pages?

                    We have 1000's of dynamic pages on the website and would like to know how to add meta data to these dynamically generated pages. Thanks!

                    On-Page Optimization | | REIT
                    0
                  • katandmouse

                    Why is Google replacing my meta title with the business name on home page?

                    For all queries that return the home page, Google is not showing my meta title. Instead it replaced it with the official business name which of course makes it harder to rank for key terms since they don't exist now in the meta title. You can see this is you search on "mt view estate planning attorney". The site in question is dureelaw.com and the title showing is "The Law Office of Daniel L. DuRee." View the source and you'll see my meta title. Why is Google substituting it?

                    On-Page Optimization | | katandmouse
                    0
                  • mblsolutions

                    Why is my contact us page ranking higher than my home page?

                    Hello, It doesn't matter what keyword I put into Google (when I'm not signed in and have cleaned down my browsing history) the contact us page ranks higher than the home page. I'm not sure why this is, the home page has a higher page authority, more links and more social media shares, the website is an established one. When I have checked Google Analytics my home page gets more people landing on it than the contact us page. It looks like people are ignoring the contact us page and scrolling down until they find the home page. I'd appreciate any help or advice you might have. Thank you.

                    On-Page Optimization | | mblsolutions
                    2
                  • rsigg

                    Noindex child pages (whose content is included on parent pages)?

                    I'm sorry if there have been questions close to this before... I've using WordPress less like a blogging platform and more like a CMS for years now... For content management purposes we organize a lot of content around Parent/Child page (and custom-post-type) relationships; the Child pages are included as tabbed content on the Parent page. Should I be noindexing these child pages, since their content is already on the site, in full, on their Parent pages (ie. duplicate content)? Or does it not matter, since the crawlers may not go to all of the tabbed content? None of the pages have shown up in Moz's "High Priority Issues" as duplicate content but it still seems like I'm making the Parent pages suffer needlessly... Anything obvious I'm not taking into consideration? By the by, this is my first post here @ Moz, which I'm loving; this site and the forums are such a great resource! Anyways, thanks in advance!

                    On-Page Optimization | | rsigg
                    0
                  • Greatmats

                    Meta separators

                    I've been told that pipes are the best separators for title tags.  Can anyone tell me the best ones for H1 and H2 tags?  Do I go with pipes, commas, hyphens, underscores...?

                    On-Page Optimization | | Greatmats
                    0
                  • azu25

                    Add content as blog post or to product pages?

                    Hi, We have around 40 products which we can produce plenty of in-depth and detailed "how to"-type pieces of content for. Our current plan is to produce a "How to make" style post for each as a long blog post, then link that to the product page. There's probably half a dozen or more of these kind of blog posts that we could do for each product. The reason why we planned on doing it like this is that it would give us plenty of extra pages (blog posts) on their own URL which can be indexed and rank for long tail keywords, but also that we can mention these posts in our newsletter. It'd give people a new page full of specific content that they can read instead of us having to say "Hey! We've updated our product page for X!", which seems a little pointless. Most of the products we sell don't get very many searches themselves; Most get a couple dozen and the odd few get 100-300 each, while one gets more than 2,000 per month. The products don't get many searches as it's a relatively unknown niche when it comes to details, but searches for the "categories" these products are in are very well known (Some broad terms that cover the niche get more than 30,000+ searches a month in the UK and 100,000+ world wide) [Exact].
                    Regarding the one product with more than 2,000 searches; This keyword is both the name of  the product and also a name for the category page. Many of our competitors have just one of these products, whereas we're one of the first to have more than 6 variations of this product, thus the category page is acting like our other product pages and the information you would usually find on our product pages, is on the category page for just this product. I'm still leaning towards creating each piece of content as it's own blog post which links to the product pages, while the product pages link to the relevant blog posts, but i'm starting to think that it may be be better to put all the content on the product pages themselves). The only problem with this is that it cuts out on more than 200 very indepth and long blog posts (which due to the amount of content, videos and potentially dozens of high resolution images may slow down the loading of the product pages). From what I can see, here are the pros and cons: Pro (For blog posts):
                    1. More than 200 blog posts (potentially 1000+ words each with dozens of photos and potentially a video)..
                    2. More pages to crawl, index and rank..
                    3. More pages to post on social media..
                    4. Able to comment about the posts in the newsletter - Sounds more unique than "We've just updated this product page"..
                    5. Commenting is available on blog posts, whereas it is not on product pages..
                    6. So much information could slow down the loading of product pages significantly..
                    7. Some products are very similar (ie, the same product but "better quality" - Difficult to explain without giving the niche away, which i'd prefer not to do ATM) and this would mean the same content isn't on multiple pages.
                    8. By my understanding, this would be better for Google Authorship/Publishership.. Con (Against blog posts. For extended product pages):
                    1. Customers have all information in one place and don't have to click on a "Related Blog posts" tab..
                    2. More content means better ability to rank for product related keywords (All but a few receive very few searches per month, but the niche is exploding at an amazing rate at the moment)..
                    3. Very little chance of a blog post out-ranking the related product page for keywords.. I've run out of ideas for the 'Con' side of things, but that's why I'd like opinions from someone here if possible. I'd really appreciate any and all input, Thanks! [EDIT]:
                    I should add that there will be a small "How to make" style section on product pages anyway, which covers the most common step by step instructions. In the content we planned for blog posts, we'd explore the regular method in greater detail and several other methods in good detail. Our products can be "made" in several different ways which each result in a unique end result (some people may prefer it one way than another, so we want to cover every possible method), effectively meaning that there's an almost unlimited amount of content we could write.
                    In fact, you could probably think of the blog posts as more of "an ultimate guide to X" instead of simply "How to X"...

                    On-Page Optimization | | azu25
                    0
                  • seowhiskey

                    Can I use the same text in my meta description as I put in my post excerpt?

                    Hi, I'm just trying to understand the right way to optimise my blog posts and this is likely a dumb question... but to what extent should the text in my meta description differ from the text in my post excerpts? cheers, Andrew

                    On-Page Optimization | | seowhiskey
                    0
                  • OasisLandDevelopment

                    What is on page links?

                    Hi - i would like to know exactly what an on page link is? i understand the linking system however cant work what exactly what an on page link is? Thanks

                    On-Page Optimization | | OasisLandDevelopment
                    0

                  Get started with Moz Pro!

                  Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                  Start my free trial
                  Products
                  • Moz Pro
                  • Moz Local
                  • Moz API
                  • Moz Data
                  • STAT
                  • Product Updates
                  Moz Solutions
                  • SMB Solutions
                  • Agency Solutions
                  • Enterprise Solutions
                  Free SEO Tools
                  • Domain Authority Checker
                  • Link Explorer
                  • Keyword Explorer
                  • Competitive Research
                  • Brand Authority Checker
                  • Local Citation Checker
                  • MozBar Extension
                  • MozCast
                  Resources
                  • Blog
                  • SEO Learning Center
                  • Help Hub
                  • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                  • How-to Guides
                  • Moz Academy
                  • API Docs
                  About Moz
                  • About
                  • Team
                  • Careers
                  • Contact
                  Why Moz
                  • Case Studies
                  • Testimonials
                  Get Involved
                  • Become an Affiliate
                  • MozCon
                  • Webinars
                  • Practical Marketer Series
                  • MozPod
                  Connect with us

                  Contact the Help team

                  Join our newsletter
                  Moz logo
                  © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                  • Accessibility
                  • Terms of Use
                  • Privacy

                  Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.