List of available snippet variables in Yoast SEO

One of the most important functions of Yoast SEO is the ability to automatically add SEO title and meta description templates to the homepage, all (custom) post types, all (custom) taxonomies, products, collections, and other pages. We include default templates that are SEO-friendly but you can also modify the default templates. In this article, we’ll provide you with a list of all the available snippet variables in Yoast SEO.

If you want to know more about what snippet variables are and how Yoast SEO uses snippet variables, then you could read this article. Or, to read about how to modify the default snippet template, check out this guide.

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Available variable types in WordPress

We distinguish four available variable types:

1. Basic variables
2. Advanced variables
3. Custom variables
4. WooCommerce variables

Basic variables

Label	Variable	Description
Date	%%date%%	Replaced with the date of the post/page
Title	%%title%%	Replaced with the title of the post/page
Parent title	%%parent_title%%	Replaced with the title of the parent page of the current page
Archive title	%%archive_title%%	Replaced with the normal title for an archive generated by WordPress
Site title	%%sitename%%	The site’s title from the Settings > General page
Tagline	%%sitedesc%%	The site’s tagline from the Settings > General page
Excerpt	%%excerpt%%	Replaced with the post/page excerpt (or auto-generated if it does not exist)
Excerpt only	%%excerpt_only%%	Replaced with the post/page excerpt (without auto-generation)
Tag	%%tag%%	Replaced with the current tag/tags
Category	%%category%%	Replaced with the post categories (comma separated)
Primary category	%%primary_category%%	Replaced with the primary category of the post/page
Category description	%%category_description%%	Replaced with the category description
Tag description	%%tag_description%%	Replaced with the tag description
Term description	%%term_description%%	Replaced with the term description
Term title	%%term_title%%	Replaced with the term name
Search phrase	%%searchphrase%%	Replaced with the current search phrase
Separator	%%sep%%	The separator defined in your theme’s wp_title() tag.

Advanced variables

The following sample of variables requires a better understanding of SEO. If you’re unsure how to use these advanced variables, then we advise you not to use them. You can learn more about SEO through our online Yoast SEO Academy courses.

Label	Variable	Description
Post type (singular)	%%pt_single%%	Replaced with the content type single label
Post type (plural)	%%pt_plural%%	Replaced with the content type plural label
Modified	%%modified%%	Replaced with the post/page modified time
ID	%%id%%	Replaced with the post/page ID
Name	%%name%%	Replaced with the post/page author’s ‘nicename’
User description	%%user_description%%	Replaced with the post/page author’s ‘Biographical Info’
Page number	%%page%%	Replaced with the current page number with context (i.e. page 2 of 4)
Pagetotal	%%pagetotal%%	Replaced with the current page total
Pagenumber	%%pagenumber%%	Replaced with the current page number
Caption	%%caption%%	Attachment caption
Focus keyword	%%focuskw%%	Replaced with the posts focus keyphrase
Term404	%%term404%%	Replaced with the slug which caused the 404
<custom-field-name> (custom field)	%%cf_<custom-field-name>%%	Replaced with a posts custom field value. Remove the <>
<custom-tax-name> (custom taxonomy)	%%ct_<custom-tax-name>%%	Replaced with a posts custom taxonomies, comma separated. Remove the <>
<custom-tax-name> description (custom taxonomy)	%%ct_desc_<custom-tax-name>%%	Replaced with a custom taxonomies description. Remove the <>

Custom variables

The last three advanced variables can be used to output data from non-standard WordPress elements, such as WooCommerce products. But, how do you find the name of the correct field or taxonomy to use these variables?

Custom fields

Custom field names can be found using the steps here. Once you have the custom field name, you will replace <custom-field-name>. If my custom field was calledmyfield, then the custom variable would be %%cf_myfield%%. Or, if the custom field begins with an underscore, for example _anotherfield, the custom variable should include the underscore like so: %%cf__anotherfield%%.

Note: Custom fields that contain arrays (a list of related information) will not work with the custom field variable. Instead, you or your developer should create your own custom template variables.

Custom taxonomies

Custom taxonomy names can be found in the browser bar on the backend when viewing or editing an item.

Example: edit-tags.php?taxonomy=mycategory&post_type=myposttype

In the example above, we are editing a custom taxonomy called mycategory under a custom post type called myposttype. If I wanted to output a list of categories assigned to a myposttype page, I would use %%ct_mycategory%%. Alternatively, if I wanted to output the description of an individual mycategory on the category archive page, I would use %%ct_desc_mycategory%% .

WooCommerce variables

The following variables are some that you can use with WooCommerce. If the specific variable you are looking for is not listed below, then please use the custom variable information above to find the variable you need.

%%ct_product_cat%%	Product category (comma separated)
%%ct_product_tag%%	Product tag (comma separated)
%%ct_pa_<product-attribute-slug>%%	Product attribute (comma separated). Be sure to remove the <> as they are not needed.

Yoast WooCommerce SEO variables

When you are using our Yoast WooCommerce SEO plugin, these additional variables are available:

%%wc_shortdesc%%	Replaced with the short description of the product. (Available as of Yoast WooCommerce SEO 6.2)
%%wc_sku%%	Replaced with the inventory stock-keeping unit (sku) of the product. (Available as of Yoast WooCommerce SEO 6.2)
%%wc_brand%%	Replaced with the brand name. This variable only works with ‘WooCommerce Brands‘ and ‘Perfect WooCommerce Brands‘ plugins. (Available as of Yoast WooCommerce SEO 6.2)
%%wc_price%%	Replaced with price of the product. (Available as of Yoast WooCommerce SEO 6.2)

Deprecated variables in WordPress

Starting in v7.7 of Yoast, we’ve deprecated these variables as we see no valid use-case for them. If they are used in the snippet editor, they won’t appear in the snippet preview. However, they will show up in your source code to maintain backward compatibility, but we recommend not using them.

%%userid%%	Replaced with the post/page author’s userid
%%currenttime%%	Replaced with the current time
%%currentdate%%	Replaced with the current date
%%currentday%%	Replaced with the current day
%%currentmonth%%	Replaced with the current month
%%currentyear%%	Replaced with the current year

Default variables in WordPress

If you want to reset the SEO title template variables back to the defaults use the following below.  For meta descriptions, the default is blank. You can enter these default titles in the SEO-Search Appearance section. This will then assign the defaults as the global template variable for that section.

%%title%% %%page%% %%sep%% %%sitename%%%	Posts, Pages, Products, Media, and Custom Post Types
%%pt_plural%% Archive %%page%% %%sep%% %%sitename%%	Posts, Products, and other Custom Post Type Archive Pages
%%term_title%% Archives %%page%% %%sep%% %%sitename%%	Taxonomies
You searched for %%searchphrase%% %%page%% %%sep%% %%sitename%%	Special Pages: Search Page
Page Not Found %%sep%% %%sitename%%	Special Pages: 404 Pages
%%name%%, Author at %%sitename%% %%page%%	Author Archive Pages
%%date%% %%page%% %%sep%% %%sitename%%	Date Archive Pages
The post %%POSTLINK%% appeared first on %%BLOGLINK%%.	RSS Feed
%%sitename%% %%page%% %%sep%% %%sitedesc%%	Homepage Template

There are a number of filters documented in the plugin code for developers to programmatically change the template variables. Here are some examples.

Creating custom template variables in WordPress

Adding your own template variables can be done using the wpseo_register_extra_replacements filter in your functions.php file. An example of how to use the filter can be viewed here.

You might not want Yoast to show these Yoast-created titles. In that case, you can use these filters here.

Available snippet variables in Shopify

The following snippet variables are available in the Yoast SEO for Shopify app:

Label	Variable	Description
Title	%%title%%	Replaced with the title of the blog post or (product/collection) page.
Focus keyphrase	%%focus_keyphrase%%	Replaced with the focus keyphrase of the post/page
Product variant	%%product_variant%%	The name of the product variants
Page number	%%page_number%%	Replaced with the page number of the current page
Separator	%%sep%%	The separator defined in your Site defaults
Site title	%%sitename%%	The site’s name
Blog title	%%blog_title%%	Replaced with the title of the blog the post belongs to
Collection title	%%collection_title%%	Replaced with the title of the collection the (product) page belongs to
Product/post tags	%%tag%%	Replaced with the current tag/tags
Product vendor	%%vendor%%	Shopify’s “vendor” field; i.e., the brand which manufactures or supplies the product
Shopify page title	%%shopify_seo_title%%	Shopify’s native product ‘SEO title’
Shopify meta description	%%shopify_seo_description%%	Shopify’s native product ‘SEO meta description’
Product availability	%%availability%%	The availability of a product; either ‘In Stock’ or ‘Out Of Stock’
Product SKU	%%sku%%	The SKU of the product
Product barcode	%%barcode%%	The barcode value of the product
Product Price	%%price%%	The (default) price of the product
Minimum price of a variable product	%%price_min%%	The min price of a variable product
Maximum price of a variable product	%%price_max%%	The max price of a variable product

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