Meta Description for ALL my Posts is Being Overwritten!

[naturalsociety]

Every single one of my posts meta descriptions are being overritten with the same meta description!

I use Yoast and have proper meta descriptions in my posts, but something seems to be overriding them.

https://ibb.co/rcgWNXb

Any idea what could be causing this?

Thank you!!!

• Mike

[Advanced-Air-Ambulance]

Hey Mike. Not to fret, this is actually a common silly mistake in theme development. The meta description shouldn't be set in WordPress theme because that is handled in the wp_head function. This function is where Yoast, and other plugins, hook into to deliver all the SEO optimized meta and header tags.

[Advanced-Air-Ambulance]

This is wrong, but right. This is a theme problem. The blog description is a description for the blog website as a whole, and not a description for the page. In Wordpress, you should not set a meta description explicitly in the theme file. That's the job of the wp_head, especially if you are using an SEO plugin to manage your descriptions. It's a common mistake that is easily remedied as evidenced by his reply.

[Vanderlindemedia]

The string 'get_bloginfo('description')' spawns the blog description stored in wordpress under settings. But that shoud'nt cause issues with different setup descriptions per page while using a SEO plugin on wordpress. It's more of a theme issue i think because normally that shoud'nt happen.

I woud'nt worry alot about it either; google tends to ignore the description sometimes too and focusses on the actual content on page.

[naturalsociety]

Thanks for all the responses!

I did remove the code and it seems to have solved the problem. Now I just don't know if any other different issues could have popped up from removing that code. So the problem seems to be fixed - I'm just sitting a bit in the unknown in terms of if the change had any other unwanted repurcussions.

• Mike

[Vanderlindemedia]

Yes and by removing that shortcode you completely remove the description from the blog. But a description is'nt something google takes into account alot now these days. It can actively read the content on your website or page, and align that within search. I mean i have sites that are completely ignored due to the description tag.

It's like meta name keywords all over again.

@Naturalsociety, if you switch the theme to something temporarily, does it appear back again? If so; you have a theme issue.

[Advanced-Air-Ambulance]

Sounds like a WordPress issue. I suspect there is a meta description defined in your theme file. Check that isn't the case.

It will look like this or very similar:

get_bloginfo('description')

Get rid of the whole meta tag that contains this php code.

If you are unsure how to find this, it will most likely be in your theme's header file. You can find this by going to the theme's folder and look for header.php.

You can also do this through the WordPress Dashboard > Appearance > Theme Editor. On the right hand side select the "Theme Header".