The robots.txt file provides instructions to search engine crawlers about which parts of your website they should and should not access. You can customize the robots.txt file to prevent sensitive content from being indexed or to guide crawlers toward the most important areas of your site.
What is SEO and why is it important for my Composr website?
Answer
SEO is the practice of optimizing your website to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). By improving your SEO, you increase the visibility of your website, driving more organic (non-paid) traffic to your content.
Composr provides several ways to customize your metadata:
Site-wide Settings: You can configure default metadata for your entire site in the Admin Zone under Setup > Configuration > Site options.
Content-Specific Settings: When adding or editing content like Comcode pages or news posts, Composr provides fields for customizing titles, descriptions, and keywords specific to that content under the "Metadata" section.
Automatic Detection: Composr can automatically generate metadata by analyzing your content, but it's generally recommended to refine these suggestions manually for best results.
Should I trust agencies that promise top search engine results?
Answer
No; be wary of agencies guaranteeing top rankings for any desired keyword. Achieving top results for competitive terms requires significant effort, expertise, and often, an ongoing strategy.
Focus on agencies that prioritize ethical "white-hat" SEO techniques like creating valuable content, optimizing website structure, and building natural backlinks. Avoid those employing "black-hat" methods that can lead to penalties from search engines.
What are URL Monikers and how do they benefit SEO?
Answer
URL Monikers replace generic numerical IDs in your URLs with descriptive keywords derived from your content titles.
For example, instead of yoursite.com/page.php?id=123, you can have yoursite.com/about-us. This makes your URLs more user-friendly and helps search engines understand the topic of each page, improving your search ranking.
You can set monikers in the "Metadata" section when adding / editing content.
An XML Sitemap is a file that lists all the pages on your website, helping search engines understand your site's structure and content. Composr automatically generates a comprehensive sitemap, including forum topics if you are using Conversr.
Ensure your system scheduler is enabled for automatic sitemap submission to search engines. You can also manually generate and submit the sitemap if necessary.
How can I improve my website's ranking in search engines?
Answer
Composr offers various features and best practices to enhance your SEO:
Content Optimization: Write high-quality, keyword-rich content using clear headings, relevant links, and descriptive image alt text.
URL Monikers: Enable this feature to create human-readable URLs that incorporate keywords instead of numerical IDs.
XML Sitemaps: Composr automatically generates and submits XML Sitemaps to major search engines, aiding them in discovering and indexing your content.
robots.txt: This file allows you to control which parts of your site search engines can access and index. Composr provides a default robots.txt that can be customized as needed.
What are the primary metadata elements I should focus on?
Answer
While Composr provides extensive metadata options, the key elements to prioritize are:
Title: The title tag appears in browser tabs, search results, and when your page is shared. It should be concise, descriptive, and include relevant keywords.
Meta Description: This short summary entices users to click on your search result. It should be engaging, informative, and accurately reflect the page's content.
Open Graph data: These protocols control how your content appears when shared on social media and other websites. They utilize elements like title, description, and images to create visually appealing previews.
Favicon and Apple Web Clip image: These small icons represent your website in bookmarks, browser tabs, and on mobile home screens. They contribute to branding and visual recognition.
What is metadata and why is it important for my website?
Answer
Metadata is information about your web pages that isn't directly visible to visitors, but is used by search engines and social media platforms to understand and categorize your content.
Well-crafted metadata helps search engines properly index your site, making it more likely to appear in relevant search results. It also improves how your website appears when shared on social media, encouraging clicks and engagement.
What should I do about offensive or off-topic discussions?
Answer
Decide on your moderation approach: balancing viewpoints, adhering to community standards, or focusing on topic relevance. Be prepared to face criticism regardless of your decisions. Establish clear rules and policies to guide user behavior.
What notification options are available to members?
Answer
Members can choose from a wide range of notifications, including:
Content Updates: Notifications for new or updated content, such as news articles, forum posts, and gallery images.
Private Messages: Alerts for new private messages received.
Friend Requests: Notifications for new friend requests.
Administrative Actions: Alerts for actions taken by site administrators, such as account approvals or content moderation decisions.
Members can choose to receive notifications via:
Email: Notifications sent directly to their email address.
Digest Email: Combined summaries of activity sent in batched emails. This requires the system scheduler and the digest e-mails configuration option to be enabled.
Private Topics: Notifications delivered as private forum topics.
SMS: Notifications sent as text messages (requires configuration and incurs costs).
Web Notifications: Real-time alerts displayed within the Composr interface.
Can I share content like news and banners across the M.S.N.?
Answer
Yes, you can share news by placing it on the central site and using RSS blocks on satellite sites to display it. Banners can be shared by adding them to the central site and configuring satellite sites to use the central site's banner.php script.
What are Composr Clubs and how are they useful for subcommunities?
Answer
Clubs are special usergroups in Conversr (Composr's forum system) designed for creating subcommunities. They come with their own dedicated forums and are managed by members, taking pressure off site staff.
Key features:
No special permissions by default, simplifying permission management.
Members can join and leave like regular usergroups.
Virtual roots let you make a sub-category within a Composr module (e.g., downloads) appear as the top-level category. This is useful for creating separate "databases" of content for different subcommunities.
To create a virtual root:
Enable "Virtual root links" in the Admin Zone > Setup > Configuration > Feature options > Advanced.
Navigate to the desired category while logged in as staff.
Click the rightmost link in the breadcrumbs (it will be an anchor for virtual root creation).
Use the resulting URL in your menus to link to the "virtualized" category.
An M.S.N. allows you to run multiple Composr websites (installations) that share a common forum and member database. It's ideal for website networks with shared communities but segmented content, staff, or branding. In essence, members who join one site automatically have accounts on all sites within the network.
