With the addition of Custom Post Types in WordPress 3.0, it’s power as a CMS has surged. Yoast SEO plugin has set the stage for SEO plugins for the Open source CMS juggernaut. I personally consider Yoast the best SEO plugin for WordPress. For more information about Yoast and where to get it check out here Yoast WordPress SEO Plugin . Yoast currently allows the user to have full control over SEO. My favorite part is the fact that it takes into account your Custom Post Types. (CPT’s)
With Yoast you can start configuring both Archive and Single page templates that belong to your CPT’s. One thing that struck me out of the box was the inability to change the meta information for certain custom post types directly on the page that was created. This is because CPT’s typically use a general archive template and would be trying to use the archive pages date format.
Yoast does give the ability to change the meta information on CPT’s along with the general archive and special pages. These changes are not made in the traditional way that you would configure the general posts and pages.
Here’s how to find your CPT’s meta information:
- Find the SEO icon on your WP dashboard
- Click on the Title’s & Meta sub link
- Click the Post Types tab from the tabbed nav
- Use the Placeholders or general text to complete title tags
- Be sure to save settings when finished
Some examples of the placeholders include:
- %%name%% – Blog Name
- %%sitename%% – Full Site Name
- %%pt_plural%% – Your Post Type’s Plural Name
If you are looking to work on the meta information for your general date formatted archive pages you will be looking for the Other tab within the Title’s & Meta sub link section. You have the same control over these general archive pages and you will find the special pages listings at the bottom of this page including:
- Search Results Page
- 404 Error Page Template
The full documentation for Yoast’s SEO plugin can be found here: Yoast SEO Plugin