Hi Viktor,
Thank you very much for your input. I take all suggestions very seriously, and I will also provide all the reason for how I handle this suggestion.
This will be a very long comment, so I’ll divide it into multiple sections.
It’s much like an FAQ, answering your question very extensively :).
Short answers:
1. Title additions indicators will be included in the future, although it’s very difficult to do so. Checkbox per post/page will not happen, because it’s actually very bad for SEO since it will separate your page from the rest of the site, although under the same domain. This is a very simple feature requiring very, very advanced knowledge of SEO.
2. You’re right! I should implement this in some way, but for now it’s automated on PHP level (so no Javascript) and indicated through the SEO bar. The length is always calculated correctly when manually filling it in, after the page has been saved at least once and when the title hasn’t been altered.
Long answer:
== Question 1. ==
Backstory
I’ve been thinking a lot about how to set up the automated description prior to building it. The end result is what you see, with very few options to alter it. Let’s dig down through my taught-process on this matter, and why it is as is it.
First and foremost, the description generation is a heavy process, although optimized on some level. To prevent this I’ve added a caching method for the description, which is stored in the database as transient.
The massive 2.3.4 update (https://theseoframework.com/changelog/2-3-4-vivid-auto-description/) explains all the changes on this part.
The transient cache is completely automated, and all changes will be directly reflected on the front-end, unless very static page and/or object caching prevents this from happening.
What can you change
You can currently change the following settings:
- The automated description separator
- The blogname addition to the description
- Completely manually override the description
How these settings affect the admin experience
The separator:
The separator doesn’t do much for the admin experience.
The Blogname addition:
When this option is deactivated, a new cache will be set up and the length will be calculated again. The new description will be saved under a unique caching key. Switching back a forth is not a problem. All caches will expire within a week, or on post/page update. Whichever comes first.
A post/page update will not delete the cache for the option which isn’t active.
Completely manually overriding the description:
This change will completely remove the automated description, although it’s still generated in the admin area for a placeholder (when you empty the field).
You’ll notice that the description length counter will start from 0 when you start typing.
Why has the title been included?
Simply copy pasting the description based on content and trimming it to 155 characters is something Google and other search engines can do too.
It can even be seen as spam by Google. Google doesn’t really like content automation.
So I’ve added the title and blogname, and later gave the option to remove the blogname.
The title is a very important keyword, so it’s advised to have it present within the description and your first and/or last paragraph.
Why the blogname? It’s organic.
Title on the Blogname | This is some text looks very organic, it’s a real sentence.
Title | This is some text is already less organic, it’s just some words put together but I felt I owed the users of The SEO Framework at least some influence, which at the same time isn’t hard to understand.
Why no more global description options?
More options make things more complex. It not only is able to cause more bugs, which are fixable, but also make things harder to understand. The user is in full control of the outcome. Although controlled by The SEO Framework to at least follow the syntax.
Why no more per-page specific options?
I felt that I already have reached the limit of what a super-user can handle. Sure, more options could be added over time for experienced users, but it can in fact harm new or non-seasoned/non-super users.
The alternative?
The Custom Description settings box is there for all your per-page specific needs. It has no limits either! ??
What else?
The colored SEO Bar which is shown on the edit.php (where all pages are listed) gives you a quick glance of what can be improved, what’s automated, what’s just not right.
Okay great, but I really want to implement X and Y!
I completely understand! Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and has a preferred workflow.
I just don’t think it’s fit for the base version of The SEO Framework.
Please refer to the the_seo_framework_description_output filter.
There’s nothing much I can do without making an overhaul.
The future?
I’m unsure at this point. Maybe you’re completely right but I can’t see it at this point. If someone believes I’m mistaken, please correct me if I’m wrong.
== Question 2 ==
You’re absolutely right! I already have plans for dynamically altering the description and title placeholder. Please be aware that this requires some way of AJAX and I’m not too experienced on that field yet.
For now, saving the page will automatically update everything. It’s some getting used to, and maybe not at all what the user expects when they’re using this plugin for the first time.
Snippet Preview?
This is not going to happen.
I actually want to implement something like this, although this is quite unheard of, because it’s so difficult.
https://10w042.github.io/email-autocomplete/demo/
(Source: https://github.com/10w042/email-autocomplete)
I need to write this code from the ground up. It looks great, doesn’t it :D?
About the automated description and title
There are no indicators on the post/page edit screens that this passes its limit. But there will be when it’s dynamically updated. This order is very important to eliminate confusion.
Currently, only the SEO Bar tells you where you can improve.
Exceeding?
Description:
The automated description will not exceed, unless the title is extremely long (3 to 4 times its recommended length). The automated description is rebuilt each time the post or page is altered, this means that the description length will once again be calculated and the automated description will be limited once more.
Title:
I will not implement limiting features for the title. It’s better to have a too long title than to automatically truncate it without the user’s knowledge beforehand, which might then miss some important information. And all its organic-ness will fall short.
== Question 2.1 ==
Javascript/PHP Length Calculations
These are based on everything that’s output on the front-end, even though the user doesn’t always see it when manually input (only the case for the title). Please refer back to the “Snippet Preview?” heading above.
== Footnote ==
I hope this covers everything, maybe even too much. But then again, you asked for it! ??
Please note that I wrote this answer in one go, so I might be off about some things. It’s very time consuming to validate everything.
I also hope this clears a lot of things up. I really look forward to your feedback and it’s very much appreciated!
Thanks and have a wonderful day ??
