Page 1 of 1

Title tag to control the link that is brought up in SEO

Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 3:28 pm
by ninethousandfeet
hello,

i am trying to optimize my site now that i have started my beta launch. i could use some advice on how to control the link that is provided when a certain page of mine is returned.

example to clear it up:
if you Google toby jackson (i don't know toby, just using the name as an example). results come up, almost all the way at the bottom of the first page, there is a link that reads Toby Jackson | Facebook. then Google shows the full url as: http://www.facebook.com/people/Toby-Jackson/710186008.

how does this work? are they just inserting something simple in the title tag like

Code: Select all

<?php echo $username;?> | Facebook
regardless, i am still unclear where the link to toby's preview page comes from.

any suggestions?
thank you for your help.

Re: Title tag to control the link that is brought up in SEO

Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 5:07 pm
by aceconcepts
Google indexes all sorts of information - title, description etc...

I would imagine you're looking at the page title which can be entirely different from the link.

Re: Title tag to control the link that is brought up in SEO

Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 5:10 pm
by ninethousandfeet
Do you know how I can make sure that when the link is clicked, the visitor is directed to a preview page (let's call it previewuser.php) of the user that came up for John Doe | My site?

Re: Title tag to control the link that is brought up in SEO

Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 5:21 pm
by aceconcepts
I don't fully understand what you're getting at.

Re: Title tag to control the link that is brought up in SEO

Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 5:08 pm
by ninethousandfeet
Let me see if this example will help.

I have a post table (postTable) where users add products they want to buy or sell.

Let's say a certain user, Hello_World123, posts the following: I get Apple discounts... (this post is given a post_id of 99 in the postTable).

Now, you happen to be looking to buy a discounted Apple product so you type in Google: Apple discounts. A few listings down the page shows, I get Apple discounts... and the link goes to http://www.mysite.com.php?post_id=99.

My question:
Assuming that I put something like this in my title, meta, and body <?php echo $row_getPost['post'];?>,
then how do I make it so that Google shows the link http://www.mysite.com.php?post_id=99?

If that doesn't help, lmk and I will try to explain it more so people can better understand my problem.
Thank you!

Re: Title tag to control the link that is brought up in SEO

Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 6:24 pm
by aceconcepts
If I understand you correctly then the page where your tags reside will also be the same location as the url you wish Google to index.

Make sense?

Because you wouldn't have "Apple discounts..." on a page where it does not correspond to the url e.g. post 99

Re: Title tag to control the link that is brought up in SEO

Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 3:37 pm
by ninethousandfeet
So if I have this:

Code: Select all

 
<title>mysite | <?php echo $row_getPost['post'];?></title>
<body>
<?php echo $row_getPost['post'];?>
</body>
 
Assuming $row_getPost['post'] is equal to Apple products. (post_id = 99)

And someone does a Google search for Apple products, when they come to this result in Google, what link shows up in that Google result?
- I believe you are saying it will automatically be the right link b/c Google is indexing this particular page, but I'm new to this so I am unsure exactly what you are hinting towards.
Thank you.

Re: Title tag to control the link that is brought up in SEO

Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 3:57 pm
by aceconcepts
Well under what url could a visitor find the page "Apple products" (postid=99)?

If I was to go onto your site what url would you give me to go to this page? This would be the site that is indexed.

The search engine robots typically crawl sites by their structure - the more clear and concise your structure is i.e. if you use html tags at the right time <h1> for headings, <ul> or <ol> for menus/lists - the easier your site will be for a robot to crawl.

You will notice that on a lot of commercial site they have at the bottom of a page spmething like "you may also be interested in..." and list a bunch of similar items. This is to offer more items to a visitor but it is also useful to robots so that they have additional paths to additional pages in your site.

So, in conclusion, on your homepage if you had a promo advertising "Apple Products" using your link to this page, a robot will index it more easily.

Does this make sense?

Re: Title tag to control the link that is brought up in SEO

Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 5:26 pm
by ninethousandfeet
Yes, that makes sense. I definitely need to add the 'similar items' feature as I've heard that will help quite a bit.

To answer your question, the url that the visitor could find the page "Apple products" (postid=99) would be:
http://www.mysite.com?postid=99 (I guess I just am unsure of how to make sure this is the link that shows up... but it sounds like it will be the link if this is in fact the page that was crawled, right?)

Re: Title tag to control the link that is brought up in SEO

Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 6:40 pm
by aceconcepts
Thats exactly correct. I guess a crude analogy would be reading a book and taking note of the page numbers of those you like. Not the greatest analogy but hopefully it helps a little.

If you really want to excel at URL SEO techniques you might want to consider re-writing the url using mod_rewrite. Using mod_rewrite you are able to re-write your particular url so that it will read mysite.com/Apple-products as opposed to a rather unrecognised ?postid=99.

Re: Title tag to control the link that is brought up in SEO

Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 11:13 pm
by ninethousandfeet
thanks, that answers another question of mine that has come up a few times. i'll see what i can do to improve my url and seo, thanks for your help.