Important SEO Tip: Essential H1 Tags Missing in vBulletin Default Templates

Heading tags should be used correctly. I completely disagree with the way vb4's default template uses them. Should we decide to do a vb4 theme, that will be a major area that we will look into fixing.

Headings are a supposed to be used as a semantic outline of the document's main sections contents.

Facebook breaks our validation, but if you scroll down to the Outline section,
[Invalid] Markup Validation of http://www.vbseo.com/f4/important-seo-tip-essential-h1-tags-missing-vbulletin-default-templates-30659/index4.html - W3C Markup Validator
You will see that even our skin (which is basically vb4 default with some color changes) is far from ideal.
According the to w3, you shouldn't have an hn+1 without an hn, ie, you can't have an h4 without an h3 or h2 or h1 coming before it in a document.
bullets are the same way.

• one
  
  • two
    
    • three
      
      • four

looks normal. add an h onto it and you have the same basic effect

• one
  
  • • • four

and it's just plain wrong/illogical.

The forum display page is even worse.


To the matter at hand, yes, you certainly can rank well without them. Using them correctly is a proven tactic. The problem is, few do.

Without editing my post, the vb editor doesn't even display the 4 indents of the 2nd bullet example correctly, further proving my point.

An example of proper header tag usage :

Code:

 [h1] Depkaç.Com
        [h2] İşte geleceğin dergisi
        [h2] Yerleşik işletim sistemine mahkeme engeli
        [h2] Ahmedinejad: "ABD üç ay içinde saldıracak"
        [h2] Antalya'da çakma 'Oktoberfest'
        [h2] Apo Gül: "Türkiye'de internet sansürü yok"
        [h2] ÖSYM’de ikinci rezalet!
        [h2] Yeni bir Türk korku filmi daha: "Üç Harfliler"
        [h2] Türkiye'de yaşayan Çinli sayısında artış var
        [h2] Celtic Bursaspor'u destekleyecek
        [h2] Org. Yirmibeşoğlu: "Cami bombaladık"
        [h2] Andım saçmalığı...
        [h2] Tek tip Türk kafası!
        [h2] En iyi rock şarkıları (10)
        [h2] Son Bloglar
            [h3] it!
            [h3] sen.iz
            [h3] Geometri
            [h3] sen, ben ve orada olmayan adam
            [h3] yalnızlık
            [h3] Hala Seviyorum ...
            [h3] Ters anlaşılan sözler bir de ters okuyun :)
            [h3] bir ömrün çentikli muhasebesi
            [h3] Izmir Körfezi
            [h3] Eluveitie - The Arcane Dominion
        [h2] Son Mesajlar
            [h3] Meme deyip geçmee
            [h3] Star Wars serisindeki en iyi Jedi ustası kim?
            [h3] en iyi mmorpg
            [h3] Ahmedinejad: "ABD üç ay içinde saldıracak"
            [h3] ÖSYM’de ikinci rezalet!
            [h3] Antalya'da çakma 'Oktoberfest'
            [h3] Apo Gül: "Türkiye'de internet sansürü yok"
            [h3] Niye sevgilim yok?
            [h3] Org. Yirmibeşoğlu: "Cami bombaladık"
            [h3] Türkiye'de yaşayan Çinli sayısında artış var

Hi there,

I am revisiting this. I used option 1. The H1 tags are there but the text is massive. I understand that the code you mention here will reduce the size of the H1 text. Forgive my ignorance, in what template and where exactly do I add this code. Many thanks

Originally Posted by Mert Gökçeimam

Hello JB ,

You can define CSS class to h1 tags. En example :

Code:

<h1 class="anyclass">Header Style</h1>

Code:

.anyclass {
    font-size: 1.2em; // size of your font , you can use px , em , % 

    color: #ff0000; // the color you want your font to be displayed

    font-weight: 100 // The font-weight property sets how thick or thin characters in text should be displayed.
    font-variant: small-caps // The font-variant property is used to display text in a small-caps font, which means that all the lower case letters are converted to uppercase letters, but all the letters in the small-caps font have a smaller font-size compared to the rest of the text.

    font-style: italic; // The font-style property sets the style of a font.

    margin: 0px; // The CSS margin properties define the space around elements. It is possible to use negative values to overlap content. The top, right, bottom, and left margin can be changed independently using separate properties. A shorthand margin property can also be used to change all of the margins at once.

    padding: 0px; // The CSS padding properties define the space between the element border and the element content. Negative values are not allowed. The top, right, bottom, and left padding can be changed independently using separate properties. A shorthand padding property is also created to control multiple sides at once.
}

It will be displayed like

HEADER STYLE

on vb3, head to the MAIN CSS area of the template editor, and scroll all the way to the bottom, and place it in the last text-area for extra markup.

on vb4, place it into additonal.css template

Thanks Brian, but I'm still confused. (its easy) I am using method one, and you have given us two extra pieces of code, I guess the large css definition beginning .anyclass goes into VB's Main CSS file. But where does the top bit go beginning <h1 do I place that in the header with the other stuff?

Thanks

Originally Posted by Brian Cummiskey

on vb3, head to the MAIN CSS area of the template editor, and scroll all the way to the bottom, and place it in the last text-area for extra markup.

on vb4, place it into additonal.css template

.anyclass {} in the style sheet will effect any element with the mark up of class="anyclass".

This is css 101, and if its a 'greek' concept, you should do some reading on how css works:
CSS Id and Class

Hi Brian, thanks for the response and the link.

This code below I have pasted into my navbar and the .anyclass CSS in my Main CSS file but I just can't figure where to add this in red <h1 class="anyclass">Header Style</h1> Thanks

<if condition="THIS_SCRIPT == 'forumdisplay'"> <h1>$foruminfo[title_clean]</h1> <else /> <if condition="THIS_SCRIPT == 'showthread'"> <h1>$thread[title]</h1> <else /> <if condition="THIS_SCRIPT == 'group'"> <h1>$custompagetitle</h1> <else /> <if condition="THIS_SCRIPT == 'album'"> <h1>$custompagetitle</h1> <else /> <if condition="THIS_SCRIPT == 'tags'"> <h1>$tag[tagtext]</h1> <else /> <if condition="THIS_SCRIPT == 'blog'"> <h1>$pagetitle</h1> <else /> <if condition="THIS_SCRIPT == 'member'"> <h1>$userinfo[username]</h1> <else /> <h1>$vboptions[bbtitle]</h1> </if> </if> </if> </if> </if> </if> </if>

Add that WHERE you want a heading to display.
You may also want to use it in an RR
Relevant Replacements used by vbseo.com?

Hi Brian I am sorry if I am being thick here. Using Method one, as instructed, I placed a lump of code in my navbar template. So this is where the H1 now shows up (too big)

So have I got to replace the code I put in the navbar with this <h1class="anyclass">Header Style</h1>

Thanks

instead of

<h1>$foruminfo[title_clean]</h1>

you would use

<h1 class="myclassname">$foruminfo[title_clean]</h1>
for each entry

and use
.myclassname {}
in the css for your style configuration.

Gotcha - many thanks for your patience :thumb up:

Hi Brian, That looks OK on the site but when I view the source; the class which I called "vbseo" shows up between the tags, does this mean that google wil index the class as well or is it ignored. The thread Title is "Loyalty card" this is what is shown in source

<h1 class="vbseo">Loyalty Card</h1> is that OK? Thanks


.vbseo {
font-family: tahoma;
font-size: 11px;
font-weight: bold;
color: #FFFFFF;
text-decoration: none;
}

Originally Posted by Brian Cummiskey

instead of

<h1>$foruminfo[title_clean]</h1>

you would use

<h1 class="myclassname">$foruminfo[title_clean]</h1>
for each entry

and use
.myclassname {}
in the css for your style configuration.

It is a part of a tag, not content. It will have no effect on seo at all.

That said, it's always best to use a class that identifies the element, not necessarily what the style is.
see: http://www.w3.org/QA/Tips/goodclassnames

Not as important as most think ... There are over 200 factors that google looks at and an H1 tag is certainly not at the top of that list.. More important things such as "quality" content have far more weight and when I say quality I mean SEQ and PSAD.

James

Originally Posted by ryanh45

H1 and H2 are the important tags. You can exercise this in Text pad or Front page express. You can find it how to use it. They have an important place in SEO.
Thanks.
________
Ryan H