This is awesome -- I wonder how we "productize" it. Here's a couple thoughts.
Maybe once we learn SEO tips we suggest an optimized set of keywords to include. We also link to this MediaWiki:Description in the WebTools report. We take an active/inactive role in getting this changed: 1) Inactive Wikis with many pages: we go ahead and change the description based upon SEO best practices. 2) Active wikis with many pages: suggest changes to this file with SEO best practices. 3) New Wikis: make this a first suggestion All wikis -- add the ability to change this file. Have link within the WebTools SEO report. http://hotrod.wikia.com/wiki/Special:Webtools I'm assuming this is highly SEO valuable. I'm also assuming adding more keywords+readable does more good than harm in helping the rank plus search users to choose your wiki vs. other results in search. BG Danny Horn wrote: > I should explain the MediaWiki:Description feature -- it's a cool new > thing, but it's a lot better if people customize it. > > When main pages show up in Google results, they sometimes have odd > text showing as the description. Keywords for the topic of the wiki > sometimes appear in boxes and templates on the main page, rather than > plain text, so what Google shows can be somewhat random. > > MediaWiki:Description is a way for wikis to customize what Google uses > as the description for the main page. Right now, it's set to a bland > default: "{{SITENAME}} is a database that anyone can edit." > > Admins can edit that page to expand the description, up to 150 > characters. It would be great if the description included search terms > that you'd expect people to use when they're looking for your site. > > Here's a few examples: > > * Doctor Who Wiki is a database that anyone can edit, covering Doctor > Who episodes, characters and monsters, including the Daleks and Cybermen. > > * Muppet Wiki is a database about Jim Henson's work that anyone can > edit, including episode and character guides to The Muppet Show and > Sesame Street. > > * Dofus Wiki is a database that anyone can edit, with articles on > quests, guilds, and everything Dofus! > > So folks can go ahead and edit that on your wikis, and make it > interesting or useful or whatever you'd like. > > Unfortunately, I can't help with the question about non-ASCII > characters... Maybe someone else can? > > > -- Danny > > > On Sat, May 17, 2008 at 6:28 AM, Jesús Martínez > <[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>> wrote: > > I found a new feature: The contents of [[MediaWiki:Description]] will > be placed inside the content of the <meta name="description" ... > tag > of the main page of a Wiki. That description should be shown on search > engines, but only when the main page appears in the results. > > But, it doesn't support non-ASCII characters so non-english wikis > would probably have strange characters on it. > > As an example, "é" turns into é�¾, and "ñ" into á�¾ > > Encoding such characters as entities -- like é or ñ -- > does not work because they are double-encoded: é turns into > &eacute; > > A fix for that would be greatly appreciated! > _______________________________________________ > Wikia-l mailing list > [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > http://lists.wikia.com/mailman/listinfo/wikia-l > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > Wikia-l mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.wikia.com/mailman/listinfo/wikia-l > _______________________________________________ Wikia-l mailing list [email protected] http://lists.wikia.com/mailman/listinfo/wikia-l
