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Adding links to the article page - optimization for search engines


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elect

Forum User
Chatty
Registered: 10/23/04
Posts: 37
In your FAQ area you state
Add links to the article page

To make the spiders index the article.php page (i.e. the page that has the entire story text and not only the intro), it helps to make the story title a link to the actual story (in storytext.thtml and featuredstorytext.thtml):

a href="{article_url}" class="non-ul">{story_title} (inside of the normal brakets - but had to take those out to post this)

Since this would normally make the story title underlined, you can add this to your stylesheet (style.css):

.non-ul { text-decoration: none; }

You can also take this one step further and make the story's headline an actual headline by using the tag:

a href="{article_url}" class="non-ul">{story_title} (inside of the normal brakets - but had to take those out to post this)

Again, this may make the headline stand out too much (the effect depends on the theme you're using), so you may want to add this to your stylesheet:

h1 { font-size: 100%; display: inline; }

The CSS changes are only for the human visitors of your site - experiment with them to make the headline look good with your theme. The search engine spiders don't care about the CSS - but they are very interested in headlines and links ...

But... not being a very smart webbie, I'm not exactly sure I understand where in the storytext.thtml and featuredstorytext.thtml to make the changes you suggest (the storytext and featuredstorytext files)

I would guess it matters where in those files I put that line, right? If you'd point me to the right spot to ammend I'd be grateful.
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jonc

Forum User
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Registered: 09/12/04
Posts: 50
it should roughly be about line 6. change this:

Text Formatted Code
<td class="storytitle">{story_title}</td>
 


to this:

Text Formatted Code
<td class="storytitle"><a href="{article_url}" class="non-ul">{story_title}</a></td>
 


I haven't tried it personally, but that is what the article says.
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Dirk

Site Admin
Admin
Registered: 01/12/02
Posts: 13073
Location:Stuttgart, Germany
The Professional theme (the version included with 1.3.10) already implements those tips, btw.

bye, Dirk
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eyecravedvd

Forum User
Full Member
Registered: 06/09/03
Posts: 152
If you want it be even more search engine friendly (I added this and I've notice a big jump in stats since) add the following to the

Text Formatted Code
 <a href="{article url}"  title="{story_title}" class="non-ul">{story_title}</a>

 

Shane | www.EyeCraveDVD.com
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Status: offline

elect

Forum User
Chatty
Registered: 10/23/04
Posts: 37
Awesome. Thanks everyone. Since I'm only using the Professional theme on the new site installation, I guess I'm good to go on that one.

When I tackle my upgrade on my other site, I guess I'll need to make myself a checklist to update the other theme files. Much appreciated. Smile
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