12. Meta Templates System

SEO Forge uses a template system for generating default meta titles and descriptions with variable placeholders. Templates reduce the need to set custom titles on every post.

Available Template Variables

Variable	Description	Example Output
`{{title}}`	Post/page title	`My Blog Post`
`{{siteName}}`	Site name from Settings > General	`My Website`
`{{siteDesc}}`	Site tagline from Settings > General	`Just another WordPress site`
`{{excerpt}}`	Post excerpt, or auto-generated from first paragraph	`Learn how to optimize...`
`{{author}}`	Author display name	`John Doe`
`{{category}}`	Primary category name	`Tutorials`
`{{date}}`	Publish date in localized format	`January 15, 2024`
`{{modifiedDate}}`	Last modified date in localized format	`January 20, 2024`
`{{currentYear}}`	Current four-digit year	`2024`
`{{currentMonth}}`	Current month name	`January`
`{{separator}}`	Configurable separator character
`{{field:NAME}}` or `%field:NAME%`	Custom field value (FieldForge / ACF) on the same post	`Premium Italian leather`

Custom field tokens (`field:NAME`)

Both %field:custom_summary% and {{field:custom_summary}} are accepted in

manual overrides AND template strings. Resolution order:

apply_filters('seoforge_resolve_meta_token', null, $name, $post_id) — return a string to short-circuit (handy for computed values that aren’t in postmeta).
get_field($name, $post_id) when ACF or FieldForge ACF-compat is loaded.
get_post_meta($post_id, $name, true) — flat fallback.

Empty / missing fields render as empty string and the cleanup step drops dangling separators. Arrays / objects get JSON-encoded so output never reads Array in a attribute.

// Theme override: compute a value at render time
add_filter('seoforge_resolve_meta_token', function ($value, $name, $post_id) {
    if ($name === 'in_stock_count') {
        return wc_get_product($post_id)->get_stock_quantity() . ' available';
    }
    return $value;
}, 10, 3);

// Editor sets meta description: "Only %field:in_stock_count% — order today"
// Renders: "Only 42 available — order today"

Template Cascade Priority

When SEO Forge resolves a meta title or description, it follows this cascade. The first non-empty value wins:

Post-level manual override — _seoforge_meta_title / _seoforge_meta_description post meta
Taxonomy-level template — Stored in seoforge_tax_templates option
Global template per post type — Stored in seoforge_title_templates option
Default template — Built-in defaults ({{title}} {{separator}} {{siteName}})
WordPress fallback — Raw post title / first 160 chars of content

Programmatic Template Resolution

$templates = SEOFORGE_Meta_Templates::instance();

// Resolve a template string for a specific post
$resolved = $templates->resolve( '{{title}} {{separator}} {{siteName}}', $post_id );
// Returns: "My Blog Post | My Website"

// Get the fully resolved meta title using the full cascade
$title = $templates->get_resolved_meta( $post_id, 'title' );

// Get the fully resolved meta description using the cascade
$desc = $templates->get_resolved_meta( $post_id, 'description' );

// Get the configured separator character
$sep = $templates->get_separator(); // '|' by default

// Get all available variables with descriptions
$vars = $templates->get_available_variables();

Setting Custom Templates

// Set global templates per post type
update_option( 'seoforge_title_templates', [
    'post' => [
        'title'       => '{{title}} - {{category}} {{separator}} {{siteName}}',
        'description' => '{{excerpt}}',
    ],
    'page' => [
        'title'       => '{{title}} {{separator}} {{siteName}}',
        'description' => '{{excerpt}}',
    ],
    'product' => [
        'title'       => 'Buy {{title}} {{separator}} {{siteName}}',
        'description' => '{{excerpt}} | Free shipping available.',
    ],
] );

// Set taxonomy-level template (overrides global for posts in this category)
$tax_templates = get_option( 'seoforge_tax_templates', [] );
$tax_templates['category_5'] = [
    'title'       => '{{title}} - Tutorials {{separator}} {{siteName}}',
    'description' => '{{excerpt}} Learn more in our tutorials section.',
];
update_option( 'seoforge_tax_templates', $tax_templates );

// Change the separator character
update_option( 'seoforge_title_separator', '-' );

—

Available Template Variables

Custom field tokens (field:NAME)

Template Cascade Priority

Programmatic Template Resolution

Setting Custom Templates

Custom field tokens (`field:NAME`)