[Plugin: WordPress SEO by Yoast] SEO and WP custom links menu items

  • Gustavius

    (@gustavius)


    13 years, 6 months ago

    I’m a bit of a noob so some of these might be stupid questions.

    Right, so I have the plug-in set-up. Everything working great. Methinks. I read up as much as I could on what most people advised for a reasonably good set-up.

    But something is bothering me and it might be a lack of knowledge. I have a menu system creatd with WP’s Appearance Menu’s. Something like this:

    1ste Page = Home/Welcome
    2nd page = News (created with menu “custom links” function – not a page)
    – sub page Blog (a catagory item)
    – sub page ‘Hutspot'(a catagory item)
    3rd page = Publications(created with menu “custom links” function – not a page)
    – sub page New Publications (a catagory item)
    – sub page Small Publications (a catagory item)
    – sub page newsletter (a catagory item)
    etc.
    etc.

    Now my questions is this. Should me Menu items like News and Publications which are not typical pages but menu generated items, rather be changed into real WP pages? Should I change them to catagories and make my current sub news items sub-catagories of it?

    What would be the best approach for a good SEO set-up? At the moment I feel like those WP menu items that are not functioning pages might be mesing up my SEO. Dunno.

    http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-seo/

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
  • Dark Aqua

    (@dark-aqua)

    13 years, 6 months ago

    I’d like to know the answer to this too

    jmcardle

    (@jmcardle)

    13 years, 6 months ago

    If they are changed into real pages you will have to have something on them, otherwise Google will be indexing a blank page and that’s what visitors will see.

    What I did was create Custom Links, Add to Menu then Edit the Custom Link and remove the URL. End result is a custom link with no URL but it still features on the menu. Basically, it’s there for formatting purposes only. I then add SEO info to each category via the Edit function on the Dashboard.

    If you have a look at my site – http://www.brandnewbaby.co.uk – all of the Main Menu items on the left menu were originally links to actual pages, however they were showing up a blanks on Google SERPs because there was nothing on them. They are now Custom links (blank) and I’m in the process of making the categories SEO friendly via the plug-in.

    Worked this out myself so not entirely sure it’s the right approach, but Google indexing blank pages cannot be a good thing.

    p.s. gradually deleting the old pages so some will still show up 🙂

    Thread Starter Gustavius

    (@gustavius)

    13 years, 6 months ago

    I haven’t even thought about the issue with blank pages. Thanks for the info! So I basically have the same set-up as you have right now – I removed the links to the Custom items and use category items as subs. Anywayz….

    You mention you are in the “process of making the categories SEO friendly via the plug-in.” Are you referring to adding SEO info on the category item itself or something else?

    jmcardle

    (@jmcardle)

    13 years, 6 months ago

    I’m adding SEO info to the category via Edit, based on the guidelines the plug-in gives for pages (70 characters for title) etc. Not sure if that’s the correct approach but seems logical.

    One thing you might want to do is sign up to Google Webmaster tools. You can run various site checks that will show up any major SEO holes in your approach. Very useful

    Cheers

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

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