How to Control Title Tags and Metadata Description in Joomla |
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After noticing how many of our clients are having issues with duplicate title tags and meta description, I have made the creation of this newsletter our top priority. Please let me first illustrate below what title tags and meta description text is and how it appears in search engine results.  Title tag also appears in the upper left corner of your browser window. See below. 
So now that we understand what title tag and meta description are, let me show you how to make them unique.
Before you begin, please make sure that you have sh404SEF listed under Joomla Control Panel --> Components. If not, please contact your friendly Joomla technical support online.
First, you need to go to Joomla Control Panel --> Modules --> Site Modules --> Filter by mod_shCustomTags --> sh404SEF Custom tags module --> Publish it in the last module position in your template.
Last module position in your template will be different for most of you. I recommend that you contact our friendly Joomla expert for help or alternatively try every module position until it works! It makes it even harder that sh404SEF Custom tags module does not provide any visible change on your web site when published so I strongly recommend having us do this for you more efficiently. Contact your Joomla expert now .
Then, if you have published the sh404SEF Custom tags module correctly, please go Joomla Control Panel --> Components --> sh404SEF --> View/Edit SEF Urls. 
Making uneducated changes in your sh404SEF component can cause catastrophic results for your web site traffic, broken links and/or functionalities on your site. For any changes outside the scope of this post, please contact your experienced Joomla developer .
After clicking on View/Edit SEF Urls, you will need to click on Home page Meta in the upper right hand corner. See below. 
Change the following parameters:
1) Title Tag
To verify that you have created your custom tag, please go to your home page (eg. www.domainname.com and click F5 on your keyboard to refresh your screen. Your custom title should appear in the upper left hand corner of your screen. Checking the meta description is a bit more complicated as you are required to view page html source. Please keep in mind that it may take several days or even weeks for your custom text to be updated on search engine results.
After setting up title tag and meta description for the home page, you may create new or modify title and description for other pages by checking a link then clicking on New Meta on the right hand side of your screen. All your pages should have a unique keyword rich title and description for optimal SEO results.
For more information related to setting up or managing titles, metadata descriptions and friendly URLs on your site, please contact me for a free consultation. Comments (24)
  written by Paul, September 23, 2008
Thank you. That helped. You could mention, that it is possible, to add a new location in the manager, and load that as last one in the template.
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 written by 0gy, September 23, 2008
@Paul: Correct. A new location could be added in the Template Manager but in order to keep this post simple for non-technical users to understand, I didn't list such details. In any way, I'll admit I did not think of doing that myself :) Stop by again when you have a chance!
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 written by ninad, September 26, 2008
sh404sef custom tag module is not working for anyone.I also have same module but its not working.Many peoples have also experienced same problem.
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 written by Marosh, October 06, 2008
What about removing duplicated meta tags without installing any add-in? I always try to use as much of the core features as possible. It helps me to keep the system secured and ready for the updates. Any suggestions?
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 written by 000gy, October 06, 2008
@ Marosh:
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I think the following post will answer your questions what can be done with Joomla default sef vs. other extensions: http://www.alledia.com/blog/joomla-1.5/seo-comparison-of-joomla-1.0-and-1.5/ Also, the following post is pretty useful as well comparing 3rd party solutions: http://www.alledia.com/blog/joomla-urls/complete-sef-url-extension-comparison/ Best, Ogy report abuse
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 written by Ben, October 08, 2008
Thank you for the clear explanation. Just one (silly?) question: if I set sh404SEF to handle the meta tags and description should I leave the the Metadata information in the Joomla Article sections blank?
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written by 00gy, October 08, 2008
Hi Ben,
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that is a reasonable question. You should only manage your Titles and Descriptions via sh404SEF, no need to use Article Metadata tabs. Best, Ogy report abuse
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 written by Mik, December 17, 2008
Having the ability to change title and meta tags is one thing but what about the actual duplication of page contant. If a SEF module creates 4 pages from the various menus that link into one page, you can change the meta data for each duplicate and set a prefered main page of the 4... BUT... Assuming Google reads all 4 of these pages, it is still going to see that the visible content on that page is the same for each page.
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Isnt this the biggest problem. I have done loads of reading to try and get a definitive answer but not succeeded yet. report abuse
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 written by TechJammer, January 19, 2009
I want the core content item meta description and meta keywords to display on each content page. I don't want to enter them in sh404SEF, because they already exist on the content pages.
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Any idea how I can make this work when using sh404SEF? report abuse
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 written by 000gy, January 19, 2009
Hello TechJammer, your request is currently not possible w/ sh404SEF but it could be completed w/ some custom programming if really needed. However, using sh404SEF for this is nice because often you may want your page title to be different from your article or category name, etc.
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written by TechJammer, January 19, 2009
Thanks 000gy! There are so many aditional plug-ins on the site I am working on, that I may just go back to standard Joomla SEO! It seems there are just too many varibales to consider when trying to make all of them work with an SEF module! Thanks for letting me know your thoughts!
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written by 000gy, January 19, 2009
u welcome TechJammer, however based on over 2 yrs of professional development in Joomla, I would still choose sh404SEF over standard Joomla SEF.
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written by TechJammer, January 19, 2009
000gy, I just tried to PURGE the cache and SEF URL's and nothing happens. I don't get any errors, and the page keeps refreshing back to the WARNING/PROCEED button.
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My version reports as Version w2 - BETA, when I look at the control panel. On the sh404SEF download page, the latest version is com_sh404SEF_1.3.9_build_357.joomla1.0.x.zip. Which version should I be using? report abuse
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written by Ogy, January 19, 2009
Hi TechJammer, you seem to have some really odd issue going on w/ your installation and sh404SEF. Instead of me guessing what may be wrong, I would advise that you request our or someone else's professional help.
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Related to your questions, we use the latest version available on the official developer's site for Joomla 1.0. Also, you may clear your friendly url cache via phpAdmin. However, there seem to be more issues, so I think you should contact us via http://www.ogosense.com/contact-us/ ,check on the official extension forum or seek professional assistance elsewhere. I would still be curious to find out later what happened in the end and what the root issue was. Ogy report abuse
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 written by Ogy, January 19, 2009
@ Mik, the issue you are referring to in your post is addressed with sh404SEF where one sh404SEF URL replaces many duplicate non-SEF friendly URLs. If you ever used sh404SEF, this would be obvious by going to see View/Edit SEF URLs in the Joomla Control Panel, where you would notice that duplicate SEF URLs have 0 hits and the main URL has the most hits. I'll make you this screenshot of this for a drink if you live nearby :) or you may hire me hourly to explain this live if you are so curious. Best, Ogy
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written by TechJammer, January 19, 2009
One thing I am good at is eventually finding the root cause of my problems! Hopefully I will find the problem, and i'll post the resolution.
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Thanks again for all your help Ogy! report abuse
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written by 00000gy, January 19, 2009
that's the way to go TechJammer, as you know everyone's time is valuable. If you have time and knowledge, it's certainly fun trying to figure out these issues. However, our typical business client just wants these issues resolved asap so they can keep focusing on their own business area, not how Joomla works.
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written by TechJammer, January 30, 2009
Ogy,
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Through the process of individually disabling modules and plug-ins, The site owner was finally able to determine that a 'KickApps SSO mambot' is causing the missing meta tag info to occur. It has NOTHING to do with sh404SEF. When the 'KickApps SSO mambot' is disabled. The meta tags and title all appear properly. The site owner is now working with the KickApps vendor to try and correct. Thanks for contributing your suggestions to resolve this problem! report abuse
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 written by Yaniv Bahat, March 12, 2009
Hi,
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I did exactly as explained , clicked on the save button and i did not see any change. Please advise Thanks report abuse
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 written by Ogy, December 30, 2009
@Yaniv Bahat, I'm sure we could resolve your issue if you contact our tech support: http://www.ogosense.com/contact-us/ Your issue must be unique to your particular site and not to sh404SEF or all Joomla sites.
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 written by Pavel, January 04, 2010
Thank you for sharing, very informative, exactly what I was looking for. I keep your site in my reader Best regards
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 written by William, February 20, 2010
Hi,
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This is probably slightly off topic, but I have a new joomla site but every page on my website does not seem to display the correct meta description and keywords (under "view page source").....and yet, I have particularly edited/added these in the CMS area. Instead for some reason, the source code displays an automatic meta desription and some general keywords per page.....how do I change this to display the specific keywords and meta description as edited in the CMS area? I believe that there are some settings that should allow the individual meta description to overide the global meta tag settings per page....I have been told but it's just all confusing!! Thank you in advance. Feel free to email me. report abuse
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