Head Meta Pro enables you to configure the perfect HTML meta tags for your WordPress-powered site. You can define meta tags for each type of page-view, including single posts, pages, archives, search results and more. Head Meta Pro gives you granular control over your meta tags with shortcut variables like %%DATE%% to include dynamic, context-specific information. This post serves as a quick reference guide for all of the shortcut variables provided with the plugin.

Contents

General shortcut variables

  • {{ — converts to <
  • }} — converts to >
  • %%TAB%% — tab space
  • %%BR%% — new line / break
  • %%NULL%% — nullifies and removes the meta tag
  • %%CURRENT_URL%% — outputs the current URL
  • %%DATE_YEAR%% — four digit representation of a year (e.g., 2025)
  • %%DATE_MONTH_m%% — numeric representation of current month (from 01 to 12)
  • %%DATE_MONTH_n%% — numeric representation of current month, without leading zeros (1 to 12)
  • %%DATE_MONTH_F%% — full textual representation of current month (January through December)
  • %%DATE_DAY_d%% — current day of the month (from 01 to 31)
  • %%DATE_DAY_D%% — textual representation of a day (three letters)
  • %%DATE_DAY_j%% — current day of the month without leading zeros (1 to 31)
  • %%DATE_DAY_l%% — full textual representation of a day (e.g., Friday)

Site-specific shortcut variables

  • %%SITE_NAME%% — site name/title
  • %%SITE_DESC%% — site description
  • %%SITE_CHARSET%% — site charset
  • %%SITE_LANGUAGE%% — site language
  • %%SITE_THEME%% — theme name
  • %%SITE_DESIGNER%% — theme author
  • %%SITE_ADMIN%% — site admin name
  • %%SITE_AUTHORS%% — all site authors (max 10 authors)
  • %%SITE_CATS%% — all site categories (max 500 characters)
  • %%SITE_COPYRIGHT%% — copyright with year and site name
  • %%SITE_GENERATOR%% — outputs “WordPress”

Post and Page shortcut variables

  • %%POST_TITLE%% — post title
  • %%POST_DESC%% — first 155 characters of post content
  • %%POST_AUTHOR%% — post author
  • %%POST_CATEGORIES%% — post categories
  • %%POST_CATEGORY%% — first post category
  • %%POST_TAGS%% — post tags
  • %%POST_TAG%% — first post tag
  • %%POST_DATE%% — post date
  • %%POST_URL%% — post URI / permalink
  • %%POST_IMAGE%% — featured image URL
  • %%POST_EXCERPT%% — post excerpt
  • %%POST_TYPE%% — post type
  • %%POST_ID%% — post ID
  • %%POST_FORMAT%% — post format
  • %%POST_TERMS%% — all custom taxonomy terms associated with post
  • %%POST_TERMS_{taxonomy}%% — all post terms for {taxonomy} (lowercase)
  • %%ARCHIVE_TYPE%% — type of archive (e.g., category, tag, month)
  • %%ARCHIVE_NAME%% — name of archive (e.g., author name, search term)
  • %%ARCHIVE_PAGE_CURRENT%% — current archive page number (for paged archives)
  • %%ARCHIVE_PAGE_COUNT%% — number of pages in archive
  • %%ARCHIVE_POST_COUNT%% — number of posts in archive

404 Not Found shortcut variables

  • %%404_URI%% — URI of 404 “Not Found” page