In addition, I have to keep my Blog Title and Tagline empty or it will add extra content in my home page title tag.
Bad idea. There are ways to hide the site title and tagline from graphical browsers but by leaving them empty, the search bots are presented with possibly header-less pages – which makes for very poor SEO.
As you’ve seen it also impacts on your RSS feed.
Insert a proper blog title and tagline then post back here – with the site’s url – asking for help to hide it.
My header is in place and the title and meta descriptions are in place on all my pages, so that’s not a problem. If you check the source code every thing is fine.
All I want to do is hardcode my rss title and I will be done with this problem.
And hiding content is a good seo idea? That’s been bad news since 1998. Unless you mean hide the site title and tagline from even showing up on the source code, then that would be fine…
Ok I added back the blog title for the time being,
Alright here it is: http://www.ocsearchconsulting.com
And hiding content is a good seo idea? That’s been bad news since 1998.
Rubbish! That’s only the case with black hat SEO techniques. This isn’t about hiding content. It’s about using CSS to present differing content to different user agents (not all web access is via web browser, after all). Users of non-graphical browsers also benefit from this approach.
Plus, you need to bear in mind that search engine technology has advanced a little since 1998. Most modern search engines are quite capable of differentiating between keyword spamming in hidden content and CSS techniques that are being used to enhance the experience of visitors with very different needs. Its a technique that is used every day by accessible web designers to provide additional functionality for mobility or visually impaired visitors, for example.
Try replacing:
<a href="<?php bloginfo('url'); ?> /">
<h1 id="header"><?php bloginfo('name'); ?> </h1>
</a>
with:
<h1 id="header"><a href="<?php bloginfo('url'); ?> /">
<span><?php bloginfo('name'); ?></span>
</a></h1>
in header.php (which also corrects the invalid markup). Then in style.css, try adding:
#header span {
display:block;
position:absolute;
top:-5000px;
left:-5000px;
}
Your header text is now available to non-graphical user agents whilst, previously, these agents (including the search bots) wouldn’t see/render any H1 text as your graphical header was being applied via CSS. It will also give you slightly better SEO and fix your RSS feed.
I appreciate your effort on my problem. That solution though is a huge SEO no-no. I was at SES San Jose this summer and this exact solution you are presenting was being projected in front of thousands of SEOs with the words “DO NOT DO THIS” written across the top of the slide :).
I agree this solutions shouldn’t be a penalty. Because sometimes we need to tweak our stupid CMSs to get it to work they way we need it to. I wouldn’t say this is Blackhat, but it’s definitely Grey.
Again, all I want to do is to just hardcode the <title></title> of my feed page. I tried and tried to modify all kinds of files in WordPress and I can’t find what controls that tiny piece of source code.
I have the same issue with my blog and it surfaced due to Technorati blog claim verification. I will follow this for the answer. Thanks.
