Adjust SEO Max Limits for ClickNathan Clients

While there are multiple plugins out there to help with SEO as far as WordPress is concerned, I’ve found that for every hundred sites they work wonders for, there’s a site or two that they just absolutely destroy. Constant updates and “important” notifications like the one shown below are frustrating…

a notification from Yoast asking for a review and advertising their paid upgrade service
I muted and dismissed this notification multiple times, but it’s still there…

…while the occasional careless mistake during upgrades can cause major problems. I had a client install the most popular SEO plugin for WordPress, thinking it would help his traffic. He didn’t pay attention to the plugin (his fault, admittedly) and a few months later he’d lost 75% of his previously high traffic blog. Bummer.

To that end, I setup the most basic and easy to use SEO functions right in your custom WordPress or Forage site. You get two options for SEO: Update the Title Tag and Meta Description. Everything else is taken care of behind the scenes, according to best practices.

screenshot of the SEO options with ClickNathan sites

I even put limitations on how many characters you can use, to conform to Google’s standards and the general character count limitations that search engine result listings have in place. However, you may want to adjust those settings as time goes on–on your own–without asking me for whatever reason (not that I mind of course!)

With the built in Advanced Custom Fields Pro plugin that comes with your site, you can do this relatively easily.

Firstly, find the Custom Fields navigation item.

screenshot of the menu item for Custom Fields
Click Field Groups to get into the Advanced Custom Fields editor interface.

Then click on the SEO & Social field group.

screenshot of the SEO and Social option

screenshot of title tag field editor in advanced custom fields
Click Edit under the Title Tag field to display the available configuration options.

There’s a field called Character Limit. Adjust to your liking!

You can do this with the Meta Description field, too.

Up Next: Add a Featured Image to a WordPress Post