MediaWiki WikiSEO extension

Starting from 2023-01-23, WikiSEO requires MediaWiki 1.39.0

The WikiSEO extension allows you to replace, append or prepend the html title tag content, and allows you to add common SEO meta keywords and a meta description.

Extension Page: Extension:WikiSEO

Installation

• Download and place the file(s) in a directory called WikiSEO in your extensions/ folder.
• Add the following code at the bottom of your LocalSettings.php:

wfLoadExtension( 'WikiSEO' );

• Configure as required.
• Done – Navigate to Special:Version on your wiki to verify that the extension is successfully installed.

Configuration

The following variables are in use by this extension.

Variable	Description	Usage
Site / App Keys
$wgGoogleSiteVerificationKey	Setting this variable will add a <meta name="google-site-verification" content="CODE"> tag to every page.	$wgGoogleSiteVerificationKey = 'CODE';
$wgBingSiteVerificationKey	Setting this variable will add a <meta name="msvalidate.01" content="CODE"> tag to every page.	$wgBingSiteVerificationKey= 'CODE';
$wgFacebookAppID	Setting this variable will add a <meta property="fb:app_id" content="ID"> tag to every page.	$wgFacebookAppID= 'App_ID';
$wgFacebookAdmins	Setting this variable will add a <meta property="fb:admins" content="ID1,ID2,..."> tag to every page.	$wgFacebookAdmins= 'ID1,ID2,...';
$wgYandexSiteVerificationKey	Setting this variable will add a <meta name="yandex-verification" content="CODE"> tag to every page.	$wgYandexSiteVerificationKey= 'CODE';
$wgPinterestSiteVerificationKey	Setting this variable will add a <meta name="p:domain_verify" content="CODE"> tag to every page.	$wgPinterestSiteVerificationKey= 'CODE';
$wgNortonSiteVerificationKey	Setting this variable will add a <meta name="norton-safeweb-site-verification" content="CODE"> tag to every page.	$wgNortonSiteVerificationKey= 'CODE';
$wgNaverSiteVerificationKey	Setting this variable will add a <meta name="naver-site-verification" content="CODE"> tag to every page.	$wgNaverSiteVerificationKey = 'CODE';
General Options
$wgMetadataGenerators	Array containing the metadata generator classes to load. Custom generators can be added by appending the class name without the namespace to this array.	$wgMetadataGenerators = ["OpenGraph", "Twitter", "SchemaOrg"]
$wgTwitterSiteHandle	Only used when Twitter generator is loaded. Setting this variable will add a tag to every page.	$wgTwitterSiteHandle = '@SITE_HANDLE';
$wgWikiSeoDefaultImage	Set a default image to use if no image is set on the site. If this variable is not set the sites logo will be used.	$wgWikiSeoDefaultImage = 'File:Localfile.jpg';
$wgTwitterCardType	Defaults to summary_large_image for the twitter card type.	$wgTwitterCardType = 'summary';
$wgWikiSeoDefaultLanguage	A default language code with area to generate a for.	$wgWikiSeoDefaultLanguage = 'de-de';
$wgWikiSeoDisableLogoFallbackImage	Disables setting $wgLogo as the fallback image if no image was set.
$wgWikiSeoNoindexPageTitles	An array of page titles where a 'noindex' robot tag should be added.	$wgWikiSeoNoindexPageTitles = [ 'Custom_Title', 'Main_Page' ];
$wgWikiSeoEnableAutoDescription	Set to true to try to request a description from textextracts, if no description was given, or the description key is set to 'textextracts' or 'auto'. This requires Extension:TextExtracts to be loaded. The description is generated when saving the page after an edit.	$wgWikiSeoEnableAutoDescription = true;
$wgWikiSeoTryCleanAutoDescription	Set to true, if WikiSEO should try to remove dangling sentences when using descriptions from textextracts. This will remove all characters after the last found dot.	$wgWikiSeoTryCleanAutoDescription = true;
$wgWikiSeoOverwritePageImage	Set to true to enable overwriting the iamge set by extension PageImages.	$wgWikiSeoOverwritePageImage = true;
Social Media Images
$wgWikiSeoEnableSocialImages	Generate dedicated social media icons for pages	$wgWikiSeoEnableSocialImages = true;
$wgWikiSeoSocialImageIcon	The icon/watermark to add to the social media image. Use a local file name	$wgWikiSeoSocialImageIcon = LocalFile.jpg;
$wgWikiSeoSocialImageWidth	Width of the social media image	$wgWikiSeoSocialImageWidth = 1200;
$wgWikiSeoSocialImageHeight	Height of the social media image	$wgWikiSeoSocialImageHeight = 620;
$wgWikiSeoSocialImageTextColor	Color of the text on the social image	$wgWikiSeoSocialImageTextColor = #fff;
$wgWikiSeoSocialImageShowAuthor	Show the author of the current page revision	$wgWikiSeoSocialImageShowAuthor = true;
$wgWikiSeoSocialImageShowLogo	Show the Wiki logo in the top right corner	$wgWikiSeoSocialImageShowLogo = true;
$wgWikiSeoSocialImageBackgroundColor	Default background color if no page image is found

Usage

The extension can be used via the {{#seo}} parser function or in Lua modules by using mw.ext.seo. It accepts the following named parameters in any order.

• title
  • The title you want to appear in the html title tag
• title_mode
  • Set to append, prepend, or replace (default) to define how the title will be amended.
• title_separator
  • The separator in case titlemode was set to append or prepend; " - " (default)
• keywords
  • A comma separated list of keywords for the meta keywords tag
• description
  • A text description for the meta description tag
• robots
  • Controls the behavior of search engine crawling and indexing
  • Assumes the following order: index policy, follow policy
  • Example: robots=index,nofollow / noindex,follow / index,follow / etc.
  • Invalid: robots=follow,index
• googlebot
  • Controls the behavior of the google crawler
• hreflang_xx-xx[]
  • Adds <link rel="alternate" href="url" hreflang="xx-xx"> elements +* canonical

• • Adds a <link rel="canonical" href="url"> element

Tags related to the Open Graph protocol

• type
  • The type of your object, e.g., "video.movie". Depending on the type you specify, other properties may also be required.
• image
  • An image URL which should represent your object within the graph. The extension will automatically add the right image url, width and height if an image name is set as the parameter. Example image = Local_file_to_use.png. Alternatively a full url to an image can be used, image_width and image_height will then have to be set manually. If no parameter is set, the extension will use $wgLogo as a fallback or the local file set through $wgWikiSeoDefaultImage.
• image_width
  • The image width in px. (Automatically set if an image name is set in image)
• image_height
  • The image height in px. (Automatically set if an image name is set in image)
• image_alt
  • Alternative description for the image.
• locale
  • The locale these tags are marked up in. Of the format language_TERRITORY.
• site_name
  • If your object is part of a larger web site, the name which should be displayed for the overall site. e.g., "IMDb".

Tags related to Open Graph type "article"

• author
  • Writers of the article.
• keywords
  • Translates into article:tag
• section
  • A high-level section name. E.g. Technology
• published_time
  • When the article was first published. ISO 8601 Format.

Tags related to Twitter Cards (see OpenGraph Tags)

• twitter_site
  • If you did not set a global site name through $wgTwitterSiteHandle, you can set a site handle per page. If a global site handle is set this key will be ignored.
• twitter_card
  • Allows per page overriding of $wgWikiSEOTwitterCardType

Tags related to the Citation generator

• description
• keywords
• citation_author
• citation_conference_title
• citation_creation_date (previously citation_date_created)
• citation_doi
• citation_firstpage (previously citation_page_start)
• citation_headline
• citation_isbn
• citation_issn
• citation_issue
• citation_journal_title
• citation_lastpage
• citation_license
• citation_name
• citation_pdf_url
• citation_publication_date (previously citation_date_published)
• citation_publisher
• citation_title
• citation_type
• citation_volume

Multiple authors should be separated by ;.

** Tags related to the Dublin Core generator**

• description
• title
• author
• locale
• site_name
• dc.identifier.wikidata

Examples

Adding static values

{{#seo:
 |title=Your page title
 |titlemode=append
 |keywords=these,are,your,keywords
 |description=Your meta description
 |image=Uploaded_file.png
 |image_alt=Wiki Logo
}}

Adding dynamic values

If you need to include variables or templates you should use the parser function to ensure they are properly parsed. This allows you to use Cargo or Semantic MediaWiki, with Page Forms, for data entry, or for programmatic creation of a page title from existing variables or content...

{{#seo:
 |title={{#if: {{{page_title|}}} | {{{page_title}}} | Welcome to WikiSEO}}
 |titlemode={{{title_mode|}}}
 |keywords={{{keywords|}}}
 |description={{{description|}}}
 |published_time={{REVISIONYEAR}}-{{REVISIONMONTH}}-{{REVISIONDAY2}}
}}

{{#seo:
|title_mode=append
|title=Example SEO Wiki
|keywords=WikiSEO, SEO, MediaWiki
|description=An example description for this wiki
|image=Wiki_Logo.png
|image_alt=Wiki Logo
|site_name=Example SEO Wiki
|locale=en_EN
|type=website
|modified_time={{REVISIONYEAR}}-{{REVISIONMONTH}}-{{REVISIONDAY2}}
|published_time=2020-11-01
}}

Using the lua module

WikiSEO exposes a lua method as mw.ext.seo.set

Example module:

-- Module:SEO
local seo = {}

--[[
argTable format:
{
  title_mode = 'append',
  title = 'Example Seo Wiki',
  keywords = 'WikiSEO, SEO, MediaWiki',
  -- ...
}
]]--
function seo.set( argTable )
  mw.ext.seo.set( argTable )
end

function seo.setStatic()
  mw.ext.seo.set{
    title_mode = 'append',
    title = 'Example Seo Wiki',
    keywords = 'WikiSEO, SEO, MediaWiki',  
  }
end

return seo

The module would now be callable as {{#invoke:SEO|add|title=ExampleTitle|keywords=WikiSEO, SEO, MediaWiki}} or {{#invoke:SEO|addStatic}}.

Hreflang Attributes

{{#seo:
 |hreflang_de-de=https://example.de/page
 |hreflang_nl-nl=https://example.nl/page-nl
 |hreflang_en-us=https://website.com/
}}

Will generate the following <link> elements:

<link rel="alternate" href="https://example.de/page" hreflang="de-de">
<link rel="alternate" href="https://example.nl/page-nl" hreflang="nl-nl">
<link rel="alternate" href="https://website.com/" hreflang="en-us">

Title Modes

Example: Page with title Example Page

Append

{{#seo:
 |title_mode=append
 |title=Appended Title
}}

HTML Title result: Example Page - Appended Title

Prepend

{{#seo:
 |title_mode=prepend
 |title=Prepended Title
}}

HTML Title result: Prepended Title - Example Page

Prepend (changed separator)

{{#seo:
 |title_mode=prepend
 |title=Prepended Title
 |title_separator=<nowiki>&nbsp;>>&nbsp;</nowiki>
}}

HTML Title result: Prepended Title >> Example Page

Replace (default)

{{#seo:
 |title_mode=replace
 |title=Replaced Title
}}

HTML Title result: Replaced Title

Hooks

WikiSEO exposes Hooks that allow to customize the metadata that gets added to the page and saved in page props.

• WikiSEOPreAddMedatada
  • onWikiSEOPreAddMedatada( &$metadata )
  • An array of key-value pairs validated through Validator::validateParams
  • Run right before the instantiation of the metadata generators
• WikiSEOPreAddPageProps
  • onWikiSEOPreAddPageProps( &$metadata )
  • An array of key-value pairs validated through Validator::validateParams
  • Run right before setting the page props
• WikiSEOLuaPreAddPageProps
  • onWikiSEOLuaPreAddPageProps( &$metadata )
  • An array of key-value pairs validated through Validator::validateParams
  • Run right before setting the page props
  • Only run when the lua module is called | $wgWikiSeoSocialImageBackgroundColor = #14181f; |

Migrating to v2

Removed tags

• DC.date.created
• DC.date.issued
• google
• name
• og:title (automatically set)
• og:url (automatically set)
• twitter:card (automatically set)
• twitter:creator
• twitter:domain
• article:modified_time / og:updated_time (automatically set)

Removed aliases

• metakeywords / metak
  • use keywords instead
• metadescription / metad
  • use description instead
• titlemode / title mode
  • use title_mode instead

Changed argument names

• article:author -> author
• article:section -> section
• article:tag -> keywords
• article:published_time -> published_time
• og:image / twitter:image:src -> image
• og:image:width -> image_width
• og:image:height -> image_height
• og:locale -> locale
• og:site_name -> site_name
• og:title -> title
• og:type -> type
• twitter:description -> description

Known Issues

Extension:PageImages will add an og:image tag if an image is found on the page. This overwrites any og:image tag set using this extension.
There is currently no way to disable PageImages setting the meta tag.

Notes

If you only want to override the display title on pages (not append words to it), you might also look at the DISPLAYTITLE tag in combination with the Manual:$wgAllowDisplayTitle and Manual:$wgRestrictDisplayTitle settings.

schema.org

The SchemaOrg generator will set a SearchAction property based on Special:Search.
The properties publisher and author will be set to Organization with the name set to the content of $wgSitename.
dateModified will be automatically set by fetching the latest revision timestamp. If no published_time is set, datePublished will be set to the latest revision timestamp.

OpenGraph

article:modified_time will be automatically set by fetching the latest revision timestamp. If no published_time is set, article:published_time will be set to the latest revision timestamp.
This can be disabled on a per-page basis by setting modified_time=- through the parser.

Extending this extension

Metadata generators live in the includes/Generator/Plugins directory.
A generator has to implement the GeneratorInterface.
To load the generator simply add its name to $wgMetadataGenerators.