Meta Tags

The meta tags feature sets <meta> tags for the incoming URI. Use it to set global meta tags for every page as well as to fine-tune the meta data of any page of your site.

Setup

Include the Seo.Seo helper in your AppController.php:

public $helpers = ['Seo.Seo'];

Alter your layout to include the SEO meta tags in the head of your layout:

<head>
    <!-- other head items -->
    <?= $this->Seo->metaTags() ?>
</head>

metaTags() also takes an array of default meta tags (name => content), for example from your view variables. The tags managed in the admin screen take priority over the defaults with the same name:

<?= $this->Seo->metaTags([
    'description' => 'The default description of the page',
    'keywords' => 'cakephp, seo',
]) ?>

Add Meta Tags

Browse and manage the meta tags at https://example.com/admin/seo/seo_meta_tags, and add one at https://example.com/admin/seo/seo_meta_tags/add. A meta tag has the following fields (the seo_meta_tags table, with the URI in seo_uris):

URI The incoming URI that you want to assign the meta tag to: a path relative to the domain (/about), a path with a wildcard (/products*) or a regular expression that starts and ends with #.

Name The name of the meta tag, for example:

• description
• keywords
• author
• Content-Type (with Is Http Equiv)

Content The content of the meta tag, for example:

• a description of the page
• keyword1, keyword2, keyword3
• Nick Baker
• text/html; charset=UTF-8

Is Http Equiv If checked, the name is output as the http-equiv attribute instead of the name attribute.

A URI can have several meta tags.

Matching URIs

metaTags() first looks for the meta tags of the URI that is the same as the request (path and query string). If there are none, it uses the meta tags of all wildcard and regular expression URIs that match the request:

• A wildcard URI matches when the request contains the part before the *.
• A regular expression URI matches when the expression matches the request. Like for redirects, it must be approved first.

With the cacheEngine setting (see Configuration), the list of wildcard and regular expression URIs is cached with that cache configuration, so a new URI is used after the cache expires or is cleared.