Set meta tags 'description' and 'keywords' using API

Set meta tags 'description' and 'keywords' using API

leiger 10 Apr 2011 16:13

I have been asked to create a few thousand pages with the API, and each one needs unique 'description' and 'keywords' meta tags in the HTML.

Currently the only way to do this would be to manually go to "Page options > Add meta data" for each page.

Therefore, I'd like to request that we somehow be able to add/edit these meta tags (and others) using the API.

IIRC meta tags can be applied to a whole category or site at once, so perhaps the pages.save_one method isn't the place to do this. It might need it's own method?

Corresponding wish on the feedback site: http://feedback.wikidot.com/wish:557

(Still not sure where to post API wishes :P You've said to put them on feedback site now due to the API being more stable, but as wishes is pretty much all this developer forum is used for, it will end up becoming abandoned otherwise. So for now I suppose I'll post in both places… and see over time which site most of the discussion/comments are being posted to.)

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~ Shane (Wikidot Community Admin - Volunteer)
Wikidot: My Blog, Wikidot Editor, Official Docs
Work: ZoomPlanner (built for freelancers/small business)
Other: YouTube (gaming channel)

Last edited on 10 Apr 2011 16:18 by leiger Show more

Re: Set meta tags 'description' and 'keywords' using API

Gabrys 10 Apr 2011 18:32

API discussion takes place here, so you're welcome to describe your needs/ideas with others and us, so you can first check if a wish is worth placing. You can also make a wish and discuss/promote it here. In other words:

• feedback: wishes (including API-related)
• developer: API-related discussion (including discussing API-related wishes)

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Piotr Gabryjeluk
visit my blog

Re: Set meta tags 'description' and 'keywords' using API

leiger 10 Apr 2011 19:06

Okay, sounds good.

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~ Shane (Wikidot Community Admin - Volunteer)
Wikidot: My Blog, Wikidot Editor, Official Docs
Work: ZoomPlanner (built for freelancers/small business)
Other: YouTube (gaming channel)

Re: Set meta tags 'description' and 'keywords' using API

Gabrys 10 Apr 2011 19:58

Back to the topic: I don't think this feature would be used heavily, so probably it's not worth implementing (sorry about all the click-work you have to do without it). And for example saving files via the API would allow completing Wikidot managers.

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Piotr Gabryjeluk
visit my blog

Re: Set meta tags 'description' and 'keywords' using API

soronlin 10 Apr 2011 21:19

I don't think this feature would be used heavily

As a counter-example, how-about an application that automatically added keywords to every page of a site including those created by members of the public such as page-based fora? I don't understand SEO half as much as I should, but I understand keywords are important, but they have to be accurate or the SE ranking is reduced instead of increased. An application could take a file of keywords appropriate to the site, and apply them to pages where the keyword occurred in the content.

To my mind that would be a function that could be performed by Wikidot managers or applications such as STE.

I agree that saving files would be more immediately useful, but this wish should be given serious consideration thereafter.

Last edited on 10 Apr 2011 21:21 by soronlin Show more

Re: Set meta tags 'description' and 'keywords' using API

Ed Johnson 11 Apr 2011 00:18

I don't think this feature would be used heavily, so probably it's not worth implementing

This may be true, but for Pro users like WikiWealth, it's important that you don't reject it totally. My guess is that most users that are paying for services here and hosting their business sites would use this much more heavily than you think since SEO is likely to be more important to them.

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Community Admin

Re: Set meta tags 'description' and 'keywords' using API

Gabrys 11 Apr 2011 08:50

The (no-)problem is web search engines doesn't rely that much on meta tags nowadays. So having all the pages meta-tagged doesn't change that much in terms of SEO.

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Piotr Gabryjeluk
visit my blog

Re: Set meta tags 'description' and 'keywords' using API

leiger 11 Apr 2011 09:10

I'm not sure about the 'keywords' meta tag, but I know for sure that Google uses the 'description' meta tag in search results.

Whether a unique description for every page, or a single description per site/category, is the best way to go… I'm not really sure. I'm not an SEO expert and don't pretend to be ;-)

Edit: Just checked my university's website, and they have a different description and set of keywords for every page, based on whatever the content is: homepage, list of programs/courses, student login, library catalogue, etc.

Edit 2: And to clarify… there are many other wishes for the API that personally I would like to see first, but I also tend to agree with rurwin, Ed Johnson and WikiWealth that this would be useful to some users - particularly businesses.

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~ Shane (Wikidot Community Admin - Volunteer)
Wikidot: My Blog, Wikidot Editor, Official Docs
Work: ZoomPlanner (built for freelancers/small business)
Other: YouTube (gaming channel)

Last edited on 11 Apr 2011 09:14 by leiger Show more

Re: Set meta tags 'description' and 'keywords' using API

Ed Johnson 11 Apr 2011 15:34

I'm far from an expert on this subject as well. What I've read recently says that keywords can have little impact on search results but titles and descriptions are very important. We have spent a lot of time at work editing our descriptions and titles and it has improved our search results. Initially, we focused on keywords, but they didn't get us very good results. After a bit of research we started editing descriptions and titles and then we really noticed a difference.

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Community Admin

Re: Set meta tags 'description' and 'keywords' using API

Gabrys 11 Apr 2011 18:22

That's good to know. I may have been underestimating the value of meta tags.

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Piotr Gabryjeluk
visit my blog