Just a quick blog post about Wordpress configuration, mostly as a reminder to myself.
If you manage a public website, you probably want it to include some HTML metadata: it is important for referencing your website in search engines, as well as to provide a nice "preview miniature" on social on social networks, using Open Graph meta tags.
I was wondering how to add such metadata in a Wordpress website, in the easiest way. I tested various plugins, like OG — Better Share on Social Media or Head Meta Data. They are well made and have interesting features, like the ability to have custom tags depending on the current Wordpress page.
However I discovered that the simplest way to setup HTML <meta> tags, as a web developper, without having to install any plugin (that will require updates), is to just use the wp_head hook:
function head_meta_html() {
echo <<<'EOD'
<meta name="author" content="<author>">
<meta name="description" content="<description>">
<meta property="og:description" content="<description>">
<meta property="og:image" content="<full URL to a cover image for your website>">
<meta property="og:type" content="website">
<meta property="og:locale" content="<language code>">
<meta property="og:site_name" content="<website name>">
<meta property="og:title" content="<website name>">
<meta property="og:url" content="<website base URL>">
<meta name="rating" content="General">
<meta name="keywords" content="<keywords>">
<meta content="on" name="twitter:dnt">
<meta content="FR-49" name="geo.region">
<meta content="<city name or location name>" name="geo.placename">
<meta content="<coordinates; semicolon-separated>" name="geo.position">
<meta content="<coordinates, comma-separated>" name="ICBM">
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
...
}
</script>
EOD;
}
add_action('wp_head', 'head_meta_html');
You can for example put this in your Wordpress template functions.php file.
You may also want to remove the default <meta name="generator" content="WordPress X.Y.Z" /> tag, for security reasons.
Note that Wordpress, the theme you are using and the plugins you have installed, may already setup some <meta> tags,
like the charset or the viewport.
If you are interested in the relevance of HTML meta tags nowadays, I heavily recommend this article: You probably don’t need http-equiv meta tags @ rviscomi.dev.
