Custom homepage title is not working

Hi @dami99, this sounds like you just have empty title. Just to be sure:
SEO > Home page settings > Home page tagline
If you uncheck the box, your homepage should display only first part of the title. After this try turning title fix extension on/off. Then check your source code (ctrl+U) to see content of your <title> tag.

I can’t personally comment on compatibility with X–theme, but I can tell you that TSF interacts with WordPress according to best practices. If your theme manipulates title, check if there is option to turn this option off. Some premium themes have build–in SEO options, so if this is the case, make sure you turned this option off. Lastly, if you have theme specific issues, it is best to contact theme authors via their support, since we don’t have access to it. If this is issue is global with X–theme, it affects tens of thousands of web pages. If that is case, encourage theme authors to fix the issue. If there is a compatibility problem, authors of the theme can directly contact us — so far we were able to resolve most issues with other plugins and themes if their respective authors were communicative. Please understand, that we can not directly support premium themes, because they are in their nature, only for paying customers. I’m not saying we will not try to help you, but the approach above is most time saving for all parties involved. I hope it makes sense ??

On the personal note, I don’t get why people are so reluctant to share their URL — it is on the Internet, why would you want to keep it a secret? Other user literally posted URL to escort services couple hours ago. Of course you can do whatever you want and you don’t have to explain anything to me, I just don’t get it ?? We are human, we sometimes need help with something, there is no shame in that! ??

Thanks for your response. Is the checkbox you’re referring to under the “Additions” tab, under Homepage Settings? If so, yes this is checked. I tested unchecking it now and deactivated the Extension plugin + refreshed the page, but no success.

To your question about empty titles, I already had content entered in this field:

Custom Home Page Title

On a side note, its content is published correctly to the Twitter title tag, but not the main <title>.

I understand you cannot support premium themes, and I will ask their support directly. However please note that based on what I have observed in their forums, they do not give support for plugins they did not create (understandably). Which kind of leaves me stuck between here and there. To help me get a response from their support, please can you at least explain here how TSF and the Extension-based fix work with WordPress homepage titles? If I can give this info, they might confirm if X Theme does/doesn’t cooperate with this, and I can update on findings here.

Hi @dami99, I hope you understand, I’m not trying to get rid of you and redirect the problem towards your theme provider ?? But it is curious, how free plugin can have better support than premium themes. WordPress is by its very nature interconnected — themes & plugins. That is why WordPress issues best practices how to interact with core. @cybr spent extraordinary amount of time developing the plugin and following these practices (5000+ hours and counting). And then you have lots of poorly made themes doing bare minimum — that is the reason why title fix extension exists in the first place. However, if I’m not mistaken, X–theme guys are trying to be supportive. I can tell you, that properly made themes work with TSF seamlessly, so we could be like some premium theme provides, and dismiss you simple because it is not our job. Luckily, that is not the case. Back to your issue:

Thanks for your response. Is the checkbox you’re referring to under the “Additions” tab, under Homepage Settings? If so, yes this is checked.

This should be unchecked if you want My homepage title and not My homepage title | This is blog description.

On a side note, its content is published correctly to the Twitter title tag, but not the main <title>.

This sounds like a theme issue to me, but I’m not 100% sure. My guess is, TSF outputs metadata correctly (hence twitter info being correct) and then the theme or another plugin interacts with it again. I just don’t get separator in the title.

Could you please try switching to one of the default WordPress themes and check if the problem persists? Try disabling all plugins, and activating it one by one. First with title fix off, then on. We need to isolate the issue, so we should start with configuration where title works correctly and work our way from there. I hope you understand that without having access to the theme this is the only way to do it. After that, post your findings here ?? I hope we will find the solution. Thanks!

Just to update you, I changed to a WordPress default theme and refreshed the homepage. The custom HTML title contents (which I set in SEO Framework) now output correctly. As you suggested, it looks like a theme-related issue. I’ve asked X Theme support why this specific functionality in TSF is not working. I’ll update here when I receive a response.

Also, I tried the solution suggested elsewhere by adding the following code in an x Child Theme functions.php, but that didn’t work either: add_filter( ‘the_seo_framework_force_title_fix’, ‘__return_true’ );

I forgot to add, I disabled the only extra plugin installed, and this didn’t affect anything. The only plugins currently present/active were the default WordPress plugins such as Akismet Anti-Spam, Hello Dolly etc, plus TSF.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 2 months ago by dami99. Reason: extra info para

Hey @dami99, at least now we know what is the problem, that is 50% of fixing it. I understand your frustration — believe me, I had my own aches with themes from themeforest.

Again, I do not want to pass the blame, but it would be great if X–theme authors revised how their theme manipulates title. Of they could issue simple filter themselves, that would disable X from interacting with title.

If there is something we can do from our side, please let them know they can contact us via contact form. We would like to provide compatibility with such a widely used theme out of the box.

In any case, please reply here after they issue their stance on the topic for the future reference. Lastly… I’m sorry you have to spend so much time resolving this and I’m grateful you stick with TSF.

I’ve received this reply on the X support forum. I’m not sure what to do now, except maybe check for settings in my theme that also impact the homepage title. If I can’t get a resolution, I’ll have to change to AIO SEO, annoyingly.

—
Thanks for writing in.

What title you’re trying to implement? Our theme uses wp_title() in which part of WordPress standard. It’s where SEO plugin hooks any title related manipulation (the same with SEO Yoast). Hence, their plugin could do the same. Or maybe your site is behind the cache?

There should be no issues with the titles when it comes to our theme, it follows WordPress standard :slight_smile:
—

Hi @dami99,

Whew, that’s a lot of going back and forth.

This issue is described here, and it’s a bug:
https://github.com/sybrew/the-seo-framework/issues/252

I know that some of the following steps have been mentioned already. But for good measures, I’ll reiterate them in the right order.

How to fix it, step 1:

1. Disable “Add site description (tagline) to the Title on the Home Page?”
2. Done. Now your custom title is being used.

Alternatively, step 1:

1. Enable “Add site description (tagline) to the Title on the Home Page?”
2. Fill in the tagline.
3. Done. Now your custom title + separator + tagline is used.

Still not fixed? Step 2:

1. Enable the Title Fix extension/plugin (Extension is better).
2. That should be it.

Still not fixed? Step 3:
Add this filter to your theme’s functions.php file:

add_filter( 'the_seo_framework_force_title_fix', '__return_true' );

N.B. In TSFEM 1.5.0 that filter will be removed and the fix is forced by default.

If it’s still an issue, then I do need to take a closer look.
My contact page can be found here. I only need the URL, as the issue should be evident from the metadata.

Cheers!

Thanks for replying – I’ve tried all the steps again now, but no luck. I’ve sent you the URL.

I didn’t change anything after step 3 (i.e. the fix code is still in the child theme functions.php file).

The HTML <title> currently only contains the site name + the separator. The custom tagline and title do show, which I have set to “test 123” and “custom title test” respectively. (You’ll see it’s being outputted correctly in twitter:title.) Thanks in advance for looking at this.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 2 months ago by dami99. Reason: deleted repeated word

Hi @dami99,

I’ve found that I still had a license for a client for the X theme.
With this, I was able to snoop into the code and find a permanent resolution.

They indeed correctly output the wp_title('') tag.
However, they also filter it… ??

To fix this, you could either use the new Title Fix version I linked-to over mail.
Or even better, you could simply add the following line to your child theme’s functions.php file:

function x_wp_title( $title ) { return $title; }

What that line does is two things:

1. It blocks the X theme from filtering it, as their filter won’t be called.
2. If the filter is somehow still called (by who knows what), then it effectively short-circuits it to default behavior.

I hope this all helps!
My apologies for the inconvenience and the amount of time spent on this issue.

I added the line of code, and it works! Thanks Sybre and lebaux for all your help.

When you release the next TSF version, should I delete that code from functions.php?

I’ve bought a premium sub to say thanks and support future dev.

dami99

Hi @dami99,

I’m happy to hear it’s resolved ?? And I’m also happy to have your support!

TSFEM 1.5 (with the new title fix) is planned to be released within 6 weeks. It’s already stable and ready for release, but I want to add a new extension to every major release.
TSF 3.1 is planned to be released about 1 month after TSFEM 1.5.

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask ?? Have a wonderful day!