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VBSEO-Style Addition to Thread and Forum Categories - SEO Benefits 2016-11-13

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Donny

Donny

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Donny submitted a new resource:

VBSEO-Style Addition to Thread and Forum Categories - SEO Benefits - Did you love VBSEO on VB forums, and lack some of the SEO benefits of the plugin? - Then try this!

Hello XF lads and ladies,7


This isn't an add-on you'll be downloading, or using the awesome add-on installer and updater for. This is just one or two lines of code that you'll customise and add to your templates (I'll tell you where, don't worry), to possibly increase your traffic.

You'll need to consider how much content you have before you take on this mission. If you have no content, don't bother with this. Move along. There's other stuff you need to do first. However, if you...
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tajhay said:
Any before and after case studies of utilising this?
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I don't see any harm in implementing this small tweak. I went ahead and applied it on my forum, so I will report back If I notice any improvements in terms of google rankings. Although I definitely remember this feature back in the days when I used vBSEO.
 
Or change:
Phrase Title Contains: discussion_in_x_started_by_y_date_z
Code: 
Discussion in '{forum}' at [YOUR_DOMAIN] started by {name}, {date}.



 
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tajhay said:
Any before and after case studies of utilising this?
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Not really no. It's part of ongoing SEO improvements and I couldn't really say which attributes affect my stats etc. But give it a try and see what you think. If you can attribute a climb to only this, then take the screen shots for me and I'll add them to the 'add-on'.
 
Just wondering Donny, do you have any other vBSEO edits that you applied on your website. If you do, care to share those as well? :)
 
Robru said:
Or change:
Phrase Title Contains: discussion_in_x_started_by_y_date_z
Code: 
Discussion in '{forum}' at [YOUR_DOMAIN] started by {name}, {date}.

Yeah, this adds to that text so you get a little more text based around the thread title. Hence me saying you could really do with a fair bit of content before doing this else it could perhaps come across as a bit spammy. Google seems to like using this text in it's SERP descriptions if you have well formed structure of forum categories and the thread is also related to the forum category. So house-keeping is key too.


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The Matrix said:
Why is no screenshot on overview?
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I'm afraid I don't have a blank test forum with this implemented but I could perhaps sort one out when I have more time. If you have before and after shots if you've done it, then send me those and I'll add them.
 
GKBlaze said:
Just wondering Donny, do you have any other vBSEO edits that you applied on your website. If you do, care to share those as well? :)
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A few lol yeah.

Link thread titles to the first post of the thread. So long threads pass keyword rich anchors back to the first page. The date in the thread already does this, so it's a moot point navigation wise, this is really just to get some keyword rich anchors passing links too. You just edit the H1 to include a link to the thread, you can get the link from the date.

This is the first three lines of my thread_view

Code: 
<xen:title>{xen:helper threadPrefix, $thread, escaped}{$thread.title}{xen:helper pagenumber, $page} - FORUM NAME</xen:title>
<xen:h1><a href="{xen:link threads, $thread}" title="{$thread.title}">{xen:helper threadPrefix, $thread}{$thread.title}</a></xen:h1>
<p>Discuss {$thread.title} in the <a href="{xen:link forums, $forum}" title="{$forum.title}">{$forum.title}</a> area at FORUM NAME OR DOMAIN</p>

I think that was part of VBSEO. Might be wrong.

I did wat the prev / next links in the footer of threads, but apparently that confuses Google these days as it keeps changing the order of threads when people reply to them, so keeps changing the prev/next links for each thread, which can look like you're doing tricks alternating links (a bit like the digitalpoint link exchange thing). Google likes links to stay the same on each page. You don't want your threads getting any penalty. The anchor benefit is outweighed by a risk of penalisation on a large forum IMO.

Anything else you can think of that you liked? I can usually work it out.
 
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GKBlaze said:
I don't see any harm in implementing this small tweak. I went ahead and applied it on my forum, so I will report back If I notice any improvements in terms of google rankings. Although I definitely remember this feature back in the days when I used vBSEO.
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Would you believe I still have a VB4 + VBSEO 2.6.0 running on a very popular forum in it's field. 800k posts. Still ranks lovely these days with a few tweaks to the standard setup. I've ported over a fair few of the same VB setups to XF and have found the core system is leagues ahead SEO-wise but it does need the odd push. But if we were all doing the same, I don't think it'd work as well for the clued up or whatever.
 
Robru said:
I do it this way because this phrase already exists ;)
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I thought I'd replied with my reasoning but can't seem to find the post. This is in ADDITION to that less-prominent text. Perhaps a moot point for some as it's basically the same. But it's using paragraph and Google seems to like using it for the description if the stock one XF puts out for a thread is poor. And it also adds some more 'weight' to the keyword ration in addition to the thread title, the text you've pointed out (if you added the thread title) and this paragraph, as well as hopefully tags being used well, and the OP of your thread hopefully wording it well and using the title in the post somewhere.

It all adds up.

My long-tail traffic has definitely increased, and my CTR from SERPs have improved a bit IMO because the description in SERPs is specifically about the thread. Rather than just some random line of text in the thread or OP.

Edit: Don't you use the thread title in your way of doing it?
 
Thanks for this @Donny,
Have added it to my start up forum (our first time having one for our association) and although you said it wasn't a good idea we do expect these forums to fill up quickly with writing tips, and discussions etc. so wanted to put this on at the ground floor level while I am browsing these resources otherwise I'd probably forget about it :)

Thanks for taking the time, greatly appreciated.
 
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