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MarkExcell Meta Tags and Structured Data

Name: MarkExcell Meta Tags and Structured Data
Author: markwexcell

By markwexcell

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MarkExcell Meta Tags and Structured Data is a lightweight plugin for WordPress sites that need precise control over their on-page SEO metadata without installing a full SEO suite.

Every feature is controlled from a pair of meta boxes that appear directly on the page or post edit screen, keeping everything in context.

What it does:

Adds a custom title tag per page or post, with a fallback to the WordPress default (post title + site name).
Adds a custom meta description, falling back to the post excerpt, then the site-wide tagline.
Outputs Open Graph tags (og:title, og:description, og:image, og:url, og:type, og:site_name) with per-page overrides.
Outputs Twitter Card (summary_large_image) tags using the same data.
Provides a freeform JSON-LD structured data field for any page or post, with JSON validation on save and a clear error message if the JSON is malformed.
Auto-generates a BlogPosting schema for posts when no manual JSON-LD is provided, referencing your site’s #person and #website entities.

What it does NOT do:

No settings pages, no dashboard widgets, no telemetry.
No sitemap generation.
No keyword analysis or content scoring.
No redirection management.

Important: Do not run this plugin alongside a full SEO plugin (Yoast SEO, Rank Math, All in One SEO, etc.) — you will get duplicate title tags and meta tags in your <head>.

For developers:

Three filters let you customise the site-wide defaults without editing the plugin:

me_seo_default_description — override the fallback meta description.
me_seo_default_og_image — set a site-wide default OG image URL.
me_seo_post_types — add additional post types to show the meta boxes on (defaults to page and post).

Example:

add_filter( 'me_seo_default_description', function() {
    return 'Your custom site-wide description here.';
} );

add_filter( 'me_seo_default_og_image', function() {
    return 'https://example.com/wp-content/uploads/default-share.png';
} );

// Add meta boxes to a custom post type called 'project'
add_filter( 'me_seo_post_types', function( $types ) {
    $types[] = 'project';
    return $types;
} );

Usage

SEO: Title, Description & Open Graph meta box

Title tag
Enter the exact string you want to appear in the browser tab and search results. Leave blank and WordPress will use its default format: Post Title – Site Name.

Recommended length: 60 characters or fewer.

Meta description
The sentence or two that appears beneath your page title in search results. Leave blank to fall back to the post excerpt; if there is no excerpt, the site-wide default description is used.

Recommended length: 120–160 characters.

Open Graph overrides
These three fields let you set different text and image for social sharing without changing the SEO fields above — useful when the ideal tweet wording differs from the ideal title tag.

og:title — leave blank to inherit the title tag value.
og:description — leave blank to inherit the meta description.
og:image URL — paste the full URL of a 1200×630 px image. Leave blank to use the post’s featured image; if there is no featured image, the site-wide default OG image is used (set via the me_seo_default_og_image filter).

Structured Data (JSON-LD) meta box

Paste a raw JSON-LD object into this field. The plugin will:

Validate that the JSON is well-formed.
Check that a top-level @context or @graph key is present.
Re-encode and store the canonical form on save.
Output it as a <script type="application/ld+json"> block in <head> on the front end.

If the JSON fails validation, an error message is shown at the top of the meta box and the previous valid value is kept — your live schema is never broken by a typo.

Do not include the surrounding <script> tags — paste the JSON object only.

For posts where this field is left empty, the plugin automatically generates a BlogPosting schema using the post title, description, published/modified dates, featured image, and author/publisher references pointing to your site’s #person and #website entities.

Fallback chain summary

Field
Primary
Secondary
Tertiary

Title tag
SEO title field
WordPress default (title + site name)
—

Meta description
Description field
Post excerpt
Site tagline / filter default

og:title
OG title field
SEO title field
WordPress default title

og:description
OG description field
Meta description (resolved above)
—

og:image
OG image URL field
Featured image
me_seo_default_og_image filter

Details

Plugin code:

markexcell-meta-tags-structured-data

Plugin version:

1.0.0

Author:

markwexcell

Outdated:

WP version:

6.0 or higher

PHP version:

7.4 or higher

Test up to WP version:

7.0

Total installations:

Last updated:

2026-06-28

Rating:

Times rated:

json-ld