[Wikia-l] MediaWiki:Description

[JohnQ]

I like the idea to make this linkable from Special:WebTools... that 
makes it more accessible for admins. As for seo, we've heard the main 
benefit is increasing click-thru rate on a wiki's links on a search 
result page (rather than raising a wiki's position in the results) ... 
but we'll know more soon as we get our own measurements on this.

Thanks,
John Q.


Brian Grove wrote:
> 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 
>> <martineznovo at gmail.com <mailto:martineznovo at gmail.com>> 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 &eacute; or &ntilde; --
>>     does not work because they are double-encoded: &eacute; turns into
>>     &amp;eacute;
>>
>>     A fix for that would be greatly appreciated!
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