LG Better Meta Improve your sites SEO with custom page titles, descriptions, robot meta tags and more.

Features

The LG Better Meta extension adds a new tab to the publish and edit tabs of the ExpressionEngine administration.

The LG Better Meta plugin adds meta information to your template using the {exp:lg_better_meta} tag.

LG Better Meta provides an interface to add the following meta information to a weblog entry:

• author
• title
• description
• keywords
• publisher
• rights
• identifier
• date created
• date modified
• date valid
• instructions for robots
• site title

The values for each piece of meta are collected from various pieces of existing content. However they can be overridden on a per entry basis and futhermore by the plugin tag paramaters.

The rendering hierarchy of an entries meta is:

Extension Settings → Standard Entry Values → Better Meta Settings → Plugin Tag Parameters

Screenshots

• Extension Settings
• Extension Tab
• Rendered HTML Source

Requirements

LG Better Meta is an ExpressionEngine extension & plugin and has been tested on ExpressionEngine 1.6.1.

Installation

The LG Better Meta extension contains an extension and plugin folder and a language file. To install LG Beter Meta follow the instructions below:

1. Download the latest version of LG Better Meta
2. Extract the .zip file to your desktop
3. Copy extensions/ext.lg_better_meta.php directory to your /system/extensions directory
4. Copy plugins/pi.lg_better_meta.php directory to your /system/plugins directory
5. Copy the language/english/lang.lg_better_meta.php file to your /system/languages/english directory
6. Open the Extensions Manager
7. Enable Extensions if not already enabled
8. Enable the extension
9. Configure the extension settings

Extension Configuration

The LG Better Meta extension has the following extension settings which are used as the default values of the {exp:lg_better_meta} tag.

• Weblog IDs
• Site author
• Site description
• Site keywords
• Site title
• Site publisher
• Site rights
• Site page title divider
• Meta template
• Robots index
• Robots follow
• Robots archive
• Show title in admin tab
• Show description in admin tab
• Show keywords in admin tab
• Show author in admin tab
• Show publisher in admin tab
• Show rights in admin tab
• Show robots in admin tab

Weblog IDs [required]

1,2,3

LG Better Meta can be restricted to specific weblogs. The setting value must be a comma seperated list of weblog IDs.

Site Author [required]

Leevi Graham

The person or organization primarily responsible for creating the intellectual content of the website. For example, authors in the case of written documents, artists, photographers, or illustrators in the case of visual resources.

Site Description [optional]

Add meta data to your ExpressionEngine entries using LG Better Meta. Extension and plugin installation, settings and usage instructions.

A textual description of the content of the entry.

Google displays the description in its search results under the page title. To display correctly in google search results the description should be no longer than 150 characters.

Site Keywords [optional]

keywords="LG Better Meta, ExpressionEngine, Extensions, Plugins, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, Newcastle Web Design and Development"

Keywords are not used by any of the major search engines, however they do make you focus on your content.

Typically, the topic will be represented using keywords, key phrases, or classification codes. Recommended best practice is to use a controlled vocabulary.

Site Title[required]

leevigraham.com - Newcastle web design and development

The site title will be appended to the entry title separated by the site page title divider.

Site Publisher [optional]

Leevi Graham Web Design & Development

An entity responsible for making the site content available. Examples of a Publisher include a person, an organization, or a service.

Site Rights [optional]

Content published under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Australia license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/au/)

Information about rights held in and over the site content. Typically, rights information includes a statement about various property rights associated with the resource, including intellectual property rights.

Site Page Title Divider [required]

- | » . →

The page title divider, divides the site title and entry title.

Site Meta Template [required]

<title>{title}</title>

<meta name='description' content='{description}' />
<meta name='keywords' content='{keywords}' />
<meta name='robots' content='{robots}' />

<link rel='schema.DC' href='http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/' />
<link rel='schema.DCTERMS' href='http://purl.org/dc/terms/' />
<meta name='DC.title' content='{title}' />
<meta name='DC.creator' content='{author}' />
<meta name='DC.subject' content='{keywords}' />
<meta name='DC.description' content='{description}' />
<meta name='DC.publisher' content='{publisher}' />
<meta name='DC.date.created' scheme='DCTERMS.W3CDTF' content='{date_created}' />
<meta name='DC.date.modified' scheme='DCTERMS.W3CDTF' content='{date_modified}' />
<meta name='DC.date.valid' scheme='DCTERMS.W3CDTF' content='{date_valid}' />
<meta name='DC.type' scheme='DCTERMS.DCMIType' content='Text' />
<meta name='DC.rights' scheme='DCTERMS.URI' content='{rights}'>
<meta name='DC.format' content='text/html' />
<meta name='DC.identifier' scheme='DCTERMS.URI' content='{identifier}' />

The meta template is rendered using the {exp:lg_better_meta} tag. Variables wrapped in curly braces '{}' are replaced by the meta values.

Index Pages [required]

Yes | No

Instruct search engines to index pages.

Follow External Links [required]

Yes | No

Instruct search engines to follow external links.

Archive Pages [required]

Yes | No

Instruct search engines to archive pages.

Show title in admin tab [required]

Yes | No

Show the meta title option in the Better Meta admin tab.

Show description in admin tab [required]

Yes | No

Show the meta description option in the Better Meta admin tab.

Show keywords in admin tab [required]

Yes | No

Show the meta keywords option in the Better Meta admin tab.

Show author in admin tab [required]

Yes | No

Show the meta author option in the Better Meta admin tab.

Show publisher in admin tab [required]

Yes | No

Show the meta publisher option in the Better Meta admin tab.

Show rights in admin tab [required]

Yes | No

Show the meta rights option in the Better Meta admin tab.

Show robots in admin tab [required]

Yes | No

Show the meta robots options in the Better Meta admin tab.

Usage

Adding meta data to an entry

To add entry specific meta data to an entry follow these simple steps:

1. Create a new entry in one of the weblogs listed in the Weblog IDs extension setting.
2. Click the Better Meta tab and enter entry specific values.
3. Complete the entry and save as normal

The values entered in the Better Meta tab will override the default extension settings where applicable.

Outputting entry meta data

The LG Better Meta plugin outputs the meta information to your site using the {exp:lg_better_meta} tag. The tag has many parameters to further customise the meta output.

Simple usage outputs the Meta Template with the default extension settings.

<head>
  ... 
  {exp:lg_better_meta}
  ...
</head>

Using LG Better Meta inside embedded templates

More often than not you will want to include a header template which includes the {lg:better_meta} tag into another template.

This may make it hard to pass the exact required parameters to LG Better Meta. To solve this issue LG Better Meta ignores parameter values starting with {embed:.

Embedded Header template

This code should be placed in your header template. Chances are you will not embed all the variables but as mentioned above unused variables will be discarded.

<head>
  ...
  {exp:lg_better_meta
    entry_id="{embed:entry_id}"
    weblog_id="{embed:weblog_id}"
    url_title="{embed:url_title}"
    title="{embed:title}"
    description="{embed:description}"
    keywords="{embed:keywords}"
    author="{embed:author}"
    publisher="{embed:publisher}"
    rights="{embed:rights}"
    date_created="{embed:date_created}"
    date_modified="{embed:date_modified}"
    date_valid="{embed:date_valid}"
    identifier="{embed:identifier}"
    robots_index="{embed:robots_index}"
    robots_follow="{embed:robots_follow}"
    robots_archive="{embed:robots_archive}"
  }
  ...
</head>

Entries template

{embed="your_template_group/header_template" entry_id="{entry_id}"}

Tag Reference

LG Better Meta

LG Better Meta makes use of only one tag: {exp:lg_better_meta} whose output can be customised using any combination of the following parameters:

Parameters

• entry_id=
• url_title=
• title=
• description=
• keywords=
• author=
• publisher=
• rights=
• date_created=
• date_modified=
• date_valid=
• identifier=
• robots_index=
• robots_follow=
• robots_archive=

entry_id= [optional]

entry_id="1"

The entry_id of a weblog entry.

url_title= [optional]

url_title="this-is-the-entry-url-title"

The url_title of a weblog entry. Hint: Use segment variables so a {weblog:entries} tag is not needed.

title= [optional]

title="This will be prepended to the site title"

The title will be prepended to the site title separated by the site page title divider.

description= [optional]

description="Add meta data to your ExpressionEngine entries using LG Better Meta. Extension and plugin installation, settings and usage instructions."

A textual description of the content of the entry.

Google displays the description in its search results under the page title. To display correctly in google search results the description should be no longer than 150 characters.

keywords= [optional]

keywords="LG Better Meta, ExpressionEngine, Extensions, Plugins, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, Newcastle Web Design and Development"

Keywords are not used by any of the major search engines, however they do make you focus on your content.

Typically, the topic will be represented using keywords, key phrases, or classification codes. Recommended best practice is to use a controlled vocabulary.

author= [optional]

author="Leevi Graham"

An entity primarily responsible for creating the entry content. Examples of a Creator include a person, an organization, or a service.

publisher= [optional]

publisher="Leevi Graham Web Design & Development"

An entity responsible for making the entry content available. Examples of a Publisher include a person, an organization, or a service.

rights= [optional]

rights="Content published under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Australia license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/au/)"

Information about rights held in and over the entry content. Typically, rights information includes a statement about various property rights associated with the resource, including intellectual property rights.

date_created= [optional]

date_created="2007-07-16T19:20:30+01:00"

The date the entry was created in W3C Date format.

date_modified= [optional]

date_modified="2007-08-16T19:20:30+01:00"

The date the entry was modified in W3C Date format.

date_valid= [optional]

date_valid="2007-09-16T19:20:30+01:00"

The date the entry is valid to in W3C Date format.

ExpressionEngine provides an easy way to create dates in the W3C format.

identifier= [optional]

identifier="http://leevigraham.com"

An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context, typically a url.

robots_index= [optional]

robots_index="index"

robots_index="noindex"

Specifying index will result in robots indexing the page while noindex will result in robots not indexing the page.

robots_follow= [optional]

robots_follow="follow"

robots_follow="nofollow"

Specifying follow will result in robots following links on the page while nofollow will result in links not being followed

robots_archive= [optional]

robots_archive="archive"

robots_archive="noarchive"

Specifying archive will result in robots archiving the page while noarchive will result in robots not archiving the page.

Change Log

Version 1.4.0

• Extension method names changed
• Encoding characters bug fixed
• Editing from pages module bug fixed
• Source Code fully commented in PHPDoc syntax

Version 1.4.1

• Added change log to download
• Added check to see if extension has been enabled when the plugin is used.

Version 1.4.2

• Fixed issue with other extensions that use tabs
• Added update messages to CP homepage

License

Creative Commons

The free version of LG Better Meta is is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. A condition of this license is that all source code attribution must not be removed. If you would like to remove the source code attribution please purchase a commercial license.

Commercial License

For those who want or need to remove the source code attribution from LG Polls a commercial version and license for LG Better Meta is available for purchase. To purchase the module return to the top of the page.

View the commercial license agreement.