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#1 (permalink) |
Please touch this.
Owner/Admin
Location: Manhattan
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Help the TFP: Use relevant titles!
Relevant titles are good for the TFP! I'll make this easy for you to understand and then I'll get into the nitty gritty.
Simply: Put the key words that your thread is about in the title of your thread. If your thread is about Chihuahuas, title it "Chihuahuas are cool" instead of "These dogs are cool." If your thread is about a yeast infection, title it "Yeast Infection - What do I do?" not "What do I do?" When you create a thread, you might notice that the thread's title gets used in the URL of the thread. For example the thread titled "Traffic Ticket: Court or Traffic School?" has the following URL: http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/general-discussion/138598-traffic-ticket-court-traffic-school.html Not only that, you'll notice that the title of the thread also appears in the title bar of your browser when you're viewing the thread. What you're witnessing are 2 of the 3 basic qualifications of a search engine optimized page. The third qualification is the description of the page, which is comprised of the first 150 characters of the original post. If you use the same keywords in your first sentence, you're doing good. If all 3 of these elements (the URL, title and description) contain the same key words, then search engines like Google will rank them favorably in the search results when someone searches for those key words. That means the TFP gets more traffic and recognition. We live to fight another day. What I've just described are basic strategies in SEO (search engine optimization) which is the method of getting your website ranked higher in search engines like Google or Yahoo. The effects of ranking higher are, obviously, more traffic from searches. So, the simple act of creating threads with relevant titles is adding value to the TFP and attracting more potential members. Please help out!
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#2 (permalink) |
Evil Priest: The Devil Made Me Do It!
Location: Southern England
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Damn, I was hoping that this was going to be a thread about Star Wars: Clone Wars.
Talk about misleading. ![]() Actually, it's a bloody good point, and it frustrates the hell out of me that I look at some threads half a dozen times in the course of a few visits, because I haven't got a clue what's in them until I once again read the OP and find that it's that same thread I have no need to respond to. Ho hum.
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Overhead, the Albatross hangs motionless upon the air, And deep beneath the rolling waves, In labyrinths of Coral Caves, The Echo of a distant time Comes willowing across the sand; And everthing is Green and Submarine ╚═════════════════════════════════════════╝ |
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#3 (permalink) |
The sky calls to us ...
Super Moderator
Location: CT
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Sorry, but I really like my title for this thread http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/general...hite-oops.html
But I'll use relevant ones in the future. Another SEO thing to consider is that because of the forum selection pulldown box on each page, "Titty Board" is listed on every page. I remember the Something Awful forum admin saying that when they changed the display name of their anime forum from "Anime Death Tentacle Rape Whorehouse" to "ADTRW," the search strings they were using to test SA forum threads (which don't have the nifty title-in-url that we have) jumped up from down in the triple-digit search rankings to the first page because Google prioritizes family-friendly results, especially when safe search is on. I don't think that "titty" is going to hurt us as much as "rape" and "whorehouse" hurt them, but we have a smaller, slower-moving forum and any little thing could help. |
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#4 (permalink) |
Please touch this.
Owner/Admin
Location: Manhattan
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The Forum Jump dropdown is hidden from spiders, so we don't really have to worry about that.
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#6 (permalink) |
Currently sour but formerly Dlishs
Super Moderator
Location: Australia/UAE
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thanks for the top hal. ill definately keep that in mind.
i also think that you should make this one of those sticky posts like the 'newbies read this first' thread, so that when we do get newbies they follow suit.
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An injustice anywhere, is an injustice everywhere I always sign my facebook comments with ()()===========(}. Does that make me gay? - Filthy |
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#8 (permalink) |
Devoted
Donor
Location: New England
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Didn't we establish a policy a couple of months back where moderators would rename threads that weren't properly named? Of course, that wouldn't change the words in the URL, but it still should help to some degree, right?
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#9 (permalink) |
Please touch this.
Owner/Admin
Location: Manhattan
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Yeah, but its not always going to happen. Also, I figure this information is good for everyone to know.
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You have found this post informative. -The Administrator [Don't Feed The Animals] |
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#10 (permalink) |
Currently sour but formerly Dlishs
Super Moderator
Location: Australia/UAE
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do the tags at the bottom of the page of each thread help in giving higher rankings?
__________________
An injustice anywhere, is an injustice everywhere I always sign my facebook comments with ()()===========(}. Does that make me gay? - Filthy |
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#11 (permalink) |
Delicious
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But isn't TFP about expressing ourselves? How can I express myself without witty titles that have nothing to do with the subject of my thread! How will I draw viewers into my video of a Binary marble calculator without an awesome title like "18 year old babysitter!"
I can't work this way!
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“It is better to be rich and healthy than poor and sick” - Dave Barry |
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#12 (permalink) |
Please touch this.
Owner/Admin
Location: Manhattan
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Tags help more with the classification of the threads on this site, however they are good for keyword relevancy for the search engines.
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You have found this post informative. -The Administrator [Don't Feed The Animals] |
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#13 (permalink) | |
Asshole
Administrator
Location: Chicago
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Quote:
![]() We do still rename stuff (at least I do), but it would be nice if it were done right the first time. At least for the anal folks like me.
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"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - B. Franklin "There ought to be limits to freedom." - George W. Bush "We have met the enemy and he is us." - Pogo |
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#14 (permalink) | |
Devoted
Donor
Location: New England
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Quote:
![]() And, I totally agree.
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I can't read your signature. Sorry. |
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relevant, tfp, titles |
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