Skip to main content

How to Change a Page's SEO Title and Meta Description in Joomla

Using WordPress instead? See How to Change a Page's SEO Title and Meta Description in WordPress.

The page title and meta description are what people often see in search results. Joomla has fields for both built in. Where you set them depends on how the page is reached.

Note: search engines don't always use your title and description exactly as written, but setting good ones gives you the best chance.

Write a good title and description

  • Title: describe the page clearly, put the most important words first, and keep it to about 60 characters so it isn't cut off.
  • Meta description: a sentence or two (about 155 characters or fewer) that tells people what they'll find and why to click.
  • Make each page's title and description unique.
  • Write for people. Repeating keywords won't help.

Meta description: on the article

  1. Go to Content > Articles and open the article.
  2. On the Publishing tab, under Metadata, fill in Meta Description.
  3. Leave Keywords blank. Search engines don't use it.
  4. Click Save & Close.

Page title: on the menu item

If the page has its own menu item (most main pages do), the title comes from the menu item.

  1. Go to Menus and open the menu item for the page.
  2. On the Page Display tab, fill in Browser Page Title. If it's blank, Joomla uses the menu item's title.
  3. Save.

Menu items also have a Metadata tab with their own Meta Description. For a single article page, the article's meta description wins when both are filled in; the menu item's is used only if the article's is blank. To keep things simple, fill in one place.

Page title for articles without a menu item

For articles reached from a blog or category list (like blog posts), use the article's Options tab and fill in Browser Page Title. Joomla uses it when the article is viewed through a non-article menu item.

Site name in titles

Under System > Global Configuration, the Site tab's Include Site Name in Page Titles setting adds your business name before or after every title. Changing it affects the whole site, so ask before you change it.

Home page

Your home page's title and description are on its menu item (the one marked as Default Page), or under System > Global Configuration > Site Meta Description.

Related

Prefer we handle it?

If you'd rather spend your time running your business, our boutique hosting, available to our clients, including sites moved over from another host, takes a proactive approach to security and monitoring, with nightly backups, 24/7 outage monitoring, and ongoing core CMS updates.

Joomla