Guiding SearchBots

  • I have a problem with google returning my index page as the search result for serach strings that should actually return an entry that has “fallen off” the page. Also, since the main index page is searched, combinations of words from different posts leads google to beleive that there is something on the page that there actually isn’t.
    A little bit of searching led me to This scribbling.net article on how to help the googlebot index better.
    Whats given below suggests a remedy to my problem :

    Webloggers: use the meta tags to help the Googlebot index only your permalinks, not your constantly changing front page. To do this, use
    <meta name=”robots” content=”noindex,follow” >
    on your front page and
    <meta name=”robots” content=”index,follow” >
    on your posts’ permanent locations.

    I looked at the index.php page, and I am not sure how to change the meta tag, when there are no parameters (the plain index.php) and for when a particular post is being displayed.
    I would appreciate help and feedback with this problem.
    Thanks you,
    Carthik.

Viewing 15 replies - 16 through 30 (of 31 total)

  • If I only want to index the homepage and p=X pages, what sentence I need?
    This will work?

    <meta name="robots" content="<?php echo (!$cat || !$m || !$paged || !$s ?'':'no');?>index,follow" />

    Thread Starter carthik

    (@carthik)

    You could try putting that in the template and then viewing the source for the different types of index pages generated.
    My brain is a mess right now, else I would have figured out.

    in 1.2b this is now broken, please help.
    <meta name=”robots” content=”<?php echo (!$p?’no’:”); ?>index,follow” />

    Thread Starter carthik

    (@carthik)

    What exactly is broken?

    Thread Starter carthik

    (@carthik)

    <meta name="robots" content="<?php if (!$p): ?>no<?php endif; ?> index,follow" />
    Should work.

    Use $single instead of $p

    purrrrfect!
    Thanks Beel, that worked exactly as I needed.

    /me wonders why not index all permalinks AND the index page… I know, I’ve read whole thread from the start, still, more frequently updated page == bigger chance someone will find something from my site… and even if it have something indexed and it’s too old, I have a google trap on my site which is displayed onlyto google users (something a-la please use search if you can’t find what u’re looking for at the main page)…
    Regards

    Thread Starter carthik

    (@carthik)

    Thanks for the heads-up Beel. I didn’t know that before.

    MaxT – It is just a matter of preference. When I google something I don’t like going to pages that no longer contain the info for which I am looking and I will hit the back button to go back to my search list before doing another search which will return a very limited results, if any at all. Wouldn’t any posts on the index page be properly “followed” from the links, so what is the point of indexing that page?

    I guess every person have a different opinion on it…

    And here very few of us seem adverse to opining ??

    Hi,
    i realized i have a problem with my blog and thought i would use this thread to ask about it, since it is related to search engines.
    The problem is the main subject of my site is taijiquan, which is a chinese word. Using an older but more popular transliteration system, it can be written “taichichuan”, and there are more variations. But as i chose to refer to the subject by the current standart spelling, i am losing a lot of traffic.
    The meta keywords tag seems to have been practically deprecated by major engines, so i have been thinking about what i can do.
    Do you think that it would help to write the alternative spellings inside a spna, and hide then span with CSS?
    all help is much appreciated!

    inglorion

    (@inglorion)

    Sorry about bumping up ancient threads, but replying here puts things in context instead of making a new topic and having to explain everything all over again.

    My question is: Should I use ‘$p’ or ‘$single’ in WordPress 1.5.2? The various claims confused me.

    And what’s with the ‘!’? Should I use that? What’s the difference?

    jalenack

    (@jalenack)

    The ! operator means false … So when you say if (!$p), the code will be followed if $p == false

    Anyways, for WordPress 1.5.2, you can use the following code:

    <meta name="robots" content="<?php if (is_home()) echo "no"; ?>index,follow" />

    For more info about the is_* functions like is_home(), check out Conditional Tags

Viewing 15 replies - 16 through 30 (of 31 total)
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