Excerpt query

  • Unknown's avatar
    donovanmunro97613 · Member ·

    Good day.
    I wanted to ask….is the excerpt in WordPress the meta description?
    I know WordPress alighns the excerpt just below the title when you look at your site after entering an excerpt.
    Is that a way to enter a meta description?
    When I look at the code view I don’t see any <meta description> tag at all.
    Even when I enter an excerpt.
    Also the tags I enter in the post options section it adds the tag below my title in website view.

    What is the function of the tags in the post options and the function of the excerpt?
    Can I enter a meta description?

    I read a while ago that your meta description is the first paragraph.
    So if I put

    John’s story as the title
    Then my first paragraph in my post says

    This is John’s story, this article will reveal how his life changed when he took a leap of faith.

    Then I’d add a h2 with
    The life of John

    SEO practices says the meta description must not contain more than one of the same word.

    Which I have done.
    But I have only written it in my first paragraph of my post.
    Then followed it with a h2.

    Does this first paragraph contain my meta description?
    Or does the excerpt contain the meta description?

    I googled this and found one site says the excerpt is the Meta description but then other sites say it isn’t.
    Can anyone assist please?

    The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

  • Unknown's avatar
    donovanmunro97613 · Member ·

    I know that by entering a meta description there is no guarantee that Google will use it for the meta description.
    But my question is….do I add the meta description the way I did in my example or in the excerpt?

  • Unknown's avatar
    divyaab · Member ·

    Hi There,

    I wanted to ask….is the excerpt in WordPress the meta description?

    Excerpts are also often picked up by social networks and search engines to be used as the meta description for that page or post.
    The text you enter as an excerpt will not show on the individual post or page itself. It will only show on designated pages or search results.

    https://wordpress.com/support/excerpts/

    In order to use custom meta description then you can refer to the below guide using SEO tool if you upgrade your plan:-
    https://wordpress.com/support/seo-tools/#custom-post-meta-description

    When I look at the code view I don’t see any <meta description> tag at all.

    I checked your code and can find the meta description tag in your view page source.

    <meta name="description" content="home" />

  • Unknown's avatar
    donovanmunro97613 · Member ·

    If I enter an excerpt it gets inserted just below my title.
    Just need to know…will that count as a meta description?

    When I enter an excerpt and I go onto my post with another device, I can see the excerpt directly below my title…even tags get entered directly below my title,

    When I go from visual editor to code editor I can’t find the meta for my post.

    Do I need to have the post published before I will see meta name? Is meta name the meta description?

  • kokkieh · Staff ·

    Hi there,

    If I enter an excerpt it gets inserted just below my title.
    Just need to know…will that count as a meta description?

    Yes, if you set a manual excerpt for a post, that’s added as the description meta-tag for that post. You can see this in action if you view the source code for any of your posts in the browser. Here it is for https://softwaregallore.wordpress.com/2021/10/19/adobe-spark-review-simple-design/, for example:

    https://d.pr/i/bCYzZi

    If you don’t set a custom excerpt, this description is generated automatically based on the first lines of your post.

    When I enter an excerpt and I go onto my post with another device, I can see the excerpt directly below my title…even tags get entered directly below my title,

    This is how the TwentyTwenty theme you’re using is designed: If a post has a custom excerpt, that’s displayed below the title in the single-post view, as a subtitle.

    When I go from visual editor to code editor I can’t find the meta for my post.

    Do I need to have the post published before I will see meta name? Is meta name the meta description?

    I’m not sure what you’re referring to here. What “meta” are you looking for?

    On WordPress.com all meta-tags for your content is generated automatically. If you want the ability to manually add/modify the meta tags for your site, that requires the advanced SEO tools included in our Business Plan, or the use of a SEO plugin, which also requires our Business Plan.

    https://wordpress.com/support/seo-tools/


    @divyaab    ,

    The text you enter as an excerpt will not show on the individual post or page itself. It will only show on designated pages or search results.

    That’s not accurate – it depends on the theme :)

    Any theme that supports excerpts will show custom excerpt text instead of the post content on the Blog and various archive pages, and the excerpt can also be used by the theme in other ways, like in this case where the theme uses it as a subtitle in the single post view.

    I checked your code and can find the meta description tag in your view page source.

    It looks like you viewed source for the front page. To find the meta tags for individual posts, you need to view source on the specific post instead.

  • Unknown's avatar
    donovanmunro97613 · Member ·

    Okay so the excerpt for that post is Adobe programs for Infographics

    That will be the meta description ? Google won’t use it because it doesn’t follow SEO rules. I entered the actual meta description in the first line of my post

    So if I take that description and put it into the excerpt then it should work as my meta description?
    Meta description lands up under the title in snippets, that’s why I’m trying to figure out where I am supposed to put my meta description for it to be valid. The excerpt is the place to put it then?

    I don’t see the <meta name> in code editor…

    I’m guessing I will only see it when I go onto the site via desktop and view it under inspection, looking at the page from code view from the browser not code editor in WordPress.

    If I can ask one thing…..
    Which theme will allow me to use a menu drop down then another drop down menu within that menu.

    What I mean is take a look at my menu section, blog is a drop down, then software reviews is a drop down then the posts are under software reviews.
    The other themes I look at only allow me one drop down when I need two.
    Otherwise it comes out with lines next to it or only shows me the main software reviews.
    I want viewers to be able to choose which posts they want instead of scrolling through the whole list to find something they want.

    I need another theme that allows my post text to be wider.
    I am trying to add columns and the text within that column looks fine from an editing view but the moment I go into my website then the words are squashed together making me have one word per line. I need a theme that will allow me to have a wide text area that the words per line is increased than it is in this theme.
    Example,
    Hello John, how are you doing today?

    The text turns out to be:

    Hello John,
    How are
    You doing
    Today

    That not right at all.

    Is there any theme that will allow two drop down menus as well as a wider text area?

    There isn’t a way to create drop down menus within a post right?

    Like if I want to have the main words saying

    Infographic software
    Drop down menu
    Adobe spark
    OmniGeometry ECT

    Graphic design software
    Drop down menu
    Adobe Photoshop
    Corel graphics suite ECT

    Entering a sub menus within a post, whether at the start or middle of the post.

    I don’t know if there is a button for it or not

  • staff-doublebassd · Staff ·

    That will be the meta description ?

    So if I take that description and put it into the excerpt then it should work as my meta description?

    Yes, if you insert the excerpt for that post as Adobe programs for Infographics, that will be the meta description for that particular post.

    Which theme will allow me to use a menu drop down then another drop down menu within that menu.

    Are you referring to submenus? Pretty much most if not all of the themes we provide on WordPress.com has the multiple drop-down menu capability:

    https://wordpress.com/support/menus/#create-drop-down-menus

    Here are themes that have a classic menu setup:

    https://wordpress.com/themes/filter/classic-menu

    I need another theme that allows my post text to be wider.

    I would check out full-width themes, as many of them allow for more text space for your posts:

    https://wordpress.com/themes/filter/full-width-template/

    There isn’t a way to create drop down menus within a post right?

    You actually can add drop down menus in individual posts via the navigation block:

    https://wordpress.com/support/full-site-editing/theme-blocks/navigation-block/

    https://wordpress.com/support/full-site-editing/theme-blocks/navigation-block/#create-submenus

    Hope this helps!

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