Title Tags
RationalSEO generates title tags for every page on your site. The default pattern is:
Page Title | Site Name
The separator character is configurable under Settings → RationalWP → SEO → General → Title Separator. The default is |.
Title Priority
For singular posts and pages, the title is resolved in this order:
- Custom SEO title (set in the post editor meta box)
- Post title + separator + site name (auto-generated)
For the homepage, taxonomy archives, and other pages, similar fallback logic applies with context-appropriate defaults.
Meta Descriptions
Meta descriptions are output as a <meta name="description"> tag. For singular posts and pages, the description is resolved in this order:
- Custom meta description (set in the post editor meta box)
- Post excerpt
- First sentence containing the focus keyword (if set)
- Auto-generated from the first 160 characters of content
Descriptions are automatically truncated to 160 characters and trimmed at the nearest word boundary.
Robots Meta
RationalSEO outputs a <meta name="robots"> tag on every page. The default directive is index, follow, max-image-preview:large.
Pages are automatically set to noindex in these cases:
- The per-post noindex toggle is enabled
- The page is a search results page
- The page is a 404 error page
- The page is a paginated archive beyond page 1
- A taxonomy term has noindex enabled
Canonical URLs
A <link rel="canonical"> tag is output on every page to prevent duplicate content issues. For singular posts, the canonical defaults to the post permalink. You can override the canonical URL per post in the editor meta box under Advanced Settings.
Taxonomy archives use the term link, post type archives use the archive link, and the homepage uses the site URL.
Verification Tags
RationalSEO can output verification meta tags for Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. Enter only the content value (not the full meta tag) under Settings → RationalWP → SEO → General → Webmaster Tools.