meta tags not showing up

Hi Marc,

It looks like this is a theme issue and there appear to be a couple of issues.

The first is that the theme may be using output buffering so All in One SEO Pack can’t write the Title tag. This is evident from the [-1,-1] in the comment line for All in One SEO Pack. You can try two things to compensate for this behavior by the theme:

https://semperplugins.com/documentation/performance-settings/#forcerewrites – Set this to Enabled
https://semperplugins.com/documentation/general-settings/#useoriginaltitle – Set this to Disabled

If this doesn’t work then you will need to contact the theme developer.

The second issue is that All in One SEO Pack is not outputting the Meta Description. This could be caused by two things:

1). The theme is missing an important hook in the header.php file that All in One SEO Pack uses. Check your header.php file for the wp_head(); hook. If it is not present you’ll need to add it. Check another theme such as Twenty Fifteen to see how this appears in the header.php file.

2). The theme either includes a visual page builder or is using a plugin for this functionality (WPBakery Visual Composer). We’ve seen these visual page builder plugins break the ability for All in One SEO Pack to output Meta Descriptions. Do you have Autogenerate Descriptions enabled (https://semperplugins.com/documentation/advanced-settings/#autogenerate-descriptions) and have you manually entered a description into the Description field in All in One SEO Pack on any page? If you’re using Autogenerate Descriptions then try checking the Run Shortcodes in Autogenerated Descriptions option (https://semperplugins.com/documentation/advanced-settings/#run-shortcodes-in-autogenerated-descriptions). Also, try deactivating the WPBakery Visual Composer plugin.

Let me know if any of this works/doesn’t work.

Hi Steve,

(third time I have to retype everything, because clicking on the links they open on the same page and when going back my text is gone…)

Anyway.. first of all, thanks for your fast and long reply. Let me remember what I wrote some minutes ago.. ??

– I have no “force rewrites” in the performance options. See screenshot I have only “rewrite titles” in the titles options. Is it the same? I had set this to disabled.
– Use original title was already set to disabled

1)
the header.php has the hook:
<?php wp_head(); ?>

2)
yes, the theme is using the Visual Composer (https://vc.wpbakery.com/).

Autogenerate Description is NOT enabled. I have manually entered the description.

WELL… deactivating the Visual Composer solves the problem!! However, I get a warning
“The following required plugin is currently inactive: Visual Composer.”

and.. honestly, I need the Visual Composer, because I am using some of its functions and widgets.

Ooops… I activated the Visual Composer again and now I STILL see the Meta tags!! (desc, keyword). Only the title is not the one I set manually. It shows only the site name.
But already one step ahead.. ??

Output of meta tags in page source:

<!– All in One SEO Pack 2.2.5.1 by Michael Torbert of Semper Fi Web Design[-1,-1] –>
<link rel=”author” href=”https://plus.google.co……&#8230;..” />
<link rel=”publisher” href=”https://plus.google.com……&#8230;.” />
<meta name=”description” itemprop=”description” content=”…………………” />
<meta name=”keywords” itemprop=”keywords” content=”……………” />

Thanks, marc

Hi Marc,

So this testing proves that the Visual Composer plugin is interfering with All in One SEO Pack. We’ve seen this before with these plugins, many of them don’t write the content to the page using the correct WordPress hooks. We’ve done what we can to accommodate them by adding settings that try to compensate for the bad behavior of these plugins but it looks like you have a plugin that just won’t work with All in One SEO Pack.

The theme overwriting the Title tag is common and again, we’ve added settings in our plugin to try to force the theme to use our Title tag but not all themes are compatible with All in One SEO Pack. This appears to be the case with your theme, we see this mainly with themes from ThemeForest.

If you want to send me your WordPress administrator login we can see if there’s anything we can do about the Visual Composer plugin you are using. The theme issue is something you’ll have to report to the theme developer.

You can send us your administrator login using the contact form here – https://semperplugins.com/contact/

UPDATE!!!

I have set “rewrite titles” in the titles settings to enabled and now it shows also the title!!! So, correct title (my own title I put in manually), descr + keywords! All fine!

However, when I go back to settings, it’s back to “disabled”. I don’t know why.. But it works and that’s important!

Please read also the post below which I wrote before.

thanks, marc

UDPATE 2 !!!

However, it shows the title and desc in English for all languages. I am using WPML and I have put in manually the title and descr. in different languages…

Hi Steve,

so, it’s the theme’s fault that the “force rewrite” is not visible in the performance options?

I don’t even have to contact the theme author, he is never responding. Sometimes he responds after a month or later, but he actually doesn’t resolve the problem. He does not even update the theme or the Visual Composer.
I was about to change the theme, but I have so many content that is theme specific (properties) that I cannot change it now. I am in the middle of the booking period, so I cannot afford to have the site offline or not working well.

I send you my login via the contact form.

thanks, marc

Hi Marc,

I logged into your site and went to All in One SEO, Performance and I see the Force Rewrites option. It is enabled which is correct. I set a title and description for the About Us page and both showed up in the source code for that page just fine.

view-source:https://sardiniavilla.net/ueberuns/
<title>This is a test title | SardiniaVilla</title>
<meta name=”description” itemprop=”description” content=”This is a test description” />
<meta name=”keywords” itemprop=”keywords” content=”test,keywords” />

My testing shows that All in One SEO Pack is working fine.

Hi Steve,

yes, now the “force rewrite” option is there. As you can see on my screenshot (post above), it has NOT been there before!! VERY strange!
(maybe because I enabled the “rewrite titles” in the titles settings?

So, I see that it works now. However, I made the stupid mistake to assign off-site SEO to an Indian freelancer and this guy has set the English title, descr + keywords fixed, anyhow. I don’t know where. I cannot reach him, it’s night there.
When I delete the title, desc + keywords in the Home Page Settings and save, there are STILL there!! I cannot delete them. I want to delete them so that I can write own meta tags in each language for each page.

I will check with this guy tomorrow and see where he put the meta tags.

Thanks a lot for your support!!!
marc

HI Marc,

There is some odd behavior with All in One SEO, the fact that Force Rewrites was missing and then came back, the fact that you delete the homepage meta and it’s still there. I suspect you have a plugin conflict or some kind of heavy server caching going on. I can tell you that All in One SEO Pack is working fine and I don’t see any problems with the plugin on your site.

Steve, last question and then I am all set:

in the general settings (Home Page Settings) there is the title, description and keywords. I delete it (because I want to customize it in the language pages), but it keeps on getting back. Every time I delete it, it appears again!!!

I don’t know if the freelancer guy “hardcoded” it in any place. I have even edited the mysql database (aioseop_options) and deleted the title, desc + keywords, but then they re-appear!

Any help on this? All other pages work just great, just the homepage NOT.

thanks, marc

Hi Marc,

So you don’t want to delete the Home Page Settings Title and Description, these will be used on the homepage for your site for the default language. If you’re trying to set the Title and Description for the homepage for the other languages then you need to follow the instructions provided by WPML here – https://wpml.org/documentation/getting-started-guide/string-translation/

They use string translations for translating the homepage title, description and keywords. This will change with the next version of All in One SEO Pack which is due out this month.

Hi Steve,

perfect!! After hours of searching I found about about that and found the strings in WPML. So, looking forward for the next version! ??

thanks for your support!! I will definitely update to PRO version!!

marc