Integration with vBulletin - Zoints Thread Tags - GREAT for SEO

Demo:

http://network.zoints.com/tags

If you choose to send tags to Zoints (optional) you can see what we do with them and how we send you traffic and nice inbound links: http://zoints.com

A great article on the importance of tagging can be read here.

The Zoints Thread Tags System will improve forum side search, SEO, and traffic for forums that choose to utilize it. And in my opinion, it's just plain cool

When a member creates a new thread, they can now input a series of "tags". Tags are simply keywords that describe the thread.



If you then go to your-forum.com/tags you will be presented with what is called a "tag cloud". The more times a tag is used, the larger the text grows. As you can see, the tags are also searchable.



Clicking on one of the tags in the cloud then lists all of the threads that are tagged with that particular keyword. The default option lists tags in a forumdisplay format. There is an option in the admincp to use a simple format.



Clicking on the thread title of one of the above threads then takes you to the thread. If you have the option on, the tags the thread are tagged with are also listed above the thread. Clicking one of those tags takes you to all the threads on the forum tagged with the same tag. Search engine spiders are going to have a field day with this



The thread starter and moderation staff have a slightly different view which allows for administration of tags:



The forum's tags are also searchable via the search dropdown. The advanced search option allows for a variety of additional criteria to be seached for. Your members create a whole new (and highly efficient) forum search engine!



If you have the option on in the admincp and register your forum, once every hour, your tagged threads in publically viewable forums are linked via the corresponding interest tag on the Zoints Forum Network. For example, if you go to http://zoints.com/tag/children you will see what is pictured below. Not only is this a great relevant inbound link for SEO, but you will get traffic from Zoints direct to these threads!

Another example of this in action: http://zoints.com/tag/music




The admincp options

















Official support for this modification will be at http://network.zoints.com in this forum.


Change log:
2008/05/01 - 1.2.3
* vBulletin CSRF Protocol Compatible
2007/12/24 - 1.2.2
* Security patch

2006/10/24 - 1.2.1
* Bugfix: breaking inline moderation when tag cloud below posts
* Bugfix: ajax input not working when tag cloud below posts
* Bugfix: seo hook effective for "results as threads" option
* Bugfix: Autogenerated tags have "quot" removed
* Bugfix: Automated template edit screwing up styles
* Improved instructions for manual template edits

2006/10/19 - 1.2.0
* Option to display results as threads
* Advanced search page
* Popular tag cloud pagination
* Popular tags displayed in forums
* Option to display tags in showthread at the top/bottom
* Fix for vbadvanced products navbar links
* Other minor fixes and tweaks

2006/10/02 - 1.1.2
* Bugfix: Foreign language characters in thread description
* Bugfix: Commas showing up when removing first tag in showthread via ajax
* Removing some redundancy in the tags AJAX removal

2006/09/30 - 1.1.1
* Bugfix: Preventing all HTML from being parsed inside tag descriptions

2006/09/30 - 1.1.0
* Adding and deleting tags from showthread via AJAX
* Mass-deleting single tags from entire cloud for admins
* Automatically generate tags for older threads (with option to show or hide on main cloud)
* Automatically stripping out tiny (2 or less characters) tags

2006/09/28 - 1.0.8
* Minor bugfix

2006/09/28 - 1.0.7
* Bugfix for required tagging

2006/09/28 - 1.0.6
* Character replacements
* Tag limit per thread
* Option to require tags for a thread
* Bugfix where stopwords may not have worked properly
* Bugfix for vBSEO / main cloud not showing up

2006/09/xx - 1.0.5
* Unreleased dev build

2006/09/23 - 1.0.4
* Ability to add multiple tags via showthread.php
* Ability to exclude certain forums from utilizing tags
* Addition of custom hook for developers to change thread urls

2006/09/21 - 1.0.3
* Ability to add and remove tags from showthread.php
* Bugfix for older versions of mysql

2006/09/21 - 1.0.2
* Small bugfix

2006/09/20 - 1.0.1
* Showing tags list on showthread.php

2006/09/20 - 1.0.0
* Initial release

[tansu]

Originally Posted by DChapman

An automated option for that will be available soon.

I am excited.. really..
Then it will be the best add-on of all times.

[buro9]

Originally Posted by tansu

I am excited.. really..
Then it will be the best add-on of all times.

Just wait until you can tag posts,
Or tags get suggested based on others peoples tags,
Or there becomes a cross-site system to offer a global tag cloud for hundreds of related vB sites,
Or that all users can enter tags for a thread, but a weighting system means the thread only shows the top 5 tags, but all tags get included in the cloud (I actually think this one is quite important as currently the community at wide is not included in the process of applying tags to existing threads).

The potential is enormous.

I'll take virtual forums by rendering the tag result page using the forumdisplay templates as my only request though Come on DChapman! You said it was in the works

[abramelin]

Originally Posted by DChapman

Can you link me to a thread where it isn't working and take a screenshot of how you set it up in the admincp? Thanks!

here it is and the other problem is there is no "search in tags" section in my quick search area

[Zoints]

Originally Posted by abramelin

here it is and the other problem is there is no "search in tags" section in my quick search area

I apologize, but i'm not able to figure out where that left screenshot is from. Can you make a wider area screenshot or link me to it please?

As for the "search in tags", it sounds like the automated edit didn't work. The readme contains the manual template edit which is:

b) The tags search form does not show up in the search dropdown menu

Edit template: navbar
==== FIND ==================================
============================================
    </div> 
    <!-- / header quick search form -->
==== BELOW, ADD ============================
============================================
$zointstags_searchform
============================================
============================================

[abramelin]

there is nothing like that in my navbar. its located in my header. is this make change?

[Zoints]

Originally Posted by abramelin

there is nothing like that in my navbar. its located in my header. is this make change?

Yes Some styles have moved that to their header.

[abramelin]

so what should i do.
i make the template edits by manuel but nothing happens. is this related with header vs navbar thingy do you think?

[Wongod]

What's the timeline for the update? I'm eagerly awaiting the next release.

[Zoints]

Originally Posted by Wongod

What's the timeline for the update? I'm eagerly awaiting the next release.

If you would like to help us beta test it, now. It's a pretty big update so if anyone wants to help test, that would be great. Known issues:

1. Two bugs with advanced tag searching.
2. A few minor aestetics changes that need done.

If anyone is interested in beta testing this release, please PM me.

[friendly]

This is a must have hack! I look forward to the next version.