Yoast og:description is not being generated from content in Pro

[simeoned]

Can anyone shed any light on why Yoast’s og:description is not being generated from content built in pro? I use Pro almost exclusively now and I’ve been using Yoast for years. I’ve been reading about all kinds of unexpected behavior with various versions of Yoast and Pro (and cornerstone) over the last several months.

It seems that most of those conversations are centered around the idea that Yoast wasn’t able to “read & analyze” content for the purposes of prescribing on page SEO tweaks. But I see that it can read it and provide a score. SO why can’t it pull from the same content and autofill the description snippet? It used to do this. AM I missing something?

thanks in advance

[mldarshana]

Hi There @simeoned

Thanks for writing in! First of all, could you please check to see if you’re experiencing a caching issue. Please following this resource (https://kb.yoast.com/kb/facebook-sharing-updated-details/) on how to debug.

Also you can disable X/Pro theme’s open graph from X/Pro -> Theme Options -> Social -> Open Graph area, as you’re already using Yoast plugin.

Hope that helps.

[simeoned]

1. I know about the FB debugging tool. I use it all the time and this is not the issue I’m talking about. Please read my original post again or “The Problem Restated” below if you need further clairty.

2. The OG area in theme options is disabled. I never use that b/c, as i’ve said, I use Yoast and have for years.

3. Facebook is not the only social platform to be concerned with. LinkedIn for example is often quite important for clients.

The Problem Restated:
There is no content in the description snippet for any pages in my newest site using Pro. This translates to no og:description meta tag being printed in the source code at all. I can manually place content into that snippet editor in the Yoast meta box in the wordpress editor, but that should be automatically pulled from the content and editable only if I want to change it.

Shouldn’t this field be populated automatically by the content on the page/post?

[friech]

Hi There,

I understand that this meta box is automatically filled before, but now even with default theme (Twenty Seventeen) and classic text editor, it does not.

It seems Yoast remove the template variables for Meta description. Please create your own template variables to make the Meta description box fill automatically.

I’m not seeing a meta description in the section in the source code of my site
Yoast SEO: Search Appearance template variables

Thanks,

[simeoned]

Right, I understand the advice given here. And thank you for providing a link to the Yoast article about the variables for reference. I have read that article thoroughly prior to posting to this thread. The problem is not in the need to sort of manually configure the template variables. That’s fine and I would simply fold this into my workflow if it worked. But it doesn’t.

The problem is that %%excerpt%% has no effect whatsoever on the parsed HTML. No og:description or twitter:description meta tags print to the source code if you try to use that variable that should be pulling from page content created in Pro. All other variables such as %%date%%, %%title%%, %%sitename%%, etc are working as expected. This is true when configuring either as a global template in the SEO > Search Appearence or on page in the Yoast metabox found there below the content editor.

It seems that Yoast is simply unable to see the content created by Pro. This is not awesome. And it has been explored in this forum before as I recall. The issue still persists.

I have looked at sites I built before using Pro, tested, and confirmed 100% that Yoast is able to generate an og:description and a twitter:description meta tag based on %%excerpt%% automatically. But it can not do it from content created in Pro.

This is a huge issue… please advise. ASAP.
Thank you.

[friech]

Hi There,

Yes, I can confirm that %%excerpt%% issue, even with the default theme (Twenty Seventeen) the %%excerpt%% is still not pulling any text from the post content. It does if you put excerpt manually on the excerpt meta box (which make no sense as its no different from filling the meta description manually).

This bug seems to be specific to Yoast, it was reported here.

I can also confirm that even if %%excerpt%% does not work on the preview, it does actually work on the front-end.

Thanks,

[simeoned]

I still think there is a miscommunication here. Please bear with me as I explain the issue in greater detail. Again, this represents a huge issue and needs to be addressed asap. Please read thoroughly…

PLEASE NOTE What the issue is not about:
The fact that nothing shows up for %%Excerpt%% in the snippet editor within the meta description Yoast metabox while editing a particular wordpress page using the wordpress editor regardless of which theme is active. That is irrelevant to the discussion. Though it is worth noting that the variables for %%site title%% and %%separator%% do have an effect there.

Fig. 1: Yoast Template Variables

Use Case 1 - Basic configuration:
Theme: TWENTYSEVENTEEN
Page Template: default
Yoast v8.3
Yoast Template Variables Config: SEO > Search Appearance > Content Types > Pages
SEO Title: %%title%% %%page%% %%separator%% %%site title%%
Meta Description: %%site title%% %%separator%% %%excerpt%%

Acceptable Result:

1. No excerpt can be seen in the yoast snippet editor while editing the page.
2. Other variables can be seen like title and separator
   3) All variables are correctly printed to the source code including %%excerpt%%

Fig 2a: TwentySeventeen Yoast metabox snippet editor

Figure 2b: TwentySeventeen Source Code

Use Case 2 - Basic configuration:
Theme: Pro v2.2.5
Page template: Blank - No Container | Header, Footer
Yoast v8.3
Yoast Template Variables Config: SEO > Search Appearance > Content Types > Pages
SEO Title: %%title%% %%page%% %%separator%% %%site title%%
Meta Description: %%site title%% %%separator%% %%excerpt%%

Very Problematic Result:

1. No excerpt can be seen in the yoast snippet editor while editing the page.
2. Other variables can be seen like title and separator
   3) %%excerpt%% is entirely ignored in the source code. This is the problem

Fig 3a: Pro Yoast metabox snippet editor

Fig 3b: Pro Source code - %%excerpt%% ignored

Use Case 3 - Basic configuration:
Theme: Pro v2.2.5
Page template: Blank - No Container | Header, Footer
Yoast v8.3
Yoast Template Variables Config: SEO > Search Appearance > Content Types > Pages
SEO Title: %%title%% %%page%% %%separator%% %%site title%%
Meta Description: NO VARIABLES CONFIGURED

VERY VERY Problematic Result:

1. No excerpt can be seen in the yoast snippet editor while editing the page.
2. No other variables can be seen as they are not configured.
   3) No og:description meta tag is printed at all

Fig 4: Pro source code with no description at all

Use Case 3A with result:
However, when switching back to TwentySeventeen, leaving Yoast template variables blank as in use case 3 above, we see very clearly that the go:description is printed to the source code as expected.

Fig 5: TwentySeventeen source code with auto generated description operating as expected

Conclusions:

1. Yoast is having some version of trouble making full use of %%exceprt%% internally. Which is to say, it is not able to show the preview of this variable in Yoast metaboxes in the back end of wordpress.
   a) While this is problematic, it’s not a material problem as the source code still respects the variable’s output… unless we are using Pro apparently.
   b) TwebtySeventeen is behaving s expected with respect to the sourcecode - which is what really matters.

2. Pro is unable to make use of %%excerpt%% at all, in any case, anywehre.

3. Pro is unable to make use of the default autogenerated og:description that should be present even if Yoast variables are not configured at all.

Again, please carefully consider what may be causing this issue and help us work toward a resolution as quickly as possible. Thank you in advance.

[rad]

Hi @simeoned,

Please note that it’s Wordpress that generate excerpts, it will remove HTML, scripts, shortcodes just to generate an excerpt. Now, since you created your page in the builder, the content is usually wrapped by shortcodes and code in which of course, Wordpress strip them including the contents or texts wrapped within the code. And the builder’s v2 elements contribute to this issue as it can’t be called or executed outside of the page where it’s created.

And that capability is inactive when you switch to twentyseventeen theme, hence, works okay as the builder’s shortcode became normal texts.

The solution is adding excerpts manually, and it’s a Wordpress feature as autogenerated excerpts can be empty sometimes depending on added content. But since page types don’t support excerpts by default, then you may enable it as well https://www.wpbeginner.com/plugins/add-excerpts-to-your-pages-in-wordpress/. There is no way to do it automatically since it’s Wordpress’ imposed standard.

It’s the same when you search something in your site and the result is the list of pages without content(just title). The content is empty after Wordpress processing to extract an excerpt from coded content.

Thanks!

[simeoned]

Hallelujah! That is the answer I’ve been waiting for.
Thanks for tracking with this issue.

For later reference:

add_post_type_support( 'page', 'excerpt' );

[ruenel]

Hey There,

It’s good to know that the response from @Rad were able to help you out.
If you need anything else we can help you with, don’t hesitate to open another thread.

Best Regards.