Page Title & Conditions

[rumapop]

Hi,
I have contacted support on this one but they didn’t know & so they suggested I put it to the community! So here it is.

My site page titles are currently comprised of some variables mainly SectionName(product) :: Page Title :: Company Name, however I would like to start changing this format for new products I add. My problem is I don’t want to go and change this uniformly across the site and consequently affect my current search engine position.

In an ideal world I will slowly migrate the pages over depending on how well they are positioned. So I have been trying to add in a condition to detect if this product is new then use the new format if it’s old use the existing format. I have tried a couple of conditions but with no success, but my knowledge of conditions is very poor.

I created a variable to detect new pages “PageTitleFormat” (true for new pages, false for old) and tried to block depending on true or false but it didn’t work... am I on the right track or is there a better way of doing this?

Any suggestions gratefully received
Lucy

[Mike Hughes]

I could well be missing something here, but if you believe the new title format will be better for SEO, then why not just make the change global?

I can understand that a title change might make google want to re-evaluate the page's position, but the serps are updated so quickly that I wouldn't expect there to be any long term impact.

Mike

[rumapop]

Thanks for your replies, unfortunately at the moment I don't have the time to change every page title to the new format & the existing format wouldn't work as it doesn't contain the product name.

the current code is:

<title>
	<actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22PageType%22%20%2f%3e%20%3d%3d%20%27Section%27"><actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22SectionLevel%22%20%2f%3e%20%3e%200"><actinic:variable name="SectionName" /> :: <actinic:variable name="PageTitle" /> </actinic:block><actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22SectionLevel%22%20%2f%3e%20%3d%3d%200"><actinic:variable name="CompanyName" /></actinic:block></actinic:block><actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22PageType%22%20%2f%3e%20%3d%3d%20%27Brochure%27"><actinic:variable name="BrochureName" />, <actinic:variable name="CompanyName" /></actinic:block><actinic:block if="%28%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22PageType%22%20%2f%3e%20%21%3d%20%27Section%27%29%20AND%20%28%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22PageType%22%20%2f%3e%20%21%3d%20%27Brochure%27%29" ><actinic:variable name="PageType" />, <actinic:variable name="CompanyName" /></actinic:block>
</title>

and this is what I have been playing with

<title>
	<actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22PageTitleFormat%22%20%2f%3e%20%3d%3d%20false">
	<actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22PageType%22%20%2f%3e%20%3d%3d%20%27Section%27"><actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22SectionLevel%22%20%2f%3e%20%3e%200"><actinic:variable name="SectionName" /> :: <actinic:variable name="PageTitle" /> </actinic:block><actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22SectionLevel%22%20%2f%3e%20%3d%3d%200"><actinic:variable name="CompanyName" /></actinic:block></actinic:block><actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22PageType%22%20%2f%3e%20%3d%3d%20%27Brochure%27"><actinic:variable name="BrochureName" />, <actinic:variable name="CompanyName" /></actinic:block><actinic:block if="%28%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22PageType%22%20%2f%3e%20%21%3d%20%27Section%27%29%20AND%20%28%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22PageType%22%20%2f%3e%20%21%3d%20%27Brochure%27%29" ><actinic:variable name="PageType" />, <actinic:variable name="CompanyName" /></actinic:block>
	</actinic:block>

	<actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22PageTitleFormat%22%20%2f%3e%20%3d%3d%20true">
	<actinic:variable name="PageTitle" />
	</actinic:block>
</title>

I am sure there is probably a better way of how I've done it!

Lucy

[Rich Brady]

How many page layouts do you use? I'd recommend one, but some default actinic sites use two.

Either way it's only a couple of changes to the outer layout(s) to make every page the same.

[rumapop]

good question... I'm pretty confident it's just one

[Rich Brady]

In that case you'll only need to make one change and all the pages will use the same format. Use of blockifs will replace Product Title with Section Title where necessary.

[rumapop]

Hi Rich, thanks for your reply, sorry to come back to you but could you point me in the right direction? Was I initally on the right track?

[Rich Brady]

Try this:

<title><actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22PageType%22%20%2f%3e%20%3d%3d%20%27Section%27"><actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22SectionLevel%22%20%2f%3e%20%3e%200"><actinic:variable name="SectionName" /> | <actinic:variable name="CompanyName" /></actinic:block><actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22SectionLevel%22%20%2f%3e%20%3d%3d%200"><actinic:variable name="CompanyName" /></actinic:block></actinic:block><actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22PageType%22%20%2f%3e%20%3d%3d%20%27Brochure%27"><actinic:variable name="BrochureName" /> | <actinic:variable name="CompanyName" /></actinic:block><actinic:block if="%28%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22PageType%22%20%2f%3e%20%21%3d%20%27Section%27%29%20AND%20%28%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22PageType%22%20%2f%3e%20%21%3d%20%27Brochure%27%29" ><actinic:variable name="PageType" /> | <actinic:variable name="CompanyName" /></actinic:block></title>

It will put "Section/Product | Company Name" into your page

[rumapop]

Okay... I'm sorry for being a pain in the backside, I don't think I've put over what I was after very well or I'm not understanding how to implement the above! I have one product per page and then currently use the variables "Section Name" and "Company Name" to build my page title tag.

Now in my new pages I would like to start writing my own Page Title tags and for these to be used, but only on the new products. Then when I have the time I'll roll this out across all products.

Is there a way of using your above code unless the Page Title tag in the section has been populated?

Sorry!

[Rich Brady]

How about this:

<title><actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22PageTitle%22%20%2f%3e%20%21%3d%20%22%22" >
	<actinic:variable name="PageTitle" /> | <actinic:variable name="CompanyName" />
   </actinic:block><actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22PageTitle%22%20%2f%3e%20%3d%3d%20%22%22">
	<actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22PageType%22%20%2f%3e%20%3d%3d%20%27Section%27"><actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22SectionLevel%22%20%2f%3e%20%3e%200"><actinic:variable name="SectionName" /> | <actinic:variable name="CompanyName" /></actinic:block><actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22SectionLevel%22%20%2f%3e%20%3d%3d%200"><actinic:variable name="CompanyName" /></actinic:block></actinic:block><actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22PageType%22%20%2f%3e%20%3d%3d%20%27Brochure%27"><actinic:variable name="BrochureName" /> | <actinic:variable name="CompanyName" /></actinic:block><actinic:block if="%28%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22PageType%22%20%2f%3e%20%21%3d%20%27Section%27%29%20AND%20%28%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22PageType%22%20%2f%3e%20%21%3d%20%27Brochure%27%29" ><actinic:variable name="PageType" /> | <actinic:variable name="CompanyName" /></actinic:block>
   </actinic:block></title>

[Duncan Rounding]

Without reading the above code....

I think that if the PageTitle variable is left empty then it will automatically become 'CompanyName SectionName' which may mean that it won't work if it's checking if PageTitle is null.

You may need to create another variable to use in place of PageTitle to do this.

[rumapop]

Thanks, this is 99% the way there apart from for some reason when the PageTitle isn't populated its throwing an additional company name in before the section name, but I can't see where its coming from. The lower part of the code works fine, but as soon as the top blockif is put in it appears.

[Rich Brady]

Could you paste the <title> code in here for us please?

[Duncan Rounding]

That won't work Rich. PageTitle is never null therefore the blockif test won't work. The PageTitle content is not exposed and is built by catalog.exe so another section scoped variable is needed to take it's place.

Another option would be a bit of php to read the left few characters of PageTitle to see if it equals the same left few characters of CompanyName. If it does then replace PageTitle with the blockif you created in the lower portion above else leave it as is. My brain's not in php gear at this time of day so perhaps someone else can knock the php together for you.

[rumapop]

The existing title tag is

<title>
	<actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22PageType%22%20%2f%3e%20%3d%3d%20%27Section%27"><actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22SectionLevel%22%20%2f%3e%20%3e%200"><actinic:variable name="SectionName" /> :: <actinic:variable name="PageTitle" /> </actinic:block><actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22SectionLevel%22%20%2f%3e%20%3d%3d%200"><actinic:variable name="CompanyName" /></actinic:block></actinic:block><actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22PageType%22%20%2f%3e%20%3d%3d%20%27Brochure%27"><actinic:variable name="BrochureName" />, <actinic:variable name="CompanyName" /></actinic:block><actinic:block if="%28%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22PageType%22%20%2f%3e%20%21%3d%20%27Section%27%29%20AND%20%28%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22PageType%22%20%2f%3e%20%21%3d%20%27Brochure%27%29" ><actinic:variable name="PageType" />, <actinic:variable name="CompanyName" /></actinic:block>
</title>