Google loves WordPress, because it’s SEO friendly right out of the box. In WordPress, you can also use SEO friendly themes (like Astra) and plugins to enhance your website and get more organic traffic.
However, WordPress doesn’t allow you to fully customize your SEO titles and descriptions by default.
To do that, you will need an SEO plugin like: Yoast, All in One SEO Pack or Rank Math.
In this article I’ll explain how to change your meta titles and descriptions for individual blog posts and pages in WordPress.
What is an SEO title?
A meta title is an element of an HTML document that defines the title of your web page.
It’s an important SEO ranking factor and is used by search engines to better understand what is your web page about and to display relevant info in search snippets (those text summaries that appear in search results).
What is an SEO description?
A meta description is an element of an HTML document that provides a brief description of your web page.
It’s not as important as a meta title for SEO ranking, but it’s also used to display text in search snippets.
Meta descriptions can be used to entice users to click on your search results. Also, if you use relevant keywords in meta descriptions they will be bolded in search results, when someone searches for those terms.
Where is the SEO title and description in WordPress?
As mentioned before, WordPress doesn’t allow you to fully adjust your meta title and description by default. Hence, you’ll need an SEO plugin.
How to change the SEO title and description in WordPress?
In order to change the meta title and description for individual pages or posts you will need to install one of the following WordPress plugins:
How to change the SEO title/description using Yoast plugin
- Login to your WordPress admin area
- Go to Posts or Pages and click on Edit on the post or page you want to edit.
- Scroll down until you reach the Yoast SEO meta box
- Expand the Google preview section and edit the SEO title and Meta description fields
- Click on Update (top right corner) to save the changes
How to change the SEO title/description using All in One SEO Pack plugin
- Login to your WordPress admin area
- Go to Posts or Pages and click on Edit on the post or page you want to edit.
- Scroll down until you reach the All in One SEO Pack meta box
- Edit the Title and Description fields
- Click on Update (top right corner) to save the changes
How to change the SEO title/description using Rank Math plugin
- Login to your WordPress admin area
- Go to Posts or Pages and click on Edit on the post or page you want to edit.
- Click on the Rank Math icon located in the top right corner
- Click on the Edit Snippet button and edit the Title and Description fields
- Click on Update (top right corner) to save the changes
That’s it folks, if you have any questions or difficulties with your SEO or plugin configuration, feel free to get in touch with me via social media or email. I will be glad to help.
