two simple template mods for vBulletin SEO

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3rd time lucky eh, do not worry to much.

If you're familiar with the ins and outs of vBulletin databases and mySQL, then the database alteration method is an option you might want to consider, depending on your particular situation.

If you're not, then follow Oleg's advice -- it goes along the same lines of thinking as vBSEO: quick, easy, and very simple to adjust in the future.

Originally Posted by Oleg Ignatiuk

Perhaps it is better to implement a template mod instead of changing the database content.

Edit postbit template
FIND:


REPLACE WITH:

And if you use this, it's even better to not turn the vbulletin auto post titles on

That way the posts always show the original thread title when no custom title is used, and when the title has spelling errors or you want to change it for some reason, all the post titles in that thread will change with it and you don't have to make the changes to all the posts

Example: a thread has the title

a question about SOE

But there are already 2465 postings in that thread with the title spelling error in it.

If you have set the auto post titles off, with the template edit, you just have to change the Thread title to

a question about SEO

instead of changing 2465 posting titles

Extra bonus: smaller database

Great ideas here, hope this one helps

As long as you have the threadid in the URL format for the thread, the title can change.

some good tips here,, thanks

oops, didn't see I replied to this already

anyways all the tips works,, thx agian

Some good information thx

Originally Posted by Jonathan

Here's another:

Turn on the "similar threads" function. Good SEO and natural keyword inclusion is just one of the reasons to use it. You can also insert the thread title again here. Instead of the standard "Similar Threads" heading, just change it to: "Similar Threads for: title-of-thread".

Originally Posted by Keith Cohen

Edit template: showthread_similarthreads

Look for:

Code:

$vbphrase[similar_threads]

Replace with:

Code:

$vbphrase[similar_threads] for: $thread[title]

What about a few other tweaks like:

Currently active viewing "this thread"

&

Members who have read "this thread"

&

Linkbacks (add this) to "this thread"

Wouldn't this be a good idea also to replace "this thread" with the actual page title ($thread[title] ) , to further optimize the thread for maximum SEO and keyword Relevancy?

I'm good at following directions , can someone point me to the correct templates to edit, and the replacement text.

Thanks,
Jason

Originally Posted by Keith Cohen

Ok, I got it.

*** WARNING: USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. MAKE A BACKUP OF YOUR DATABASE FIRST. MAYBE TWO TO BE SAFE. NOT RESPONSIBLE. ***

This worked for me to update all the old post titles to "Re: [thread title]" if they were currently blank. If you have a lot of posts this can take a while to execute. I have about 365k posts and it took about 10 minutes.

The query:

Code:

UPDATE post SET post.title = concat("Re: ",(SELECT thread.title FROM thread WHERE thread.threadid = post.threadid)) WHERE post.title = ""

After thinking about this more, I think this may not work well for sites that use Threaded or Hybrid modes, since the post title will be set to "Re: [thread title]", when it may be in response to a specific post in the thread and that post may have a different title. I haven't investigated this; I'm just theorizing.

I ONLY use linear mode on my site anyway, so it doesn't affect me.

vB only has threaded and hybrid these days. Has anyone tried this query?