Hi, I'm in the process of entering keywords into the "Keywords" box in the Category Settings for each category. However I've read in this forum that Google no longer makes use of keywords in a site. Because I'm finding this very time consuming so I just wanted to ask if I'm wasting my time because in won't have any effect on Google Search Engine or will it help, in which case I will carry on entering them through all the categories. Thanks
YES in a word. The vast majority of SEO professionals agree that keywords are not used or considered by Google or indeed most search engines. title tags and meta descriptions are important though.
It is true that Google does not consider keywords any longer. I wouldn't say that it is a waste of time to enter them, however a few things that you need to bear in mind regarding keywords in general. 1) Some search engines do still consider the use of keywords 2) Only use keywords that are also contained within the page(s) content 3) Do NOT keyword SPAM (one of the main reasons Google doesn't use them anymore). Keyword SPAMMING is when you use excessive numbers of keywords, keywords that don't match page content. Generally you simply want to have less than a dozen keywords and all of which are relevant and/or match words in your content.
The standard length for meta descriptions in 68C I believe is 50 and can only be changed by modifying the viewlisting.php. Since i only have the Designer Version I can't change this setting. Do you think 50 is enough or is it worth upgrading to the Developer Version just to be able to change this setting. Thanks
Title tags and meta tags Where do I find title tags and meta tags in my administration? I have a hosted account and in the settings area there is a section for keywords but I too have found that google doesn't pick up on my keywords.
Well some pages are given title tags and meta descriptions based upon what you put into your 68C admin control panel. However, to undertake a full SEO for a site is a long and complex process. It is far from straight forward to give every page a unique title and description, moreover, to make sure all internal links have title tags embedded within those links, the correct use of rel="nofollow" to create the ideal crawling structure, etc. I can only point you to this post. http://www.68classifieds.com/forums...earch-engine-optimization-68-classifieds.html As explained. Keywords are not considered by Google because webmasters were using them to spam their search engine spider. It is hardly worth worrying about keywords but do worry about page titles and meta descriptions if your business model is dependent upon Google and other search engines.
Also look at Google webmaster guidelines and do some searching around on how to perform SEO. Its a journey to be good at it.
description field = meta description? Is the description field in the categories considered to be the META description of the category itself? I left this empty because it would show up under each category on the front page. If this is important, how long should it be and how can I hide it? Thanks
I think you are able to check this your self by putting in a description and looking at the source. Make a reasonable sentence which is descriptive and you can hide it by changing the browse.tpl file so it does not show that description. - i.e. remove {$data[td].description}
The category description fields are NOT META elements as META elements are in the <head> section of the web page source code and are not visible in the rendered page. The purpose of the META tags are strictly for the search engines and crawlers giving additional information about the page. The category description is within the content of the page itself and is exactly what it says, a description of the category. Hiding it through the use of smarty logic as suggested would indeed hide it, but what would the point then be as it means that it is never sent to the page at all, therefore would serve no purpose whatsoever.
What? Think you may be misunderstand Mike. 1. description text entered into the admin panel for categories goes into the meta description tag by default for that specific category. 2.You can remove that piece of code from browse.tpl so it does not display on the page itself but that will not affect what goes into the meta tag.
This is the answer I was looking for. Also I tested it and it does show up on the META Description field in the category itself. Thanks.
Yes, my bad! I forgot that it also populates the META description tag as well. I just remember I quit using it, because of the display in the template which never looked right to me and usually broke the layout display.
Just a small note for people wanting to do this, follow Seymour's steps and don't forget to also remove {$data[td].description} from home.tpl in your template directory.
