dnosaur62
Forum Replies Created
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Forum: Fixing WordPress
In reply to: wordpress the hardest website platform I have ever doneIf you happen to be color-blind you might consider making adjustments for it. Such as changing your lighting. It took me a little while before I could “see” what was actually there.
Just a thought.
“Settings” should be somewhere near the bottom of a list on the left. 🙂
Forum: Fixing WordPress
In reply to: Block author archive from search enginesThanks anyway.
I decided to go with a sitemap excluding author. I was hoping for a way to exclude that would be a more reliable sure thing type approach. But, I can live with it for now.
Forum: Fixing WordPress
In reply to: WordPress IE IssuesIt would help to know what isn’t working. I took a quick glance via IE8 and, except for the annoying box of links overlaying things on the left, it didn’t seem too bad.
Bottom line – view your source code. Most likely you are using something that isn’t supported in IE8. Or; not loading something that should be loaded when the browser type is IE8.
Forum: Fixing WordPress
In reply to: Excerpts instead of Full PostsI don’t know about Martin but if it has content.php like Twenty Twelve to do the actual display there should be an If…else that displays excerpts or full posts. It’s intended for displaying search results as excerpts but you can modify it something like:
<?php if ( is_search() || is_home() || is_category() ) : // Only display Excerpts …
Not sure but if !( is_single() )… might do the same.
Took me a while to figure that out for my site but found the answer searching the codex. You might find searching for answers can be much faster than asking questions. I just happened to be looking for something else here and saw your question. Good luck.
Forum: Everything else WordPress
In reply to: Should I add meta description?Thank you Krishna. Very much.
I had already reviewed both of the last 2 links, and related, before posting my questions. That is why I found myself questioning if I made a ‘mistake’ structuring my site with respect to SEO and what I could do about it.
However; I was not familiar with the site provided in your first response and, after just a quick look, it appears that it may prove to be quite helpful. Much appreciated!!
With that link, and some further information that my research has turned up, I can see that I have my work cut out for me. I am still strongly considering a plug-in. I am aware that SEO is complex.
In any event given the apparent lack of responses to my question and the link you provided I can’t see much point in keeping this open here.
Again; thanks!
Forum: Plugins
In reply to: WP Super Cache .htaccess robots.txt confusionPerhaps this will clarify:
Since
a) WP is search engine friendly and it (and/or WP Super Cache) modify/make use of .htaccess and
b) .htaccess would/could override robots.txt depending upon those (numerous) mdifications and
c) there is no default robots.txtis that because robots.txt is not needed in this case?
Would it be a good, or a bad, idea to add a robots.txt anyway?
If a robots.txt were to be added would that improve things from an SEO standpoint or would it reduce SEO?
Thanks.
Forum: Plugins
In reply to: WP Super Cache .htaccess robots.txt confusionThank you kjodle.
I am familiar with both robots.txt and .htaccess (web.config too but that is not applicable here).
.htaccess and robots.txt do entirely different functions, and there is no way that one controls the other
True – do different functions.
Simply put; robots.txt is a “soft” permissions control. .htaccess is (or at least can be and often is) a “hard” permissions control.False – no way one controls the other.
The “hard” (server level) will override and “soft” control. Even though, for example, robots says it is okay to look at ‘x’ that isn’t going to happen if .htaccess denies permission to ‘x’.I can see that perhaps my question(s) were not clear.
What I am trying to determine is the “SEO best-practice” with regard to the use, or non-use, of both .htaccess and robots.txt when using the specific WP environment I am using on my site.
The confusion arises from the fact that WP indicates that it is SEO’d in general out-of-the-box. Searching for an answer as to why there is no robots.txt and whether or not there should be further confuses. As you pointed out
Some sites are outdated, some refer only to specific situations, are some are just plain wrong.
I didn’t save all of the links I viewed but most of my searching was done here in the Codex. That is as close as I can satisfy your request for clarifying “some information”.
Again; thank you for your response. I apprectiate your having taken the time to try to help. I apologize if I have been unclear about what I am asking. Unfortunately I am still confused.
Forum: Fixing WordPress
In reply to: Comments are off even though I have them set properly“Comments off”? Is there a setting to turn them off after a certain period of time?
Again; I’m just shooting from the hip. One thing I might try would be to find the function(s) handling the commenting and temporarily modify with a printf or something in order to “see” what the function is atually seeing when deciding what it is supposed to do.
Forum: Fixing WordPress
In reply to: Comments are off even though I have them set properlyI am far from qualified to address this with respect to WP but do have some general troubleshooting experience. Based upon what I have read here:
When you checked the comments flag “post by post” did you check it in the database (I don’t know where that is) or via the Post interface?
Could be, for some reason, that the Post interface is picking up a Yes from the wrong place and it is actually a No when whatever reads the database to decide whether or not to do comments is running.
Another thought would be, since you said you build your own templates, that a variable name is conflicting somewhere such that the variable used to determine comments on doesn’t contain the correct information at the point in time when it is needed. Global vs local? Something changing it? Function return “wrong”?
Just some thoughts because I had a few moments to kill. Hope you don’t mind. Figured it couldn’t hurt. Good luck!
Forum: Fixing WordPress
In reply to: Adding favicon.icoI simply FTP’d favicon.ico to the base directory of the website. Seems to work fine as far as browsers picking it up.
That said; I’ve read that it should be linked via the header information. I’ve also read that it should be placed in the Content, or Themes, or specific Theme, or child Theme folder(s). I don’t want to put it everywhere if I should not be doing so.
Perhaps someone will address that issue here as I, too, am a little confused. Meanwhile; I hope doing what I did works for you. It seems that the information about the link might be outdated.
Forum: Fixing WordPress
In reply to: I can't get my logo position right!!!You might be having a problem because you are using Dreamweaver. There are a lot of posts on these forums where, in the end, that is the problem. I spent 2 days trying to get my logo where I wanted it (to the left of the site title and description). Turned out to be fairly easy once I searched the forum and reviewed the other posts. Including discovering that Dreamweaver can be a problem. Good luck!
Forum: Everything else WordPress
In reply to: robots.txt, SEO, meta, other general advice neededThank you Krishna.
Your point is understood. Sometimes I forget the lessons of my youth such as “the hurrier you go the behinder you get”.
I will put my impatience aside, consider this resolved, and follow your advice. It does make very good sense.
Forum: Everything else WordPress
In reply to: robots.txt, SEO, meta, other general advice neededKrishna,
Thank you for responding. I can understand my question being moved from troubleshooting to miscellaneous but I have to, respectfully, disagree with your response. As as aside, please excuse the defaulted avatar. I really am nicer than it depicts.
Perhaps I was not as clear on the detail provided with each question as I needed to be. But; each relates specifically to WordPress and more specifically to my particular implementation. It isn’t that I don’t understand the basics of how crawlers work and so forth. It is that I don’t understand how WordPress (“SEO friendly”) works, or doesn’t, with respect to what I want presented to the crawlers.
For example; in viewing Google Webmaster it appears that they crawled the home page. That is not necessarily a bad thing but because I modified the WordPress theme to display only excerpts it is not a particularly good thing either. Additionally; in searching for help via WordPress the information returned regarding robots.txt with respect to WordPress is conflicting and confusing. For example; it informs me that WordPress provided a robots.txt. In my case it did not. Why? Is it because it isn’t needed now because it is being handled through .htaccess and WordPress’s built-in SEO is based upon that? If I add a robots.txt will that then disrupt the built-in SEO?
All of my questions specifically relate to WordPress and how WordPress does, or doesn’t, do things. And, what I should/need, or shouldn’t/need not, do with respect to modifying my WordPress based site to achieve the results I am trying to achieve.
I am certain that if I were to repost the same questions on, ss you suggest, Google Webmaster, forum I would be redirected to ask the questions here. These are, in fact, all WordPress or plugin issues. As you yourself state this forum is for “providing support for WordPress core software, and plugins and themes downloaded from WordPress.org repository”.
Again; thanks. But I think you are misunderstanding. I accept responsbility for that and will gladly attempt to clarify but I don’t know how to be any clearer.
Hopefully; you, or someone else, will be able to help me out.