Should We Use an SEO Plugin?

This topic contains 33 replies, has 13 voices, and was last updated by  Paolo 9 years ago.

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  • #4779

    directory
    Expired Member
    Post count: 1502

    I think I read somewhere that GD is already search engine optimized. That being said, do we still need to use an SEO plugin? What plugin can you recommend if we do?

    #4798

    pix3x
    Expired Member
    Post count: 155

    Hi, I’d recommend this one:
    https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/seo/

    #4841

    Paolo
    Site Admin
    Post count: 31206

    Yes GD is SEO optimized as far as markup, url structures and many other things.

    To manipulate individual page metas, sitemaps and other specific SEO tasks, it is recommended to use a plugin like the one suggested by pix3x.

    Thx

    #4906

    Guust
    Moderator
    Post count: 29970

    Direct link to WP SEO plugin recommended by pix3x: http://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-seo/
    It works fine with GD.

    #10200

    bonzoren
    Expired Member
    Post count: 10

    one question: using SEO for WordPress (yoast), how do I include the city name in the listings title? I tried 100 different things but nothing worked.
    I did manage to get the category name in the title by using %%ct_gd_placecategory%%

    #10307

    directory
    Expired Member
    Post count: 1502

    Hello Everyone,

    May I ask GD users out there that are familiar with Yoast to provide details (or screenshots) on how to properly configure it on a GD site? Should we use the free or premium Yoast version?

    #10500

    bonzoren
    Expired Member
    Post count: 10

    Free version should do. I tried to make it work and countered a thread that might be the right way to go, but my programming skills are too low to make it work. Maybe someone else over here could have a quick look at it:

    Thread: http://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-wordpress-seo-by-yoast-tags-for-custom-taxonomies
    Code from thread: http://pastebin.com/SSgCDrex

    I think some code has to be added in functions.php that sets the fields like city, region, country from the table geodir_post_locations as a variable to be used by the SEO plugin (e.g. %%city%%).

    Sidenote:
    The SEO strength of GD is very high compared to competitors as the categories are offered on a location level e.g. accountants in New York. SEO-wise, the title is one of the strongest on-page assets and not being able to modify that would make it:
    1. useless
    2. generate loads of duplicate page titles & descriptions (as location is not included to differentiate between the different locations)

    #11200

    Manish Keswani
    Buyer
    Post count: 19

    Hi bonzoren

    i have used this function which is provided in yoast seo plugin files to register extra variables. i used geodirectory_get_current_location_terms function to get current location and register this value to

    %%current_location%%

    variable which you can use to add location in title tag with the help of seo plugin. here is the function, copy it to theme functions (functions.php) file.

    
    
    function retrieve_var1_replacement( $var1 ) {
    
    	$location_terms=geodir_get_current_location_terms();
    	$city=$location_terms['gd_city'];
    	$region=$location_terms['gd_region'];
    	$country=$location_terms['gd_country'];
    
    	if(!empty($city))
    		return $city ;
    	
    	if(!empty($region))
    		return $region ;
    	
    	if(!empty($country))
    		return $country ;
    	
    	return '';
    }
     
    function register_my_plugin_extra_replacements() {
    		wpseo_register_var_replacement( '%%current_location%%', 'retrieve_var1_replacement', 'advanced', 'Use this is for current location' );
    		
    		wpseo_register_var_replacement( '%%in%%', 'in', 'advanced', 'Use this for in word before location' );
     }
     add_action( 'wpseo_register_extra_replacements', 'register_my_plugin_extra_replacements' );
     ?>
    
    #11201

    Manish Keswani
    Buyer
    Post count: 19

    remove this line from the function i provided

    
    
    wpseo_register_var_replacement( '%%in%%', 'in', 'advanced', 'Use this for in word before location' );
     }
    #11435

    vertuscraig
    Lifetime Member
    Post count: 44

    I’ve tried using the code provided my Manish, but as far as I can tell the

    geodirectory_get_current_location_terms

    function is no longer used, just provides an empty array.

    I’ve changed Manish’s function to pull the location info from the post data instead, just add the following code to functions.php in your child theme.

    Don’t forget to add

    %%current_location%%

    to the relevant post types in Yoast’s Settings.

    In the code below, I’ve disabled the country location, just uncomment if you want to show countries in the title tags.

    
    
    // Add location info to yoast titles
    
    function retrieve_var1_replacement( $var1 ) {
    
    	global $post;
    
    	if ($post->post_city) { 
    		$city = $post->post_city; 
    	}
    	if ($post->post_region) {
    		$region = $post->post_region; 
    	}
    	if ($post->post_country) {
    		$country = $post->post_country;
    	}
    
    	if (isset($city) && !empty($city)) {
    		$location = $city . " - ";
    	}
    	if (isset($region) && !empty($region)) {
    		$location .= $region;
    	}
    	// if (isset($country) && !empty($country)) {
    	// 	$location .= " - " . $country;
    	// }
    	
    	return $location;
    }
     
    function geodir_add_dyn_yoast_title_tags() {
    		wpseo_register_var_replacement( '%%current_location%%', 'retrieve_var1_replacement', 'advanced', 'Adds location to title tags' );
     }
     add_action( 'wpseo_register_extra_replacements', 'geodir_add_dyn_yoast_title_tags' );
    #11465

    Manish Keswani
    Buyer
    Post count: 19

    Hi vertuscraig

    I am beginner to programming and have a very few knowledge of wordpress hooks and actions. i used that

    geodir_get_current_location_terms()

    function and that is working. the function you provide working great. i want a help from you.

    “5 star Hotels in Goa”

    I want this type of title and heading format [ category title (5 star) custom post type (hotels) in location (Goa) ]

    I used

    %%term_title%% %%pt_plural%% %%current_location%%

    for titles and it works. can you suggest me how to get this format for h1 headings in category archives

    #11649

    hewo
    Free User
    Post count: 3

    Great tip. Thanks a lot

    #11657

    bonzoren
    Expired Member
    Post count: 10

    love you all – worked like a charm

    #11710

    Manish Keswani
    Buyer
    Post count: 19

    Hi to all,

    If you want to SEO for Place category archives then read this what i have tested in local xampp with Yoast SEO plugin for places category archives

    I have import dummy data and added three locations (Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur) with multilocation plugin and add some more listings to these locations in hotels category.

    now i closed the browser and reopen the browser and entered this url

    http://127.0.0.1/wordpress/places/india/rajasthan/jaipur/hotels/

    But it was showing the listings for Hotels category for all three locations which is the result of this url

    http://127.0.0.1/wordpress/places/hotels/

    now i saw the sitemap of

    gd_placescategory-sitemap.xml

    created with yoast

    it was as followed

    
    
    URL	Prio	Images	Ch. Freq.	Last Mod.
    http://127.0.0.1/wordpress/places/attractions/	60%	0	Weekly	2014-08-11 05:16
    http://127.0.0.1/wordpress/places/feature/	40%	0	Weekly	2014-07-25 03:41
    http://127.0.0.1/wordpress/places/festival/	20%	0	Weekly	2014-08-12 06:07
    http://127.0.0.1/wordpress/places/hotels/	20%	0	Weekly	2014-08-12 02:13
    http://127.0.0.1/wordpress/places/restaurants/

    sitemap was not indexing the category archives for specific loactions

    http://127.0.0.1/wordpress/places/india/rajasthan/jaipur/hotels/

    Now see the shocking part

    i visited the jaipur location page

    http://127.0.0.1/wordpress/location/india/rajasthan/jaipur

    Now the result for both url

    http://127.0.0.1/wordpress/places/india/rajasthan/jaipur/hotels/

    and

    http://127.0.0.1/wordpress/places/hotels/

    was same and now both of these pages showing the hotels for Jaipur location

    and now the sitemap was changed and it is like this

    
    
    http://127.0.0.1/wordpress/places/india/rajasthan/jaipur/attractions/	60%	0	
    
    Weekly	2014-08-11 05:16
    http://127.0.0.1/wordpress/places/india/rajasthan/jaipur/feature/	40%	0	
    
    Weekly	2014-07-25 03:41
    http://127.0.0.1/wordpress/places/india/rajasthan/jaipur/festival/	20%	0	
    
    Weekly	2014-08-12 06:04
    http://127.0.0.1/wordpress/places/india/rajasthan/jaipur/hotels/	20%	0	
    
    Weekly	2014-08-12 02:13
    http://127.0.0.1/wordpress/places/india/rajasthan/jaipur/restaurants/

    I want to know the effect of all this on SEO perspective. I think it impacts negative on SEO. anyone have idea

    #11713

    Manish Keswani
    Buyer
    Post count: 19

    google index the page which is linked somewhere. i have read it somewhere.

    google index this page

    example.com/places/hotels/

    provided in sitemap

    and in

    example.com/location/india/rajasthan/jaipur/

    page this page is linked

    example.com/places/india/rajasthan/jaipur/hotels/

    if google index this, find the duplicate content of

    example.com/places/hotels/

    Please explain it if anyone has an idea

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