[pmwiki-users]SEO: Avoiding Headings in the SideBar

Sun Aug 14 10:55:22 CDT 2005

On Aug 14, 2005, at 10:31 AM, Patrick R. Michaud wrote:

>> Ouch.  Those are one of the primary criteria for indexing pages along
>> with the "Title" of the page (which makes using (:title Name of the
>> Page:) much more important for wikis that want good Google.).
>>
>
> PmWiki already puts page's name into a <title> tag, so this is
> already in place.  (:title ...:) just provides a way of changing
> its value.

Oh -- what I mean is that the same "phrase" that Google indexes  
should appear in the page's title, the header 1 tag and the first  
paragraph of the page.

Hence the best bet for a search engine index is:

<head>

...
<title>Search Engine Optimization</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Search Engine Optimization</h1>
<p>To optimize for Google and other search engines, one should have  
key phrases appear next to or near each other throughout the page.   
It is not sufficient to use metatags for search keywords, as most  
search engines no longer pay much if any attention to keyword  
metatags.  For more hints on search engine optimization, see  
GoogleSEOLinkHere.</p>
</body>

Yeah the body text redundantly repeats the key terms I'd like to see  
the page get indexed on ("search engine optimization", "search  
engine", "search keyword", "key phrases", etc.), but this increases  
the chance it will work, as does including the relevant link to a  
high-profile site's related page.

Currently PmWiki could end up with the page titled "Search Engines",  
a bunch of irrelevant h1 tags in the sidebar, etc. which won't be as  
good.  I've been reworking pages in my wiki based on my findings at  
Google and other search optimization sites...and with so many pages  
(and me being the only person doing it) it is a lot of work :)

I've also been working to make the page titles cleaner and more  
relevant.

<title>Wiki Title: Page Title</title> does not make great bookmarks :)

Anyway, I have custom skins on all my wikis, so I'm fixing this  
problem for me.  It would just be better not to have the problem out- 
of-the-box.

Crisses
----
When are you people going to learn? It's not about who's right or  
wrong. No denomination's nailed it yet, and they never will because  
they're all too self-righteous to realize that it doesn't matter what  
you have faith in, just that you have faith. Your hearts are in the  
right place, but your brains need to wake up.
  - Serendipity, Dogma