SEO Meta Templates user manual – PrestaShop module

1. What this module does

Most products, categories and brands never get their own meta title and meta description. PrestaShop then uses the bare name as the page title and leaves the description empty, so search engines show a short title and a random piece of the page. The module builds both from templates you write once per page type and language, for example {name} – {category} | {shop}, so every product, category, brand, supplier and CMS page gets a useful title and description without editing thousands of records.

For each page type you choose whether the templates fill only the pages without their own meta or replace the meta everywhere. The module changes only what the shop prints: it never writes into your products or categories, so switching it off brings back PrestaShop's own titles and descriptions at once.

Works with PrestaShop 1.7.8, 8.x and 9.x (PHP 7.2.5 or newer), with the Classic and Hummingbird themes and with multistore.

2. Installation

1. Download the module from My account → Order history at addonspresta.com.
2. In your Back Office, open Modules → Module Manager and click Upload a module.
3. Drop the ap_metatemplates_v1.0.0.zip file and wait for the confirmation.
4. Click Configure on the module card.

The module comes with templates in English, Polish and French and starts working right after installation on the pages that have no meta of their own.

3. How it works

When a visitor opens a product, category, brand, supplier or CMS page, the module takes the templates of the visitor's language for that page type and replaces the variables with the values of the page: {name} with the product name, {price} with its price, and so on. The result becomes the page's meta title — the text in the browser tab and the blue link in search results — and its meta description, the text under that link. Your theme also uses them for the og:title and og:description tags read by Facebook and other sites, where it prints them.

• A variable without a value (a product without a brand, a category without a description) disappears together with the separator next to it: {name} – {manufacturer} | {shop} becomes Mug | My Shop, not Mug – | My Shop.
• HTML from descriptions is removed and spaces are collapsed. The description is cut to 160 characters at a word boundary and ends with "…"; longer descriptions are cut by search engines anyway.
• A template left empty in a language leaves PrestaShop's own value in that language.
• Disabled products, categories, brands, suppliers and CMS pages, pages hidden from the visitor's customer group and error pages keep PrestaShop's own values, so nothing about them appears in the meta.
• The title is cut to 255 characters.
• Search engines decide themselves what they show; a good meta description is used more often, but not always.

The module stores only its settings, does not change PrestaShop tables, URLs, canonical or robots tags and does not connect to addonspresta.com or any other server. If your shop uses a full-page cache, new meta appear when the cached pages are refreshed.

4. Features and settings

Open Modules → Module Manager → SEO Meta Templates → Configure. The Help box at the top links to this manual and to the module page at addonspresta.com, in the language of your Back Office. One panel follows for each page type: Product pages, Category pages, Brand pages, Supplier pages and CMS pages, each with its own Save button that saves all panels.

Use the templates

• Only on pages without their own meta (default) — the title and the description are checked separately: a product with its own meta title keeps it and still gets the description from the template if its meta description is empty. Own meta are those in the SEO fields of the product, category, brand, supplier or CMS page.
• Always, also on pages with their own meta — the templates replace every meta title and description of that page type. Your own meta stay in the database and come back when you change the mode.
• Off — PrestaShop's own values on every page of that type.

Meta title and Meta description

A template per language, up to 255 characters, with the language selector next to the field. Under each field the module lists the variables of that page type. A variable that does not exist on that page type is refused when you save, with the page type and the variable named in the message.

{price} is the price of the product as the visitor sees it: with or without tax as their customer group displays prices, with active discounts, in the visitor's currency. It is empty when prices are hidden (catalog mode, a group that does not see prices, a product without a visible price). {shop} is the name of the shop the visitor is in.

Default templates

• Product pages — title {name} – {category} | {shop}, description {name} for {price} at {shop}. {description_short}
• Category pages — title {name} | {shop}, description {name} at {shop}. {description}
• Brand pages — title {name} | {shop}, description Products of {name} at {shop}. {description_short}
• Supplier pages — title {name} | {shop}, description Products from {name} at {shop}.
• CMS pages — title {name} | {shop}, description empty — CMS pages keep their own description

Polish and French shops get the same templates in their language. Change any of them, or empty a field to keep PrestaShop's value.

Supplier pages are shown only when Shop Parameters → General → Display suppliers is on.

5. Multistore

The settings are saved for the shop or shop group selected in the Back Office header. Select All shops to give every shop the same templates, or one shop to give it its own modes and templates; {shop} always prints the name of the shop the visitor is in. In the All shops or group context only an employee who manages every shop of that context can save. One licence covers all shops of the installation.

6. Uninstall

Module Manager → SEO Meta Templates → Uninstall deletes the module's settings with your templates; the shop shows PrestaShop's own meta again. To keep the templates, use Disable instead.

7. FAQ and troubleshooting

The title in the browser tab did not change. Check the mode of that page type, that the template is filled in the language you are looking at and, in mode Only on pages without their own meta, that the page has no meta title of its own in its SEO fields. Then clear the cache in Advanced Parameters → Performance and reload the page.

Google still shows the old title. Search engines read the page again on their own schedule, usually within days or weeks. You can ask Google to read a page again in Google Search Console.

The title is too long. Search engines show about 60 characters of a title. Keep the most important variable first, for example {name} | {shop}, and leave long variables like {description_short} for the description.

{price} is empty. Prices are hidden for the visitor: catalog mode is on, their customer group does not show prices, or the product does not show its price.

Another SEO module also changes the meta. Two modules that change the same meta work against each other. Use one of them per page type, or set this module to Off for the page types the other module handles.

A text stays in English in my Polish or French shop. Fill in the templates of that language in the module's configuration.

8. Updates and support

Updates are free for life: download new versions from My account → Order history at addonspresta.com and upload them like a new module. Your settings are kept.

Support is included for 12 months from your order: write to mail@addonspresta.com or use the contact form at addonspresta.com (Monday to Friday, 10:00–16:00 CET; we usually answer within 2 business days). Please include your PrestaShop version, the module version and the steps that lead to the problem.

Back to User manuals