Title and Description Changes for Better SEO

Title and Description Changes for Better SEO in your forums

Those parts in red you should change to match your particular forum needs


Change SHOWTHREAD template so Thread Title is listed first

find:
<title>$vboptions[bbtitle] - $thread[title]</title>
and change it to:


<title>$thread[title] -The Home for VBulletin Forum Owners- $foruminfo[title]</title>
<meta name="description" content="$thread[title] $foruminfo[title] Visit VB Webmaster forum to discuss $thread[title]" />
<meta name="keywords" content="$thread[title] $vboptions[keywords]" />


Note: You can add anything you want in the red place - Keywords, etc.

Change SHOWTHREAD_SHOWPOST template so Thread Title is listed first

find:
<title>$vboptions[bbtitle] - $vbphrase[view_single_post] - $threadinfo[title]</title>
and change it to:


<title>$thread[title] $foruminfo[title]</title>
<meta name="description" content="$thread[title] $foruminfo[title] $foruminfo[description] " />
<meta name="keywords" content="$thread[title] $vboptions[keywords]" />


Note: You can add anything you want in here - Keywords, etc. Just make it a little different then the SHOWTHREAD template.


In the FORUMDISPLAY template find:


<meta name="description" content="$foruminfo[description]" />
<title>$vboptions[bbtitle] - $foruminfo[title]</title>


and I changed it to this:


<title>$foruminfo[title] -The Home for VBulletin Forum Owners</title>
<meta name="keywords" content="$vboptions[keywords]" />
<meta name="description" content="$foruminfo[description] $foruminfo[title]" />




Title - Note how I have put the thread/forum title first




Description - try to repeat the search phrase twice (I use the thread title twice) and keep your description to 135 characters. With a formula it is a little hard, but you get the idea





Make a similar change In the FORUMHOME template.





Now go to your "headinclude" template:


Find:
<meta name="keywords" content="$vboptions[keywords]" />
<meta name="description" content="$vboptions[description]" />

And delete it.

----------------------------------------------
If you use VBA CMPS - Here is more

Change the Homepage (VbAdvanced CMPS) Title

adv_portal template

From:
<title>$vboptions[hometitle]</title>

To:


<title>$vboptions[hometitle] -The Home for Vbulletin Forum Owners</title>

<meta name="description" content="$vboptions[description]" />
<meta name="keywords" content="$vboptions[keywords]" />


Also.. If you have other hacks that are full page hacks, (such as vBGarage) be sure to amend those templates too as they dont have keywords or description because you removed the Keywords and Description from the headerinclude -


-

Keywords, is that a single word or can you use as an example:

<meta name="hello, how, are, you" content="$vboptions[keywords]" />
<meta name="The webs best kept secret" content="$vboptions[description]" />

Thanks.

Forgive me - the colors got screwed - ill fix it now

Thanks, works great :)

* Quincy Installs.

Thanks Joey for the tips. I look around and I see all kinds of articles on SEO for vBulletin, but none of them actually tell you how to do what they suggest. Thanks again

thats why I built this forum. If you want to do something you dont see, ask for it. One of us will help you.

Tell all your friends about this place,

definetely man.. keep up the good work

This works awesome for showthread templates, how about providing same/similar information for tweaking the archive ?

Regards,

Try This:

Easy Archive Hack (http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=65703)

MUCH MUCH better for SEO then the stock archive.

I have already customized our archive a lot:
http://forums.techarena.in/archive/index.php/
http://forums.techarena.in/archive/index.php/f-70.html
http://forums.techarena.in/archive/index.php/f-81.html

Are we having Easy Archive Hack from Xenon, installed on vbwebmaster.com ?

very interesting. Will have to make this my next project.

I have already customized our archive a lot:
http://forums.techarena.in/archive/index.php/
http://forums.techarena.in/archive/index.php/f-70.html
http://forums.techarena.in/archive/index.php/f-81.html

Are we having Easy Archive Hack from Xenon, installed on vbwebmaster.com ?

Yes - its installed - it was installed the same time the vb stock archive was installed - see which one has been better crawled?

VBW HISTORY (http://www.vbwebmaster.com/forums/vbulletinforumhistory/)

Thats why the archive hack is so good. Proof is in the pudding.

One other suggestion. I looked at your archive. I suggest you reduce the number of google ads. The reason I say this is that Google Adsense puts the highest paying ad on the top and lower below. Your giving too much chance that the use might skip a $1.00 paying ad and end up clicking an ad that pays you .05 for the click.


-

1) Why is it necessary to go make the deletion you suggest in the "headinclude" template?

2) I have installed additional skins on my site. These additional skins are children of the skin that came with vbulletin. One of these child skins is set as my default skin for my forum. Will I need to make the changes you suggest above to my default child skin?

Thanks
J

The reason for the deletion in the Headerinclude is that what your deleting is the automated description and keyword scripts. You are Replacing those manualy and in a more customized fashion.


You would probably only have to do the actual default skin, as thats the one the search engines will see.

[QUOTE=Joeychgo]The reason for the deletion in the Headerinclude is that what your deleting is the automated description and keyword scripts. You are Replacing those manualy and in a more customized fashion.

Joeychgo,

Since none of the above recommended changes in regards to the meta tags specifically for keywords are changed (no "keyword" met tag changes above are in red), then if I delete the automated keyword scripts, aren't I deleting all references to my custom keywords?

Also, I've spent significant timing analyzing and optimizing, reoptimizing my main page for search engine optimization utilizing a software package designed to do so. If I install vbadvanced I will probably loose all that tweaking that I've done to the page itself (other than meta tags). Do you have any thoughts on VBA's impact?

Thanks again,
J

Since you have not indicated anything involving meta tags for "keywords" in red, should I assume that the meta tag for keywords is still pulling that information from the admin panel setting for keywords?

Since you have not indicated anything involving meta tags for "keywords" in red, should I assume that the meta tag for keywords is still pulling that information from the admin panel setting for keywords?

Yes - thats what $vboptions[keywords] is calling, thats pulling the keywords that you input in your admin cp.

Also, I've spent significant timing analyzing and optimizing, reoptimizing my main page for search engine optimization utilizing a software package designed to do so. If I install vbadvanced I will probably loose all that tweaking that I've done to the page itself (other than meta tags). Do you have any thoughts on VBA's impact?


without seeing your site, I will assume your referring to your forumhome. VBA will add a page as the homepage, not replace forum home, so your optimization efforts will remain on the forumhome.

Thanks for all your help. I appreciate it.

I noticed in your original directions you wrote:

"In the FORUMSIDPLAY template find:"... and "and I changed it to this:"

What is confusing is that after that specific direction you put:

"Make a similar change In the FORUMSIDPLAY template."

Was the second mention of FORUMSDISPLAY template suppose to be a different template. It seems like you may have mentioned it twice in a row but maybe meant another template. (Also, the spelling is incorrect for the template but that is minor) I appreaciate your post. Thank you very much.

SOrry - that should have read FORUMHOME - thanks for pointing it out - I edited it.

Thanks for those tips i've just implemented them and i'll record any improvements in searcn engine rankings. BTW you say that Google doesnt like big sites how can you find out just how big (with regards to graphic sizes etc ...) your site is?

I dont recall the particular resource, but Google at one time didnt bother if the page was over 100k - I know that was increased, but I dont recall by how much. Ill have to do some looking around to find the particular authority to link you to.

Think about it like this. So some searches - how many forums with skins do you see in the top ten? THere is nothing wrong with standing out, but you should look to see what works and doesnt work by looking at competition. Nothing wrong with mimicing success.

SOrry - that should have read FORUMHOME - thanks for pointing it out - I edited it.

Joey,

OK, now per your instructions where you say "Make a similar change In the FORUMHOME template." I do not find the same thing you said to find in FORUMDISPLAY:

Find - Quote:
<meta name="description" content="$foruminfo[description]" />
<title>$vboptions[bbtitle] - $foruminfo[title]</title>

I do however find in the FORUMHOME:
<title><phrase 1="$vboptions[bbtitle]">$vbphrase[x_powered_by_vbulletin]</phrase></title>

So what should I be looking for in FORUMHOME and what should it be changed to.

Thanks
J

Yes -thats the title tag on forumhome.


You can use this

<title>$vboptions[bbtitle]</title>

The first step for vBAdvanced CMPS you say to change this <title>$vboptions[hometitle]</title> and what I have is this <title>$vboptions[hometitle] <if condition="$pagetitle">- $pagetitle</if></title>

So what do I change here?

the whole line.

Basically whatever is between the <title> tags can be changed

Great...A huge thank you for these tips! I cant wait to see how much traffic these little mods will attract to our community.

Dont expect miraculus increases in activity though. Just ensuring that your site is full of unique content per-page etc ... is only one of the hoops you have to jump through to attract more members from search engines :)

Yes - its many little things that are part of a whole. They all work together. The more content you build, the more on page SEO, the more Off page SEO - those three elements if all done correctly, will be a great help, but only doing one wont be as much help to growth.

I've said this before: Growing a forum is like growing a garden full of tomatoes or corn or anything else.

In the beginning, you need to nurture and cajole and tweak it along -- in the case of a forum, this means acquiring a few repeat members and getting quality posts, with a good mixture of information and peer support.

If this is done properly, at a certain point, the forum will reach critical mass -- a certain combination of active members and active threads -- and it will then take off exponentially.

In my experience, the time frame required to reach critical mass varies with the type of forum, the members, the focus of your active threads, the forum rules and how fairly and consistently they are applied, and of course SE visibility, but I would suggest for most forums this is probably in the range of 4-12 months.

$foruminfo[title] doesn't seem to be showing anything on any of the pages it's on. Can you tell me if this was for some other version of vBulletin? I'm using 3.0.7

- Sid

I've double checked my work, but I still have my forum name listing before the name of individual threads.

I did get a bit lost here:
Make a similar change In the FORUMHOME template.
I tried changing the title to this <title>$vboptions[bbtitle]</title> as was suggested on page 2.

Any ideas where I may have went wrong? Here's the URL www.explorerforum.com/forums

Btt

Oops - sorry, I missed this - take $vboptions[bbtitle] out of the code. you have the thread title appearing already so if you take that out you'll be fine.

I'm still having the same problem. I can't seem to be able to find the code that controls the bb title when viewing a thread.

This is my SHOWTHREAD <title>$thread[title] - $foruminfo[title]</title>

This is my SHOWTHREAD_SHOWPOST <title>$foruminfo[title] $thread[title]</title>

This is my FORUMDISPLAY <title>$foruminfo[title] - Ford Explorer Ranger Owners Serious Explorations</title>

This is my FORUMHOME <title>Ford Explorer Ranger Owners Serious Explorations</title>

TIA for any help you can give me...

I just looked around your site again - looks perfect to me

Shoudn't the title show the name of the thread first? http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=140614

You had it right.

GO back to the first post in the thread - re-read and redo.

Your showthread template should look like this:

<title>$thread[title] - $foruminfo[title]</title>

Be sure you have no other lines with <title>

Joey

Does your original post now include all the changes and corrections made throughout this thread?

Thanks for all your help.

There are many ways to make this work. The first thread gives you the basics. If you want the title of the forum to go first and the thread title to go second then swap the strings in the line. I would like you guys to learn more then how to copy n paste my code, but how to manipulate the code to best fit your needs.

I've made all these changes but one.

I can't seem to find the template named "FORUMSIDPLAY" - can someone point me in the right direction please?

Forum Display Templates -> FORUMDISPLAY

It's there. :)

Thanks for that, might pay to correct the spelling in the first post ;)

Yep, I see that now. Those of us that use vB regularly never even noticed the spelling. :)

It's fixed now. Hope that helped ya out.

Cheers

Sure did, hopefully it increases my visitor numbers :)

You've got some great information here, will have to spend a few hours going through it all :D

does this still work for 3.5. I got to "headerinclude" and i noticed its more complicated then what you show. So i might just leave it in there, i'm wondering if i'll be punishe dby google for having too much meta tags?

Okay I edited all of my templates to include the changes... I think I did it correctly if not someone please let me know! http://www.orchidgeeks.com/forum

One question though... on my main forum page when I click on view source it doesn't show any keywords or anything...Is this normal or should I change it some how??
The code is below:

<!-- no cache headers -->
<meta http-equiv="Pragma" content="no-cache" />
<meta http-equiv="Expires" content="-1" />
<meta http-equiv="Cache-Control" content="no-cache" />
<!-- end no cache headers -->
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" />
<meta name="generator" content="vBulletin 3.5.0" />



:)

would be nice to get an update for 3.5.x some of the text that i was searching for to change isn't the same as the first post.

http://www.vbwebmaster.com/forums/showthread.php?t=758

My theory is to have Noppid do everything or dump him as a friend, I always take the easy way out of solving problems! :o :D

For some reason, that reminds me of an old TV commercial for Life cereal:

Kid 1: I'm not gonna try it! You try it!
Kid 2: I'm not gonna try it! You try it!
Kid 1: Let's get noppid to try it - he hates everything!

Funny stuff Minstrel :D

But this is what I call SEO voodo, stick a pin in your Noppid doll and it codes the forum and SEO's it all in one, without you doing anything but writing the check!

Now that is what you call instant forum! :o

Why not have him do it for me Minstrel?

Noppid is better at it than anyone and I will never be able to learn what he knows in this or the next life :)

I still have not found a way to get along with the Redneck though! :eek:

Give a man a fish and he will eat dinner that day. Teach a man to fish and he will be able to stay out in the boat for days on end drinking beer.

I can drink beer better than I can code! :D

Give a man free piece of code and he will anoy the **** out of you for more.

Teach a man to code and he will annoy the **** out of you even more.

It's a lose lose situation!

How about we just pay you to code the whole damned thing! :confused:

How about we just pay you to code the whole damned thing! :confused:


Sure, send me a huge retainer! I need gas money! :D

Money is tight right now, I do understand, if Minstrel did not have all those teenage kids to put through college he may have been great partner! :confused:

Looks like we are **** out of luck and have to make our own money some how, that sucks man! :confused: :mad:

Money is tight right now, I do understand, if Minstrel did not have all those teenage kids to put through college he may have been great partner! :confused:

Looks like we are **** out of luck and have to make our own money some how, that sucks man! :confused: :mad:

If you find a way to make money, please do share! ;)

I have ideas, but without money you can't buy software, hosting or advertising, so you raise money or stay in a holding pattern!

Google had to find investors and so do most of us Noppid!

The slow route to success is exactly that, with the right investors you can make things happen, without them you are up **** creek most of the time!:o

Even Microsoft went public and they had 90% gross profit margins on their sales, so financing is very important to get a business running!

How can I show the thread title before the forum title in the Vb Archive like you have here?

Found the answer here: http://forum.time2dine.co.nz/467-12-post.html

That doesnt work for vb 3.5x

What is so great about this upgrade Joey :confused:

I don't like it any better than the last version!

Can one keep running the old versions if they want to and for how long :confused:

I don't have 3.5.x.

What is so great about this upgrade Joey :confused:

I don't like it any better than the last version!

Can one keep running the old versions if they want to and for how long :confused:

You can keep running the old version as long as you like.

As far as I can tell - 90% of the benefits of the upgrade that mean anything really only are on the backend. Its MUCH MUCH easier to upgrade to a new version now, and much easier to add hacks. Moderation is a little easier as well.

One thing to note, that most people dont seem to use (even me) is that there is a spell checker built in now.

Why in the hell did you keeep thatt from Me Joe:confused:

I neeed a spell chekr bad man, now I see it yp yjr far right corner!

One thing to note, that most people dont seem to use (even me) is that there is a spell checker built in now.

i use this on 99% of my post

just helps my dumba$s sound a little smarter :wave:


btw

http://www.vbwebmaster.com/forums/showthread.php?t=758

thank you

I CANT FIND THIS

Change SHOWTHREAD template so Thread Title is listed first

find:
Quote:
<title>$vboptions[bbtitle] - $thread[title]</title>

and change it to:

Quote:

<title>$thread[title] -The Home for VBulletin Forum Owners- $foruminfo[title]</title>
<meta name="description" content="$thread[title] $foruminfo[title] Visit VB Webmaster forum to discuss $thread[title]" />
<meta name="keywords" content="$thread[title] $vboptions[keywords]" />



In the FORUMDISPLAY template find:

Quote:

<meta name="description" content="$foruminfo[description]" />
<title>$vboptions[bbtitle] - $foruminfo[title]</title>


and I changed it to this:

Quote:

<title>$foruminfo[title] -The Home for VBulletin Forum Owners</title>
<meta name="keywords" content="$vboptions[keywords]" />
<meta name="description" content="$foruminfo[description] $foruminfo[title]" />

You running vb 3.5?

You running vb 3.5?



yes

3.5.3

thats why you cant find it.

when you will release instructions to have to do 3.5.3

I'm using versions 3.5.0 and 3.5.3 and I'm struggling to find

<title>$vboptions[bbtitle] - $thread[title]</title>
<title>$vboptions[bbtitle] - $vbphrase[view_single_post] - $threadinfo[title]</title>

in the templates that you mentioned, being

SHOWTHREAD
and
SHOWTHREAD_SHOWPOST

In the root of the /forum/ I can see the above .php files, but I can't find those lines in those files?

I'm a little lost...

Any help would be appreciated...

Look for the <title> and </title> tags - change whats inbetween

Look for the <title> and </title> tags - change whats inbetween.


I am working on new instructions now.

In the root of the /forum/ I can see the above .php files, but I can't find those lines in those files?

I'm a little lost...

Any help would be appreciated...

and take on the templates in ACP

I will be doing this and thanks for being so thorough in your explanations, next I will be searching for your thoughts on further optimizing the html, next in line is the css can these be compacted and moved to a remote file.
Also I will be looking at validation issues: http://www.w3.org/Icons/valid-xhtml10 (http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=referer)

Yes - its installed - it was installed the same time the vb stock archive was installed - see which one has been better crawled?

VBW HISTORY (http://www.vbwebmaster.com/forums/vbulletinforumhistory/)

Thats why the archive hack is so good. Proof is in the pudding.

One other suggestion. I looked at your archive. I suggest you reduce the number of google ads. The reason I say this is that Google Adsense puts the highest paying ad on the top and lower below. Your giving too much chance that the use might skip a $1.00 paying ad and end up clicking an ad that pays you .05 for the click.


-
I'm getting invalid thread errors in that archive is it not workingor just me?

any updates for this i'm still using 3.5.4 ...all instruction provided especially in showthread is not there.

Can u please update this for 3.6.2 ?

the basics should be the same....

I am using vbulletin 3.6.2 but when I go at SHOWTHREAD template to search for <title>$vboptions[bbtitle] - $thread[title]</title>
it doesn't exist

I found sth else:
<title>$thread[title]<if condition="$pagenumber>1"> - <phrase 1="$pagenumber">$vbphrase[page_x]</phrase></if> - $vboptions[bbtitle]</title>

the basics should be the same....

Could you pease update us.... we will apprecaite it if you can write step to step guide for 3.6.2


thank you

Thank you!