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1. slobizman
   Member
   Posted 6 years ago #
   

   http://www.illegalimmigration.us

   I used the Paged Comments plugin to place paged comments on a page, and the used Filosofo Home Page Control to place that page as the Home Page. It's meant to be a simple sounding board on U.S. Illegal Immigration.

   I wish I could get rid of the /home/ that comes up after the domain name once you start posting comments or paging through them, so I don't hve any SEO problems though.

   I originally wanted to just post a single post and have it show up in the initial display of the site, instead of forcing a page, but there is no way to have it display with the comments open (really needs to be a WP option -- "display posts with comments?".

   Oh, I'm also using the BDP RSS Aggregator to display the Feeds you see linked in the sidebar. that is one easy plugin to use!

2. ladydelaluna
   Member
   Posted 6 years ago #
   

   "I wish I could get rid of the /home/ that comes up after the domain name once you start posting comments or paging through them, so I don't hve any SEO problems though."

   You're not going to have any SEO problems because of the /home/ - the effect of URLs in SE rankings is minimal, if any, these days. (Of course, that's with the exception of ampersands in URLs, (as in &id= - which isn't an issue with WP) as per http://www.google.com/intl/en/webmasters/guidelines.html)

   I assure you though, the "home" isn't going to give you any troubles or difficulties with SEO...

3. slobizman
   Member
   Posted 6 years ago #
   

   The problem I was thinking about was some page rank going to illegalimmigration.us and some going to illegaliimigration.us/home. This is the same reason I have httaccess to convert http://illegalimmigration.us to http://www.illegalimmigration.us. I understand many sites have PageRank problems resulting from people setting up links to the site by using either of the addresses, not one consistent one. The way my site works, people could end up linking to either the one with the "home" or not the "home" in the URL. If some do it one way and some do it another way, it could reduce my ranking. At least this is what all the good SEO experts are saying.

4. ladydelaluna
   Member
   Posted 6 years ago #
   

   Well, my clients would probably consider me a good SEO expert... but you'd have to ask them.

   You weren't speaking of linking issues, nor did you mention PageRank (which any good SEO expert will tell you hasn't been updated in MONTHS, if not longer, and they'll also tell you that PR has nothing to do with the way Google ranks your site in the SERPs).

   When it comes to linking, people will link to the URL they find most relevant to what they're talking about, or they'll link to your main URL. Regardless, if linking to another page is something you're worried about, then you might want to start finding yourself some new "good SEO experts" because again, any SEO expert worth their weight will tell you that deep linking is preferred for best results in the SERPs.

   "If some do it one way and some do it another way, it could reduce my ranking." - not really, it will just tell the search engines that both are important pages of your site. Since I don't see someone linking to JUST "illegalimmigration.us/home" anyway, since they don't get the "home" part unless there are other factors in the URL as well, then you really don't have anything to worry about SEO wise.

   But what do I know? I've only been doing this for 6 years... ;)

5. slobizman
   Member
   Posted 6 years ago #
   

   I hope it didn't sound like I was dissing your SEO expertise. Your reply sounds like you may have thought so. I certainly wasn't. I'm just passing along what I've read. I do know there is a lot of talk about making sure that you either have http:// or http://www in the address field, consistently. When making links a lot of people will just copy and paste what's in the address field, and in my case sometimes it will be with the home and sometimes not.

   Just trying to figure it all out. It's not the easiest thing to understand.

6. ladydelaluna
   Member
   Posted 6 years ago #
   

   the www thing IS an issue, as the search engines will only choose one (either with it or without it) to list. so yes, you should definitely be as dilligent as possible with that.

   but that's the only part of your URL that might cause you any pain. otherwise, as i said, the "deep linking" is a GOOD thing.

   if anything? the fact that all your pages of comments are going to have essentially the same content (with the exception of the comments) might give you trouble, because essentially you're telling the search engines that pages A, B, and C all say the same thing. not too good, honestly.

   especially if you wind up with

   illegalimmigration.us/home/
   and
   illegalimmigration.us/home/page/2/
   and
   illegalimmigration.us/home/page/3/

   and so on, where the only change in content might be your comments. it's akin to creating a site with 100 pages of content that's all the same, but only changing the last few paragraphs.

   i've been along the ride with you while you were trying to figure out how to do this, and while it's not my business (here in the forums, that is) to ask "why?" - it doesn't make much sense to me why you'd really want to do this in such a way... if anything's going to hinder your SEO aspirations, it's this setup you've chosen.

   and yes, it did kind of sound like you assumed i had no idea what i was talking about with SEO - thanks for the clarification. part of the problem with "DIY SEO" is that you find yourself listening to 30 different people who do things 130 different ways sometimes, and it's easy to get confused. but i wanted to let you know that i've had a great success rate over the last 6 years, and to understand that i have no reason to steer you wrong. in a way, SEO as a "skill" has gone the way of web design, where anyone with a computer and frontpage can try to call themselves a web designer, but there's a difference between someone who can do it, and one who can do it exceptionally well... ;) just be careful who you listen to, as as far as i've seen, no one out there has been able to keep up with the search engines enough to write a bible about SEO that makes sense 15 minutes after it's published... SEO is an ever changing field, and sometimes people refuse to change with it, but still offer the same old advice they always have, and they're often wrong.

7. slobizman
   Member
   Posted 6 years ago #
   

   Thanks for the info.

   Doesn't the fact that the comments pages (if traffic is high) will constantly be changing and one page will always be differnt from another, help me? If there are 5,000 comments, that's 500 pages (10 to a page) that are all different.

   The reason I wanted to do it this way was to be able to have the comments right up front, without having to click to get there. It's the only way I knew how to do it. I had thought about letting people become members to post real posts, not comments, but I didn't like the idea of 1,000's of people becoming members. I've owned political sites before and things can get crazy--don't need the complications and high blood pressure :).

   I also didn't want to spend much time on this. I'm a domain investor, picked up a good name, and wanted to do something with it. It's just a small project to see if I can get something going, get some traffic, and if so, I could make a little on Adsense and a lot on bumper stickers I'll add once I see if it's working.

   As with all projects, I thought it would be just a few hours to put up and then I ran into the limitations and plugin conflicts I know you read about on the other threads.

   Nothing is ever easy. :)

8. ladydelaluna
   Member
   Posted 6 years ago #
   

   If only there were a way to get RID of the post on pages 2 through 500 - then yes, you're looking at varied content.

   But the fact that the search engines are going to see that you have 3 total pages, and at minimum, one is just a contact form, the other isn't finished, and the third has it's first three paragraphs the same... just sets off all sorts of red lights and alarms in my head.

   I realize your goal, I just have a really tough time with foreseeing anything "huge" in terms of SEO to come out of it, with the lack of fluidity if nothing else. I'm also thinking that your comments are going to be so varied, that you won't be getting the most relevant G-ads either...

   I know it's hard... you're right, nothing's ever easy.

   Hopefully you can do enough to reach your goals to some degree anyway... and if not, either way the whole thing is a lesson learned! :)

9. slobizman
   Member
   Posted 6 years ago #
   

   Thanks again.

   I see what you mean about the top of the comments page. Oh well, it is what it is I guess.

   Yeah, I'm not counting on much in Adsense. There are two goals I have: 1) increase traffic to the name and increase the value of it, 2) if traffic is high enough sell CafePress items relating to the subject matter. I've made a fortune on political CafePress items before. If you have a high traffic site with emotional visitors and relevent products, it really works. RREALLY works.

   But, let's see if I can get anyone to the site first. :)

10. ladydelaluna
    Member
    Posted 6 years ago #
    

    I can imagine that political CP items would do well - makes me start to think about a project here... ;)

    Well, I can say this: Don't forget to submit to all the free directories you can find, most specifically ones that don't cloak your URL with a CGI redirect. And mayyyybe, if you wanted to take the time, write some opinion based articles on the topic and submit them to article repositories... that'll help, and shouldn't take more than a few hours to do properly.

    Best of luck - I'd be interested in the statistics you wind up with over the next few months.

11. DanBollinger
    Member
    Posted 6 years ago #
    

    Well done, crisp and clean! Good luck with your project.

    I have a WP question. How did you get the text (below) to show up in the Content area?

    Sound Off on Illegal Immigration!
    For decades, America has ...

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