I found a great fix for the supplemental results all Wordpress users are complaining about who have full posts showing in multiple places.
If you click on the FTR logo and go to the main page you will see I am no longer showing full posts there. They are called “excerpts.” I have also excerpted tag, search, and category results pages so there are no full posts showing anywhere but on their main pages.
The fix came from this site if you are interested in implementing it on your blog. If you get it right, there will only be one place to find your full posts and that is on the post pages themselves. So if the supplemental index has any of your valuable content in it, you might be able to rescue it by ridding your site of more than one place for Google to find full posts.
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{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Jason Dolman 06.17.07 at 5:03 pm
Jack,
Excellent post.
Thanks for the link on how to do this.
The only thing I’m wondering is …
Is it possible to create a plugin that can do this?
Better still, is there already one sitting around somewhere in the far corners of the web?
Jason
April Kerr 06.18.07 at 2:45 am
I’ve been unsure as to whether I want to use the more tag or change the code in the template.
The problem with using excerpt in the code is that you can’t change the […] to something clickable (?) However using the more tag you can.
The downside to using the more tag is that you no longer have a full feed. That is until I came across this plugin: http://cavemonkey50.com/code/full-feed/
I haven’t tried it yet but I think it looks like the best option.
April
Jack Humphrey 06.18.07 at 4:01 am
“Is it possible to create a plugin that can do this?”
I’m sure there is. The only problem would be getting it to check each pertinent file and replace the right things.
Not sure how that would work with ANY template, but the code on that line is pretty much the same for each template I’ve seen.
Someone would be a BIG hit creating a plugin to do this reliably.
Jack Humphrey 06.18.07 at 4:04 am
“I’ve been unsure as to whether I want to use the more tag or change the code in the template.”
If your site is relatively new and you are used to using the More tag, keep going with that. For older blogs, like this one, I needed to affect a LOT of pages and that could only be done by using the fix above.
Thanks for the plugin link!
Ade 06.18.07 at 5:56 am
Hi Jack,
Thanks for ANOTHER great heads up. I was racking my brains only a few days ago on this very issue.
Your input would be appreciated on a couple of things concerning the excerpts - UTW tags, and bookmarking icons.
I notice that the Ultimate Tag Warrior site tags do not show up with the excerpts - I assume this is of no relevance as they do not display on the FTR site…?
Secondly, where to put the code to have the bookmarking icons show up at the end of the excerpts?
Thanks Jack,
Ade
marvia 06.19.07 at 7:01 am
Not going completely off topic but I’m also thinking too that people read more posts when I list several excerpts on one page. I like the single page - because it shows off any images I might have in a post. However, I had to concede that more posts are read from showing only the excerpts.
I’m still learning RSS - what is the disadvantage of showing only an excerpt in your feeds?
Marvia
Jack Humphrey 06.19.07 at 8:37 am
Ade,
My tags results pages are also excerpted - here is one: http://www.jackhumphrey.com/fridaytrafficreport/index.php?tag=wordpress-duplicate-content
They show up at the bottom of every full post, you must have missed them.
The code for putting bookmarks (I use Share This plugin) goes in automatically when you install that plugin on most templates. No need to do it by hand.
Marvia,
Lots of people prefer to read full feeds instead of having to always come to the site to read the full post.
It is a balancing act to give people what they want, but also get what you want which is people coming back to the site most often. I think people still do with full feeds, they just want the option of reading the whole post in a reader if they need to that day.
Harry Pickett 06.19.07 at 2:57 pm
Thanks for this great tip Jack. I just posted it on my site (with a link to you of course)as I know some of my visitors will find it a valuable escape from playing in the sandbox!
Harry
Search Engine Optimization 06.19.07 at 8:01 pm
Very handy - thank you! The cavemonkey50 in comments No2 is especially helpful - thanks April.
Ray Baker
Michelle MacPhearson 06.21.07 at 11:04 am
How’s this going Jack? I personally find is maddening to not be able to just read posts, and have to click through to the full thing… Which is why I don’t do it on my own blog. But I see in comments here people saying this change has caused higher readership.
What are your impressions?
Jack Humphrey 06.21.07 at 1:06 pm
Michelle,
I was freaked out about taking down full posts on the main page for just that reason. Then I realized something: People know they will get an alert to read recent posts and the vast majority of my traffic comes in through a specific post page that has ranked in the engines or been linked to from myriad places.
This means that most of my readers don’t come in on the front page. Those that do - still a significant number - get to see more titles and get to quickly skim to choose what they want to read rather than having to scroll a lot through whole posts.
You are a different beast. You will actually come here and check on what I am writing before you are alerted via your RSS feed or email that I have posted something new.
While I love that about you and the visitors who do that, you are in the minority. Most people discover the site through a particular post they found through a site link or search engine link.
So far, I am loving the excerpts from an aesthetic point of view because I like that people can check out my latest 12 posts right away without a lot of scrolling.
My readership so far has gone up, but I am not sure if that is because of excerpts. My readership is always on the rise.
My RSS subscribers went up by 200 or so in the last 2 weeks. That can’t have anything to do with excerpts, but it points out that I can’t attribute anything positive with 100% accuracy to excerpts. And I just did it for the duplicate content issue anyway, so any improvement for visitors and readership is a bonus.
So far, I am sticking with the decision to excerpt because I know you’ll get used to it and someday you might get mad at me if I switch back, lol.
Ian is a Failure 06.26.07 at 11:28 am
I thought about this before I even got into blogging, I was tired of seeing all the post on one page, and I use another plugin called evermore which does the same thing!
great post!
seo blog 09.29.07 at 3:15 am
Great Article ! Here is another one about getting of supplemental index
http://seomization.blogspot.com/2007/09/supplemental-index.html