{"id":80755,"date":"2023-09-27T15:30:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-27T12:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themeisle.com\/blog\/?p=80755"},"modified":"2023-09-27T15:30:00","modified_gmt":"2023-09-27T12:30:00","slug":"how-to-add-meta-tags-in-wordpress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themeisle.com\/blog\/how-to-add-meta-tags-in-wordpress\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Add Meta Tags in WordPress in 3 Different Ways"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Meta tags can help search engines crawl and index your pages. In addition, you can incorporate keywords into your meta tags to gain higher search rankings. However, the default installation of WordPress doesn’t contain meta tag data. Therefore, you might be wondering how to add meta tags in WordPress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Fortunately, there are three ways to add meta tags in WordPress. For advanced users, you can edit your header.php<\/code> file to manually add meta tags. Or, you can use a handy plugin to take care of this for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In this post, we’ll take a \ud83d\udd0e closer look at meta tags<\/a> and why you should include them on your site. Then, we’ll show you how to add meta tags<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let’s get to it!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\n\t\t \t\tLearn how to add #meta tags in #WordPress with this tutorial \ud83d\udca1<\/a>\n\t\t \t<\/div>\n\t\t \t
\n\t\t \tClick To Tweet \n\t\t \t\t<\/span>\n\t\t \t<\/a>\n\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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What are meta tags?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Meta tags can help search engines better understand your content. For example, when you publish a post or page, you can assign tags that contain the language, meta description<\/a>, author, and other relevant information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These tags consist of HTML code that is hidden in your content for search engines and crawlers to find. So, a meta tag that assigns a piece of content to a particular type of document looks like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<meta name=\"resource-type\" content=\"document\" \/><\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, a meta tag that contains information about the author will look like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Hughes\" \/><\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
As such, you can implement specific keywords<\/a> in your meta tags to optimize your site. This way, search engines will serve your pages to people that use those specific key terms or phrases to find content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Additionally, meta tags can make it easier for search engines to crawl and index your pages. Plus, since the meta data is displayed in the search results, it can help human visitors decide whether they want to access your site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, by default, WordPress doesn’t produce most of the common meta tag data that is valuable from an SEO point of view. For instance, you won’t find the tags for the description or the keywords. You’ll need to add this data yourself if you want to add meta tags in WordPress. This is what the following sections are going to show you how to do:<\/p>\n\n\n
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How to add meta tags in WordPress (3 ways)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Now that you know a bit more about meta tags, here’s how to add them in WordPress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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  1. Add meta tags manually<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Add meta tags using a general plugin<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Add meta tags using an SEO plugin<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n
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    1. Add meta tags manually \ud83d\udd27<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
    If you’re wondering how to add meta tags and you’re an intermediate or advanced user, you can do it manually. This involves editing important site files, which can be risky. Therefore, it’s a good idea to make a backup of your site<\/a> before you begin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    You can access your site files through File Manager. Or, you can connect to your site files using FTP.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Alternatively, go to Appearance<\/strong> <\/em>> Theme File Editor<\/strong><\/em> from your WordPress dashboard. Then, in the Theme Files<\/strong> <\/em>column, find the header.php <\/code>option:<\/p>\n\n\n
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    \"How<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
    Open the file and add your meta tags in the head section between <head><\/head<\/code>>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    As we’ve mentioned, there are plenty of meta tags you can add to your site [1]<\/sup>. For instance, if you want to add a meta description, you’ll use the following tag:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    <meta name=\"description\" content=\"write your meta description here\" \/><\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Meanwhile, if you want to add a meta tag that contains your copyright notice<\/a>, you’ll enter this tag:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    <meta name=\"copyright\" content=\"Copyright (c) 1997-2004 John Hughes. All Rights Reserved.\"<\/code> \/><\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Then, click on Update File<\/strong><\/em> to save your changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    \u26a0\ufe0f A note of caution. If you’re going to use this method, keep in mind that whenever you update your theme, the header.php file will be updated along with it and will be overwritten. Any manual changes made to the file, including the addition of meta tags, will be lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    To mitigate this risk, it is recommended to create a child theme in WordPress<\/a> and make the necessary modifications to the header.php file in the child theme instead of the parent theme. This way, when the original theme is updated, the modifications made in the child theme will remain intact. Using a child theme ensures that any customizations, including the manual addition of meta tags, are preserved during updates and keeps the core WordPress files untouched.<\/p>\n\n\n
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    2. Add meta tags using a general plugin \ud83d\udd0c<\/h3>\n\n\n
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