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

[Zoints]

Originally Posted by Morrus

Very nice hack.

Question - does the length of a thread affect the tag "size" in the cloud? For examle, would a 50 page thread on a subject count for more than a single post thread which everyone ignored?

No, the number of threads tagged with the same tag affects the size.

[Morrus]

Originally Posted by DChapman

No, the number of threads tagged with the same tag affects the size.

Oh, that's a shame. Still, it's a very good modification.

Couple more questions:

1) Is there a way to make tag entering mandatory when creating a thread? My users aren't doing it.

2) Is there a way to parse links when viewing a search page after clicking on a tag?

[Wongod]

This hack is amazing. I installed it on my local server, however when I click on the tags link, I get a Server Error 500. Any ideas?

[teenhut]

It will not work out much as the general users arent going to take the trouble to put tags and so much work....

Is there a thing that automatically puts some tags depending on keywords used in that thread?

[Zoints]

Version 1.0.6 has been released:

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

Now available in the admincp:

- You can now require that members have to enter at least one tag prior to submitting a thread.

- You can set a maximum number of tags allowed per thread. This will stop trolls from entering 5,038,004 tags in a single thread.



- We now allow for character replacement. This will be especially useful for non-english boards.




To upgrade, overwrite files and the product.

Enjoy

[Zoints]

For those of you who use vBa CMPS, there is now a tag cloud module available:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=127749

[Coach_Guru]

It works with vB 3.5.4?

Thanks.

[Brent H]

Thanks, Dave! Keep up the good work

[NeutralizeR]

Originally Posted by DChapman

Version 1.0.6 has been released:

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

Now available in the admincp:

- You can now require that members have to enter at least one tag prior to submitting a thread.

- You can set a maximum number of tags allowed per thread. This will stop trolls from entering 5,038,004 tags in a single thread.

- We now allow for character replacement. This will be especially useful for non-english boards.


To upgrade, overwrite files and the product.

Enjoy

Finally, you are the man...

[Unexplained.tv]

Thanks for the great Tagging system! I've changed the way these tags are being shown on showthread as I found them annoying at top and placed them below the quick reply box instead.