A new WPSSO Ratings and Reviews (WPSSO RAR) extension for WPSSO has been released. This Free plugin extends the WordPress comment system with a new star rating and review feature — ratings and reviews can be enabled / disabled per post, new reviews are labeled as reviews (not comments), a star rating can be required before reviews are accepted, replies to reviews are properly labeled as replies / comments, and the colors of star ratings can be customized from the settings page.
The WordPress Strip Schema Microdata (WPSSO SSM) v1.1.0-1 extension has been released (see the complete Changelog here) — this new version adds a “Strip Microdata” settings page to the SSO menu and allows you to enable / disable the removal of specific markup from the head and body sections, including the removal of duplicate / conflicting meta tags in the head section (disabled by default).
The WPSSO SSM filters are very fast – generally running in under 0.003 seconds – and enabling the removal of duplicate meta tags won’t add much to this, but I would suggest not enabling that feature unless you need it. If your theme and/or other plugins are adding duplicate meta tags, it’s always best to disable them at their source instead of filtering them out afterwards – but if that’s not possible, then I’m sure you’ll love this new WPSSO SSM feature. ;-)
The WordPress Social Sharing Optimization (WPSSO) v3.40.3-1 plugin has been released (see the complete Changelog here) — this new version adds a custom “Product Condition” option in the Social Settings metabox, along with updating the minimum & recommended versions for WordPress and PHP.
The new “Product Condition” option will be visible only if the Open Graph og:type meta tag value is a “product” — which is the default value for all product pages from Easy Digital Downloads, MarketPress – WordPress eCommerce, WooCommerce, WP eCommerce, and most other e-commerce plugins (developers can also hook the ‘wpsso_og_type’ filter to change the default value – see the complete list of filters here).
The WPSSO Schema JSON-LD Markup (WPSSO JSON) v1.13.0-1 extension for WPSSO has been released (see the complete Changelog here) — this latest version adds several custom Recipe Instructions and Nutrition Information options to the Social Settings metabox, along with including some new integration modules for WP Recipe Maker and WP Ultimate Recipes.
WordPress Social Sharing Optimization (WPSSO) v3.40.0-1 has been released (see the complete Changelog here) — this new version adds custom Product Availability, Price and Currency options to the Social Settings metabox.
These options will be visible only if the Open Graph og:type meta tag value is a “product” — which is the default value for all product pages from Easy Digital Downloads, MarketPress – WordPress eCommerce, WooCommerce, WP eCommerce, and most other e-commerce plugins that use a “product” custom post type (developers can also hook the ‘wpsso_og_type’ filter to change the default value – see the complete list of filters here).
WPSSO Schema JSON-LD (WPSSO JSON) extension v1.12.0-1 has been released — this new version adds WooCommerce product reviews to the Schema Product markup, along with adding WordPress comments and threaded replies to the Schema CreativeWork markup and its sub-types (Article, BlogPosting, WebPage, etc.).
A new WPSSO User Locale Selector (WPSSO UL) extension for WPSSO and WordPress version 4.7+ has been released. This Free extension provides a user locale / language / region selector in the WordPress admin back-end and front-end toolbar menus. This allows users to easily change their preferred locale setting from the toolbar instead of having to update their WordPress profile page.
The default WordPress behavior is to apply the user locale preference to the admin back-end only — this plugin can optionally extend the user locale preference to the front-end webpage as well (enabled by default in the SSO > User Locale settings page).
When searching for a plugin on WordPress.org, I’m always surprised by the number of results — many plugins appear to be similar, or even identical, but if you look at their PHP code, those similarities quickly evaporate. This was the case recently when I was looking for a simple plugin to redirect HTTP URLs to HTTPS. Some plugins were way too basic / incomplete in their logic, while others looked like a pile of spaghetti code with the kitchen sink thrown in there somewhere. :)
JSM’s Force SSL / HTTPS is my take on a simple WordPress plugin to redirect HTTP URLs to HTTPS. ;-)
Are you using Yoast SEO in combination with WPSSO?
Have you used Yoast SEO in the past, and would like to read / import its social meta as default values for the WPSSO Social Settings metabox?
WPSSO version 3.38.1-1 (released earlier today) includes additional support for Yoast SEO — When the “Use Yoast SEO Social Meta” option is enabled under the SSO Advanced > Social / Custom Meta tab, WPSSO will read / import Yoast SEO social meta for Posts, Terms, and Users — the Yoast SEO plugin does not have to be active or even installed to use this feature.
An active Yoast SEO plugin does offer a few more integration features though, including the expansion of Yoast SEO variables and custom canonical URLs, but is not required to read / import Yoast SEO custom meta for Posts, Terms, and Users.
A new extension for WPSSO called WPSSO Tweet a Quote (WPSSO TAQ) is available to include Twitter-style quotes in your content, with an easy (and optional) Tweet link for readers.
WPSSO TAQ uses your existing WPSSO settings to shorten URLs, add the Twitter Business @username, and recommend the author’s @username after sharing — and developers / advanced users will appreciate the ability to completely re-style the quote text and Tweet link. ;-)
