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Old 12-19-2006, 11:04 PM   #1 (permalink)
Brighteyes
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Join Date: Dec 2006
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Default SEO Your Forum - tip #1

H1, H2 and H3 tags can help search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN figure out what a web page is about.

SO this is an important modification to make. It also is good for your members, as it gives a more descriptive introduction to a thread.

As always, be sure to back up your database before making any modifications to your site.

________________________

In the FORUMDISPLAY template find:
Code:
$navbar
Below it add:
Code:
<br />
<center>
<h1 class="myh1">$foruminfo[title_clean]</h1>
<h2 class="myh2">$foruminfo[description]</h2>
</center>
<br />
This adds the Forum name in the H1 Tags and the Forum description in the H2 tags, and places these items below the navigation bar in your forums.

Next, in your SHOWTHREAD template find:
Code:
$navbar
and Below it add:
Code:
<br />
<center>
<h1 class="myh1">$thread[title]</h1>
<h2 class="myh2">$foruminfo[title_clean]</h2>
</center>
<br />
This adds the Thread Title in the H1 Tags and the Forum Name in the H2 tags, and places these items below the navigation bar when you visit a thread.

(see where this is going?)


Now, you can control the size and appearance of H1, H2 and H3 tags via your CSS, if you so choose.

For example, in your Style Manager, Main CSS, under Additional CSS Definitions, scroll to the bottom and add this:

Code:
/* ***** H1 Tags ***** */
h1.myh1 {font-family: Arial; font-size: 20px; 
color: #000000; font-weight: bold;}

h2.myh2 {font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; 
color: #000000; font-weight: bold;}
You can change the font, font size and whether its bold or not by simply changing the variables. You can also change the color if you like.

Why is this important for SEO? Just as I said in another thread here that descriptive meta tags and key words/phrases draw spiders like flies... so do descriptive Forum titles and thread titles! Search Engine spiders crawl your titles, not just your forum and thread content. The titles are cached in search engines and brought up when a user is searching via key words/phrases. So be DESCRIPTIVE!
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