Article Titles And Social Media Sharing

[jernatety]

Is there any way for the the social media links to pick up the article title instead of defaulting to the site name? When I click to share the "Hockey Rink Guide" on Twitter or FB both platforms only grab the default site name and description as well as the site logo to append to the FB post or tweet.

[wildenborch]

I don't have a solution for you I can only confirm that the title of your Hockey Rink Guide is indeed not mentioned on facebook. However, I can see the title on twitter (see attachment).
On Google+ its looks even better

I found another posting regarding this issue here: https://www.tinyportal.net/index.php?topic=35541.0

Articles on my website do show the title on facebook. Strange thing however, when I change the title and post the link again with the social media button, the old title is still showing?
I tried it on several computers and my phone.
With google+ the title is changed and correct.

[jernatety]

Interesting. I wonder if it's the Optimus mod I'm using that might be causing the problem? I have no problem with regular SMF posts. They post as they should on FB and Twitter, title of the post, description, brief summary of the post etc....

[wildenborch]

I think it's something else!

I searched a bit further and found this page: https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug/sharing/

When I entered the link of my article page the result was the old title.
After I pressed the Scrape again button the title was updated.

I also tried it with your page and for some reason - also after I pressed the scrape again button - the title did not show up.

I added the following code to my "frog Article"

<meta name="title" content="Hockey Rink Guide" />
<meta name="description" content="And now my article suddenly is the Rink Guide..... but not really!" />

and after I pressed the button Scrape again in the sharing debugger this is the result:

[jernatety]

I think it's something else!

I searched a bit further and found this page: https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug/sharing/

When I entered the link of my article page the result was the old title.
After I pressed the Scrape again button the title was updated.

I also tried it with your page and for some reason - also after I pressed the scrape again button - the title did not show up.

I added the following code to my "frog Article"

<meta name="title" content="Hockey Rink Guide" />
<meta name="description" content="And now my article suddenly is the Rink Guide..... but not really!" />

and after I pressed the button Scrape again in the sharing debugger this is the result:

Ok, nice. Where did you add the meta tags, assuming the beginning without any head tags?

[wildenborch]

I placed these meta tags in the first lines of my article.
Since I use the wysiwyg editor I have to switch to source view mode first.
After placing these tags you have to scrape again on https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug/sharing/?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youthhockeyinfo.com%2Findex.php%3Fpage%3Drink-directory

Hopefully it works for you as well.

[wildenborch]

For Twitter there is a similar page https://cards-dev.twitter.com/validator

[lurkalot]

I placed these meta tags in the first lines of my article.
Since I use the wysiwyg editor I have to switch to source view mode first.
After placing these tags you have to scrape again on https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug/sharing/?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youthhockeyinfo.com%2Findex.php%3Fpage%3Drink-directory

Hopefully it works for you as well.

For Twitter there is a similar page https://cards-dev.twitter.com/validator

Thanks for those links, well handy.   wildenborch, I Confess to not knowing how this stuff works at all, it would be a good idea for a tutorial if you're up for it.

[wildenborch]

Hi Mick,

it would be a good idea for a tutorial if you're up for it.

I shall think about it. First let's wait for Jernatety's reply if it workes for him.

I Confess to not knowing how this stuff works at all,

From what I have seen/understand it's some kind of a cache system.

Fred

[jernatety]

Hi sorry, I was camping the last few days.

I added this to the top of my article.

<meta name="title" content="The Youth Hockey Rink Guide" />
<meta name="description" content="Eastern United States Youth Hockey Info and rink guide" />

I did the FB scrape and nothing changes. The result after scape is still the same. I don't know if it is the mod I'm using that might have something to do with it, I'm using the Optimus SEO mod. It might automatically take precedence over any manually edited SEO changes.

[jernatety]

Too bad it didn't work for you.
I assume it's indeed the Optimus Seo mod.

the Raw tags show the following info:

<meta name="msvalidate.01" content="53BCC2856C78A3034A88B0700F1592DA" />

<meta name="description" content="The Youth Hockey Database - East coast youth hockey info. Tier l, tier ll and independent AAA information." />

<meta name="keywords" content="Youth hockey,youth hockey info,forum,hockey information,youthhockey,travel,hockey,rinks,youth hockey information" />

<meta property="og:title" content="Youth Hockey Info - Youth Hockey" />

<meta property="og:type" content="website" />

<meta property="og:url" content="https://www.youthhockeyinfo.com/" />

<meta property="og:image" content="https://www.youthhockeyinfo.com/Themes/default/images/Youth_Hockey_Info_LOGO.jpg" />

<meta property="og:description" content="The Youth Hockey Database - East coast youth hockey info. Tier l, tier ll and independent AAA information." />

<meta property="og:site_name" content="Youth Hockey Info" />

<meta property="fb:app_id" name="app_id" content="426254727844927" />

I just installed the Optimus Seo myself but it does not keep my settings. So I deleted it again.

Yep, that's all of the data I have in the meta fields for Optimus. So basically Optimus forces the third party pages, (Articles) to use the same settings as the site index.

[wildenborch]

I just installed Optimus Seo myself and noticed an option to choose which portal is used.
I do not know what this functionality is doing since my settings are not kept.
I have therefore removed Optimus from my site again.

[jernatety]

I just installed Optimus Seo myself and noticed an option to choose which portal is used.
I do not know what this functionality is doing since my settings are not kept.
I have therefore removed Optimus from my site again.

Yes, I have tinyportal selected in mine. I honestly have no idea what it does either. I just selected it because the developer for that mod said I should since I'm using TP.

[wildenborch]

What will happen if you change the title of your website in optimus to the title of the Rink Page for only a few minutes, scrape the article again and see the title in optimus back to Youth Hockey Info - Youth Hockey?

[jernatety]

It changes the site name to whatever is entered into that field immediately.

[wildenborch]

I copied your raw tags directly into my theme and after I pushed the scrape again button your site info was in my facebook posting. So I think we can say with 99,999% certainty that Optimus Seo is indeed preventing the facebook posting from showing the article titles.

If you find a solution for this problem please share it here with us.

[jernatety]

I copied your raw tags directly into my theme and after I pushed the scrape again button your site info was in my facebook posting. So I think we can say with 99,999% certainty that Optimus Seo is indeed preventing the facebook posting from showing the article titles.

If you find a solution for this problem please share it here with us.

Ok, will do. My assumption is that there won't be any changes mainly because I asked several months ago if he could update some things I thought would help. He said he's not making changes to the mod.

[wildenborch]

Can you try to somehow remove
<meta property="og:title" content="Youth Hockey Info - Youth Hockey" />
from optimus.

and then scrape again?

The Title Youth Hockey Info - Youth Hockey appears in the browsers tab buttons
This can also be done by placing the title in TinyPortal's settings: Use a custom frontpage title:

[jernatety]

Can you try to somehow remove
<meta property="og:title" content="Youth Hockey Info - Youth Hockey" />
from optimus.

and then scrape again?

The Title Youth Hockey Info - Youth Hockey appears in the browsers tab buttons
This can also be done by placing the title in TinyPortal's settings: Use a custom frontpage title:

That's the default when the mod is installed. You can't change it unless you the "Youth Hockey" part to something else. If you remove Youth Hockey and leave the field empty, it will automatically append "Youth Hockey Info".

[wildenborch]

Thanks for those links, well handy.   wildenborch, I Confess to not knowing how this stuff works at all, it would be a good idea for a tutorial if you're up for it.

I am currently working on the tutorial.

I added the code on my brothers website in more that 3000 articles with a mysql command (and it worked) so I will add this to the tutorial as well.

The tutorial will start with:
In Tinyportal there is functionality to share the articles on social media.
I noticed that when using the facebook social media button, in the result (the so called scrape), the title of the article is mentioned twice.

The tutorial will not give an answer to Jernatety's problem.

[jernatety]

Can only assume it's directly attributed to Optimus. I can't uninstall it though. It's really working well in SEO terms according to my Google Webmaster tools. 

[jernatety]

Out of curiosity, I clicked FB, Twitter and G+ share icons, (I don't have accounts for the rest). Here's what I found.

FB - Appends the index Title/Site Description/URL to index/Site Logo
Twitter - Appends just the link, nothing else
G+ - Appends the actual Article Name/Site Description/URL to the article/Site Logo

I guess all three socials see meta data differently? See attached, all three.

[wildenborch]

Yes, i also noticed that. Google+ gave the best results but after i added the meta description directly into the code Facebook is now my favourite because they also show a part of the text.

[jernatety]

Yes, i also noticed that. Google+ gave the best results but after i added the meta description directly into the code Facebook is now my favourite because they also show a part of the text.

What do you mean you added meta description directly into the code? Are you talking about when editing the article? This is what my code looks like, (see attached) and hasn't been changed for weeks. Even when the screen shots were taken of FB/Twitt/G+

[wildenborch]

What do you mean you added meta description directly into the code? Are you talking about when editing the article? This is what my code looks like, (see attached) and hasn't been changed for weeks. Even when the screen shots were taken of FB/Twitt/G+

I noticed in standard SMF / TP installations, the facebook scrape is showing the website /article title /  article title.
Google+ is only showing Article title / website.
After I included the tag <meta content="" name="description" /> into the artice with the code editor, the Facebook scrape is showing: website / article title / description.
If you leave the cantent"" empty facebook will automatically take a part of the text.
If you place some text between the content"" that text is taken.

Unfortunately, when using a mod like Optimus or in case the meta tags are hardcoded into the theme index.template.php the facebook scrape will take the title and description information from that.

[jernatety]

What do you mean you added meta description directly into the code? Are you talking about when editing the article? This is what my code looks like, (see attached) and hasn't been changed for weeks. Even when the screen shots were taken of FB/Twitt/G+

I noticed in standard SMF / TP installations, the facebook scrape is showing the website /article title /  article title.
Google+ is only showing Article title / website.
After I included the tag <meta content="" name="description" /> into the artice with the code editor, the Facebook scrape is showing: website / article title / description.
If you leave the cantent"" empty facebook will automatically take a part of the text.
If you place some text between the content"" that text is taken.

Unfortunately, when using a mod like Optimus or in case the meta tags are hardcoded into the theme index.template.php the facebook scrape will take the title and description information from that.

Ok, so basically Optimus is stopping FB because of it's hardcoded settings?

[wildenborch]

In my opinion, the problem is caused by the meta tags. I don't know if the tags on your page are created by Optimus, another mod or coded in the index.template.php or something else

If you view the Hockey Rink Guide page source you will see several meta tags.
one of them is <meta property="og:url" content="https://www.youthhockeyinfo.com/" />

If you view the page source of a forum topic you will see the meta tag:
<meta property="og:url" content="https://www.youthhockeyinfo.com/index.php/topic,253.0.html" />
(this is the topic:    Topic: Rate your visit to Oaks Center Ice )

The facebook scrape of this forum topic is showing the correct info.

All my 5 SMF/TP sites don't have the meta tags you have on your site.

[jernatety]

Here's what I've got.....

I have SMF>Configuration>Features and Options>General [Search Engine Friendly URLS] enabled with meta key words identified. This is an SMF default feature.

I have Optimus SEO mod installed and running

I don't have any other mods which would manipulate the default SMF SEO feature or the Optimus mod. I also don't have any manual meta edits to info.template.php

[wildenborch]

Could it be related to the "Add this" mod that is active in your forum?

I was able to install optimus on another site and the meta tags are indeed created by optimus.
So i'm now 99,999% sure this is causing "the problem".