How To Edit The SEO Settings Of Dynamic (Search Results) Pages
The built in on-page SEO of all of the pages of the site is very good by default and has been created by consulting several SEO experts. However, many advanced users of the software may wish to edit the SEO settings of the dynamic pages of the site (dynamic pages are mostly the search results pages and profile pages of the members of the site).
One easy way to identify an SEO template is using the Admin Toolbar:
1. Click the "Visit Website" button on the backend to enable the Admin Bar:
2. Navigate to the search results page and click on the dropdown menu to see all the admin bar options, the SEO template name and number will show:
There are 2 ways to access the SEO template settings:
1. Back End
Navigate to My Content - SEO Templates
Find the SEO template and click on the Customize or Edit button to make changes.
2. Front End
Use the Admin toolbar on the front end, click on Edit SEO Template # and the system will be redirected to the Admin Section showing the template. Click on Customize or Edit:
When the page loads, move to the SEO Settings tab. Check the information below to learn how to edit it:
1. SEO Meta Tags: Add the Page Meta Title, Meta Description, and Meta Keywords. Keep in mind that default pages will already have the SEO information optimzed including Default SEO Variables.
2. Click on the "Save SEO Template" button to save the changes.
** Remember that these are dynamic pages, so once the details have been edited in one SEO template, the changes will be reflected on multiple search results pages as well. A good example would be editing the SEO of a top level category, this would affect the search result pages of all top level categories as well.
This is very important and it may be confusing to know which pages to edit. All of the pages listed here are based off the different combinations of categories and locations that users could possibly search by.
The pages admins most commonly be interested in editing include:
- Profile page template – %filename%
- Top Level Category Search Results template (when performing a search based only on a top level category) – %profession%
- Sub Level Category Search Results template (when performing a search based only on a sub or sub-sub level category)
%service_name% --> This will include sub categories
%sub_category_name% --> This will be for sub categories as well. Both variables will work, this one and the one above.
%sub_sub_category_name% --> This will be for sub-sub categories - Country search results template (when performing a search based on a combination of country and all categories) – /%country_name
- City search results template (when performing a search based on a combination of a city and all categories) – /%country_name%/%city_name%
There are also several search results pages that are combinations of the variables listed above. For example:
- Top Level Category search results in a specific country – /%country_name%/%profession%
- Top Level Category search results in a specific city – /%country_name%/%city_name%/%profession%
- etc…
For example, let’s say an admin wish to edit the SEO template settings for profile pages. As an example there is a profile page For James Smith, a Dentist who has a Company Called Smith Dentistry in Pasadena, California, United States 91105.
The default SEO settings for the Page Title of the profile pages (/%filename% as described above) reads like this:
%City% %Profession% – %full_name% – %Company% – %Profession%
On the live site, the Page Title would display like this:
Pasadena Dentist – James Smith – Smith Dentistry – Dentist
The items in the %’s mean they are variables that pull different data depending on which page is being displayed. For example %city_name% will display the name of the city that relates to the page that is being viewed.
They are all editable and it is possible choose to use different variables in place of these or replace them with static content.
Here is a list of some of the common variables that can be used to edit the SEO settings of the dynamic pages of the site:
- %country_name% – The name of the country that relates to this page
- %city% OR %city_name% – The name of the city that relates to this page
- %profession% – The name of the top level category that relates to this page
- %service_name% – The name of the sub level category that relates to this page
- %sub_category_name% – The name of the sub level category that relates to this page. This is another variable that can be used. Both will work, this one and the one above.
- %sub_sub_category_name% – The name of the sub-sub level category that relates to this page
- %full_name% – The full name of the member that relates to this page
- %company% – The name of the member’s company that relates to this page
- %location% – The city and state associated with the listing
- %trade% – The Trade variable entered on the Website >> Website Settings >> Variables tab
- %industry% – The Industry variable entered on the Website >> Website Settings >> Variables tab
Pluralizing variables
To list the pluralized version of a variable (Dentists instead of Dentist for example), use double %% to surround the variable (%%profession%% instead of %profession% for example).
Making Variables Upper Case
To make the first letter of each word in a variable upper case (Dentist instead of dentist for example), capitalize the first letter of the variable (%Profession% instead of %profession% for example).
For more information about the variables, please visit this article:
