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.
Yoast seo title question
-
I was referred to this plugin and have found it to be the most irritating and poorly designed plugin in the world.
I want to be able to set my titles without it changing my page headers as well.
For instance -
If I set my title to be "This is my article name | site name" it will make my H1 tag read the same. I do not want or desire this nonsense. Why would they think this is something wise? Why would I want my site name on every single H1 tag on my site?
How can I fix this? I only want my title to be my title. I want my H1 tag to remain the post/page name that I define in wordpress.
-
Hey Noah,
Ray's comment above is correct but might be unclear. Yoast handles this the way you want - you've got a theme issue. This code is wrong:
if(!wp_title("",false)) { echo bloginfo( 'title');} ?>
This tells Wordpress to output "page title - blog name" as the H1. Yoast isn't interfering in that. You'll want your H1 to say this:
-
Ahh I see! Yeah each of them have their ups and downs. In my experience I've come to the conclusion that AIO does things in a much cleaner fashion. And for us it just works better. Nothing bad or wrong with Yoast, I guess it is simply a preference thing.
I don't believe you can disable specific features in Yoast but if anyone else has experience with that, please feel free to chime in. Inquiring minds would like to know

-
I just turned off AIO. I prefer it for titles and stuff. But yoast had the rel canonical function that I needed. I wish there was a way to turn off parts of yoast
-
Hey Noah Glaser!
We've also experienced issues with Yoast. Have you tried using All in One SEO Pack? I am sure there are good and bad that come along with this one as well but in my experience, AIO is much cleaner and a more useful tool that Yoast. Hope this helps in some way! Good luck!
-
Sorry, my response was unclear. The theme is choosing to use the wrong title for the H1 which results in both the <title>tag and the <h1> tag being the same.</p> <p>As Oleg pointed out above, you'll want to update the theme to use the function mentioned to keep them separate.</p></title>
-
use the_title(); for the H1 tag instead
Not sure what that other code does... if(!wp_title("",false)) { echo bloginfo( 'title');} ?>
if no title set, show blog title? what pages would this affect?
-
That is how I want it. I want my H1 to be the name of the page or post. I do not want it to be the title tag though. So that again is going back to something with yoast. Why is it insisting on changing my page title to the title tag
-
That's seems like your themes error - they set the h1 to be the same as the page title.
-
I have modified the auto-generated tags. I want to include my site name at the end of the titles but cannot do so if it will place it in my headers too. And that is what is currently happening.
-
I am editing the "SEO Title" and that is what is changing my headers too.
This is my header theme code
if(!wp_title("",false)) { echo bloginfo( 'title');} ?>
So yoast is somehow overwriting this code to make it the same as my "seo title"
-
The plugin doesn't affect any H1 tags at all.
I'm guessing that you are inputting the SEO title into the wrong section. Name you post whatever you want regularly (this will be your H1), then scroll down to the Yoast section and change the field called SEO Title (which will only change your title tag).
If its doing something else, then the problem is with your theme.
-
Hi Noah - Sorry to hear that you're having difficulty with Yoast. TBH, Yoast is the best WordPress SEO plugin out there and is very effective when used properly.
Have you adjusted the general settings so that the auto-generated titles are to your liking? The H1 tag ends of being the Post/Page Title that is manually entered when editing the post/page.
Also, make sure that your screen options, on the edit page, are set to show the Yoast SERP simulator. There you can further adjust the SEO settings to yours needs.
I agree, your Page Title and the H1 tag should be different - targeted towards the same topic, but creatively different to get the most benefit.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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.
Related Questions
-
Why is pagination SEO such a mystery in 2021?
Hi folks. I would like to discuss pagination. I use WordPress (Genesis, specifically). I ran my site through a site scan and it flagged an error which told me that my blog was producing duplicate meta descriptions because the blog is paginated - the same meta description from the blog page is being used on Page 2, Page 3 etc. I looked into this and the Internet is awash with many other people scratching around for a solution. My understanding is that using a canonical link on the first page is not a good idea, because it says to Google that only Page 1 of the blog is important. I also read an article that states Google no longer reads the Rel=Prev/Next code that could be used to tell Google to ignore the issue. So, what's the solution? Do I even need one? As a side-thought, it seems to me that pagination is, well, pretty useless. I mean, if my blog has 20 pages and I've worked hard to create content, who is going to click through to anywhere near page 20? Nobody. There has to be a smarter way for people on-site to access content. I would love your thoughts on all of this. Cheers.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Nobody16165422281340 -
Lightboxes and SEO
Do lightboxes (AKA popup boxes when you click "learn more" type CTAs) have any negative effect on SEO? We are looking at revamping our sites to have more of a tiled approach, and a lightbox with summary content popping out with additional CTAs, directing to pages with more information or free trial pages. Is there any downside to this approach from an organic perspective? is there anything specific to keep in mind when creating these if not?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Chris81980 -
CDN for SEO (or not)?
Does CDN impact on SEO or not? There seems conflicting ideas as to whether they impact positively or negatively, I realise that if the page loads quicker this is a good thing for SEO and usability of course. Does Google see CDN as just cheating and a get-around for not doing the work from the ground up and using good hosting etc? Do you have any direct experience? All constructive input much appreciated!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoman101 -
Page Title shown in SERPS not the same as
Hi all, I'm trying to get a homepage to rank for a certain term, but the page keeps showing up in the SERPS with the "Brand Name: Keyword" when I have written it as "Keyword - Brand Name" in the <title>tag. I can't even see "Brand Name" Keyword" in the code of the page so I don't know where Google is pulling this from? </p> <p>I have <meta name="robots" content="noodp,noydir"/> on the page.</p> <p>I'm running Yoast and have removed the Brand from the Site Name and the Page Title for the homepage is "Keyword - Brand Name" in WordPress. I've changed the meta description so I can see the page has been crawled and re-indexed as the new meta description is showing in the SERPs</p> <p>Any idea, where Google is pulling this Page Title from and how I can get it changed to read the actual <title> tag? Or is there something I need to change in WordPress?</p> <p>Thank you!</p></title>
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Marketing_Today0 -
SEO time
I wanto to be in the top of the google search. I am usiing a lot of SEO tools but... I have done it during one month. Do I have to wait more?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | CarlosZambrana0 -
Are backlinks the most important factor in SEO?
I have had an agency state that "Backlinks are the most important factor in SEO". That is how they are justifying their strategy of approaching bloggers. I believe there are a lot more factors than that including Target Market definition, Keyword identification an build content based on these factors. What's everyone's thoughts?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AndySalmons0 -
Yoast SEO Plugin: To Index or Not to index Categories?
Taking a poll out there......In most cases would you want to index or NOT index your category pages using the Yoast SEO plugin?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | webestate0 -
Is DOCTYPE important for SEO?
Hello fellow Mozzers. I am just having a brief look at a potential clients website before speaking to them tomorrow and whilst looking at the source I noticed that they don't appear to have a clear definition for their Doctype. All the have at the top of each page is I have to admit that Doctypes aren't my strong point but I know that they are normally slightly more descriptive than this. Can this have any effect on rankings? or is this just an issue for W3C validation? Thanks 🙂
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AdeLewis0