[theme-reviewers] Proposal for new guideline
Angelo Bertolli
angelo at bertolli.org
Tue Mar 6 22:39:02 UTC 2012
I guess I see more reason to use canonical than nofollow after all...
since you can access pages through various methods (i.e. slug, id, etc.)
and the permalinks can change. But I guess that doesn't require theme
code... so I really have no good ideas at the moment.
On 03/06/2012 05:36 PM, Emil Uzelac wrote:
> Yes we are. I will leave nofollow to Yoast.
>
> On Mar 6, 2012 4:34 PM, "Angelo Bertolli" <angelo at bertolli.org
> <mailto:angelo at bertolli.org>> wrote:
>
> Backlinks to the theme's home page could have nofollow in them, although
> I suspect that not too many people would do this.
>
> Anyway, I will correct myself: we're just talking about guidelines,
> right?
>
>
> On 03/06/2012 05:32 PM, Emil Uzelac wrote:
> > Why would you use nofollow?
> >
> > On Mar 6, 2012 4:30 PM, "Angelo Bertolli" <angelo at bertolli.org
> <mailto:angelo at bertolli.org>
> > <mailto:angelo at bertolli.org <mailto:angelo at bertolli.org>>> wrote:
> >
> > So are theme developers also restricted from using nofollow? It is
> > functional.
> >
> > I don't think theme developers should be restricted from using
> > rel="canonical" just because some of them may use it wrong, or
> because
> > Google treats it a certain way for search results.
> >
> > On 03/06/2012 05:24 PM, Chip Bennett wrote:
> > > The criterion for me is Presentational vs Functinoal. I think
> that
> > > rel=canonical clearly falls under "Functional", and therefore
> is Plugin
> > > territory.
> > >
> > > Chip
> > >
> > > On Tue, Mar 6, 2012 at 4:23 PM, Emil Uzelac <emil at themeid.com
> <mailto:emil at themeid.com>
> > <mailto:emil at themeid.com <mailto:emil at themeid.com>>
> > > <mailto:emil at themeid.com <mailto:emil at themeid.com>
> <mailto:emil at themeid.com <mailto:emil at themeid.com>>>> wrote:
> > >
> > > I was reading from my phone....
> > >
> > > I agree that Themes should not mess with rel="canonical"
> at all.
> > > Majority people are devs not SEO consultants. Required not to
> > use is
> > > what I believe we should do.
> > >
> > > On Mar 6, 2012 4:17 PM, "Joost de Valk" <joost at yoast.com
> <mailto:joost at yoast.com>
> > <mailto:joost at yoast.com <mailto:joost at yoast.com>>
> > > <mailto:joost at yoast.com <mailto:joost at yoast.com>
> <mailto:joost at yoast.com <mailto:joost at yoast.com>>>> wrote:
> > >
> > > It has nothing to do with using my plugin or not. It's
> > something
> > > even my plugin can't fix :-)
> > >
> > > Best,
> > > Joost
> > >
> > > Sent from my iPhone
> > >
> > > On 6 mrt. 2012, at 23:14, Emil Uzelac
> <emil at themeid.com <mailto:emil at themeid.com>
> > <mailto:emil at themeid.com <mailto:emil at themeid.com>>
> > > <mailto:emil at themeid.com <mailto:emil at themeid.com>
> <mailto:emil at themeid.com <mailto:emil at themeid.com>>>> wrote:
> > >
> > >> If they do not use your plugin would this hurt the SEO?
> > >>
> > >> On Mar 6, 2012 3:47 PM, "Joost de Valk"
> <joost at yoast.com <mailto:joost at yoast.com>
> > <mailto:joost at yoast.com <mailto:joost at yoast.com>>
> > >> <mailto:joost at yoast.com <mailto:joost at yoast.com>
> <mailto:joost at yoast.com <mailto:joost at yoast.com>>>> wrote:
> > >>
> > >> Hi all,
> > >>
> > >> tldr version: I would like a guideline that
> tells theme
> > >> developers to /not/ include a rel=canonical link
> in their
> > >> theme as it hurts people more than it helps in a lot
> > of cases.
> > >>
> > >> long version:
> > >>
> > >> As some of you probably know, I do a lot of SEO
> > >> consultancy. Some of it is related to people who
> have
> > >> suddenly lost all their rankings and want me to
> help fix
> > >> it for them. Today I helped out a blogger,
> unpaid because
> > >> I just liked his blog as it was about children
> with Down
> > >> Syndrome.
> > >>
> > >> He had recently switched themes /and /started
> using my
> > >> WordPress SEO plugin, and of course he was
> blaming my
> > >> plugin for his sudden loss of rankings. What I
> found out
> > >> though, was that the theme had the following
> rel=canonical
> > >> link in the header.php:
> > >>
> > >> <link rel="canonical" href="<?php echo
> home_url(); ?>" />
> > >>
> > >> above the call to wp_head. This was causing each
> > >> individual post to have a canonical point back
> to the
> > >> homepage. Now you should know that Google
> especially sees
> > >> a canonical as somewhat of a "soft 301 redirect". It
> > >> basically takes a page that has a canonical pointing
> > >> elsewhere out of the rankings. The effect is quite
> > dramatic.
> > >>
> > >> This was a premium theme, whose authors I have since
> > >> emailed. It got me thinking though: is this in
> the WP.org
> > >> <http://WP.org> guidelines? Apparently, it's not.
> > >> WordPress itself adds a rel="canonical" through
> wp_head on
> > >> single pages, and there's a patch in Trac to add
> it on
> > >> more pages. There are several themes in the
> repository
> > >> though that have absolutely 100% wrong canonical
> links in
> > >> their header.
> > >>
> > >> This one:
> http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/digu is an
> > >> example. It's not popular and hasn't been
> updated in ages
> > >> so I wouldn't normally care too much, but I
> wanted to use
> > >> it as an example. It has the following code:
> > >>
> > >> <?php if(is_single()){ ?><link rel="canonical"
> href="<?php
> > >> echo get_permalink($post->ID),"\n";?>" /><?php }?>
> > >> <?php if(is_home() || is_tag() || is_category() ||
> > >> is_month() || is_year()){ ?>
> > >> <link rel="canonical" href="<?php
> bloginfo('url');?>"
> > >> /><?php echo "\n"; }?>
> > >> …. snip ….
> > >> <?php } ?>
> > >>
> > >> Using that theme on a live site could kill your
> rankings
> > >> instantly, as it would make all category
> listings etc have
> > >> canonicals linking back to the homepage. In most
> cases
> > >> this would prevent Google from spidering the
> links to the
> > >> posts on those pages.
> > >>
> > >> Now some themes, like Thematic and Hybrid, have
> somewhat
> > >> more sensible canonical functions, which makes
> this a hard
> > >> discussion. I would vote to call it plugin territory
> > >> though and keep it out of themes completely.
> Would love to
> > >> hear your opinions.
> > >>
> > >> Best
> > >> Joost
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> _______________________________________________
> > >> theme-reviewers mailing list
> > >> theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
> <mailto:theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org>
> > <mailto:theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
> <mailto:theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org>>
> > >> <mailto:theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
> <mailto:theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org>
> > <mailto:theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
> <mailto:theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org>>>
> > >>
> > http://lists.wordpress.org/mailman/listinfo/theme-reviewers
> > >>
> > >> _______________________________________________
> > >> theme-reviewers mailing list
> > >> theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
> <mailto:theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org>
> > <mailto:theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
> <mailto:theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org>>
> > >> <mailto:theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
> <mailto:theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org>
> > <mailto:theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
> <mailto:theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org>>>
> > >>
> http://lists.wordpress.org/mailman/listinfo/theme-reviewers
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > theme-reviewers mailing list
> > > theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
> <mailto:theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org>
> > <mailto:theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
> <mailto:theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org>>
> > > <mailto:theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
> <mailto:theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org>
> > <mailto:theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
> <mailto:theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org>>>
> > >
> http://lists.wordpress.org/mailman/listinfo/theme-reviewers
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > theme-reviewers mailing list
> > > theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
> <mailto:theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org>
> > <mailto:theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
> <mailto:theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org>>
> > > <mailto:theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
> <mailto:theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org>
> > <mailto:theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
> <mailto:theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org>>>
> > > http://lists.wordpress.org/mailman/listinfo/theme-reviewers
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > theme-reviewers mailing list
> > > theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
> <mailto:theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org>
> > <mailto:theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
> <mailto:theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org>>
> > > http://lists.wordpress.org/mailman/listinfo/theme-reviewers
> > _______________________________________________
> > theme-reviewers mailing list
> > theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
> <mailto:theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org>
> > <mailto:theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
> <mailto:theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org>>
> > http://lists.wordpress.org/mailman/listinfo/theme-reviewers
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > theme-reviewers mailing list
> > theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
> <mailto:theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org>
> > http://lists.wordpress.org/mailman/listinfo/theme-reviewers
> _______________________________________________
> theme-reviewers mailing list
> theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
> <mailto:theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org>
> http://lists.wordpress.org/mailman/listinfo/theme-reviewers
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> theme-reviewers mailing list
> theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
> http://lists.wordpress.org/mailman/listinfo/theme-reviewers
More information about the theme-reviewers
mailing list