SEO & Usability - Page Titles Format - from 4.5.3

[kenmcd]

Added to Feature Requests - 1.x Tracker
http://developer.joomla.org/sf/go/artf2076?nav=1


Title: SEO & Usability - Page Titles Format - from 4.5.3

Description: SEO and Usability are Enhanced by Specific Page Titles

Mamb-no 4.5.3-alpha (and now the beta) allow selection of the page titles format in the SEO section of the
configuration screen via a drop-down box.

Page Titles Format
  Site - Title
  Title - Site
  Title only

Joomla 1.0.x and 1.1.x do not include this feature.


From mambo.php:

Code: Select all

	function setPageTitle( $title=null ) {
		if ( @$GLOBALS['mosConfig_pagetitles'] ) {
			$title = trim( htmlspecialchars( $title ) );
			switch ( $GLOBALS['mosConfig_pagetitles_format'] ) {
				case 2:
					// <title> Title - Site </title>
					$title = $title .' - '. $GLOBALS['mosConfig_sitename'];
					break;

				case 3:
					// <title> Title </title>
					break;

				case 1:
				default:
					// <title> Site - Title </title>
					$title = $GLOBALS['mosConfig_sitename'] . ' - '. $title;
					break;
			}
			$this->_head['title'] = $title;
		}
	}

From Joomla classes.php:

Code: Select all

	function setPageTitle( $title=null ) {
		if (@$GLOBALS['mosConfig_pagetitles']) {
			$title = trim( htmlspecialchars( $title ) );
			$this->_head['title'] = $title ? $GLOBALS['mosConfig_sitename'] . ' - '. $title : $
GLOBALS['mosConfig_sitename'];
		}
	}

EVEN BETTER (than Mamb-no) - allow a custom home page title
Add an input box to the config screen to enter the TEXT below.
Something like this, but with a variable for the text.

Code: Select all

function setPageTitle( $title=null ) {
global $option;
if (@$GLOBALS['mosConfig_pagetitles']) {
$title = trim( htmlspecialchars( $title ) );
if ($option=="com_frontpage") { $this->_head['title'] = $GLOBALS['mosConfig_sitename'] 
. " - YOUR PAGE TITLE HERE"; }
else {
$this->_head['title'] = $title ? $title . " - ". $GLOBALS['mosConfig_sitename'] :
$GLOBALS['mosConfig_sitename'];}
}
}

Custom Page Titles discussion in old forum:
http://forum.mamboserver.com/showthread.php?t=25027


Page Title/Site Title questions are starting to show up here in the Joomla forums.
Same requests again.

[Jinx]

Hi Ken,

I don't like to add new settings to the admin if they can be avoided. I see the site titles as a presentational issue. One that will be fully adressed in 1.2 with the introducting of pT. U will then be able to easily choose your own custom page title format by making changes to the page head template.

I'll keep this one in the fridge till then.

Johan

[vavroom]

Taking the risk of showing "dissent in the ranks", I think Ken's idea is not such a bad thing.

Yes, there will be a lot of customisation available through pT, but can we really expect Joe Q User to know how to do that?  Having it available through some admin panel makes sense to me if we want to retain the user-friendliness we've come to be known for.

My 2 cents

[DeanMarshall]

Sorry Johan,

For what it is worth (not much but hey) I am with Nic and Ken; I see the html title tag as slightly more significant than a presentation issue. From a document structure point of view the title is pretty significant, and from an SEO point of view it is vital.

Dean.

[Jinx]

I can understand guys. Bascially i'm saying that this feature isn't going to make it in 1.1 and that for 1.2 we will use another impplementation technique as suggested by Ken. The whole page head rendering will be reworked including the page titles.

[Hackwar]

This, once again, raises the possible need for a splitted Backend into simple and advanced mode. It would certainly make a lot fo things easier. You can have simple mode with good standard values and an advanced mode in which all those little switches are available to the experienced admin.
The only argument against this would be in my opinion such stupid users like me who think "why stay with the simple mode, I want the real deal", then activate the advanced mode and kill their sites....

Hackwar

[eyezberg]

I agree.
Just use different denomainations then, not "simple/advanced", but something less .. inviting? Maybe "standard vs exhaustive/experienced/detailed/.."
And then more options for superadmin to show/hide all kinds of tabs to author and higher users (like media, seo and other content tabs..). Like "Show from:" and a drop down with author/publisher/../admin

[kenmcd]

Part of the reason I brought this up is I know it will be in 4.5.3.
And I really don't want to hear - "Mamb-no has it, why not J?"

The main reasons are in fact SEO and usability.

The SEO reasons are discussed above. All valid.
- custom home page title
- custom page titles
BIG weight in SE ranking.

Usability (and marketing) - links to home pages which appear in favorites lists as "Home" are a usability and marketing problem.
Who among us has not looked and looked for the link to that web site whose name starts a W,
only to finally find it listed alphabetically in the "H" section (Home), if you find it at all?
Bad marketing and bad usability.

I was thinking about this again while trying to gather-up all the SEO hacks and techniques for a MiniDoc.

Pleaseeee, users need this.

In the mean time, I'll test the hack above on a Joomla site and post it in the FAQs.

[kper]

Good one Ken. I agree on the need for this and think it should be in the admin interface too.

People need this kind of thing to be easy to implement without templating knowledge. It is a pretty basic and very common requirement.

I had to hack Mambo 4.5.1 to get the page titles the "right" way round. Now, if I want to upgrade to Joomla I have to plan extremely carefully for all the small changes like that which I have been forced to make to the core code. It is all very well having the freedom to be able to make those changes, but it is less hassle all round if there is an idiot-proof interface for them which means you don't have to.

Not enough thought has been put into this sort of thing in the past - let's take the opportunity.

Pagination with the {mospagebreak} mambot also needs looking at. You need to be pretty technically minded to figure that one out and it is no fun explaining the procedure to an editor or contributor who isn't.

[¥]

Bumpity bump bump... bump bump.

[kper]

This question seems to have attracted quite a few readers:

http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic,3849.0.html

[guilliam]

I can understand guys. Bascially i'm saying that this feature isn't going to make it in 1.1 and that for 1.2 we will use another impplementation technique as suggested by Ken. The whole page head rendering will be reworked including the page titles.

i agree with ken, the question is "when will a stable 1.2 and/or a version that will have this capability be released" or when this will be available,.. some developers are craving for page ranking and SEO now and cant wait longer, so for the mean while FOR ME, im not keeping this in the fridge.

2 abes.

- g

[guilliam]

This, once again, raises the possible need for a splitted Backend into simple and advanced mode. It would certainly make a lot fo things easier. You can have simple mode with good standard values and an advanced mode in which all those little switches are available to the experienced admin.
The only argument against this would be in my opinion such stupid users like me who think "why stay with the simple mode, I want the real deal", then activate the advanced mode and kill their sites....

Hackwar

thats a real killer @hackwar!

-------------------

was already have this in tought, a LOADED version of Joomla! lets say a joomla package of all ADVANCE mode goodies and CMMT's already pre-installed upon installation.. something like the CRELOADED project(loaded flavor of OS Commerce)... OR a more similar example of this is the package like what @soeren made with the joomla e-commerce version of joomla-virtuemart.

take note, what im thinking is NOT  a fork, but there are SOME hacks in the core files to make way for the extra advance features.  *this idea might lead to an F.A.W. (Frequently Asked Wishlist) loL!

- g

[tyke]

I totally agree with Ken and others here it is very important to be able to have unique tags on each and every page.

I am a professional SEO and I cant emphasise the importance of having unique title tags on every page enough, the same goes for meta keyword and meta description tags (does Joomla allow for unique metag tags on each page?).

I have only just starting looking for a good free CMS for my clients and Joomla was looking like the best one but this is going to be a major stumbling block.

[gsbe]

I just came across this thread and would like to join the ranks requesting that a larger priority be placed on TITLE tag control all the way down to the content item level. Thanks for providing this forum for our pitiful appeals.  :P lol

[kper]

Also, a very small code change in content.php would allow for custom page titles in Section and Category blog listings without the need for any extra parameters:

In functions showBlogSection and showBlogCategory

Code: Select all

// Dynamic Page Title
$mypagetitle = $params->get ('header');
if ( $mypagetitle ) {
	$mainframe->SetPageTitle( $mypagetitle );
} else {
$mainframe->SetPageTitle( $menu->name );
}

[ivisage]

A possible simple solution until version 1.2 or whatever....

The 'Keywords' field that is already available for both content items and static pages in Joomla is a worthless field for search engines. Believe me friends they dont look at the keyword tag anymore. I just took the top spot in Yahoo for our new site and we dont have keyword metatags in the site at all. Is there a way to hack Joomla or... is there a way to call the 'Keywords' field data into the template?? Then we could just use the keyword field data from each item to get a custom title for each page??

Any thoughts?
regards,
Jeffrey

[eyezberg]

... Is there a way to hack Joomla or... is there a way to call the 'Keywords' field data into the template?? Then we could just use the keyword field data from each item to get a custom title for each page??

Any thoughts?
regards,
Jeffrey

I am not a coder, so not gonna provide something usable, but thoughts, yes: those data are already called into the template, as they will show up in the corresponding meta! So just a matter of taking that piece of code from the corresponding function, and shove the output into the title instead.. I think

[ivisage]

Any coders out here that can make this happen? I am guessing this block in joomla.php line 405 might be the place to somehow stick in the $mosConfig_MetaKeys?

Code: Select all

function setPageTitle( $title=null ) {
		if (@$GLOBALS['mosConfig_pagetitles']) {
			$title = trim( htmlspecialchars( $title ) );
			$this->_head['title'] = $title ? $GLOBALS['mosConfig_sitename'] . ' - '. $title : $GLOBALS['mosConfig_sitename'];
		}
	}

[ivisage]

Anybody interested in trying to make this happen using the keywords data field for custom titles??????

[barnett]

Check out my Hack here http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic,36681.0.html for creating custom Title Tags for every page.

-Barnett