Description
About
This is a lightweight plugin to add a meta description to your WordPress website.
Search engines such as Google and Bing use the meta description when listing search results.
You can use the post and page “Excerpt” and the post category and tag “Description” as meta description.
This plugin also supports the products and product categories and tags of WooCommerce.
How to use
After installation go to the settings page and set your meta description. This page is located at Settings > Meta Description.
The meta description should reflect the content of your post or page.
The recommended length is roughly between 120 and 160 characters.
Post and page excerpt
An excerpt is a summary of your post or page content.
The excerpt is already available for posts and this plugin will activate it for pages as well.
While adding a post or page you can set an excerpt by using the “Excerpt” box.
The “Excerpt” can be used as meta description for that post or page.
Static page as homepage
If you have set a static page as homepage, and you have activated the excerpt for posts and pages, the excerpt of that page will override the meta description from settings page.
So only if this page has no excerpt, the meta description from settings page will be used.
Post category and tag description
While adding a category or tag you can set a description by using the “Description” box.
The “Description” can be used as meta description for that category or tag page.
WooCommerce
This plugin also supports the products and product categories and tags of WooCommerce.
While adding a WooCommerce product you can set an excerpt by using the “Product short description” box.
The “Product short description” can be used as meta description for that product.
While adding a category or tag you can set a description by using the “Description” box.
The “Description” can be used as meta description for that category or tag page.
Uninstall
If you uninstall plugin via dashboard all settings will be removed from database.
You can avoid this via the settings page.
Question?
Please take a look at the FAQ section.
Translation
Not included but plugin supports WordPress language packs.
More translations are very welcome!
The translation folder inside this plugin is redundant but kept for reference.
Credits
Without the WordPress codex and help from the WordPress community I was not able to develop this plugin, so: thank you!
Enjoy!
Screenshots
Settings page (dashboard) 
Settings page (dashboard) 
Settings page (dashboard) 
Page excerpt classic editor (dashboard) 
Page excerpt block editor (dashboard) 
Category description (dashboard) 
WooCommerce product short description (dashboard)
Installation
Please check Description section for installation info.
FAQ
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How do I set plugin language?
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Plugin will use the website language, set in Settings > General.
If plugin isn’t translated into this language, language fallback will be English.
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Why a recommended meta description length?
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Because Google and Bing recommend a length roughly between 120 and 160 characters.
This way your meta description will be listed properly in all commonly used devices.
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Why does Google or Bing ignore my meta description?
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After adding a meta description it can take up to a week before Google or Bing have indexed your site again.
But they can also decide not to use it, when your meta description does not match their requirements.
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Why no excerpt box in the editor?
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When using the block editor, click the options icon and select “Preferences”.
When using the classic editor, click the “Screen Options” tab.
Probably the checkbox to display the relevant box in the editor is not checked.
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Why no product section on settings page?
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This section is only available if WooCommerce is installed and active.
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Where are the Open Graph and Twitter Cards settings?
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I have removed both features in version 4.1 of this plugin.
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Can I use this plugin with other SEO plugins?
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If you have an active plugin (or theme) that also contains a meta description feature, don’t activate or use this feature.
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No Semantic versioning?
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Version number doesn’t give you info about the type of update (major, minor, patch). You should check changelog for that.
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How can I make a donation?
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You like my plugin and you’re willing to make a donation? Thanks, I really appreciate that! There’s a PayPal donate link at my website.
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Other question or comment?
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Please open a topic in plugin forum.
Reviews
Contributors and Developers
“VS Meta Description” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors
“VS Meta Description” has been translated into 12 locales. Thank you to the translators for their contributions.
Translate “VS Meta Description” into your language.
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
Change Log
Version 6.9
- Minor changes in code
Version 6.8
- Removed function load_plugin_textdomain() because redundant
- Plugin uses the WP language packs for its translation
- Kept translation folder for reference
Version 6.7
- Plugin has a new name
- But plugin itself and ownership did not change
Version 6.6
- Fix: character counter
- Minor changes in code
Version 6.5
- Better validating, sanitizing and escaping
Version 6.4
- Minor changes in code
Version 6.3
- Minor changes in code
Version 6.2
- Textual changes
Version 6.1
- New: plugin now also supports tags
- Fix: conditional logic
- Fix: added extra check for WooCommerce
Version 6.0
- Previous version crashes website without WooCommerce
- Fix: added extra check for WooCommerce
For all versions please check file change log.