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metadescription
Most webpages need a meta description. It is basic SEO. So in the download I would like to see:
‘custom 1’ changed to ‘metadescription’
<txp:output_form form=“meta” /> in the head of the default archive page template
A ‘meta’ form like this:
<txp:if_individual_article>
<txp:if_custom_field name=“metadescription”>
<meta name=“description” content=”<txp:custom_field name=“metadescription” />” />
</txp:if_custom_field>
</txp:if_individual_article>
Experienced users might want to alter the form, but everyone including newbies will have a more useful page to start them off with.
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Re: metadescription
I do exactly that for all my sites. First thing I do is change the default template to farm out repetitive stuff to forms (dtd, header, footer etc) — including a meta form exactly like you describe, plus a load of other little things like default meta descriptions for article list pages and robots noindex,nofollow for hidden ‘dev’ sections etc. FWIW, my custom1 is usually renamed ‘Summary’ or something, because ‘metadescription’ is a bit geeky for some people who use my TXP installs!
Having said that, this feature is only really of use if one of the ‘admin advanced options open by default’ things are used; custom fields are too easily forgotten when tucked away out of sight. On a related note I’d like to see a tick box in the prefs for having the advanced pane open (and one for whether the ‘more’ panel stays open) instead of having to rely on a plugin. But that’s just me.
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#3 2008-05-18 21:33:16
- els
- Moderator
- From: The Netherlands
- Registered: 2004-06-06
- Posts: 7,458
Re: metadescription
Bloke wrote:
But that’s just me.
No, that’s me too :)
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Re: metadescription
rah_metas is the right tool for this.
It automagically creates the most common metatags (including description, keywords, author, etc). The meta description is the excerpt in plain text, or the body, if there is no excerpt.
Also, the plug-in lets you define a custom field to override the excerpt/body.
So, you have both options there: the automatic creation of common metatags, or the chance to add them using a custom field (both with rah_metas).
If the change suggested by zero is applied on the download, it could break backward compatibility. And, if not, I think this is a matter of preferences, zero. Not everyone out there will like to have custom_1 predefined as metadescription.
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Re: metadescription
I was thinking about backward compatibility and wondering if there was some magic way to get around it. A couple of years back, Yiannis asked for new field similar to the keywords field but for meta description, but that never happened. rah_metas is fine, so is creating your own form just the way you want. But I still think the meta description is an essential rather than an extra part of your content pages, more important than other meta stuff, so that’s why I think it should be included in the install in some way.
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Re: metadescription
I don’t think we should add extra fields by default that can be created just as well with the existing custom fields. The article_image field should’ve been an optional custom field as well, IMHO.
As Julián says, it’s a matter of preference, so I’d rather leave it up to users to do this in whatever way they prefer.
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Re: metadescription
I see it like ruud. The user should decide which variant he want to use.
I myself use the first chars of the body, so I can use the custom_fields for another stuff.
And in section-pages (mostly article listings) the custom_field will not work, anyway.
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#9 2008-05-19 13:20:09
- masa
- Member
- From: Asturias, Spain
- Registered: 2005-11-25
- Posts: 1,091
Re: metadescription
zero wrote:
Most webpages need a meta description. It is basic SEO. So in the download I would like to see:
‘custom 1’ changed to ‘metadescription’
I agree with Ruud in that this is best left up to the individual user.
Also I find it really awkward to work with anything more than a few words in custom fields, but not entire sentences. Should you ever come back later you’ll only be able to see a tiny chunk of your description which wouldn’t be very helpful.
I rather like Lazy Textpattern SEO
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Re: metadescription
Sorry Peter, but I also concur with ruud et al, even though it would personally save me (and you I guess!) time.
As an on-topic aside: I’m still not convinced about the ‘lazy’ (auto_excerpt) or rah_metas approach to SEO. I may be way off-base here but since the Google engine reads the entire page anyway and offers chunks of that in its search result, simply duplicating a hunk of content from the article’s body or excerpt is surely less effective than writing a dedicated summary (“abstract”) that contains the key elements from the page?
If you never display your txp:excerpt anywhere other than the meta tags then that’s probably fine. But if Google sees the same exact content twice (even a lesser amount) wouldn’t it be considered a sort of “spam” technique and rate your page lower than if you’d taken the time to write proper meta description? I don’t know the answer, just batting the question out.
If the answer is that it doesn’t matter at all because search engines these days ignore meta info, then that begs the question: why bother at all? Would save me more time, for sure.
Last edited by Bloke (2008-05-19 13:45:05)
The smd plugin menagerie — for when you need one more gribble of power from Textpattern. Bleeding-edge code available on GitHub.
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