Optimize the single post template (SEO)
by
, 03-06-2008 at 08:57 AM (2911 Views)
The default single-post comes a little too stripped IMHO. User feedback says that they miss the normal navigation and don`t know how to get back to the forum. If visitors click on a direct link to a single post e. g. in a google search result the bounce rate is probably very high as they don`t find the way into your forum.
The template name for the single post view is "SHOWTHREAD_SHOWPOST". The first thing I changed was the title.
default:
changed version:Code:<title>$vboptions[bbtitle] - $vbphrase[view_single_post] - $threadinfo[title]</title>
Now the title of the thread comes first, followed by the name of the forum containing the thread/post. The last string is your forum name. This should give better ranking results than the default title.Code:<title>$threadinfo[title] - $foruminfo[title_clean] - $vboptions[bbtitle]</title>
After that I inserted thevars directly after the body tag but it seems that they don`t get parsed in this template. So the default navigation and header won`t appear above the single post. Does anyone know how to change it?Code:$header $navbar
Without the navigation on top the only way for a visitor to get (back) to the forum is to click on the close window link at the bottom of the page or the "Thread: Threadname" link on the top right of the page. I prefixed the latter link with "Go back to " to make it a bit more clear that this is a way back to the forum.
On the top left we find the following output: "View Single Post". Is this relevant? I don`t think so and that`s why I replaced the codewithCode:$vbphrase[view_single_post]. So now the title of the thread is displayed as a first level headline instead which also should be better for SEO.Code:<h1>$threadinfo[title]</h1>
The last thing I did was to create a new channel in Google AdSense and add a 728/90 google add after thecondition.Code:<if condition="$show['reputation']">
The result doesn`t look very pretty yet but I hope it`s more usable: Eure absoluten Lieblingsrezepte vom Wunderkessel! - Was kochen wir heute - Wunderkessel - die Koch-Community mit Herz











