Edit SEO Titles, Meta Descriptions, and Focus Keywords

Every post, page, and public custom post type on your site has a SEOvault AI meta box in the WordPress editor. This is where you set the SEO title, meta description, focus keyword, canonical URL, robots directives, and social metadata for each piece of content.

Where to find the meta box

Open any post or page in the WordPress editor (Gutenberg or Classic).
Scroll below the content area. The meta box is titled SEOvault AI and appears in the sidebar (right side) in the block editor, or below the content in the classic editor.
If you do not see it, click the Settings (gear) icon in the top right and make sure the sidebar is open.

The meta box is added to all public post types except attachments. Other plugins can exclude additional post types via the seovaultseo_excluded_post_types filter.

Meta box fields

SEO Title

The SEO title is what appears in search engine results and browser tabs. It is separate from your post’s H1 heading.

Character counter shows a live count with ideal min/max ranges (typically 30-60 characters)
Placeholder shows the auto-generated title in Automatic mode, or “Enter your SEO title” in Manual mode
If you leave this field empty, the plugin uses your title template (e.g., %title% | %sitename%) to generate one automatically in Automatic mode
Manual values always override auto-generated ones

SEO Description

The meta description is the short summary that appears under your title in search results.

Character counter shows a live count with ideal min/max ranges (typically 120-160 characters)
Placeholder shows the auto-generated description in Automatic mode
If you leave this field empty, the plugin generates one from your post excerpt or content in Automatic mode
In Manual mode, posts without a custom description will have no meta description tag output

Focus Keyword

The focus keyword is the primary search term you want this post to rank for. It drives the SEO assessment analysis.

Enter one primary keyword or phrase
Click Get suggestions to get AI-powered keyword ideas (requires web app connection)
The assessment checks if the keyword appears in your title, description, URL, content, headings, and meta tags

Secondary Keywords

Secondary keywords are additional related terms you want the post to target. They appear in an expandable section below the focus keyword field.

Enter multiple keywords separated by commas
The assessment checks if secondary keywords appear in your content
Useful for targeting long-tail variations and related searches

Canonical URL

The canonical URL tells search engines which URL is the authoritative version of this page. Use it to prevent duplicate content issues.

Placeholder shows the post’s permalink
Leave empty to use the default permalink
Enter a custom URL only if this content is duplicated from another URL or if you want to point search engines to a different canonical source

Robots Directives

Two checkboxes control per-post robots directives:

Noindex – adds <meta name="robots" content="noindex"> to this page. Search engines will not index it
Nofollow – adds <meta name="robots" content="nofollow"> to this page. Search engines will not follow links on it

These override the global robots settings for this specific post.

Click the Social section to expand per-post Open Graph and Twitter/X Card fields:

Open Graph Title – overrides the SEO title for social sharing. Falls back to the SEO title if empty
Open Graph Description – overrides the meta description for social sharing. Falls back to the SEO description if empty
Open Graph Image – a specific image for social sharing. Upload or choose from the media library. Falls back to the default social image if empty
Twitter/X Card Title – overrides the OG title for Twitter/X specifically

SERP Preview

The meta box includes a live SERP (Search Engine Results Page) preview that shows how your post will appear in Google search results:

Title – shows your custom SEO title, or the auto-generated one if the field is empty
URL – shows the post’s permalink with the domain
Description – shows your custom meta description, or the auto-generated one if empty

The preview updates as you type. Use it to check that your title and description look good before publishing.

SEO Assessment

Below the SERP preview, the meta box shows an SEO assessment score based on your focus keyword:

Green – good optimization. The keyword appears in key locations
Orange – needs improvement. Some key elements are missing the keyword
Red – poor optimization. The keyword is missing from most key elements

The assessment checks:

Focus keyword in the SEO title
Focus keyword in the meta description
Focus keyword in the URL
Focus keyword in the first paragraph of content
Focus keyword in headings (H2, H3)
Content length relative to the focus keyword
Presence of internal and external links
Image ALT attributes containing the keyword

The assessment runs live via AJAX as you edit, so you see updates without saving.

Character guidelines

The meta box shows character counters with ideal ranges:

Field	Ideal minimum	Ideal maximum
SEO Title	30	60
SEO Description	120	160
Open Graph Title	30	60
Open Graph Description	120	160

These ranges are based on what Google typically displays in search results. Titles longer than 60 characters and descriptions longer than 160 characters may be truncated.

Save your changes

The meta box saves automatically when you save or publish the post in the WordPress editor. There is no separate “Save SEO” button – all SEO fields are saved as part of the post’s metadata via the save_post hook.

The save handler:

Verifies the nonce for security
Sanitizes all input values (titles, descriptions, keywords, URLs)
Stores values in post meta with the _seovault_ prefix
Handles secondary keywords, robots directives, social fields, and redirect URL

Quick Edit support

SEOvault AI also supports Quick Edit in the post list table. When you click Quick Edit on a post in the list:

SEO title and description fields appear inline
You can update them without opening the full editor
Changes save when you click Update

Elementor compatibility

If you use Elementor, the SEOvault AI meta box is replaced by a compact SEO panel inside the Elementor editor. The same fields are available (title, description, focus keyword, canonical, robots, social) but styled to fit the Elementor interface. The standard WordPress meta box is not loaded on Elementor edit screens to avoid duplication.

Tips for writing good SEO titles and descriptions

Include your focus keyword near the beginning of the title
Keep titles under 60 characters to avoid truncation
Write descriptions as action-oriented summaries – tell the reader what they will get
Match search intent – if the query is informational, your description should promise information
Avoid duplicate titles and descriptions across posts – each page should have unique metadata
Use the SERP preview to check how your snippet looks before publishing