How do I add meta tags?

[AbleMods]

hmmm that should have eliminated it altogether...now I'm not sure either.

I'll do some playing around and see what I can learn.....

[jmestep]

I played around with it some this morning, but didn't get a complete solution.
In product.aspx, you can remove this line:
Page.Title = _Product.Name;
and then put your <title> tag in your meta head field for the product and it show up.
That still leaves you with two titles- the second one is "View Product" and it looks like that is pulled from the first line of Product.aspx where it says Title="View Product".
If you take that out, then you still have two titles, with the second one being blank.
Other than figuring out that it's not part of the BindMetaTags in the PageHelper,cs, that's as far as I got.

[Brewhaus]

Wow, I seem to have gotten everybody digging on this one!

Not a big deal- I have managed to get the title that I want for the home page, and only a single tag, by removing the title tag from the head section of the Home Page layout and entering it in the Default.aspx file. I was hoping to override for a few pages (basically pages that show as products, but are really used for information pages). But I guess that I can live with those titles if I have to.

[Brewhaus]

Would there be a way to add at least our company name prior to the product / category name? Right now, all that gets incorporated into the title is the product / category name (eg. Big Dawg). It would still be better to entirely do away with the auto-generated title, even though it means having to add a title tag to every product / category via the Admin menu, but we will take what we can get.

[jmestep]

I was able to do that in the product.aspx by adding text to this line:
Page.Title = _Product.Name + " at xxx.Com";

[Brewhaus]

That worked great. Now, how about the category pages? They do not use the same Page.Title code.

[albatreeq]

1. Be logged in as an admin that can edit pages
2. go to the store page you want to set meta tags for
3. toggle "edit page" in footer
4. observe what is being used as "active layout"
5. go to admin
6. go to website _> content and layout
7. locate the layout scriptet in use for the page
8. click the copy button, you will be taken to the edit screen for your copy
9. enter a name that is appropriate (e.g. HOME PAGE)
10. In the header field, enter your meta tags...
11. Click Save to create the new page layout (including meta header)
12. Return to the store page
13. toggle "edit page" in footer
14. set the layout to the one you created
15. Click OK to set the page to your new layout

I adopted this procedure to put meta tags in the header section of various pages. But the various copies which i created for every page gets mixed up. For eg. following files are created from the original Right Sidebar file
Right Sidebar_Batteries
Right Sidebar_Carry Cases
Right Sidebar_IPOD Accessories
Right Sidebar_Networking Devices
Right Sidebar_Projectors

When these files are saved in the respective pages, the batteries is showing carrycases file, networking devices is showing ipod accessories file and so on.

Please help.

[Brewhaus]

The problem is that adding a title to this section causes the category to have two title tags, which is a no-no with some search engines. Judy's solution worked great for product pages, but I do not see how we can do the same thing for the category pages. If anyone knows how to do this, please share.

[jmestep]

I had looked around in the files a while ago and couldn't figure out the category title issue- it didn't seem to be generated like the product meta tags were. I've got the source code now and it's on my list to research that. I'll post back if I find anything.

[Brewhaus]

Much appreciated. I am sure that I am far from the only one that would like to make use of this information.

[combra]

You're right, Joe. Probably the only really important tag is the Title tag. Content, of course, is still very important, as well as high quality links from relevant sites. Can't hurt to get a little boost from meta keywords and decriptions, though, even though they are not weighted that heavily.

Here's a copy of my MetaTags.aspx code, for anyone who is interested.

Scott

Scott, Great post with the code! I'm pretty new at this, so what's the process to get the code you posted to work? Basically, where do I put it and what do I need to do to get it to work? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Brewhaus]

The Title tag is also what appears to show as the heading for a page in most search results, so it is important to have the company name show in the title. Changing the default home page and product pages seemed simple enough, but there is still no information on how to alter the title on category pages.

[mazhar]

Scott, Great post with the code! I'm pretty new at this, so what's the process to get the code you posted to work? Basically, where do I put it and what do I need to do to get it to work? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Create a new file MetaTags.aspx in the Admin/Products/ folder and put all the code from Scott's post into it and save it.

[Brewhaus]

Does this not create a second Title tag?

[ajasko]

Does anyone know how to get the meta-tags implemented? My web site is sinking on the search engine results because I don't have this implemented.
Thank you!

Although Meta-Tags do have their uses, they basically mean diddly-squat to the Search Engines nowadays. Google and Yahoo, and probably all the others for that matter, do not take them into account. This is because they were abused in the past and people just went crazy with keyword stuffing them, and they have no bearing to actual content quality or ratio on your webpages. I would worry more about keywords in your actual page content, links and the like. Your ranking dropping probably has nothing to do with a lack of meta-tags.

[Brewhaus]

As we cannot seem to come up with any way to simply alter the auto-generated title tag for categories, we had entered a title tag in the description field for one of the categories and apparently missed removing it when we found that using two title tags can get you blacklisted by some search engines. We have been watching where we rank on a few search terms and have found that the page that does use two title tags ranks on the first page for both Google and MSN, and (high) on the second page for Yahoo.

I assume, then, that it is safe to say that the three major search engines do not get upset over the use of two title tags. Does anyone have any knowledge on whether or not this is the case? In other words, since we cannot find a way to have the category title tag add a couple of words of text automatically, is it a safe bet to say that we can go ahead with dual title tags on all category pages, and it will not harm our SEO efforts?

[jmestep]

If I run WebCEO, it gives a warning that a page should not have two titles.
Anyway, I finally found where the category ones are generated. For example, in CategoryGrid2.ascx.cs, it is here:
Page.Title = _Category.Name;

on line 46.
(I don't know why it isn't standardized one way or the other)

I think it would be better to move it to the .aspx page like on the Product2.aspx, but put it up above the META head also. WebCEO always warns that the title should be first.

[Brewhaus]

Great- I have adjusted my ProductGrid page. Now, how would you suggest removing it from the .cs file and adding it directly to the aspx file... or is it worth it?

[jmestep]

To me it was worth it since that way the pages are consistent with the product pages. I just commented it out of the .cs file and added it to the .aspx file above the line that binds the meta tags so that it would be before them in the web page.

[Brewhaus]

Before proceeding, I checked and even the Default page has the meta tags listed before the title. Should I change this so that the title shows before the meta tags? If so, I assume that I need to somehow adjust the default.aspx file (help here, please, as this file is different from the product and category files), and the category and product page files?

[Mike718NY]

I finally figured it out. The <tile> tag should be added on the .aspx file found on the root. The other metatags are actually as HTML comments in the .htm file that's why I never noticed them.
<!--
<Description>
How Does It Work?
</Description>
<HeaderData>
<meta name="description" content="your description">
<meta name="keywords" content="keywords">
</HeaderData>
-->
If you put the <title> in the .htm file and also in the .aspx file you will end up with two titles ( as I initially did). My only complaint now is that the <title> tags shows under the <meta name="description" and <meta name="keywords" and as I remember the <title> tag should show on top of the described tags. I'm not sure if there is any price to pay for that from the SEO (seach engine optimization) point of view.

Ablegeek,
when you say "The <tile> tag should be added on the .aspx file found on the root.",
where exactly? I tried to add it but it doesn't work.

Also, I added this to the .htm file, but it displays in the <body> section:
<Description>
How Does It Work?
</Description>
<HeaderData>
....

Can I ask you what you did to get title and meta tags on the Default.aspx page? thanks

[Mike718NY]

Ok, I'm totally lost here.
Has anyone sucessfully added <title> and <meta> tags to the Default.aspx?

[jmestep]

Yes. Added to default.aspx page
<script runat="server">
protected override void Render(HtmlTextWriter writer)
{
string pageHtml = string.Empty;

using (System.IO.StringWriter sw = new System.IO.StringWriter())
{
using (HtmlTextWriter hw = new HtmlTextWriter(sw))
{
base.Render(hw);
pageHtml = sw.ToString();

int headStartIndex = pageHtml.IndexOf("<head");
int headEndIndex = pageHtml.IndexOf("</head>");
string headerPart = pageHtml.Substring(headStartIndex, ((headEndIndex + 7) - headStartIndex));

StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(headerPart);
sb.Replace("<link", "\r<link");
sb.Replace("<META", "\r<META");
sb.Replace("<style", "\r<style");
int sindex = headerPart.IndexOf("<title>");
int eindex = headerPart.IndexOf("</title>");
string titleTag = headerPart.Substring(sindex, (eindex + - sindex);
string titleText = headerPart.Substring((sindex + 7), (eindex - (sindex + 7)));
titleText = titleText.Replace("\r", string.Empty);
titleText = titleText.Replace("\t", string.Empty);
titleText = titleText.Replace("\n", string.Empty);
titleText.Trim();
titleText = String.Format("\r<title>{0}</title>", titleText);
sb.Replace(titleTag, "");
sb.Replace("<Title>","\r<Title>");
sb.Replace("</head>", "\r</head>");
string newHeaderPart = sb.ToString();
pageHtml = pageHtml.Replace(headerPart, newHeaderPart);
hw.Close();
}
sw.Close();
}
writer.Write(pageHtml);
}

</script>
Got rid of this in <cb:ScripletPart............
Title="Home Page"

[divers-supply]

Code: Select all

<%@ Page Language="C#" MasterPageFile="Product.master" Title="Meta Tags" Inherits="CommerceBuilder.Web.UI.AbleCommerceAdminPage" %>
<%@ Register Assembly="CommerceBuilder.Web" Namespace="CommerceBuilder.Web.UI.WebControls" TagPrefix="cb" %>
<%@ Register Assembly="ComponentArt.Web.UI" Namespace="ComponentArt.Web.UI" TagPrefix="ComponentArt" %>
<%@ Import Namespace="System.Data.SqlClient" %>
<%@ Import Namespace="System.Data" %>
<script runat="server">

    int _ProductId;
    Product _Product;
    
    protected void Page_Load()
    {
        if (!Page.IsPostBack)
        {
            Populate();
        }
    }

    protected void SaveHeader(Object s, EventArgs e)
    {
        _ProductId = AlwaysConvert.ToInt(Request.QueryString["ProductId"]);
        _Product = ProductDataSource.Load(_ProductId);
        _Product.HtmlHead = HTMLBox.Text;
        _Product.Save();
        Populate();
    }

    protected void RegenerateHeader(Object s, EventArgs e)
    {
        String Header = "";
        Header += "<title>" + PageTitle.Text + "</title>" + Environment.NewLine;
        Header += "<meta name='description' content='" + MetaDescription.Text + "'>" + Environment.NewLine;
        Header += "<meta name='keywords' content='" + MetaKeywords.Text + "'>" + Environment.NewLine;
        HTMLBox.Text = Header;
    }

    protected void Populate()
    {
        _ProductId = AlwaysConvert.ToInt(Request.QueryString["ProductId"]);
        _Product = ProductDataSource.Load(_ProductId);
        int titleStart;
        int titleEnd;
        int descStart;
        int descEnd;
        int keyStart;
        int keyEnd;
        String Header = "";
        String TitleTag = "";
        String MetaDesc = "";
        String MetaKey = "";
        Header = _Product.HtmlHead;
        if (Header.Length > 0)
        {
            titleStart = Header.IndexOf("<title>") + 7;
            titleEnd = Header.IndexOf("</title>");
            if (titleStart > 0 && titleEnd > 0 && titleEnd > titleStart)
                TitleTag = Header.Substring(titleStart, titleEnd - titleStart);
            descStart = Header.IndexOf("<meta name='description' content='") + 34;
            descEnd = Header.IndexOf("'>", descStart);
            if (descStart > 0 && descEnd > 0 && descEnd > descStart)
                MetaDesc = Header.Substring(descStart, descEnd - descStart);
            keyStart = Header.IndexOf("<meta name='keywords' content='") + 31;
            keyEnd = Header.IndexOf("'>", keyStart);
            if (keyStart > 0 && keyEnd > 0 && keyEnd > keyStart)
                MetaKey = Header.Substring(keyStart, keyEnd - keyStart);
        }
        HTMLBox.Text = Header;
        PageTitle.Text = TitleTag;
        MetaDescription.Text = MetaDesc;
        MetaKeywords.Text = MetaKey; 
    }
    
    

</script>
<asp:Content ID="Content3" ContentPlaceHolderID="MainContent" Runat="Server">
<div class="pageHeader">
    <div class="caption">
        <h1><asp:Localize ID="Localize1" runat="server" Text="Meta Tags"></asp:Localize></h1>
    </div>
<div class="Content" style="padding:40px; border:1px solid blue;">
    <table width="90%">
        <tr>
            <td width="20%">
                <asp:Label Font-Bold="true" ID="HTMLBoxLabel" runat="server" Text="HTML Header"></asp:Label>
            </td>
            <td>
                <asp:TextBox ID="HTMLBox" TextMode="MultiLine" runat="server" Columns="100" Height="100"></asp:TextBox>
            </td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td width="20%">
                <asp:Label Font-Bold="true" ID="TitleLabel" runat="server" Text="Title Tags"></asp:Label>
            </td>
            <td>
                <asp:TextBox ID="PageTitle" runat="server" Columns="100" Height="20"></asp:TextBox>
            </td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td width="20%">
                <asp:Label Font-Bold="true" ID="MetaDescriptionLabel" runat="server" Text="Meta Description"></asp:Label>
            </td>
            <td>
                <asp:TextBox ID="MetaDescription" runat="server" Columns="100" Height="20"></asp:TextBox>
            </td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td width="20%">
                <asp:Label Font-Bold="true" ID="MetaKeywordsLabel" runat="server" Text="Meta Keywords"></asp:Label>
            </td>
            <td>
                <asp:TextBox ID="MetaKeywords" runat="server" Columns="100" Height="20"></asp:TextBox>
            </td>
        </tr>
    </table>
    <center>
        <asp:Button ID="Regenerate" Text="Regenerate Header" runat="server" OnClick="RegenerateHeader" />
        &nbsp;&nbsp;
        <asp:Button ID="SaveIt" Text="Save" runat="server" OnClick="SaveHeader" />
    </center>
</div>
  
</asp:Content>

I added the code that Scott listed and now my generated meta tags are missing double quotes they all have single quotes isn't this wrong?
<title></title>
<meta name='description' content='Description'>
<meta name='keywords' content='Keywords'>

It should be:

<title></title>
<meta name="description" content="Description">
<meta name="keywords" content="Keywords">

am I missing something?

[gio50000]

I found the easiest way to modify the content in the title tags was to edit the code example in red.

<script runat="server">
protected override void Render(HtmlTextWriter writer)
{
string pageHtml = string.Empty;

using (System.IO.StringWriter sw = new System.IO.StringWriter())
{
using (HtmlTextWriter hw = new HtmlTextWriter(sw))
{
base.Render(hw);
pageHtml = sw.ToString();

if (pageHtml.Contains("<head") && pageHtml.Contains("</head>"))
{
int headStartIndex = pageHtml.IndexOf("<head");
int headEndIndex = pageHtml.IndexOf("</head>");

string headerPart = pageHtml.Substring(headStartIndex, ((headEndIndex + 7) - headStartIndex));

StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(headerPart);
sb.Replace("<link", "\r<link");
sb.Replace("<META", "\r<META");
sb.Replace("<style", "\r<style");

int sindex = headerPart.IndexOf("<title>");
int eindex = headerPart.IndexOf("</title>");
string titleTag = headerPart.Substring(sindex, (eindex + - sindex);
string titleText = headerPart.Substring((sindex + 7), (eindex - (sindex + 7)));
titleText = titleText.Replace("\r", string.Empty);
titleText = titleText.Replace("\t", string.Empty);
titleText = titleText.Replace("\n", string.Empty);
titleText.Trim();
titleText = String.Format("\r<title>{0} | Your page details here</title>\r", titleText);

int firstMetaIndex = sb.ToString().IndexOf("<META", 0, sb.Length, StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase);
if (firstMetaIndex > -1)
{
sb.Replace(titleTag, string.Empty);
sb.Insert(firstMetaIndex, titleText);
}
else
{
sb.Replace(titleTag, titleText);
}
sb.Replace("</head>", "\r</head>");
string newHeaderPart = sb.ToString();
pageHtml = pageHtml.Replace(headerPart, newHeaderPart);
}
hw.Close();
}
sw.Close();
}
writer.Write(pageHtml);
}
</script>