WP - Adding meta description as summary?

[NickM]

Is it possible to pull the meta description from Allinone SEO and add that into my page template so that it shows up on my page? I would like to add a "Page Summary" area to each page and would like to have this automatically done.

Is there a way to do this?

[Mike]

Sure, just add the following php code where you want to display the description:

<?php echo get_post_meta($post->ID, '_aioseop_description', true); ?>

FYI, you can use this with any of the all in one seo fields:

Title:

<?php echo get_post_meta($post->ID, '_aioseop_title', true); ?>

Keywords (although it would be a little spammy):

<?php echo get_post_meta($post->ID, '_aioseop_keywords', true); ?>

[NickM]

You are the man Mike! Thanks

[Mike]

Ok, just thinking it might be nice to take it one step further. What if you didn't fill in the description field of all-in-one-seo all of the time or if you just didn't feel like it every now and then. You wouldn't want that to mess up your summary section so you could use this code instead.

<?php
$seodesc = get_post_meta($post->ID, '_aioseop_description', true);
if($seodesc!='') {
echo $seodesc;
} else {
the_excerpt();
}
?>

This uses the_excerpt of the post if you forget, or are too lazy, to fill in the seo description field.

[Randy Ray]

I would lean toward writing a distinct summary of each article, rather than automating it and pulling it out of your meta description. Writing an extra one or two sentences per page should be pretty easy, especially if it's just a summary of what else is written on the page.

[Mike]

I would lean toward writing a distinct summary of each article,

For that, you would want to make a custom field named summary, then use the following code to display it:

<?php echo get_post_meta($post->ID, 'summary', true); ?>

or, the lazy way to leave all three options as a possibility:

<?php 
$summary = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'summary', true);
if($summary!='') 
    { 
    echo $summary; 
    }
    else
        { 
        $seodesc = get_post_meta($post->ID, '_aioseop_description', true); 
        if($seodesc!='')
            { 
            echo $seodesc; 
            } else { 
            the_excerpt(); 
            }
        }
?>

[NickM]

Mike, great stuff. If you are available for a small WP coding job, would you pm me?

Randy - Do you think there would be any SEO negatives to pulling the meta description for an on-page summary? It seems to me that it is natural for the two to be the same as they essentially serve the same purpose - to effectively relate the content and purpose of a page in as few words as possible.

I feel like this should be two threads now...

[Randy Ray]

I doubt there's an SEO negative, but I always try to play it safe with those kinds of things.

[NickM]

True. I guess the less something looks like automated content, the less can go wrong.