Duplicate Meta Descriptions when using Elementor

[lunar-studio]

Describe the bug
Not a bug per se, but rather a conflict between plugins involving Elementor and TSF which results in duplicate Meta Descriptions.

I noticed when adding a new website Hello Charlie to Bing Webmaster Tools that it was showing an SEO issue with duplicate meta tag descriptions on every page. Unfortunately, Google's newer Search Console no longer displays (AFAIK) these types of search engine issues with websites. As you're aware, it can cause harm to ranking.

The problem doesn't appear to be limited to TSF either as I came across other posts on Google that involved RankMath and Yoast.

The temporary solution for now is that Elementor recently added a toggle switch in the following section:

_\Appearance\Theme Settings\Disable description meta tag_

I highly recommend people do not try the manual method of adding code directly to the functions.php file within your theme settings. The one that's floating around the web currently will break your Wordpress.

Additional context
I think at least having a warning in TSF's title section about using Elementor and creating a conflict would be worth mentioning so others don't get tripped up. A better fix (which I understand is a lot more work) is to detect if Elementor has this switch enabled or disabled and to toggle TSF's description capabilities accordingly. Personally, I trust TSF and prefer more granular control this way.

Perhaps Google is now ignoring these traditional errors which would have killed your SERPs, but it's interesting that Bing still does. Either way, it would have been poor coding practice back in the day and also flagged as a form of keyword stuffing.

[sybrew]

Hello!

I'm not a fan of burdening users about a conflict. Instead, we should eliminate it.

Elementor does not output description meta tags.

However, it appears you're talking about a theme setting. What theme are you using?
Themes should never perform tasks that are not directly related to the site's visual representation—that would be cruft. That's also why we're now getting Gutenberg; they did this to themselves.

[lunar-studio]

I chose the builder many years ago and occasionally have to tinker with it, only to find new issues recently. I’d probably go with a newer, simpler website builder that has far less bloat if I had to start all over again but it’s not a current option.

This is using Elementor with their default child Hello Theme, although other users are reporting it with other Elementor Child themes too. I also don’t know when or if this newer menu option listed in my post under theme settings is a permanent option that only appears depending on the theme.

Aside, you recently wrote a long email about development and how so much has gone over to subscription models. I’ve been meaning to reply but have been too busy with projects. I really appreciate your insight and will try to respond when/if time permits soon.

[lunar-studio]

UPDATE: Definitely specific per Elementor Theme. The issue appears with one of my sites using “Hello Elementor” (above) and not with my other site using “Hello Theme.”

My mistake as I had thought they were both using the same child theme. But, I have read of others seeing this issue with different Elementor child themes.