In order to track SEO metrics for my clients, I use the SEOMoz Pro service, which is a handy tool at monitoring SEO metrics (and so much more). I’ve noticed on one of the sites I manage through the service that I’ve been missing a number of meta description tags. For those unaware, meta description tags are used to give a brief and concise summary of content on a page. This helps search engines and potential readers understand what’s on the page. The meta description info is also often used in page summaries in search results from engines like Google. The below example is one from my music site, Electric Mohawk.
The example demonstrates the importance of meta description tags in SEO quite clearly. I noticed, though, that some of my pages on Electric Mohawk are turning up as missing meta description info in their tags. A prime example for my site is archive pages. My sites are typically built using WordPress, so archive pages are dynamically generated and compiled, usually based on the month content was published.
I typically do not make my archive pages searchable for SEO purposes, but some people may still want them archived and may still want them to include a basic description. The problem is, though, that many of us already use an SEO plugin of some sort, particularly All-in-One SEO Pack, where users do not get direct access to creating meta description tags for certain dynamically generated pages (any kind of archive page or page-navi generated page). Another issue is that by creating another meta description tag to compensate for this in the header.php file would cause duplicate description tags to be created if the content is not an archive page. I’ve created a simple workaround for WordPress archive pages to solve this problem.
Add this piece of code to your theme’s header.php file:
What this code is doing is simple. The if statement checks whether or not the page is an archive page. If it is an archive page, then it will echo out a portion of the meta description html tag. In between, I made a call to the_time() function that passes in the month and year. I then created another echo that gives the actual description.
Some of you may be wondering why there are two echo statements instead of a simple string concatenation. While I was debugging and testing out this code, the date would appear before the initial HTML tag, causing problems with formatting and validation. Creating a second echo seemed to solve the problem. Also, if the statement evaluates false, no additional tags will be generated.
I hope this snippet helps you out in some way. Have an alternative? Feel free to share!
I periodically receive links to some pretty sweet infographics. In fact, I have some more sitting in my inbox that I will be sharing soon.
This one in particular looks at how technology is used on American College campuses. Particularly, how students and faculty utilize today’s technology, their tech preferences, and how they choose to use certain services for education.
Let me know what you think!
Click the image to enlarge.
WebMovement, LLC has come a long way with the development of their plugin that integrates the FoxyCart e-Commerce system with WordPress. The latest release adds a ton of features as well as user customizations that make product pages more SEO friendly.
Here are some of the new features released in 0.3.3
On a sort of unrelated note, a new site design has been launched in celebration of the new release. See the screen shot above or check out the FoxyPress redesign firsthand.
Want to learn more about the update and new features? Check out the updated Features, Getting Started, and FAQ sections.
As many of you may already know, my day job is a programming analyst for Sentry Insurance, which is a mutual insurance company headquartered in Stevens Point, WI. I work on one of the larger projects in the company as a Guidewire and Java Developer, which allows me to dabble with some pretty fun and advanced things, like writing middleware using JMS or implementing complex design patterns and understanding their practicality in a real world setting.
Since I started working for the company in early 2010 as an intern, I’ve seen the company come a long way in terms of how they market themselves and what they are doing to become a better insurance company. Very recently, Sentry Insurance has re-launched their main website, and has adopted a high level social media campaign strategy. Dairyland Cycle, one of Sentry’s niche companies, has a head start in the social media game, as it was one of the first areas of the company to utilize social media.
Generally a more conservative company, Sentry has decided to follow suit and get into the social media game. Is it too late for them? I don’t believe so. I’ve had the opportunity to meet and work with some of the people working in this area of the company, and I’ve been very impressed with what they have to offer the company. I think if the fervor and excitement continues to stay with the people working in the social media and marketing department, the potential for Sentry to engage and build a lasting relationship with their customers is very strong.
To kick off their Facebook initiatives, Sentry Insurance is donating $1 to the United Way for each Like they receive on Facebook up until the first 10,000 likes. $10,000 can go a long way for non-profit organizations, and Sentry Insurance is one of the largest contributors to the United Way in the area.
Give Sentry Insurance’s Page the ol’ Facebook Like and help a good cause at the same time!
Yup, I have about 131 of these invites left. You’re welcome to have one. I’ll give it to you for the special price of $0, unlike these fine folks that are still selling Google+ invites on eBay.
I know Google+ has been around for awhile now, but people are still trying to get into the network. Here’s your chance. I’m also trying to see if Facebook will allow this blog post to show up on my wall. Curious? Here’s an interesting video:
It appears that direct links for Google+ and Facebook just don’t play nicely at all.
You can score an invite from be by clicking on the image above or the link below.
