`. --- <div class="post-metadata"> **Author:** ![michaelbach](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.jekyllrb.com/michaelbach/32/2151_2.png) [@michaelbach](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/u/michaelbach)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2022, 5:30am UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/setting-page-title-from-another-variable/7579/2 "2022-08-18T05:30:32Z") </div> One way to go about this: Use a layout where the `<h1>{{page.title}}</h1>` part is left out, and compose a h1-line “locally” in whichever way you wish. --- <div class="post-metadata"> **Author:** ![BillRaymond](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.jekyllrb.com/billraymond/32/5963_2.png) [@BillRaymond](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/u/BillRaymond)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2022, 4:37pm UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/setting-page-title-from-another-variable/7579/3 "2022-08-18T16:37:14Z") </div> You are using the term “data”. I assume you are referring to “YAML front matter.” Let’s say you have a post that looks like this: ```auto --- layout: post title: "Welcome to Jekyll!" date: 2022-04-21 21:24:38 +0000 categories: jekyll update author: "Bill Raymond" --- My first post! ``` Right now, the title will probably look something like this: * * * ## Welcome to Jekyll! My first post * * * However, you want **every** post to display the title and the author like this: * * * ## Welcome to Jekyll! - Bill Raymond My first post * * * I recommend you modify the post layout you are using. For example, here is the code from the `minima` theme’s `/_layouts/post.html`: ```auto --- layout: default --- <article class="post h-entry" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/BlogPosting"> <header class="post-header"> <h1 class="post-title p-name" itemprop="name headline">{{ page.title | escape }}</h1> <p class="post-meta"> <time class="dt-published" datetime="{{ page.date | date_to_xmlschema }}" itemprop="datePublished"> {%- assign date_format = site.minima.date_format | default: "%b %-d, %Y" -%} {{ page.date | date: date_format }} </time> {%- if page.author -%} • <span itemprop="author" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Person"><span class="p-author h-card" itemprop="name">{{ page.author }}</span></span> {%- endif -%}</p> </header> <div class="post-content e-content" itemprop="articleBody"> {{ content }} </div> {%- if site.disqus.shortname -%} {%- include disqus_comments.html -%} {%- endif -%} <a class="u-url" href="{{ page.url | relative_url }}" hidden></a> </article> ``` Note this line that displays the page title: ```auto <h1 class="post-title p-name" itemprop="name headline">{{ page.title | escape }}</h1> ``` You can create a variable with the new title, adding the author. Add a new line above to create the variable `newTitle` and then modify the `h1` tag so it displays `newTitle` like this: ```auto {%- assign newTitle = page.title | append: ' - ' | append: page.author | escape -%} <h1 class="post-title p-name" itemprop="name headline">{{ newTitle | escape }}</h1> ``` Now the output will include the title and author, like this: * * * ## Welcome to Jekyll! - Bill Raymond My first post * * * --- <div class="post-metadata"> **Author:** ![adunning](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.jekyllrb.com/adunning/32/4825_2.png) [@adunning](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/u/adunning)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2022, 4:53pm UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/setting-page-title-from-another-variable/7579/4 "2022-08-18T16:53:18Z") </div> Thank you for taking the time to respond in such detail! I didn’t know about `append` and that will be useful. It’s easy to change the title as displayed in the page layout, but I also want to change the value that Jekyll SEO uses for `page.title`. Hence why I was hoping to be able to change it in the configuration of defaults. (I used the term ‘data’ because I am making pages from YAML files in collections, but of course that is merely front matter. In this situation I also want to use a name for an author page but don’t want to have to store the name as `title`.) --- <div class="post-metadata"> **Author:** ![BillRaymond](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.jekyllrb.com/billraymond/32/5963_2.png) [@BillRaymond](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/u/BillRaymond)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2022, 6:01pm UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/setting-page-title-from-another-variable/7579/5 "2022-08-18T18:01:06Z") </div> Okay, I think I better understand your requirement. What Jekyll SEO [mostly] does is add HTML `<meta>` tags to your pages. According to the _Advanced usage_ documentation, you can overwrite those defaults. > **[Advanced usage](http://jekyll.github.io/jekyll-seo-tag/advanced-usage/)** > > A Jekyll plugin to add metadata tags for search engines and social networks to better index and display your site’s content. I do not use Jekyll SEO since I create my own tags, but according to the documentation, the following approach should work. Using the Jekyll Minima theme as an example, nearly every page uses the `default` layout. That layout in turn includes the `head.html` file. It is in that file where you will find the Jekyll SEO tag in use. Looks for the line that reads `{%- seo -%}`. Note also that the `<title>` tag always lives in the `<head>` tag of your HTML document. According to the Jekyll SEO documentation link I shared, this modification to the `/_includes/head.html` file would give you what you need: ```auto <head> <meta charset="utf-8"> <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> {%- seo title=false -%} {%- seo -%} {%- assign newTitle = page.title | append: ' - ' | append: page.author

# Setting page.title from another variable **URL:** \ **Category:** Help\ **Created:** [August 17, 2022, 1:31pm UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/setting-page-title-from-another-variable/7579 "2022-08-17T13:31:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1

**Author:** ![adunning](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.jekyllrb.com/adunning/32/4825_2.png) [@adunning](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/u/adunning)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2022, 1:31pm UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/setting-page-title-from-another-variable/7579/1 "2022-08-17T13:31:43Z")

When using collections, it is often unintuitive to use a ‘title’ field for data that one would not describe as such. Thus, I would like to be able to set a different variable that Jekyll should use for `page.title` in the site configuration. Is there a way to do this? Even better would be a method of combining two variables into `page.title`: this would make it possible, for example, to include the name of a post’s author in its ``. --- <div class="post-metadata"> **Author:** ![michaelbach](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.jekyllrb.com/michaelbach/32/2151_2.png) [@michaelbach](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/u/michaelbach)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2022, 5:30am UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/setting-page-title-from-another-variable/7579/2 "2022-08-18T05:30:32Z") </div> One way to go about this: Use a layout where the `<h1>{{page.title}}</h1>` part is left out, and compose a h1-line “locally” in whichever way you wish. --- <div class="post-metadata"> **Author:** ![BillRaymond](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.jekyllrb.com/billraymond/32/5963_2.png) [@BillRaymond](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/u/BillRaymond)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2022, 4:37pm UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/setting-page-title-from-another-variable/7579/3 "2022-08-18T16:37:14Z") </div> You are using the term “data”. I assume you are referring to “YAML front matter.” Let’s say you have a post that looks like this: ```auto --- layout: post title: "Welcome to Jekyll!" date: 2022-04-21 21:24:38 +0000 categories: jekyll update author: "Bill Raymond" --- My first post! ``` Right now, the title will probably look something like this: * * * ## Welcome to Jekyll! My first post * * * However, you want **every** post to display the title and the author like this: * * * ## Welcome to Jekyll! - Bill Raymond My first post * * * I recommend you modify the post layout you are using. For example, here is the code from the `minima` theme’s `/_layouts/post.html`: ```auto --- layout: default --- <article class="post h-entry" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/BlogPosting"> <header class="post-header"> <h1 class="post-title p-name" itemprop="name headline">{{ page.title | escape }}</h1> <p class="post-meta"> <time class="dt-published" datetime="{{ page.date | date_to_xmlschema }}" itemprop="datePublished"> {%- assign date_format = site.minima.date_format | default: "%b %-d, %Y" -%} {{ page.date | date: date_format }} </time> {%- if page.author -%} • <span itemprop="author" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Person"><span class="p-author h-card" itemprop="name">{{ page.author }}</span></span> {%- endif -%}</p> </header> <div class="post-content e-content" itemprop="articleBody"> {{ content }} </div> {%- if site.disqus.shortname -%} {%- include disqus_comments.html -%} {%- endif -%} <a class="u-url" href="{{ page.url | relative_url }}" hidden></a> </article> ``` Note this line that displays the page title: ```auto <h1 class="post-title p-name" itemprop="name headline">{{ page.title | escape }}</h1> ``` You can create a variable with the new title, adding the author. Add a new line above to create the variable `newTitle` and then modify the `h1` tag so it displays `newTitle` like this: ```auto {%- assign newTitle = page.title | append: ' - ' | append: page.author | escape -%} <h1 class="post-title p-name" itemprop="name headline">{{ newTitle | escape }}</h1> ``` Now the output will include the title and author, like this: * * * ## Welcome to Jekyll! - Bill Raymond My first post * * * --- <div class="post-metadata"> **Author:** ![adunning](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.jekyllrb.com/adunning/32/4825_2.png) [@adunning](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/u/adunning)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2022, 4:53pm UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/setting-page-title-from-another-variable/7579/4 "2022-08-18T16:53:18Z") </div> Thank you for taking the time to respond in such detail! I didn’t know about `append` and that will be useful. It’s easy to change the title as displayed in the page layout, but I also want to change the value that Jekyll SEO uses for `page.title`. Hence why I was hoping to be able to change it in the configuration of defaults. (I used the term ‘data’ because I am making pages from YAML files in collections, but of course that is merely front matter. In this situation I also want to use a name for an author page but don’t want to have to store the name as `title`.) --- <div class="post-metadata"> **Author:** ![BillRaymond](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.jekyllrb.com/billraymond/32/5963_2.png) [@BillRaymond](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/u/BillRaymond)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2022, 6:01pm UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/setting-page-title-from-another-variable/7579/5 "2022-08-18T18:01:06Z") </div> Okay, I think I better understand your requirement. What Jekyll SEO [mostly] does is add HTML `<meta>` tags to your pages. According to the _Advanced usage_ documentation, you can overwrite those defaults. > **[Advanced usage](http://jekyll.github.io/jekyll-seo-tag/advanced-usage/)** > > A Jekyll plugin to add metadata tags for search engines and social networks to better index and display your site’s content. I do not use Jekyll SEO since I create my own tags, but according to the documentation, the following approach should work. Using the Jekyll Minima theme as an example, nearly every page uses the `default` layout. That layout in turn includes the `head.html` file. It is in that file where you will find the Jekyll SEO tag in use. Looks for the line that reads `{%- seo -%}`. Note also that the `<title>` tag always lives in the `<head>` tag of your HTML document. According to the Jekyll SEO documentation link I shared, this modification to the `/_includes/head.html` file would give you what you need: ```auto <head> <meta charset="utf-8"> <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> {%- seo title=false -%} {%- seo -%} {%- assign newTitle = page.title | append: ' - ' | append: page.author | escape -%} <title>{{-newTitle-}} {%- feed_meta -%} {%- if jekyll.environment == 'production' and site.google_analytics -%} {%- include google-analytics.html -%} {%- endif -%} ``` Notice that I include `{%- seo title=false -%}` just before `{%- seo -%}`. According to the docs, that should prevent the `` tag from displaying. Right after the `{%- seo -%}` line, I create a variable called `newTitle`, which happens to be the title of the page concatenated with the author. Finally, right after that line, I use the variable by adding `<title>{{-newTitle-}}` Since I was not able to test this code beforehand, go ahead and give it a try. Assuming no errors, open the web page in the browser, right-click and choose the option to view the source code. You should only see one `` tag within the `<head>` tag and it should be the title you created with the Liquid variable. You said you use collections, so if you want a different `<title>` tag per collection, then you will have to figure out how you want to handle that (more layouts, more include files, `if` logic, etc.) Hand-coding your SEO tags is not that complicated and can be done without a plugin. If you want to replace it with your own Liquid code, go to the `readme.md` file at the Jekyll SEO GitHub page to learn how it works: > **[GitHub - jekyll/jekyll-seo-tag: A Jekyll plugin to add metadata tags for...](https://github.com/jekyll/jekyll-seo-tag)** > > A Jekyll plugin to add metadata tags for search engines and social networks to better index and display your site's content. - GitHub - jekyll/jekyll-seo-tag: A Jekyll plugin to add metadata ta...