Prefixes Need To Be Removed From Page Titles

System0

Active member
I'm a big fan of the prefix feature in XenForo as it allows me to distinguish between posts easily (questions, discussions etc).

I noticed however that prefixes are appended to the start of page titles. This isn't good for SEO.

For example, the title of this page is 'Prefixes Need To Be Removed From Page Titles' though if I used a prefix it would be something like 'Suggestion - Prefixes Need To Be Removed From Page Titles'.

As the prefix is used for sharing, it means prefixes are included with Twitter, Facebook shares etc too. Which isn't what I want or need.

Search engines place more emphasis on keywords near the start of a page title therefore in my opinion these prefixes need to be removed from the page title. what's the quickest and easiest way of removing prefixes from page titles?

Kevin
 
This is probably going to have to be a code change/addon, I took a look at the PAGE_CONTAINER template and it's just pulling in a raw template parameter called $title, which means it's coming from the backend.
 
Yeah I couldn't find anything in the templates myself. At the very least I'd like to see an option to disable it.
 
I think the notion that Prefixes could reduce SEO is theoretical.
As well I think it also assumes the thread has a good title.

In the case that a thread has a "poor title" ... the prefix could help the SEO.

Overall, I suspect it probably doesn't make much difference.

That being said, I don't know why the prefix would be a part of the title.
 
It isn't theoretical. Optimising page SEO page titles is very well documented.

Take for example two identical sites with the same page rank and search engine ranking etc trying to rank for the review of the ipad.

The page with "ipad 3 review" would rank higher than the page with "Product Review - ipad 3 review" (all other things remaining equal) as the most important keywords are at the start of the page title and will therefore have more emphasis placed on them by the search engines.

In short, yes, it can make a big difference to the traffic you receive from the search engines - it could be the difference between being on page 2 for a search term and being on page 1. This could be a difference of hundreds of visits per day (depending on the search term).
 
It isn't theoretical. Optimising page SEO page titles is very well documented.

Take for example two identical sites with the same page rank and search engine ranking etc trying to rank for the review of the ipad.

The page with "ipad 3 review" would rank higher than the page with "Product Review - ipad 3 review" (all other things remaining equal) as the most important keywords are at the start of the page title and will therefore have more emphasis placed on them by the search engines.

In short, yes, it can make a big difference to the traffic you receive from the search engines - it could be the difference between being on page 2 for a search term and being on page 1. This could be a difference of hundreds of visits per day (depending on the search term).

The better evidence you provide to Xenforo ... the more they are likely to change things.
 
I actually support this change. It just doesn't need to be there. It doesn't serve any benefits and when I look at the page titles in my browser it would be much better to see the titles of the threads so I knew which tab / window to select instead of seeing a heap of "Add-on" or "Suggestion".
 
Disagreed. I very much like it as it is now, no need for changes. In many of my subforums that are using prefixes, we need them to be included in the page titles, or else they would loose their meaning.
 
That's the point^^

Sometimes we don't need them, but in several cases, they're A MUST......

e.g. my bazar forum with "want to sell" & "want to buy" prefixes...

it would destroy the search engine results(google & co), if the title would be only "mazda6" instead of "want to sell mazda 6" or want to buy mazda6"
 
It certainly seems the Prefix can maybe help or hurt, depending on exisiting title.

it would destroy the search engine results(google & co), if the title would be only "mazda6" instead of "want to sell mazda 6" or want to buy mazda6"

Wouldn't the Mazda6 be in the want to sell forum ? Would that help ?
Would "Mazda6 want to buy" ... have better SEO ?
 
Glad you found that template edit ragtek, I didn't see it. And as folks have said no reason for a core change on this, modify the template, or if you don't want to do that grab the TMS addon and put an entry in for it and you are done :D
 
template thread_view

Code:
<xen:title>{xen:helper threadPrefix, $thread, escaped}{$thread.title}{xen:helper pagenumber, $page}</xen:title>

you'll need to remove

{xen:helper threadPrefix, $thread, escapede}

Thanks. That worked perfectly.

You're right. Sometimes they could be beneficial to some users. For example, if you wanted to rank high for the actual prefix itself, it would be better to include it in the page title.
 
Disregarding SEO completely, the prefixes regularly confuse me when I see them in tab titles

They are having a negative effect on actual user experience
 
the prefixes regularly confuse me when I see them in tab titles
What do you mean Tab Titles ?

They are having a negative effect on actual user experience
Me too at times.

At xenforo.com I still get excited when I see this in the What's New:

[Addon] Galleria
request forum

I keep thinking the Galleria addon is released.
But the fine print shows it's only a Request.
 
What do you mean Tab Titles ?
I think they probably mean in browser tabs. You see "Fixed - Bug title goes here....." on Chrome anyway.

I must admit, I do think it would be nice to have an option so it won't show as the page title but it's probably a difficult thing to do.
 
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