Update WebHelp for Google indexing changes

The latest news, information and updates.

Moderators: Alexander Halser, Tim Green

Post Reply
User avatar
Tim Green
Site Admin
Posts: 23156
Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2002 9:11 am
Location: Bruehl, Germany
Contact:

Update WebHelp for Google indexing changes

Unread post by Tim Green »

Google has recently changed the way it indexes WebHelp and this affects how your WebHelp sites are getting indexed and found by the Googlebot search engine. The next update of Help & Manual and the Premium Pack will include updated skins to deal with this. However, you can make adjustments now to deal with the situation as well. I have just posted a guide with instructions explaining how to do this:

Guide to updating WebHelp templates for better Google indexing
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

Private support:
Please do not email or PM me with private support requests -- post to the forum directly.
Marc Beneteau
Posts: 49
Joined: Fri Oct 28, 2011 12:55 pm

Re: Update WebHelp for Google indexing changes

Unread post by Marc Beneteau »

Tim,

I am extremely happy to read this as Google was not indexing my site properly (and I suspected something like this, since treating crawlers differntly from ordinary users is explicitly disallowed).

I am thinking then it be important that all incoming links should be made direct e.g.

http://wpencyclopedia.com/using-wp-encyclopedia.htm

and not

http://wpencyclopedia.com/index.htm?usi ... opedia.htm

I would also point people to the Yoast SEO tutorial here:

http://yoast.com/articles/wordpress-seo/

in which he talks about rel=author and other things that are important to Google now

Great work!
Marc Beneteau
Posts: 49
Joined: Fri Oct 28, 2011 12:55 pm

Re: Update WebHelp for Google indexing changes

Unread post by Marc Beneteau »

Please note also that as of 10/16/2013 the Disqus comment integration does not work well with the direct url, and also is buggy (it seems to overlay the page with the Disqus comment box even when the "Comments" link is not clicked).
User avatar
Tim Green
Site Admin
Posts: 23156
Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2002 9:11 am
Location: Bruehl, Germany
Contact:

Re: Update WebHelp for Google indexing changes

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Marc,
Marc Beneteau wrote:Please note also that as of 10/16/2013 the Disqus comment integration does not work well with the direct url, and also is buggy (it seems to overlay the page with the Disqus comment box even when the "Comments" link is not clicked).
Which skin version are you using? It should be 2.2, if it's earlier you need to update. If there is a problem with the 2.2 version I need to look into it. :?
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

Private support:
Please do not email or PM me with private support requests -- post to the forum directly.
Marc Beneteau
Posts: 49
Joined: Fri Oct 28, 2011 12:55 pm

Re: Update WebHelp for Google indexing changes

Unread post by Marc Beneteau »

Tim,
Yes this was 2.2 templates. the problem only occurs with Chrome and it's difficult for me to replicate as I had to disable Disqus on production site. If you can't replicate please let me know and I will make a test site for you.
thanks
marc
User avatar
Tim Green
Site Admin
Posts: 23156
Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2002 9:11 am
Location: Bruehl, Germany
Contact:

Re: Update WebHelp for Google indexing changes

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Marc,

That's OK, I'll check it out in the next few days. Thanks for reporting this. :)
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

Private support:
Please do not email or PM me with private support requests -- post to the forum directly.
Post Reply