SEO-related discussion

[BikeGremlin]

Goes without saying - may the mods move this elsewhere if this section is not appropriate.

I've noticed that SEO suggestions seem to not get many votes. Maybe people don't understand why it may be good.

So, what do you find lacking regarding SEO when it comes to XenForo?

 

[MentaL]

Nothing. The content is more important.

 

[Mr Lucky]

The content is more important.

I believe that content is the most important part of SEO, but it can still be optimised. Forums have user generated content (UGC) which is. very often problematical and so SEO includes how content is presented as opposed to it being a different thing. For which reason (if you believe in that Google has what is widely known as a Crawl Budget) it is good to noindex thin or bad content so Google can be more likely to index the important pages.

On a a non UGC site you have control over content, but with a forum thread you can't just go through deleting all the pointless +1, OT junk, jokes and memes or you will lose your members.

So, what do you find lacking regarding SEO when it comes to XenForo?

Noindexing​

XenForo now gives us the option to set forums to noindex, and more recently (2020?) to base indexing on criteria so that specific threads within a forum can be targeted. However there is room for improvement

• More criteria (given that there are a lot more criteria options available for batch updates). This has been improved a bit by Search engine index exceptions
• Also it would be very good to noindex by criteria

I have a couple of related suggestions

https://xenforo.com/community/threads/batch-update-threads-to-noindex.210014/

https://xenforo.com/community/threa...exing-threads-within-a-forum-settings.205247/

I would also be good to easily review any such settings without having to go into the advanced settings of each node, e.g. if the node list had columns one of which showed any changes from the default index settings (like with Yoast plugin for WP)

It would also be very useful now that we have a manual way to noindex specific threads - without having to trawl through the database.

Related suggestion:
https://xenforo.com/community/threads/search-for-topics-excluded-from-indexing.226626/

Custom meta titles and descriptions​

Another good thing would be the ability to have custom meta titles and descriptions (again as with the Yoast WP plugin)

Of course you might say one can always change the thread h1 title, however that may work well in the context of the forum view, or members may be unhappy about their "witty" title being changed purely for search engine reasons - they don't need to be concerned with SEO.

But it does seem Google finds keywords in meta titles.

Slightly different with meta description, ie meta name="description". I don't thinkGoogle uses it in searches and it may or may not use it in the search result snippet, but often it does and so it's great to have control of this. I don't think it this (or any keywords within) will affect your position in the SERPS, however it can affect whether someone searching decides to click on your site as opposed to another competing one with a less useful description.

Suggestion here:

https://xenforo.com/community/threads/a-few-basic-seo-improvements.208548/

(It’s nice to note that part of that suggestion was implemented re:noindexing. But I’m still very much missing the custom meta title and description in the core of xenForo although there are addons)

Image alt descriptions​

Users can set alt descriptions for images - but they don't. What we need is a system that heavily prompts them to set a relevant alt description when they upload the image. Otherwise we just get image descriptions such as image_859607540.jpg

Suggestion:

https://xenforo.com/community/threa...to-provide-alt-description-for-images.184857/

And again, if the attachment list had a column showing alt descriptions we admins could easily see where there are and aren't useful descriptions. if we wanted to changed them manually.

Custom rel=canonical​

This is something that (again) Yoast offers. Something that might be useful when dealing with duplicate content.

I do think xenForo has made huge leaps in improving SEO over the last few years, but I still think there is plenty of room for improvement. But as I said in another thread, a lot of members here often seem to ignore SEO suggestions. I've also seen people say things like "I installed this SEO addon and nothing improved." My point being is that merely installing an addon can't really improve SEO - you need to understand and know how to best configure any SEO addon.

 

[Suzanne O]

Goes without saying - may the mods move this elsewhere if this section is not appropriate.


So, what do you find lacking regarding SEO when it comes to XenForo?

An automatic recycle thread board that moves threads to that board automatically after 30 days.

 

[BikeGremlin]

I believe that content is the most important part of SEO, but it can still be optimised. Forums have user generated content (UGC) which is. very often problematical and so SEO includes how content is presented as opposed to it being a different thing. For which reason (if you believe in that Google has what is widely known as a Crawl Budget) it is good to noindex thin or bad content so Google can be more likely to index the important pages.

On a a non UGC site you have control over content, but with a forum thread you can't just go through deleting all the pointless +1, OT junk, jokes and memes or you will lose your members.

Noindexing​

XenForo now gives us the option to set forums to noindex, and more recently (2020?) to base indexing on criteria so that specific threads within a forum can be targeted. However there is room for improvement

• More criteria (given that there are a lot more criteria options available for batch updates). This has been improved a bit by Search engine index exceptions
• Also it would be very good to noindex by criteria

I have a couple of related suggestions

https://xenforo.com/community/threads/batch-update-threads-to-noindex.210014/

https://xenforo.com/community/threa...exing-threads-within-a-forum-settings.205247/

I would also be good to easily review any such settings without having to go into the advanced settings of each node, e.g. if the node list had columns one of which showed any changes from the default index settings (like with Yoast plugin for WP)

It would also be very useful now that we have a manual way to noindex specific threads - without having to trawl through the database.

Related suggestion:
https://xenforo.com/community/threads/search-for-topics-excluded-from-indexing.226626/

Custom meta titles and descriptions​

Another good thing would be the ability to have custom meta titles and descriptions (again as with the Yoast WP plugin)

Of course you might say one can always change the thread h1 title, however that may work well in the context of the forum view, or members may be unhappy about their "witty" title being changed purely for search engine reasons - they don't need to be concerned with SEO.

But it does seem Google finds keywords in meta titles.

Slightly different with meta description, ie meta name="description". I don't thinkGoogle uses it in searches and it may or may not use it in the search result snippet, but often it does and so it's great to have control of this. I don't think it this (or any keywords within) will affect your position in the SERPS, however it can affect whether someone searching decides to click on your site as opposed to another competing one with a less useful description.

Suggestion here:

https://xenforo.com/community/threads/a-few-basic-seo-improvements.208548/

(It’s nice to note that part of that suggestion was implemented re:noindexing. But I’m still very much missing the custom meta title and description in the core of xenForo although there are addons)

Image alt descriptions​

Users can set alt descriptions for images - but they don't. What we need is a system that heavily prompts them to set a relevant alt description when they upload the image. Otherwise we just get image descriptions such as image_859607540.jpg

Suggestion:

https://xenforo.com/community/threa...to-provide-alt-description-for-images.184857/

And again, if the attachment list had a column showing alt descriptions we admins could easily see where there are and aren't useful descriptions. if we wanted to changed them manually.

Custom rel=canonical​

This is something that (again) Yoast offers. Something that might be useful when dealing with duplicate content.

I do think xenForo has made huge leaps in improving SEO over the last few years, but I still think there is plenty of room for improvement. But as I said in another thread, a lot of members here often seem to ignore SEO suggestions. I've also seen people say things like "I installed this SEO addon and nothing improved." My point being is that merely installing an addon can't really improve SEO - you need to understand and know how to best configure any SEO addon.

Those are some good and reasonable points from a technical perspective.
From a practical perspective, probably not so much (at least that's my opinion, based on my experience with moderating moderately busy forums).

Google is quite good at figuring out what images are about, and very often quite happy to ignore meta descriptions and meta titles in search results.

Expecting forum memers to get that right, or moderators to check and fix all that stuff is quite optimistic IMO, and I'm not sure that the effort is worth it. It's probably better to make it more convenient for users to post, than it is to urge them to ad image alt descriptions, for example.

 

[Mr Lucky]

and very often quite happy to ignore meta descriptions and meta titles in search results.

I agree re: meta descriptions, Google often thinks it knows best! but I have found Google has used custom meta titles (done by using @AndyB meta tags addon).

This is something for admins to use, not users though. It's not too much bother because it's only worth doing on threads that are worthy of it, ie the content is good but maybe let down by the user-given title.

I get the point about technical SEO, but it's what we have that is easy to do and kind of foundation for the more practical stuff which, as I said or hoped to imply, is tricky with UGC.

Alt tags work well for accessibility, which may well be a small part of your audience but it's nice to treat with respect and if those people relying on accessibility tools are respected it's a bit more engagement which is part of practical SEO - ie Google knows when someone hits your site and then immediately leaves because it doesn't work well for them.

So it's a case of good content is good, but however informative it is, you need people to like it, understand it and spend time reading it.