Category Pages > SEO question

Ryan Kent

Well-known member
I recently used a SEO tool on my site and one item is called out was the lack of Meta tags on certain pages. I took a look and determined that Category pages do not use Meta Name Descriptions. I am just curious as to why that is? Forum pages use the "Description" field from the ACP as their Meta Name Description.

If it matters, I do have Create Pages for Categories checked in ACP > Options > Nodes & Forum Lists
 
I don't put much stock in website analyzers like that.

Category pages don't contain any meaningful content. Nor do forum pages. Thread pages are the important thing.
 
I am trying to expand on the XF foundation as much as possible. I am trying the idea of allowing gaming guilds to have their own category page and use that as their guild's home page.

Example: http://www.terapvp.com/categories/ghost-guild.57 which can also be accessed via http://www.TeraGuilds.net/Ghost

Right now it is clearly just a XF category page. By allowing a custom background and a sidebar, this page can become more of a homepage for the guild.

I would like to help out by setting the meta description as the category description. I tried {$category.description} and {$category.node_description} but neither worked. Does anyone know the correct parameter?
 
the code I was using is
Code:
<xen:container var="$head.description">
    <meta name="description" content="{$category.node_description}" /></xen:container>

So I am using the xen:container. Do I need to xen:include the forum_view to access the record?

The light bulb in my head is beginning to flicker a bit but I definitely don't have a clear understanding of this area yet.
 
Oh sorry. That code should go into category_view.

edit - and the code should be:

Code:
<xen:container var="$head.description">
    <meta name="description" content="{$category.description}" /></xen:container>

{$category.description} is the right variable, not {$category.node_description}.
 
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