SEO - Meta Titles and Descriptions

vittyc · January 4, 2019

Is there anyway I can control and update the meta titles and descriptions for pages.

Currently the homepage says 'Portal Home' and if I go to WordPress hosting for example, I get 'Shopping Cart'

Can anyone recommended a plugin or a tutorial on how to get around this please?

Cheers

brian! · January 4, 2019

13 minutes ago, vittyc said:

Can anyone recommended a plugin or a tutorial on how to get around this please?

if you wanted to edit the header template, you could follow the post below as a starting point...

vittyc · January 4, 2019

23 minutes ago, brian! said:

if you wanted to edit the header template, you could follow the post below as a starting point...

Thanks for the quick response Brian, makes sense - but how does that relate to "pages" where it's pulled from ID e.g. https://www.domain.com/cart.php?gid=1

brian! · January 4, 2019

31 minutes ago, vittyc said:

Thanks for the quick response Brian, makes sense - but how does that relate to "pages" where it's pulled from ID e.g. https://www.domain.com/cart.php?gid=1

are you saying that you want each product group (and each cart step within that) to all have unique page titles and descriptions ?? possibly including the group name in the cart page titles ??

vittyc · January 6, 2019

Yeah if that's possible....?

I tried;

{elseif $templatefile eq 'cart.php?gid=1'}

and no change, I don't think $templatefile is right, but not 100% sure what would work...

brian! · January 7, 2019

On 06/01/2019 at 18:03, vittyc said:

Yeah if that's possible....?

oh it's possible in any number of ways, it just depends how thorough you need it to be, how complicated you want the code to look and what your desired output is.

On 06/01/2019 at 18:03, vittyc said:
I tried;
{elseif $templatefile eq 'cart.php?gid=1'}
and no change, I don't think $templatefile is right, but not 100% sure what would work...

that wouldn't work (but you already know that now!) - templatefile is the correct variable to use, but it equals your template name (with at least one exception), not the query strings after the question mark.

let's say that you still want to go down the multilingual route using language strings to do this as outlined in the above thread, we can expand the code to the following...

	{if ($gid && !empty($LANG.pagetitle.{$templatefile}.{$gid}))}
		<title>{$LANG.pagetitle.{$templatefile}.{$gid}}</title>
	{elseif ($checkout)}
		<title>{$LANG.pagetitle.checkout}</title>
	{elseif ($productinfo && !empty($LANG.pagetitle.{$templatefile}.{$productinfo.pid}))}
		<title>{$LANG.pagetitle.{$templatefile}.{$productinfo.pid}}</title>	
	{elseif (!$inShoppingCart && !empty($LANG.pagetitle.{$templatefile}))}
		<title>{$LANG.pagetitle.{$templatefile}}</title>
	{else}
		<title>{if $kbarticle.title}{$kbarticle.title} - {/if}{$pagetitle} - {$companyname}</title>
	{/if}
	{if ($gid && !empty($LANG.metakeywords.{$templatefile}.{$gid}))}
		<meta name="keywords" content="{$LANG.metakeywords.{$templatefile}.{$gid}}">
	{elseif ($productinfo && !empty($LANG.metakeywords.{$templatefile}.{$productinfo.pid}))}
		<meta name="keywords" content="{$LANG.metakeywords.{$templatefile}.{$productinfo.pid}}">
	{elseif (!$gid && !empty($LANG.metakeywords.{$templatefile}))}
		<meta name="keywords" content="{$LANG.metakeywords.{$templatefile}}">
	{/if}
	{if ($gid && !empty($LANG.metadescription.{$templatefile}.{$gid}))}
		<meta name="description" content="{$LANG.metadescription.{$templatefile}.{$gid}}">
	{elseif ($productinfo && !empty($LANG.metadescription.{$templatefile}.{$productinfo.pid}))}
		<meta name="keywords" content="{$LANG.metadescription.{$templatefile}.{$productinfo.pid}}">		
	{elseif (!$gid && !empty($LANG.metadescription.{$templatefile}))}
		<meta name="description" content="{$LANG.metadescription.{$templatefile}}">
	{/if}

now i've kept the code as simple as practically possible to understand and expand (no I really have!), but let me explain those 5 title if statements...

if $gid exists and a language override exists for that product group, then output that language string - this should only occur with the Products template page, e.g the group categories opening page.
if you are at checkout, then use the "checkout" language override - this rule is because for both viewcart and checkout, $templatefile = "viewcart", so this allows you to distinguish between viewcart and checkout.
if $productinfo exists and a language override exists for that product (could still use product groups if required though), then output that language string - this should apply to the three cart configuration template pages.
if you are not in any cart page, and a language override exists for that template, then output that language string - this should be all pages outside of the cart.
if none of the above 4 rules match, then it defaults to using the standard format - e.g article titles in the knowledgebase, or pagetitle / company name

also, if you create an English language override, but not an equivalent Dutch string, then Dutch visitors will see the default titles.

I would have thought that meta tags would be irrelevant for the 3 cart configuration pages for SEO purposes, but you could expand the if statements used in the title block to the meta tags section if you feel that they should be added.

with regards to the language overrides themselves, they would be in the following format...

$_LANG['pagetitle']['homepage'] = 'The Home Page';
$_LANG['metakeywords']['homepage'] = 'Alpha, Beta, Delta';
$_LANG['metadescription']['homepage'] = 'This is the home page of WHMCS';
$_LANG['pagetitle']['products']['10'] = 'Shared Hosting';
$_LANG['metakeywords']['products']['10'] = 'Alpha, Beta, Delta SH';
$_LANG['metadescription']['products']['10'] = 'This is Shared Hosting';
$_LANG['pagetitle']['configureproductdomain']['45'] = 'Basic Hosting';
$_LANG['pagetitle']['viewcart'] = 'Cart Summary';
$_LANG['pagetitle']['checkout'] = 'Checkout';

so for product groups, the number in the final square brackets relates to the $gid value for that product group; for products, the number in the final square brackets is the $pid value for that product; it will make sense once you start adding them! 🙂

if you didn't want to use new language overrides in the titles, then you could do it with existing variables instead...

	{if ($gid)}
		<title>{$groupname}</title>
	{elseif ($checkout)}
		<title>{$LANG.checkout}</title>
	{elseif ($productinfo)}
		<title>{$productinfo.name}</title>	
	{elseif (!$inShoppingCart)}
		<title>{$templatefile|capitalize}</title>
	{else}
		<title>{if $kbarticle.title}{$kbarticle.title} - {/if}{$pagetitle} - {$companyname}</title>
	{/if}

obviously, I don't know what you're desired output is, but you could add {debug} to any specific template to get a list of available variables in that template and adjust your output accordingly.

I suppose if you wanted to stick exactly with the {$pagetitle} - {$companyname} format for all pages outside of the KB, you could use a ClientAreaPage hook to just set the $pagetitle variable based on $templatefile value or whatever... with a possible secondary clientareaheadoutput hook to add the meta tags for a page... though if you are deviating from the above title format in any way, you would really need to amend the titles in the template rather than via a hook.

test the above header template code thoroughly as obviously I haven't spent the time going through each and every template - so if you see any glaring issues that you can't fix with other variables, let me know.

vittyc · January 8, 2019

That's brilliant, thanks! 🙂

Maraby · December 14, 2019

Thanks

On 1/7/2019 at 6:14 PM, brian! said:
oh it's possible in any number of ways, it just depends how thorough you need it to be, how complicated you want the code to look and what your desired output is.

that wouldn't work (but you already know that now!) - templatefile is the correct variable to use, but it equals your template name (with at least one exception), not the query strings after the question mark.

let's say that you still want to go down the multilingual route using language strings to do this as outlined in the above thread, we can expand the code to the following...
	{if ($gid && !empty($LANG.pagetitle.{$templatefile}.{$gid}))}
		<title>{$LANG.pagetitle.{$templatefile}.{$gid}}</title>
	{elseif ($checkout)}
		<title>{$LANG.pagetitle.checkout}</title>
	{elseif ($productinfo && !empty($LANG.pagetitle.{$templatefile}.{$productinfo.pid}))}
		<title>{$LANG.pagetitle.{$templatefile}.{$productinfo.pid}}</title>	
	{elseif (!$inShoppingCart && !empty($LANG.pagetitle.{$templatefile}))}
		<title>{$LANG.pagetitle.{$templatefile}}</title>
	{else}
		<title>{if $kbarticle.title}{$kbarticle.title} - {/if}{$pagetitle} - {$companyname}</title>
	{/if}
	{if ($gid && !empty($LANG.metakeywords.{$templatefile}.{$gid}))}
		<meta name="keywords" content="{$LANG.metakeywords.{$templatefile}.{$gid}}">
	{elseif ($productinfo && !empty($LANG.metakeywords.{$templatefile}.{$productinfo.pid}))}
		<meta name="keywords" content="{$LANG.metakeywords.{$templatefile}.{$productinfo.pid}}">
	{elseif (!$gid && !empty($LANG.metakeywords.{$templatefile}))}
		<meta name="keywords" content="{$LANG.metakeywords.{$templatefile}}">
	{/if}
	{if ($gid && !empty($LANG.metadescription.{$templatefile}.{$gid}))}
		<meta name="description" content="{$LANG.metadescription.{$templatefile}.{$gid}}">
	{elseif ($productinfo && !empty($LANG.metadescription.{$templatefile}.{$productinfo.pid}))}
		<meta name="keywords" content="{$LANG.metadescription.{$templatefile}.{$productinfo.pid}}">		
	{elseif (!$gid && !empty($LANG.metadescription.{$templatefile}))}
		<meta name="description" content="{$LANG.metadescription.{$templatefile}}">
	{/if}
now i've kept the code as simple as practically possible to understand and expand (no I really have!), but let me explain those 5 title if statements...

if $gid exists and a language override exists for that product group, then output that language string - this should only occur with the Products template page, e.g the group categories opening page.

if you are at checkout, then use the "checkout" language override - this rule is because for both viewcart and checkout, $templatefile = "viewcart", so this allows you to distinguish between viewcart and checkout.

if $productinfo exists and a language override exists for that product (could still use product groups if required though), then output that language string - this should apply to the three cart configuration template pages.

if you are not in any cart page, and a language override exists for that template, then output that language string - this should be all pages outside of the cart.

if none of the above 4 rules match, then it defaults to using the standard format - e.g article titles in the knowledgebase, or pagetitle / company name

also, if you create an English language override, but not an equivalent Dutch string, then Dutch visitors will see the default titles.

I would have thought that meta tags would be irrelevant for the 3 cart configuration pages for SEO purposes, but you could expand the if statements used in the title block to the meta tags section if you feel that they should be added.

with regards to the language overrides themselves, they would be in the following format...
$_LANG['pagetitle']['homepage'] = 'The Home Page';
$_LANG['metakeywords']['homepage'] = 'Alpha, Beta, Delta';
$_LANG['metadescription']['homepage'] = 'This is the home page of WHMCS';
$_LANG['pagetitle']['products']['10'] = 'Shared Hosting';
$_LANG['metakeywords']['products']['10'] = 'Alpha, Beta, Delta SH';
$_LANG['metadescription']['products']['10'] = 'This is Shared Hosting';
$_LANG['pagetitle']['configureproductdomain']['45'] = 'Basic Hosting';
$_LANG['pagetitle']['viewcart'] = 'Cart Summary';
$_LANG['pagetitle']['checkout'] = 'Checkout';
so for product groups, the number in the final square brackets relates to the $gid value for that product group; for products, the number in the final square brackets is the $pid value for that product; it will make sense once you start adding them! 🙂

if you didn't want to use new language overrides in the titles, then you could do it with existing variables instead...
	{if ($gid)}
		<title>{$groupname}</title>
	{elseif ($checkout)}
		<title>{$LANG.checkout}</title>
	{elseif ($productinfo)}
		<title>{$productinfo.name}</title>	
	{elseif (!$inShoppingCart)}
		<title>{$templatefile|capitalize}</title>
	{else}
		<title>{if $kbarticle.title}{$kbarticle.title} - {/if}{$pagetitle} - {$companyname}</title>
	{/if}
obviously, I don't know what you're desired output is, but you could add {debug} to any specific template to get a list of available variables in that template and adjust your output accordingly.

I suppose if you wanted to stick exactly with the {$pagetitle} - {$companyname} format for all pages outside of the KB, you could use a ClientAreaPage hook to just set the $pagetitle variable based on $templatefile value or whatever... with a possible secondary clientareaheadoutput hook to add the meta tags for a page... though if you are deviating from the above title format in any way, you would really need to amend the titles in the template rather than via a hook.

test the above header template code thoroughly as obviously I haven't spent the time going through each and every template - so if you see any glaring issues that you can't fix with other variables, let me know.

Thanks

isixhosting · May 21, 2020

On 1/7/2019 at 4:14 PM, brian! said:

Works perfectly!!!

Edited May 21, 2020 by isixhosting

Samra · September 23, 2020

Hello, please how to have this work for those URL located in child menu under Store :

client/cart.php?a=add&domain=register
cart.php?a=add&domain=transfer

cart.php?a=view

brian! · September 25, 2020

	{if ($gid)}
		<title>{$groupname}</title>
	{elseif ($checkout)}
		<title>{$LANG.checkout}</title>
	{elseif ($productinfo)}
		<title>{$productinfo.name}</title>	
	{elseif ($templatefile|strstr:'store/')}
		<title>{$breadcrumb.{($breadcrumb|count)-1}.label}</title>
	{elseif ($templatefile eq "domainregister")}
		<title>{$_LANG.registerdomainname}</title>		
	{elseif ($templatefile eq "domaintransfer")}
		<title>{$_LANG.transferdomainname}</title>		
	{elseif ($templatefile eq "viewcart")}
		<title>{$_LANG.registerdomainname}</title>		
	{elseif (!$inShoppingCart)}
		<title>{$templatefile|capitalize}</title>
	{else}
		<title>{if $kbarticle.title}{$kbarticle.title} - {/if}{$pagetitle} - {$companyname}</title>
	{/if}

Samra · September 25, 2020

7 minutes ago, brian! said:


	{if ($gid)}
		<title>{$groupname}</title>
	{elseif ($checkout)}
		<title>{$LANG.checkout}</title>
	{elseif ($productinfo)}
		<title>{$productinfo.name}</title>	
	{elseif ($templatefile|strstr:'store/')}
		<title>{$breadcrumb.{($breadcrumb|count)-1}.label}</title>
	{elseif ($templatefile eq "domainregister")}
		<title>{$_LANG.registerdomainname}</title>		
	{elseif ($templatefile eq "domaintransfer")}
		<title>{$_LANG.transferdomainname}</title>		
	{elseif ($templatefile eq "viewcart")}
		<title>{$_LANG.registerdomainname}</title>		
	{elseif (!$inShoppingCart)}
		<title>{$templatefile|capitalize}</title>
	{else}
		<title>{if $kbarticle.title}{$kbarticle.title} - {/if}{$pagetitle} - {$companyname}</title>
	{/if}

Thank you very much Mr @brian! but please is there a way to use the first solution, I mean with using new language overrides in the titles

Martin Soluce · December 5, 2022

@Brian After whmcs 8.6.1 what is the best option to add meta title, description, twitter card?

gsina · April 28, 2023

On 1/7/2019 at 6:14 PM, brian! said:
oh it's possible in any number of ways, it just depends how thorough you need it to be, how complicated you want the code to look and what your desired output is.

that wouldn't work (but you already know that now!) - templatefile is the correct variable to use, but it equals your template name (with at least one exception), not the query strings after the question mark.

let's say that you still want to go down the multilingual route using language strings to do this as outlined in the above thread, we can expand the code to the following...
	{if ($gid && !empty($LANG.pagetitle.{$templatefile}.{$gid}))}
		<title>{$LANG.pagetitle.{$templatefile}.{$gid}}</title>
	{elseif ($checkout)}
		<title>{$LANG.pagetitle.checkout}</title>
	{elseif ($productinfo && !empty($LANG.pagetitle.{$templatefile}.{$productinfo.pid}))}
		<title>{$LANG.pagetitle.{$templatefile}.{$productinfo.pid}}</title>	
	{elseif (!$inShoppingCart && !empty($LANG.pagetitle.{$templatefile}))}
		<title>{$LANG.pagetitle.{$templatefile}}</title>
	{else}
		<title>{if $kbarticle.title}{$kbarticle.title} - {/if}{$pagetitle} - {$companyname}</title>
	{/if}
	{if ($gid && !empty($LANG.metakeywords.{$templatefile}.{$gid}))}
		<meta name="keywords" content="{$LANG.metakeywords.{$templatefile}.{$gid}}">
	{elseif ($productinfo && !empty($LANG.metakeywords.{$templatefile}.{$productinfo.pid}))}
		<meta name="keywords" content="{$LANG.metakeywords.{$templatefile}.{$productinfo.pid}}">
	{elseif (!$gid && !empty($LANG.metakeywords.{$templatefile}))}
		<meta name="keywords" content="{$LANG.metakeywords.{$templatefile}}">
	{/if}
	{if ($gid && !empty($LANG.metadescription.{$templatefile}.{$gid}))}
		<meta name="description" content="{$LANG.metadescription.{$templatefile}.{$gid}}">
	{elseif ($productinfo && !empty($LANG.metadescription.{$templatefile}.{$productinfo.pid}))}
		<meta name="keywords" content="{$LANG.metadescription.{$templatefile}.{$productinfo.pid}}">		
	{elseif (!$gid && !empty($LANG.metadescription.{$templatefile}))}
		<meta name="description" content="{$LANG.metadescription.{$templatefile}}">
	{/if}
now i've kept the code as simple as practically possible to understand and expand (no I really have!), but let me explain those 5 title if statements...

if $gid exists and a language override exists for that product group, then output that language string - this should only occur with the Products template page, e.g the group categories opening page.

if you are at checkout, then use the "checkout" language override - this rule is because for both viewcart and checkout, $templatefile = "viewcart", so this allows you to distinguish between viewcart and checkout.

if $productinfo exists and a language override exists for that product (could still use product groups if required though), then output that language string - this should apply to the three cart configuration template pages.

if you are not in any cart page, and a language override exists for that template, then output that language string - this should be all pages outside of the cart.

if none of the above 4 rules match, then it defaults to using the standard format - e.g article titles in the knowledgebase, or pagetitle / company name

also, if you create an English language override, but not an equivalent Dutch string, then Dutch visitors will see the default titles.

I would have thought that meta tags would be irrelevant for the 3 cart configuration pages for SEO purposes, but you could expand the if statements used in the title block to the meta tags section if you feel that they should be added.

with regards to the language overrides themselves, they would be in the following format...
$_LANG['pagetitle']['homepage'] = 'The Home Page';
$_LANG['metakeywords']['homepage'] = 'Alpha, Beta, Delta';
$_LANG['metadescription']['homepage'] = 'This is the home page of WHMCS';
$_LANG['pagetitle']['products']['10'] = 'Shared Hosting';
$_LANG['metakeywords']['products']['10'] = 'Alpha, Beta, Delta SH';
$_LANG['metadescription']['products']['10'] = 'This is Shared Hosting';
$_LANG['pagetitle']['configureproductdomain']['45'] = 'Basic Hosting';
$_LANG['pagetitle']['viewcart'] = 'Cart Summary';
$_LANG['pagetitle']['checkout'] = 'Checkout';
so for product groups, the number in the final square brackets relates to the $gid value for that product group; for products, the number in the final square brackets is the $pid value for that product; it will make sense once you start adding them! 🙂

if you didn't want to use new language overrides in the titles, then you could do it with existing variables instead...
	{if ($gid)}
		<title>{$groupname}</title>
	{elseif ($checkout)}
		<title>{$LANG.checkout}</title>
	{elseif ($productinfo)}
		<title>{$productinfo.name}</title>	
	{elseif (!$inShoppingCart)}
		<title>{$templatefile|capitalize}</title>
	{else}
		<title>{if $kbarticle.title}{$kbarticle.title} - {/if}{$pagetitle} - {$companyname}</title>
	{/if}
obviously, I don't know what you're desired output is, but you could add {debug} to any specific template to get a list of available variables in that template and adjust your output accordingly.

I suppose if you wanted to stick exactly with the {$pagetitle} - {$companyname} format for all pages outside of the KB, you could use a ClientAreaPage hook to just set the $pagetitle variable based on $templatefile value or whatever... with a possible secondary clientareaheadoutput hook to add the meta tags for a page... though if you are deviating from the above title format in any way, you would really need to amend the titles in the template rather than via a hook.

test the above header template code thoroughly as obviously I haven't spent the time going through each and every template - so if you see any glaring issues that you can't fix with other variables, let me know.

This worked well for me @brian! though I had to remove the "!" sign under !$inShoppingCart for it to display title that are in shopping cart like domain transfer and domain registration my english.php override looked like this $_LANG['pagetitle']['domainregister'] = 'Domain registration '; You profile:-) on lighter note though. Thanks much and God bless you in Christ Jesus!

Martin Soluce · August 25, 2023

@brian! Everyone looking at you for the best optimised SEO Title for Latest ver 8.7.3? the $gid options no more working.

RubixVi · September 16, 2023

There are plugins already out there that has fine control over the SEO information.

Saroha · February 26

Hi Everyone, The SEO Manager WHMCS addon module can help to better way to define SEO meta tags and it also adds Google verified Schema Markups for Products and Knowledgebase pages.
its new feature Autopilot automatically adds meta tags and schema markups for products and knowledgebase Pages.
you can add SEO tags to any page either in default pages or customized pages by just entering the URL of the page.
The URL below has the SEO tags and Schema markup by this plugin Autopilot feature.

https://networkhostinggroup.com/knowledgebase/5/Linux-Shared-hosting-Getting-started.html
you can verify the schema markup at https://validator.schema.org/ website
and meta tags at https://metatags.io/
This Plugin is developed by the Network Hosting Group company you can buy it directly from their website. If you have a customized theme then they can help you in any manner if you have any problem. To Purchase and Download the SEO Manager Plugin click the link Below
SEO Manager For WHMCS

SEO - Meta Titles and Descriptions

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