[RFC|Merged] Optimized Page Titles patch

[MattF]

Since we already have a discussion topic on this, I don't see a reason not to just put this patch on the tracker. Can you open a new Improvement ticket for 3.1 please?

Added to 3.1-A1 tracker.

[Stoker]

Lets take a look at the template edit.
You are replacing the title code with this:

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<title><!-- IF not S_VIEWTOPIC and not S_VIEWFORUM -->{SITENAME} - <!-- ENDIF --><!-- IF S_IN_MCP -->{L_MCP} - <!-- ELSEIF S_IN_UCP -->{L_UCP} - <!-- ENDIF -->{PAGE_TITLE}<!-- IF S_VIEWTOPIC or S_VIEWFORUM --> - {SITENAME}<!-- ENDIF --></title>

Including {SITENAME} is NOT search engine friendly. In fact it isnt relevant for topic (and maybe even viewforum pages) and can easily cause dublicate content.
First, have you ever seen a Search Engine Optimized site using the website name on all pages?
Second, if we have two forums: one called windows and the other mac. Both forums can have topics with this title: shutdown problems
In this case we can avoid duplicate content by adding the forum name to topic titles like this:

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{PAGE_TITLE} - {FORUM_NAME}

And for the page title numbering it would be more SEO wise to just use Page 1 instead of Page 1 of 1

[A_Jelly_Doughnut]

First, have you ever seen a Search Engine Optimized site using the website name on all pages?

Amazon.com?
Google itself?

I don't know a lot of "Search Engine Optimized" web sites, but I would assume that major corporations would be all over this.

[Stoker]

Amazon.com, lets take on of their book pages and look at the title:

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<title>Amazon.com: Sizzling Sixteen (Stephanie Plum) (9780312383305): Janet Evanovich: Books</title>

By looking at the title I can tell that Amazon.com isnt Search Engine Optimized.
We could also take a look at the source code or the url:

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http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312383304/ref=s9_al_bw_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1QQBH797W7GD4P6AP6Q4&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1269387322&pf_rd_i=283155

When optimizing we need to take away as much irrelevant code/text as possible.
This will make the relevant code/text stand out much clearer.

SEO is all about content. Making the right titles are also content. It wont do much for SEO, but it is a step in the right direction.

[Ger]

have you ever seen a Search Engine Optimized site using the website name on all pages?

What about SEO.com?

Besides that: what about the difference between

Adjusting lights

and

Adjusting lights • Car forums international

The second seems better for relevant ranking than the first.

[Nelsaidi]

By looking at the title I can tell that Amazon.com isnt Search Engine Optimized.

I stopped reading right there, eveer searched for a product and not seen amazon in the top 10?

Having the name in the title gives identity making it more human friendly, and if anything makes it rank better due to keywords in the URL. HOWEVER vBulletin 4 have taken this approach however (evident on their forum, and afaik other vB4 forums) - I am not aware of their reasoning, but they will probably have a one, and so have Simple Machine Forums (its another open source forum software - and it is good). IPB however havent taken this approach. Personally title is better but if 2 of the 4 best forum software have [personal ranking - phpbb,vb,smf,ipb) , there must be a reason. So some research into this would be helpful

Regarding my original topic of which this RFC is based on - what exactly will be changed? I made a number of proposals in there ( viewtopic.php?f=81&t=32730 )

[A_Jelly_Doughnut]

The exact code changes are here: http://github.com/naderman/phpbb3/compa ... t/VSE/9532

Probably the most important line:
http://github.com/naderman/phpbb3/commi ... e308#L1R16

[Ger]

Seems fine to me.

[MattF]

Regarding my original topic of which this RFC is based on - what exactly will be changed? I made a number of proposals in there ( viewtopic.php?f=81&t=32730 )

Your basic forum topic would look like:
Topic Title - Site Name
(adding the forum name here is not a good idea. Need to keep page titles as short and to the point as possible, Google cuts off its display of titles at around 64 characters. Forum name, is irrelevant. Topic title is the "what", site name is the "where".)

If you are on a topic that has pagination (prevents duplicate content issues):
Topic Title - Page X - Site Name
(pagination is not expressed as "Page X of X" as stoker incorrectly surmised)

If you are just viewing a forum (viewforum, pagination also applies here too)
Forum Name - Site Name

The rest of the pages (UCP, MCP, posting page, search results) use the original phpBB page title method (as these are pages that are not crawled by search engines and they are not "content" based).
Site Name - User Control Panel - Edit Profile

---

People have to realize that Page Titles are not just about Search Engines! They serve three functions:
-Search Engine results
-Bookmarks/History lists
-Tabbed page labels

Obviously your PM Inbox will not be in google search results. But it could very be likely in somebody's bookmarks. In the case of bookmarks, for those of us who read left to right, it makes sense to have the name of the site first, followed by the component section of that site, just like the way breadcrumbs are traditionally laid out, hence the reason for maintaining phpBB's original titles in those "user" areas.

But for search engine results, we definitely want content first, followed by site name to identify where the content is coming from to the users. Not displaying the site name in the page titles puts your content out of context. You need the site name so that whether its a bookmark, a history or a search engine result - people will know where the heck the page is from!

Writing Better Web Page Titles

[Stoker]

But for search engine results, we definitely want content first, followed by site name to identify where the content is coming from to the users. Not displaying the site name in the page titles puts your content out of context. You need the site name so that whether its a bookmark, a history or a search engine result - people will know where the heck the page is from!

Still, for topics forum name is more relevant than the board name
Lets take a look at a SEO site for phpBB. They have worked with phpBB SEO since phpBB2
http://www.phpbb-seo.com/en/seo-princip ... e7102.html
Should they know how to do it? Yes, I think so

Lets also take a look at their forum titles:
http://www.phpbb-seo.com/en/seo-principles/
Yes, they use only forum name.

Your basic forum topic would look like:
Topic Title - Site Name
(adding the forum name here is not a good idea. Need to keep page titles as short and to the point as possible, Google cuts off its display of titles at around 64 characters. Forum name, is irrelevant. Topic title is the "what", site name is the "where".)

Forum name is irrelevant???
If the topic is placed in the correct forum, the forum name is very relevant.
Again, take a look at phpbb-seo.com - I would say that they know better.