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How to Add Meta Tags in WordPress Without a Plugin
How to Add Meta Tags in WordPress Without a Plugin
Presented By
Black Pearl Matrix
Why Is Using Meta Tags So Important?
- Improve SEO
- Improve content identification in search engines
- Improve website loading optimization
- Improve website security
- Improve ownership verification
In a highly competitive scenario in search engines, having a consistent SEO strategy is no longer an option and has become a must.
Thus, it is necessary to understand this strategy from its most basic pillars.
One of them is meta tags. Although they seem like just a detail, they can make all the difference in your results. Before we talk directly about how to add a meta tag in WordPress without a plugin, we need to understand some concepts.
Let’s go?
1- What are Meta Tags?
Meta tags are elements (HTML commands) that you create to describe the content of a page to search engines. Thus, they provide data, such as title or brief summary on the subject addressed, for external programs.
Meta tags are added to the <head> section of your code page. They are normally not visible to users, however, they work as little instructions for search engine algorithms.
For this reason, filling them out is a best practice for your blog or website to rank well on result pages.
2- Why Are Meta Tags Important?
Meta tags are extremely important from an SEO point of view as they allow search engines to categorize website content correctly.
It’s like you can leave instructions for the algorithm that operates SERP rankings so that it doesn’t misinterpret your site.
Search engines increasingly value the quality of the user’s experience on the page, and this includes ensuring that the site searched and pointed to in the SERP satisfies demand in the first place, in the best possible way.
So, the meta tags help to certify that the information of the site chosen by the algorithm, as a viable option for the user’s search, is consistent with that search.
Just to give an example, it wouldn’t be good for search engines if the user had to redo the search for a keyword or term several times until he found what he was looking for.
In simpler terms, it’s how to combine supply and demand, so that your website displays the information necessary to fulfill this relationship in a concise and useful way.
For website owners, meta tags are optimizeable elements that highlight the most important features of content, help with ranking and increase the flow of visitors to a website.
For users, meta tags are elements that are often invisible, but essential for the algorithm to “hit” the page suggestions that appear on the SERPs.
There are several types of meta tags that fulfill different functions. While some relate to page structure and ensure your site is easy to find, others guide search engines as to which parts of the page are important and which parts to ignore.
In addition, despite being extremely important for SEO, not all of them provide effective or high-impact results for your strategy.
Therefore, before deciding to put them into practice, it is necessary to know the functions and characteristics of each one of them, in order to choose only those that are really aligned with your SEO purposes.
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3- What Are the Main Meta Tags Used in SEO?
See some examples of better known and more relevant meta tags in SEO.
1. Canonical Tags
If you have a website, but as a precaution you decided to create several URLs and made the same content available on all these pages, in case a user enters the wrong address, for example, you have sinned by exaggeration and have certainly already been penalized for it.
The algorithm interprets this action as content duplication. As it cannot distinguish which is the main (or original) page, it sorts the most convenient one and ignores the others.
Another situation where this can happen is when the site owner creates a page template for desktop and another for mobile devices, or when replicating the complete content of a blog on a social network.
Never do that! There are more practical and functional ways to direct URLs to a unique address or to make your content mobile-friendly, that is, responsive to mobile devices, without you having to be penalized for it.
Fortunately, canonical meta tags have come along to help with this as well.
To add a canonical meta tag to your content, simply include the following code in your HTML:
<link rel=”canonical” href=”https://yoursite.com” />
But it’s worth making it clear that the canonical tag is just a direction, a suggestion. This does not mean that the search engine will always respect it, so keep that in mind.
2. Meta Description
Description meta tags are the famous summaries that appear after the blue links when you look for some information in search engines.
Thus, they need to be objective, clear, contain the keyword (preferably at the beginning) and still facilitate the location of the most relevant information for the user.
John Mueller, Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google, explains how Google uses description meta tags:
“For the descriptions we show, we try to focus on the meta description you provide on your pages, but if we need more information or more context based on the user’s query, maybe we can grab some parts of the page as well.”
In terms of SEO, the description meta tag is not used for ranking in the SERPs:
“Essentially, from a purely technical point of view, these descriptions are not a rating for anything.”
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However, Google uses meta description text to create search snippets. So, if you don’t add an interesting meta description for the user — realize how the strategy should never be directed only at algorithms — it won’t help appearing in the top positions.
If the user thinks that your content will not be able to solve the problem or point to an easier solution for his search, all your SEO efforts will go down the drain.
According to John Mueller, meta descriptions “can affect how users see your site in search results and whether or not they actually click through to it.”
Therefore, the description meta tag pattern must meet the ideal length limits, which are generally around 140 characters. It is also worth mentioning that the meta description must be original: never duplicate or copy the description of a piece of content.
To manually insert a meta description into your webpage’s HTML, simply add the following code in the content:
<head>
<meta name=”description” content=”This is an example of my meta description”>
</head>
3. Meta Keywords
Keyword meta tags were already widely used a few years ago with the aim of helping the search engine to interpret the relevance of content published on the web, as their algorithms had difficulty performing this analysis efficiently.
However, webmasters realized that it was possible to achieve good ranking by including hundreds of keywords hidden in the HTML code of their websites, regardless of whether they had any logical relationship with the essence of the content.
As a result, this practice became frowned upon by algorithms and meta keywords were no longer considered by search engines, as they directed users to pages that had no relation to the research object.
Today, meta keywords are very useful to discover the keywords that the main competitors used to optimize their respective websites.
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4. Title Tag
Of all types of meta tags, the title tag (also known as SEO title) is critical to your SEO strategy — they directly impact search rankings and, unlike other meta tags, are also visible to the user. This makes it easier for them to find what they are really looking for.
Meta title tags, as a rule, are displayed in the title of the search result, which appear in blue color (they are above the description tags).
If you want to rank for a specific keyword on Google, it’s important to have a specific page and create unique title tags for each one.
In addition, it is essential that the title tags are well written, because even if well positioned, they may receive few clicks.
Here are some best practices for the title tag:
• Use between 50 and 60 characters, a maximum of 12 words;
• Place the keyword selected for the page at the beginning of the title;
• Do not use the company name at the beginning of the title;
• Avoid forced use of keywords.
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If you don’t include a title tag, Google will create one for you — this might not be in line with your strategy and could hurt your rankings.
To create a title that is appealing to users and relevant to the SERPs, follow our tips above and include a title tag on each of your pages using the following HTML code:
<head>
<title> Title example </title>
</head>
However, as with description tags, it’s possible that Google will take snippets of your page and adapt its title depending on the search.
4- How to Add Meta Tags in WordPress Without Using Plugins
In WordPress, it is possible to add meta tags without using plugins, which can be useful in cases where you want more control over your website code or when you don’t want to use a plugin anymore.
The first thing to do is open your theme’s header.php file. It is usually located in the wp-content/themes/name-of-your-theme/ folder. In this file, you should look for the <head> section.
Within this section, you can add the desired meta tags. Some common examples include meta name=”description” and meta name=”keywords”.
<meta name=”description” content=”Here is your page description”>
It’s important to remember that meta tags need to be added to each page individually, so you’ll need to repeat the process for each page you want to add a meta tag.
Another way to add a meta tag is using the theme’s functions.php, where you can use the “wp_head” function and create a code to assign values to the meta tag.
FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions About Adding Meta Tags Without a Plugin in WordPress
1. Where can I find the header.php file on my WordPress site?
2. How can I ensure that my meta tags are correctly installed on my WordPress site?
3. How can I optimize mobile meta tags in WordPress without using a plugin?
4. What are the main guidelines for optimizing meta tags?
Conclusion
As you’ve seen, adding meta tags in WordPress without using plugins is possible and can be useful in cases where you want more control over your website’s code.
Adding meta tags can help search engines understand your page’s content and show it properly in search results.
The benefit of installing meta tags without using a plugin is the control over how they are displayed. On the other hand, the installation can be a little more complex, depending on your level of expertise in programming codes.
Regardless of the choice, it is important to ensure that the meta tags are optimized for the right keywords and attractive to users, thereby increasing website traffic.
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