Add Custom META Title

Squirrly SEO sets the meta title of a page from three places: the Title field of its SEO Snippet, the title pattern of its post type in SEO Automation, or the sq_title filter in your theme’s code. The snippet wins over the pattern, and the filter can change both.

Before you start

1. Go to Squirrly > Technical SEO > SEO Metas.
2. Check that Optimize the Titles is on.
3. Click Save Settings.

If SEO Metas is missing from the menu, turn on On-Page SEO METAs in Squirrly > All Features first. SEO Metas explains the switch.

Set the title of one page

1. Go to Squirrly > Optimize > Bulk SEO and pick the post type, or open the page in the editor and scroll to the SEO Snippet box.
2. Click the METAs dot of the page, then Edit Metas.
3. Write the text in Title. The tip above the field gives the length to aim for.
4. Click Save.

The preview under the fields shows how the page will look in search results. On the live site, Custom SEO in the WordPress admin bar opens the same snippet. Edit the meta tags in Bulk SEO has the full walk-through.

Example on the demo store

The Meta Tags tab of the snippet holds the title. After Save, the same text is in the title tag of the page source.

Set the title of a whole post type

Go to Squirrly > Optimize > Automation, open the post type and change its Title pattern. The default for posts is {{title}} {{page}}. Every page of that type without a custom snippet title uses the pattern, cut to the Title Length (75 characters by default). SEO Automation lists the patterns.

Change the title with the sq_title filter

Add this to the functions.php file of your child theme, or to a code snippets plugin. Change 123 to the ID of your post.

add_filter( 'sq_title', 'my_squirrly_title', 11 );
function my_squirrly_title( $title ) {
    if ( get_queried_object_id() === 123 ) {
        return 'Wet cat food for senior cats | Whisker Bowl';
    }
    return $title;
}

At priority 11 the filter gets the plain title text, after Squirrly has read the snippet and the pattern and before it wraps the text in the <title> tag. Always return $title for the other pages, or they lose their title. Hook Squirrly title and description with custom data has more examples.

Frequently asked questions

Which one wins, the snippet or the pattern?

The snippet title, when the field isn’t empty.

Is my custom title cut to 75 characters?

No, the Title Length only cuts titles built from patterns.

The page still shows the old title. Why?

Clear the page cache, then check that Load SEO Metas is on for that post type in Automation.

Related tutorials

• Add Custom META Description: the same three ways for the description.
• Bulk SEO: edit the titles of many pages from one list.
• SEO Automation: title patterns for each post type.
• Check METAs with and without Squirrly SEO: see which title Squirrly writes.