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This thread was archived on 1 July 2009 by Azliq7.

Hey guys. I just wanted to drop by and mention some new things going on across Wikia. Wikia is currently updating the way Main Pages look and how the pagetitle appears. For Main Pages, we are aiming more towards using images to direct users to categories. For example, see the Main Pages of Last Remnant Wiki and Pokemon Wiki, and note how images are used that take visitors to categories. Also, we are trying to reduce the links on Main Pages as according to Google, Main Pages with less than 100 links perform really good in search results.

Another thing is the pagetitle. Both MediaWiki:Pagetitle-view-mainpage and MediaWiki:Pagetitle should be updated so that they contain "Article - Wiki Name - 3 key words". For example, the Pokemon Wiki's pagetitle is "Article - The Pokemon Wiki - Pokemon, characters, games, and more". The RuneScape Wiki's could be "Article - The RuneScape Wiki - RuneScape characters, quests, skills, and more". The current pagetitle is not really helping search engine optimization due to the lack of keywords.

So that's basically it. I know the Main Page would be lots of work, so it is up to you, the community, if you want to go through with changing it, though it will probably help drive more traffic to the wiki. You can learn more at The Magic Bullet and by reading Advice:Raising your wiki's Google ranking.--Richardtalk 16:34, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

Discuss

Comment - I think we have enough traffic already (^.^). Doing quick Google searches of "Runescape" and "Runescape fansite," the wiki appeared on the first page both times. I do suppose we could bump the wiki up a bit, and it won't hurt to have even more visitors here.  Tien  17:04, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

Comment - I agree with Tienjt0. Statistics Lvl 3 skils3 Choice! Talk~ Holiday Signup ~Hiscores 18:31, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

Pending - Want to see what others think...

18:41, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

Comment - A possible move would be to streamline the right-hand side's list of popular articles and ensure they are all necessarily on their. It's quite a long list. That said, I'm not sure we're short on visitors :). --King Runite1 19:38, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

Comment As stated in this, the wikia shows up multiple times on the first page. Keywords sound like an excellent idea, butting us above other fansites perhaps. Zaros symbolChaos Monk Talk SignCoins 250 20:41, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

Comment - Well, im a bit confused. What would it look like? Maybe a background as seen on Narutopedia (sorry bout no link). And logo...I will put up an idea....There already is a thread about that but nothing changed and what richard is saying is that it needs to updated with the wordage. I have NOT been blocked I'm now Armadyl BunnyThis is important 01:23, 9 May 2009 (UTC) it changed recently but it was all orange (except for page) and had leaf logo all over repeated. Maybe put up an in-game screebshot that might look good in the background? I have NOT been blocked I'm now Armadyl BunnyThis is important 01:27, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

Comment - When I searched "RuneScape" in Google, I find that this Wiki is near the bottom of the page, on Live, we are nonexistent, and on Ask, we are on the Second page after some less reputable sites... (gold sellers -.-) So I do think we need to improve our front page and make it less complicated for new users/players, although there may be other reasons to us being in such places, sadly on all those sites, it tries to autofill the search bar with moronic ideas with how RuneScape actually works... Ryan PM 02:01, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

Comment - For keybowrds, I suggest we use "Items, Quests and guides". Now that's a throwing weapon!Doucher4000******r4000I'll eat you! 03:41, 9 May 2009 (UTC)


Comment

Google - Runescape - 7th (behind 5 RWT sites, Main Page)

Google - Runescape Fansite - 5th (MP)

Google - Runescape Help - 8th (MP)

Google - Runescape Guides - 90th (Money making guide)

Google - Runescape Forums - 24th (forums)

Google - Runescape Information 32nd (not main page)

Google - Wikia 10th

Yahoo - Runescape - 8th (MP)

Yahoo - Runescape Fansite - 7th (MP)

Yahoo - Runescape Help - 5th (MP)

Yahoo - Runescape Guides - 8th (Guides)

Yahoo - Runescape Forums - 24th (forums)

Live - Runescape - 76th (MP)

Live - Runescape Fansite - 5th (MP)

Live - Runescape Help - 22nd (Help:Editing)

Live - Runescape Guides - 46th (Guides)

Live - Runescape Forums - 7th (forums)

To be completed Balance iz powa!4ndrepd TalkContribsStupid monkeys actually have a use...Jump to the God Wars II! 17:30, 9 May 2009 (UTC) Completed. Huanghe63talk 03:04, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

Try Alltheweb too 19:32, 9 May 2009 (UTC)~

Support - Change is good. I'd like to see some examples if someone can put them together, but we can handle becoming more modern.

19:32, 9 May 2009 (UTC)


Support - We do need to do some search engine optimization, but I hate to lose our motto "The RuneScape fansite that anyone can edit!" may be we can somehow save it or include part of it. - TehKittyCat (talk) 19:58, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

Support - I'll work on a new logo i guess. I agree with cat so i'll include that. it'll be up shortly I have NOT been blocked I'm now Armadyl BunnyThis is important 20:14, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

Comment - We already had quite a lengthy discussion, and decided to keep out old logo. So, it stays. Now that's a throwing weapon!Doucher4000******r4000I'll eat you! 22:05, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

Support Per everyone, and its just common sense if you ask me lol Rune crossbow Hess36talk Ancient staff 04:17, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

Slight support - We can try it, and if it works out then great. What I am supporting is having a new mainpage proposed and then we have a discussion on it. The appearance and functionality of the main page is more important than how many hits it brings up on google IMO. Zaros tallyBladeQuick chat button# 15:28, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

Support The first impressions are essential. One important thing is to move up the list of popular pages, and get it more synthetized. Balance iz powa!4ndrepd TalkContribsStupid monkeys actually have a use...Jump to the God Wars II! 16:42, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

Comment - I did see that, D4K, but it states above that we need a new logo. I am trying to make a new logo and it will be up shortly. I have NOT been blocked I'm now Armadyl BunnyThis is important 17:10, 10 May 2009 (UTC) (woah that sucks about the places were in!)

Please quote where it states above that we need a new logo. The only thing being requested of us is to change the mainpage and a few search terms.-- 00:33, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

Here - Here is a logo i put together. I can easily change fonts, colour, etc if wanted if people like it. It's on imageshack for now. Search rswlogo if you want it from the site. http://img397.imageshack.us/img397/9530/proposedlogolightershad.gif i can take away the shadow and resize it if wanted. I have NOT been blocked I'm now Armadyl BunnyThis is important Oh sorry i misread the thing above. Sorry I have NOT been blocked I'm now Armadyl BunnyThis is important 01:51, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

Comment - Well, for main page appearance we need to change some wordage but what about a background? What if we have an in game screen shot of one player dressed with bronze med, wooden shield and bronze long saying "For new players" and another player standing next to him/her dressed in full void/dragon/barrows or something like that saying "Or for more advanced players"? It may get overwhelming but it may make it look great. It could be like xxphatmagexx's youtube channel background... I have NOT been blocked I'm now Armadyl BunnyThis is important 03:04, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

Support -0 The pics would make it less cluttered, and people might click on them rather than going to tip.it.Joe Click Here for Awesomeness18:02, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

How about making the MainPage a bit more Simple. Like taking away one of those List that says the "quests, Items, ect" Because there are two of them. --PCWiener 06:22, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

Comment - I'm putting an example together. Might be ready this weekend. Adult chameleon (automatic) Anurin Talk · Sign! . 08:39, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

Don't support - I heard these things use like new flash and stuff. My computer can't cope with that and i'm sure there are at least 10 other users won't be able to use it eitherWhovian39 06:17, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

Comment - Just informing, before a consensus get's made. I'm trying to find out how to add the link attribute rel=nofollow to links on the mainpage. It's a bit complicated, we might need to use javascript or get a staff member to make a new link tag. The nofollow attribute prevents search bots going to that specific link. If that page had have lower pagerank, our pagerank would leak to it. [1] So if we manage to add this, we get higher pagerank. I'm still waiting for an answer from Richard at this time. This coding should not change anything visually, so we can implement it at a later stage. Adult chameleon (automatic) Anurin Talk · Sign! . 08:50, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

Comment - Are we sure we want to do this? rel=nofollow is meant to be a way for sites to show that they don't "vouch" for a particular link. For example, if your site allows people to post links to random places, then you don't want those links to affect how a search engine perceives your site. We certainly can "vouch" for all of our internal links, however. MediaWiki should already by default apply rel=nofollow to external links that we don't have control over. Also, I don't think JavaScript to add it on page load would be a reliable way to implement this. --Quarenon  Talk 09:37, 17 June 2009 (UTC)
Comment - Yes, I especially want to add it to the 20 links to other languages. They are on wikia so classified as internal. I don't wanna add nofollow to all internal links on the whole wiki! Adult chameleon (automatic) Anurin Talk · Sign! . 11:51, 17 June 2009 (UTC)
Comment - Would using the <span class="plainlinks">[http://example.com example]</span> syntax work? You'll have to use an actual URL, but using the plainlinks class removes the external link icon (example without plainlinks, example with it) --Quarenon  Talk 12:48, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

Here are some examples with plainlinks. =)

  • <a href="http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/kenya/" class="external text" title="http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/kenya/" rel="nofollow">Kenyaaaa</a> External link (rel=nofollow)
  • <a href="http://fr.runescape.wikia.com/wiki/" title="http://fr.runescape.wikia.com/wiki/" >Bonjour</a> Classified as internal link to a other wikia
  • <a href="http://tinyurl.com/nzbtj6" class="external text" title="http://tinyurl.com/nzbtj6" rel="nofollow">Bonjour</a> Classified as an external link to a other wikia (rel=nofollow)
  • See the differences? We could easily apply rel=nofollow to the 20 language links by making a tinyurl of them. I wonder if any1 has trouble with that. Jagex uses it too. Adult chameleon (automatic) Anurin Talk · Sign! . 13:03, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

    Comment - I don't see why tinyurl is needed. Just use the full URL to the article you want to link to, using the external link syntax with plainlinks wrapped around it to remove the external link icon. --Quarenon  Talk 13:10, 17 June 2009 (UTC)
    The point is.. that although http://fr.runescape.wikia.com/wiki/ looks like an external link. It isn't classified as that, because it's on wikia aswell. So it does not add a rel=nofollow to it. I'm trying to stop the leak of pagerank to the 20 links to other languages. Because those pages have a pagerank of 2/10. Adult chameleon (automatic) Anurin Talk · Sign! . 13:15, 17 June 2009 (UTC)
    That is odd...seems like a Wikia thing. How about this? test (<span class="plainlinks">[http://fr%2Erunescape%2Ewikia%2Ecom/wiki/ test]</span>)--Quarenon  Talk 13:29, 17 June 2009 (UTC)
    That works!!!! :D Source:
    <span class="plainlinks"><a href="http://fr%2Erunescape%2Ewikia%2Ecom/wiki/" class="external text" title="http://fr%2Erunescape%2Ewikia%2Ecom/wiki/" rel="nofollow">test</a></span>
    Adult chameleon (automatic) Anurin Talk · Sign! . 13:35, 17 June 2009 (UTC)
    Awesome! Sorry about my previous ignorance. I did my testing over at Wikipedia which always keeps [http://example.com example] links external even for en.wikipedia.org, but over here Wikia seems to override it if the domain is within Wikia. Learned something new! --Quarenon  Talk 13:51, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

    Support Yes change is good, although I'm only new i agree with whoever brought up the search engine statistics --User:Skw33ky 6 11:30, 23 June 2009 (UTC) Support 4ndrepd had so very good points. Black claw Machdelu Talk Red partyhat 15:07, 24 June 2009 (UTC)

    New pagetitle

    I've gone ahead and updated the pagetitle at MediaWiki:Pagetitle and MediaWiki:Pagetitle-view-mainpage so that it includes 3 keywords (skills, quests, guides). I'll work on a draft of a new Main Page soon to give an idea of what can be done to it.--Richardtalk 20:52, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

    What do you mean with working on a draft of a new main page? I posted in the commment above that i'm working on an example, isn't that the same? Adult chameleon (automatic) Anurin Talk · Sign! . 23:03, 21 May 2009 (UTC)
    I think he's giving us an idea of how our new main page should look.  Tien  16:35, 22 May 2009 (UTC)
    That's what I ment too. Idea/example same? o.O Adult chameleon (automatic) Anurin Talk · Sign! . 16:51, 22 May 2009 (UTC)
    Seeing as he's a Wikia helper (I think, because his name is pink in the Recent Changes), he should have a good idea of how the main page should appear. Well, at least we'll have two drafts to choose from.  Tien  16:57, 22 May 2009 (UTC)

    New Mainpage design

    I've been reading through the comments on this forum and had to agree that something had to attract more people on the mainpage. Also the lay-out could use some work. I got quite some experience with other popular websites and decided to work on a new lay-out for the RS Wiki mainpage. The finished result can be visited here.
    Notes for when there is a consensus to change the mainpage to this design:

    • Flag images are able to show the language name when hovered with mouse, only once images are on wiki itself. (Can't show it now because images are hosted on imageshack).
    • When this design goes up, I'll edit the mainpage, templates and css (due to all new coding).
    • Will be adding up to 5 different buttons/images for Skills, Minigames, Bestiary, Armour and Weapons (they'll change randomly).
    • Featured image section will stay like the current format on the mainpage, it's just a thumbnail atm because I needed to show how big it will be.

    So, comment below, tell us what you think, and perhaps this will be the new look of the Mainpage! Adult chameleon (automatic) Anurin Talk · Sign! . 19:40, 30 May 2009 (UTC)

    Discussion on new design

    Support - Looking great! Except the image for Bestiary. I don't recognize the mainmonster2. Perhaps a more common monster, like the goblin? Miasmic Blitz Hapi007 Talk! Sign! . 09:16, 31 May 2009 (UTC)

    \ That's the Angry goblin lol, I could add a normal goblin instead. We'll see, Adult chameleon (automatic) Anurin Talk · Sign! . 09:55, 31 May 2009 (UTC)

    Support - I support elfanurin's main page. It looks real nice and added a few new stuff to the front page, which can save us the time of finding/typing in the database. Santa hat Powers38 おはようヾ(´・ω・`) 09:28, 31 May 2009 (UTC)

    File:Main Page overlap.png

    Overlap of images in the Main Page.

    Oppose for nowNeutral - The current Main Page layout may not be suitable for browsers with resolution of 1280x1080 (or lower). Even if the majority of users are using large resolution browsers, the number of users using resolution of 1280x1080 (and lower) is significant (532/1538 = 34.6%) based on the recent polls on the Main Page.   az talk   14:50, 31 May 2009 (UTC)

    \ Is that monobook skin? Adult chameleon (automatic) Anurin Talk · Sign! . 14:56, 31 May 2009 (UTC)
    \ That's with monobook skin (unknown % of users) on a resolution of 1024 x 768 (20% of users). I'll see what I can do. Adult chameleon (automatic) Anurin Talk · Sign! . 15:01, 31 May 2009 (UTC)
    \ I've solved the problem! It took me some hours but I finally managed to. :D Adult chameleon (automatic) Anurin Talk · Sign! . 21:12, 31 May 2009 (UTC)
    File:Main page overlap fixed.png

    No more overlapping with Monobook skin, and a resolution of 1024 x 768 or smaller.

    Support - It looks amazing, very nice job. Quest MasterTexan H B K Quest Master 15:41, 31 May 2009 (UTC)

    Comment - I like it. Perhaps Az, you could help ElfAnurin with the resolution problems so this could work for us. That would be cool.

    22:24, 31 May 2009 (UTC)

    Weak support - But I will strongly support if the issue that Az arose is fixed. Otherwise, it's a nice layout, I like. Black cavalier Zenihdrol Tribal top (blue) 22:25, 31 May 2009 (UTC)

    Problem solved.. Please read the comments that I gave on Az' comment, as I already said that I solved the issue. :) Adult chameleon (automatic) Anurin Talk · Sign! . 22:32, 31 May 2009 (UTC)

    Support - looks great! Andrew talk 06:21, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

    Thanks for all comments so far. Adult chameleon (automatic) Anurin Talk · Sign! . 08:59, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

    Support - Wow! That looks awesome!Nephilim RetiredGuthix stole 17:42, 2 June 2009 (UTC)

    Weak Support - Nice addition of icons. The only problems I see are 1) we should get rid of the "more popular articles" collapsible box and 2) it seems that the CTI is oddly positioned to the right of the "On This Day..." text, maybe it should be moved to its own line right below the dates in the "On this day" box. --Quarenon  Talk 08:27, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

    Comment - There was another issue I found looking at the source code of the redesign is use of deprecated tags such as <div style="text-decoration:underline;"><nowiki>, and possibly other minor markup issues. Regrettably it seems that most of the problems that come up in W3C validation comes from code that I think we can't change, but we should at least do our best. I've been working on replacing tags like <nowiki><center> and <font> with equivalent CSS inline styles or at the very least drop in a <div style="text-align:center;"> in its place. I noticed that there was an odd mismatched tag problem in the "On this day" template which occurs both in the current main page and ElfAnurin's, and the issue seems to be in the wiki parser, can anyone confirm this? Specifically, a div tag is getting closed before the list instead of after it. --Quarenon  Talk 17:27, 17 June 2009 (UTC)
    Uhh you don't gotta look at the make-up code to much lol. There's going a lot in the css. I just took some code out the current css and put that in the code for this mainpage to give it a different look. If this design gets through, I will put the new code in the current css files. I don't understand what you mean with the mismatched tag problem in the On this day template :s . And @ your comment earlier, I placed it next to eachother on purpose. I thought it would look better instead of below eachother. Adult chameleon (automatic) Anurin Talk · Sign! . 17:52, 17 June 2009 (UTC)
    To be honest, the tag issue is not occurring anymore. Maybe it was only happening when only one news item was in the list. I'll grab the HTML code if I see it happen again. --Quarenon  Talk 11:52, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

    Support Awesome look! Quest point cape detailRuneueins Talk # Quest point hood 14:21, 17 June 2009 (UTC)


    Issues and suggestions

      az talk   07:53, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

    50x50 icons

    The main icons should be reduced to 50x50 pixels, and the icons displayed in a single line. This way users with wide screen browsers would see a single line of icons, while users with small screen browsers would see 2 or 3 lines.

    This would be a better than having empty white space for wider resolution browsers as only 4 icons appear in a line.

    Don't randomise the icons

    Use a single icon for a particular section.

    Users might identify a particular icon (i.e. TzTok-Jad) for the "Bestiary" section. The next time they visit, they would look for the same icon for go to the Bestiary section. If the icon is randomised, they may not find the same icon.

    In my opinion, random images on Main Page should be limited to the "Featured image" section.

    Reduce the number of links

    The main reason this forum was created was to reduce the number of links on the Main Page.

    ...we are trying to reduce the links on Main Pages as according to Google, Main Pages with less than 100 links perform really good in search results.
     
    Richard

    Thus, I think we should remove the dropdown list of "More popular articles". Most of the links are available in the sidebar. Displaying them again on the Main Page will be redundant.

    Template:Maintop

    I have another version of header template which I use for my Main Page. The text has been modified a little, and the font sizes have been made uniform. The original version (not the proposal) had 3-4 different font sizes which I found to be a little bit odd.

    This version also removes the flags and the links to other languages, replacing them with a link to Wikia's RuneScape page. Most of the links are available in the sidebar, and therefore redundant.

    RuneScape Wiki

    the wiki devoted to the MMORPG RuneScape that anyone can edit!
    44,138 articles since 8 April 2005.
    Help Getting Started About Policies Terms of Use Style Guide FAQ Disclaimer
    Other languages and sister wikis

    Featured image

    Although I like the use of the DPL extension (<DPL></DPL>) for the "Featured image" section, the frame for the image is kinda ugly, in my opinion.

    Current proposal Original
    Star flower detail
    Ancient Cavern.

    Ancient Cavern
    The Ancient Cavern with her dangers, hidden under a lake.

    And the link to the article is not provided... as only the summary is provided. Will it be possible to include a link using the DPL extension? If not, we should stick with the original template.

    \ Comment
    • My intention was to keep the current format of featured image. I just changed it to thumbnails to show the size, sorry forgot to say that.
    • 50x50 is to small I think; http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/7947/mainminigamessmall.png . The intention of those icons is to draw the attention of the visitor and make it easy for them to recognize something and to click on. Also, I don't have trouble with the white space. 50x50 wouldn't solve that for you either, because 8 icons*50+margin = about 420 px. Exactly the same width as we have now..... lmao
    • I have already reduced the number of links that originally were in the popular article thing. If you wanna reduce it more feel free to take off some links once it's done, but remember that they are used as quicklinks..
    • It's obvisious what a monster looks like. And I thought ppl would like some lil changed when they visit the mainpage. But I don't have a problem with making 1 monster. For armour icon I'll change it to some f2p and p2p armour in an image.
    • Reduce links, try to do here and here. And we could remove some flags of sites that aren't big or active. And if the menu uses Javascript then search bots are hardly able to recognise the content of it. So popular links give us a higher rank as they can be indexed. Also get me the source why over 100 links aren't good.
    • <meta name="keywords" content="RuneScape Wiki,runescape,RuneScape Wiki,1 June,169,19 May,2004,2005,2007,2009,27 May,28 May,29 May" /> - Kinda dissapointing meta tags.. Where are the real keywords?
    • I think it's better if you keep your personal main page.. personal. Adult chameleon (automatic) Anurin Talk · Sign! . 08:43, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

    "I think it's better if you keep your personal main page.. personal" - Is this comment necessary? I was really offended by this statement, as I was merely giving some ideas. Aren't other people allowed to contribute to this discussion? Earlier, when Richard offered to help out designing the Main Page, you reacted by saying, "What do you mean with working on a draft of a new main page? I posted in the commment above that i'm working on an example, isn't that the same?"

    Remember that this is not your personal Main Page, so anyone can provide alternatives, suggestions, and improve on it. It doesn't matter what you think, but what the overall community thinks. It is up to the community to decide whether they like it or not..

      az talk   11:59, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

    \ Comment

    • No there's nothing wrong in trying. Just gives me more work to do while you sit back testing. Here is your suggestion implented with 50px and 75 px images. 100x100 is what I chose after I read this in the 2nd sentence of this forum; ''For example, see the Main Pages of Last Remnant Wiki and Pokemon Wiki, and note how images are used that take visitors to categories.''.
    • Richard, didn't even read my comment that I posted before him, or he ignored it.
    • ''I think it's better if you keep your personal main page.. personal'' - I take this comment back. It just looked like you want to put up a lot of changes, that you had on your own version of the mainpage, while you didn't contribute to this discussion at all before. It was not necessary I agree. But hey you leave me with a problem that I gotta solve. Like how many users with 1024x768 are using monobook skin? It makes the page even smaller! due to ads! But ok, I agree I should find a fix on that. So I work on it for 3 hours and when I'm done you don't even say 1 thing about it. Null. Not even a thank you or a compliment, noooo you throw up even more issues that are wrong with my page. How am I supposed to react on that. Adult chameleon (automatic) Anurin Talk · Sign! . 12:55, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

    Thumb I support a thumb. And elf please don't hijack this topic, resolve probs on talk pages.Joe Click Here for Awesomeness14:29, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

    I think that only runecrafting is no the only thing, there are 30 skills more!!!!!! the logo only show runes -_- OMG!!! --Sistemx 02:39, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

    Are you trying to say we should change our logo? Liam - Beta Tester (talk) 06:27, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

    Actualy he's only complaining about it. --— Enigma 17:43, 17 June 2009 (UTC)


    Well, i think that they are trying to ask us to change it so:

    Disscuss

    OPEN Please disscuss! Oh and, i have moved this into a seperate place now. Liam - Beta Tester (talk) 18:04, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

    Comment - We have recently had a discussion about a new logo, and consensus was to keep the current one. I think it's to soon after that discussion to open another one. Weird gloop @Gaz#7521 19:47, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

    \ There has been a discussion about it before. Consensus was to keep current logo. Adult chameleon (automatic) Anurin Talk · Sign! . 19:54, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

    Meta keywords

    ElfAnurin pointed out earlier that the meta keywords for our Main Page are "kinda dissapointing". I have to agree. Currently, we don't have control of generating meta keywords since they are created automatically.

    <meta name="keywords" content="RuneScape Wiki,runescape,RuneScape Wiki,17 June,169,2004,2005,2009,8 April,Achievement Diary,Armour,Bestiary,Calculators" />

    To add keywords manually, we need to install Extension:MetaKeywordsTag. We would then have more control of what keywords to include on a particular page, especially for the Main Page.   az talk   09:26, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

    Support I was wondering where to edit the keywords, there it is :P Adult chameleon (automatic) Anurin Talk · Sign! . 11:53, 17 June 2009 (UTC)


    Postpone - I think we should postpone the determination of consensus for two reasons:

    • The issue of reducing the 100-link-per-page limit is still unresolved.
      • Several suggestions have been made to reduce the links.
    • The issue of whether to install "Extension:MetaKeywordsTag", so as to have better control of the meta keywords on the Main Page. Installing this extension would be beneficial for search engine optimisation, which was the main topic for this forum thread.

      az talk   09:26, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

    Agree If the problem isn't solved then what is the point? I will remove the notice of intent.--Degenret01 09:37, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

    Comment

    • Using images to direct users to categories - done
    • Reduce the links on Main Pages to less then 100 links. - partly done; about 23 links less, down to 120
    • The current pagetitle is not really helping search engine optimization due to the lack of keywords. - pagetitle has been updated, meta keywords can be improved with solution above

    I'd like to request a partial determinaton to go ahead with things that we DO have a consensus for. Adult chameleon (automatic) Anurin Talk · Sign! . 11:53, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

    • Reduce the links on Main Pages to less then 100 links. - solution found to add the attribute nofollow Adult chameleon (automatic) Anurin Talk · Sign! . 08:52, 20 June 2009 (UTC)

    Keywords

    Hi, guys -- I got the e-mail that Az sent about MetaKeywords. I've been working on SEO stuff site-wide for about a year, and I know why you're seeing the disappointing keywords on the main page.

    Right now, the keywords say: "RuneScape Wiki, runescape, RuneScape Wiki, 22 June, 169, 2005, 2009, 8 April, Achievement Diary, Armour, Bestiary, Calculators, Calendar"

    Google looks at a few things to determine what the most important keywords on the page are, including the placement, size and format of a link, and how often they appear on the page. It also pays attention to things that are linked through pictures. The most important words on a well-designed page are usually close to the top and then repeated often throughout the page, and they're usually big and bold.

    So here's why those keywords are coming up as strong:

    • RuneScape Wiki, runescape -- Name of the site and url/topic are the base keywords
    • RuneScape Wiki (2nd one) -- "Welcome to the RuneScape Wiki" is big, bold and the first link on the page.
    • 22 June -- On the page in three places, all of them bold, including one big bold link near the top of the page.
    • 169 -- Big bold link near the top of the page.
    • 2005 -- Linked in two places close to the top of the page, one bold.
    • 2009 -- Linked in three places close to the top of the page, one big, all of them bold.
    • 8 April -- Linked at the very top of the page.
    • Calendar -- Linked near the top of the page, big and bold.
    • Achievement Diary, Armour, Bestiary, Calculators -- Now it's starting to pull from the normal-sized links on the page, in alphabetical order.

    Even if you use the MetaKeywords tool to change the keywords, it won't help the fact that you're directing Google (and the readers) to focus on the wrong things. Google uses the size and location of a link to determine the link's importance, because that's the same thing that readers do.

    When I look at the main page of the site, I see 46 links on the first screen before I scroll down. None of those links are to content pages that I would be interested in looking at. There's 4 Help links, 4 Policies links, 2 links to the "About" page, 2 links to Special pages, 6 links taking you off the wiki, 21 links to languages, 4 links to dates, and a link to MediaWiki:Sitenotice, which as a reader I can't edit.

    There are some great links to content in the sidebar, which is terrific, but as a reader I'm not necessarily looking there, and Google doesn't crawl that.

    As an example of a different way to approach this, check out the main page of Muppet Wiki. We've been doing a lot of optimization on Muppet Wiki, and it's really worked. If you search for "Muppet", the wiki comes up as the #2 result, and we're gunning for Wikipedia at #1.

    The main page on Muppet Wiki has big content portals at the top, directing people to the content that they're likely to be looking for. The big, bold links at the top of the page all go to major content that Google should pay attention to. So the keywords for Muppet's main page include Jim Henson, Kermit the Frog, Sesame Street and Muppet Characters -- major content for Google and for readers.

    Right now, when you search for "RuneScape", the wiki comes up as #13 -- off the first page of results, and under 8 links for cheap gold. We can bring this wiki way up, but to do that, we'll need to change the main page design to direct Google to the important places, and take the distractions off. I'd love to help with that, if you guys are interested. -- Danny (talk) 23:46, 22 June 2009 (UTC)

    Coolio, sounds like we have a plan : ) --Serenity1137 08:05, 23 June 2009 (UTC)

    Closed - This thread continues in Forum:Main page design feedback.   az talk   07:29, 1 July 2009 (UTC)

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