Homepage SEO Settings

Your homepage is often the most important page on your site for search engines. SEOvault AI lets you set a custom SEO title and meta description specifically for the homepage, separate from your site’s WordPress tagline and description.

Where to find it

Go to SEOvault AI > General > Homepage. This tab contains fields for homepage title and description.

How it works

Homepage SEO settings apply to your site’s front page—the page visitors see at your root URL. This is different from your blog posts page if you have a static homepage.

Homepage title: Replaces the default WordPress title for the front page
Homepage description: Replaces the default meta description for the front page
Replace variables: Both fields support template variables like %%sitename%%, %%sitedesc%%, and %%sep%%
Social tags: Open Graph and Twitter/X cards automatically use your homepage title and description when on the front page

Static homepage vs blog page

WordPress has two homepage configurations:

Static homepage: A specific page set as your front page in Settings > Reading
Blog page: Your latest posts page (can be the same as the front page or a separate page)

SEOvault AI’s homepage settings apply to the static front page. If you use a blog page as your front page, the homepage settings still apply because WordPress treats it as is_front_page().

How to set homepage SEO

Go to SEOvault AI > General > Homepage
Enter your custom homepage title in the Homepage Title field
Enter your meta description in the Homepage Description field
Click Save All Settings

Homepage title best practices

Keep it under 60 characters for optimal display in search results
Include your brand name at the end: Best Coffee Shop in Seattle | Joe's Coffee
Use your primary keyword naturally near the beginning
Avoid keyword stuffing or repetitive phrases

Homepage description best practices

Keep it between 150-160 characters
Write a compelling summary that encourages clicks
Include your value proposition or unique selling point
Match the tone of your brand

Replace variables

You can use template variables in both homepage fields to dynamically insert site information:

%%sitename%% - Your site name (from Settings > General)
%%sitedesc%% - Your site tagline (from Settings > General)
%%sep%% - Title separator (configured in General > Homepage/Templates)

Example: %%sitename%% %%sep%% %%sitedesc%% produces Joe's Coffee - Best coffee in Seattle since 2010

Manual mode behavior

If you use Manual output mode, homepage SEO works differently:

Custom homepage title and description are still used if you set them
No auto-generation occurs if you leave fields empty
Social tags (Open Graph, Twitter) also respect Manual mode and won’t auto-generate from WordPress defaults

Your homepage SEO settings automatically feed into social sharing:

Open Graph title: Uses your homepage title (or falls back to site name if empty)
Open Graph description: Uses your homepage description (or falls back to site tagline if empty)
Twitter/X title: Same as Open Graph title
Twitter/X description: Same as Open Graph description

This ensures your social previews match your search result appearance. You can override these per-post in the editor if needed.

Importing from other SEO plugins

If you migrate from Yoast, Rank Math, AIOSEO, or another SEO plugin, SEOvault AI imports your homepage title and description automatically. The migration preserves your existing values, so you don’t need to re-enter them.

Notes and edge cases

Multilingual sites: Homepage settings are global across all languages. Use a multilingual SEO plugin if you need language-specific homepage metadata
Canonical URL: The homepage always canonicalizes to your site root (/) — you cannot set a custom canonical for the homepage
Robots directives: Use the Schema tab to set homepage-level robots directives like noindex if needed
Verification: Check your homepage source code to confirm the title and meta description are outputting correctly