XF SEO Tweaks
- Thread starter Razasharp
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Razasharp
Well-known member
I think that's more an external-links thing, I guess I need something that takes a list (for use with autocomplete) and then links those tags to whatever has been specified in the list (in my case, external URLs). Should be easy enough to do, I will have to look into it
Carlos
Well-known member
Like others said: SEO is great out of the box, as a matter of fact, some of us has experienced pagerank boosts because of SEO in xenForo.
As for hashtags on a forum; that's a bad idea - mostly because hashtags are supposed to be like a thread for the hottest topics or news.
As for hashtags on a forum; that's a bad idea - mostly because hashtags are supposed to be like a thread for the hottest topics or news.
ForestForTrees
Well-known member
We have the same issue in that our site is a combination of a wiki and a forum. Our highest quality content is in our wiki, so we want toThanks for the posts FFT - I am a fan of tagging as well, and would like to incorporate it into my forum (but actually point to info on the main site) - wonder if someone would help me code a plug-in for it
- send pagerank to pages where we might rank well enough that new potential forum users might find us, and
- direct users to wiki pages that they might find helpful, educating them in how to use our services.
http://xenforo.com/community/resources/*******-auto-link-replacer.1529/
http://xenforo.com/community/resources/keyword-replace-by-waindigo.635/
They are written by @******* and @Waindigo, respectively. They search through posts and replace keywords with links of your choosing. Pretty cool, eh? They are absolutely perfect for achieving the goals listed above. Currently, we're at the stage of looking at the ******* and waindigo addons to figure out which would better meet our needs. Because I care a lot about SEO, I will only consider branding-free addons (branding links bleed pagerank). ******* had a reasonable price for his branding removal, but I haven't contacted Waindigo yet, so I don't know about his.
Xentag also has a similar function, listed among the options. It is called "Thread Auto Tag." It searches through posts and replaces tags with links to the corresponding tag pages. This causes pagerank to accumulate on tag pages.
We decided that since we already have excellent content on our wiki pages, we would use either the ******* or Waindigo link replacer addons to autolink to our wiki pages. Then, on the wiki pages, we would add links to the tag pages. Most PageRank would accumulate on the wiki pages, as it should. However, if forum users follow the links to the wiki pages, they will quickly see links to the tag pages.
For example, suppose someone mentions a specific book in a post. The name of the book will automatically be turned into a link to our wiki page about the book. Over time, we will add a link from the wiki page about the book to the tag page: a list of threads, generated by XenTag, that includes all of the threads tagged with that book's name.
One last thing you might be helpful. In the most recent update, @Dinh Thanh's XenTag added a function where if you click on a tag, it can link to something other than the tag page for that tag.
http://xenforo.com/community/resources/tinhte-xentag.770/update?update=6149
I hope this helps. I think that all three addons I've mentioned can have many SEO benefits if used well.
Razasharp
Well-known member
Some great info here - thanks for sharing.
I made a simple plug-in for vB that auto-linked certain keywords. However I didn't use it much and I am not sure I would do the same on a new site - because it may be seen as over-optimisation.
The best thing to ask yourself is, is it a good user experience? I am not sure auto-linking is - people generally do not like their posts meddled with.
ForestForTrees
Well-known member
Terrific points. We will have to use the auto-linker sparingly to avoid over-optimization, focusing on seldom-used keywords. We will also set it to only auto-link any given URL one time per thread to decrease the total number of links.
Not meddling with posts is another terrific point. We think that it is also important that the auto-linker doesn't edit the post - rather it changes the way that the post is displayed. Furthermore, it shouldn't override links added by the user - they should get dibs on what gets linked to. We hope that this will make it feel more like changing the CSS than editing their posts, but I agree it might feel intrusive.
But the auto-linker might not work as well for another site. We are a nonprofit with a highly loyal and grateful group of users who will cut us some slack. They are in extreme physical pain every day (or have recently recovered from the same), and we are giving them free resources to help them heal. I personally am very lucky to be able to work about 50 hours a week without taking any pay because I had a similar recovery. Here's my story, if you are interested:
That's why I'm so hard-core about everying - because I deeply care about the cause. My users will cut me some slack on things like auto-linking because they know it's for a good cause, but things could be very different if we had ads.But, finally, I hope that they might cut me some slack because, getting to your last point, this will also improve user experience. Most of our users stay on the site for only 3-8 months, so a lot of them don't know about the awesome resources that we have on our Mediawiki wiki. Judicious linking could help with that.
I guess that all of this is to say that your points are great, and while they won't dissuade us, they may apply to others.
Razasharp
Well-known member
Yep, I think I would agree with you - only use phrase replacement for very few words (in my case it would just be the names of sister sites).
Re your last sentence, just be careful that Google doesn't view it as over optimisation, as that could hurt you.
I watched a bit of your story - glad you are on the mend
Re your last sentence, just be careful that Google doesn't view it as over optimisation, as that could hurt you.
I watched a bit of your story - glad you are on the mend
ForestForTrees
Well-known member
Me, too.I watched a bit of your story - glad you are on the mend
Razasharp
Well-known member
I would look into #Hastags instead tbh Alfa - I am not sure tagging of threads works well with forums (or mass-user generated content). I think tags work great for blog posts, or CMS articles where editors do the tagging, but users generally see it as a chore. When I moved my gaming site to a custom site (that allows hashtags) I noticed people used them a lot more. Because they are #easy.
Btw, many of your suggestions in that thread - I have in the tagging system on the custom site I mentioned (plus a few more). It's funny how we have had simialr thoughts on many things over the years
Razasharp
Well-known member
Do you find users tag much? I found that on vB, when we had tagging users didn't bother, even when I made the 'top' tags simple 'click to add'.
Have you trialled hashtagging? I see them as having all the benefits of tagging, just easier for the end user.
ForestForTrees
Well-known member
For the record, hash tags are being integrated into XenTags. It's currently in beta:
https://xfrocks.com/other/threads/tinhte-xentag-1-9-beta.117/
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