Title template and default description

Kakapo SEO builds the title of a page from a template that applies to the whole website — that way you do not have to write it separately for every page. The default meta description sits on the same screen: the text that steps in wherever no description of its own is available.

Set template and separator

1. In the WordPress menu, open the entry “Kakapo SEO”.
2. On the left, in the “Optimization” (in German: „Optimierung“) group, choose the item “Title & Meta”.
3. In the “Title template” field, enter your pattern.
4. In the “Separator” field, set the character that is inserted for %sep%.
5. If needed, add the “Default meta description” as a fallback for pages without a description of their own.

The four placeholders

• %title% — title of the post or page, on archive pages the name of the archive
• %sitename% — name of the website
• %sep% — the character entered in the “Separator” field
• %tagline% — tagline of the website

%title% %sep% %sitename%

Special case: home page

On the home page the template is not applied. There the website name appears, and if a tagline is set, separator and tagline follow. The blog posts index uses the same form as long as no page of its own is assigned to it. Below the input fields a card shows the resulting “Home page preview”; it is recalculated the next time the page is loaded.

Where the description comes from

• Posts and pages: the meta description stored for the post
• If it is missing: the excerpt of the post
• If that is missing too: a version of the content automatically shortened to 30 words
• Categories, tags and taxonomies: the description of the term
• If nothing is left: the “Default meta description”, failing that the tagline of the website