YaBB forum - title, description, keyword mod

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I have a YaBB forum and in its unmodified state the template page generates the same title, description and keyword meta in the head area of every page generated.  This is stupid, as it gives the impression that each page is about exactly the same subject, which is misleading for search engines.

To correct this I suggest as follows:

Modify the template.html file as follows:

The original will look something like this: ( keep a copy of this in case you mess things up )

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<title><yabb title></title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=<yabb charset>">
<style type="text/css">
<!--
/* General layout */

You need to amend it so it looks something like what is below, using just one or two keywords that DO refer to your ENTIRE forum site.  Assume these one or two keywords are Aaaaaa and bbbbb:   Note the addition of the two words: and and forum and the use of blank spaces.

<!doctype HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<title>Aaaaaa bbbbb and <yabb position></title>
<meta name="Description" content="Aaaaaa bbbbb forum <yabb position>">
<meta name="KeyWords" content="Aaaaaa bbbbb <yabb position>">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=<yabb charset>">
<style type="text/css">
<!--
/* General layout */

After you have made the YaBB title, description, keywords meta modification, check that your YaBB forum still works. 

Access some example pages on your YaBB forum and do view source to look at the head area.  Study the title, description and keywords metas and consider how if makes sense.  Modify further if required, but always review a number of pages to evaluate a change.  You won't get perfection but it will be much better than before.

Please send me any comments. eric@satsig.net   

► Page created 14 June 2005, last amended 8 June 2008.   Eric Johnston   Back to my sound advice on SEO I hope !
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