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VS Meta Description

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VS Meta Description

by Guido

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Description

About

With this lightweight plugin you can add a meta description to your website.

The meta description summarizes the content of a post or page.

Search engines such as Google and Bing will use the meta description when displaying search results.

Add a meta description only for your homepage, or for each individual post and page.

This plugin also supports WooCommerce products, product categories and tags.

How to use

After installation go to the settings page. This page is located at Settings > Meta description.

More info about using this plugin is displayed there as well.

Have a question?

Please take a look at the FAQ section.

Translation

Translations are not included, but the plugin supports WordPress language packs.

More translations are very welcome!

The translation folder inside this plugin is redundant, but kept for reference.

Credits

Without help and support from the WordPress community I was not able to develop this plugin, so thank you!

  1. Settings page (dashboard)

    Settings page (dashboard)

  2. Settings page (dashboard)

    Settings page (dashboard)

  3. Settings page (dashboard)

    Settings page (dashboard)

  4. Page excerpt classic editor (dashboard)

    Page excerpt classic editor (dashboard)

  5. Page excerpt block editor (dashboard)

    Page excerpt block editor (dashboard)

  6. Category description (dashboard)

    Category description (dashboard)

  7. WooCommerce product short description (dashboard)

    WooCommerce product short description (dashboard)

How do I set plugin language?

The plugin will use the website language, set in Settings > General.

If translations are not available in the selected language, English will be used.

How is the meta description added to my website?

The meta description will be added to the head section of your website.

Why does this plugin recommend a certain meta description length?

Because search engines such as Google and Bing recommend a meta description length roughly between 120 and 160 characters.

If your meta description is too short it may be ignored in favour of one that is generated by the search engine.

And if your meta description is too long it may be cut off.

Why does a search engine ignore my meta description?

After adding or changing a meta description it can take up to several weeks before search engines such as Google and Bing have indexed your website again.

But a search engine can also decide not to use it, if your meta description does not match the requirements.

Why no excerpt box in the editor?

When using the block editor, click the options icon and select “Preferences”.

When using the classic editor, click the “Screen Options” tab.

Probably the checkbox to display the relevant box in the editor is not checked.

Why no product section on settings page?

This section is only available if WooCommerce is installed and active.

Can I use this plugin with other SEO plugins?

If you have an active plugin (or theme) that also contains a meta description feature, don’t activate or use this feature.

Can I use the plugin on a ClassicPress website?

Yes you can!

Why is there no semantic versioning?

The version number won’t give you info about the type of update (major, minor, patch). You should check the changelog to see whether or not the update is a major or minor one.

How can I make a donation?

You like my plugin and want to make a donation? There’s a PayPal donate link at my website. Thank you!

Other questions or comments?

Please open a topic in the WordPress.org support forum for this plugin.

Works perfectly!

By Matija (Matija80) on July 18, 2025

Perfect for adding basic meta to your website.

Does what I need it to

By Chris Lovie-Tyler (chrislt) on April 19, 2024

This allowed me to avoid all the other bloated SEO plugins. Thanks!

USELESS

By Anonymous User (anonymized_21100648) on October 8, 2023

It inserts the same description for all pages, basically ruining the SEO of the entire site.

Its perfect

By wbxpress on April 26, 2022

it's perfect solution for me.

Migrated from Yoast

By gabbsmo (Gabbsmo) on October 29, 2021

Migrated from Yoast to this plugin to get rid of bloat in the admin area. I also like that it uses the built in post excerpt instead of custom meta like Yoast.

Perfect

By pablopiano on January 19, 2021

Simple and exactly what I needed. Thanks!

Great

By knecker on May 8, 2020

works

Excerpt → Description

By squeegily on March 28, 2020

All I wanted was the ability to make the manually-typed Excerpt show up in the Description, for the likes of Facebook and Google. This plugin does that. The best plugins provide functionality that really ought to have been included OOTB…this one fills yet another essential niche. KUDOS to Guido for making this.

Awesome Developer

By thomasmalley on December 15, 2019

This Plugin is great and deserves a way better Rating!

A 5 star plugin

By nick6352683 on December 11, 2018

The plugin works perfectly, it is extremely small (8kb zipped), which is a big plus, and the developer is super nice, very responsive and simply awesome. Thanks a million, Nick.

Version 8.0

  • Minor changes in code

Version 7.9

  • Removed wrong header from main plugin file

Version 7.8

  • Code improvements
  • Bumped the “requires PHP” version to 7.4
  • Bumped the “Requires at least” version to 6.0

Version 7.7

  • Textual changes

Version 7.6

  • Minor changes in code

Version 7.5

  • Minor changes in code

Version 7.4

  • Minor changes in code

Version 7.3

  • Minor changes in code

Version 7.2

  • Bumped the “requires PHP” version to 7.0
  • Bumped the “requires at least” version to 5.0
  • Minor changes in code

Version 7.1

  • Textual changes
  • Minor changes in code

For all versions please check file changelog.

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