Back To Programming / Scripting / Coding Forum

Why TagCloud is important for good SERPs

  • Mustafa_Aslan
  • Beginner
  • Beginner
  • No Avatar
  • Joined: Oct 01, 2011
  • Posts: 38
  • Status: Offline

Post October 1st, 2011, 7:56 pm

As you know without good SERP your site will get next to nothing visitors, only visitors will be you and a couple of your friends besides a few other people, that's all.

To get more traffic you need to optimize your page for search engines (SEO) for the main keywords you have in mind. How about the rest of the keywords related with your site?

The importance of tag cloud comes right in that point. Having a tag cloud in your site like telling the crawlers "look I have all this stuff in my web site" and causes the search engines to index your site for those keywords as well.

Below you may find a PHP Tag CLoud Script that I am currently using in my site. All the words were supplied from the MySQL Database.

PHP Code: [ Select ]
<?
$tag_string="";
$query3=" SELECT template_name FROM fwt_templates";
$result3=mysql_query($query3) or die(mysql_error());
while ($row3 = mysql_fetch_array($result3))
{
 
$raw_tag=explode(" ", trim($row3['template_name']));
   for($kl=0;$kl<count($raw_tag);$kl++)
   {
      $strr=$raw_tag[$kl];
   
      $strr=str_replace("0"," ",$strr);
      $strr=str_replace("1"," ",$strr);
      $strr=str_replace("2"," ",$strr);
      $strr=str_replace("3"," ",$strr);
      $strr=str_replace("4"," ",$strr);
      $strr=str_replace("5"," ",$strr);
      $strr=str_replace("6"," ",$strr);
      $strr=str_replace("7"," ",$strr);
      $strr=str_replace("8"," ",$strr);
      $strr=str_replace("9"," ",$strr);
      $strr=str_replace("*"," ",$strr);
      $strr=str_replace("-"," ",$strr);
      $strr=str_replace("("," ",$strr);
      $strr=str_replace(")"," ",$strr);
      $strb=str_replace(" ","",$strr);
      if(strlen($strb)>3)//word length to avoid listing words like "and" "of" etc
      {
         
         $tag_string.=$strr." ";
      }
   }
}
$tag_array=explode(" ", $tag_string);
$tag_array=array_unique($tag_array);
shuffle($tag_array);
echo "<div id=\"tagcloud\">";
 
 $tplm=count($tag_array);
 if(count($tag_array)>200)
 {
   $tplm=200;//I want to list only 200 words
 }
// start looping through the tags
 
for ($ii=0;$ii<$tplm;$ii++)
{
   $tags_array[$ii]=$tag_array[$ii];
}
sort($tags_array);
for ($ii=0;$ii<$tplm;$ii++)
{
    // determine the popularity of this term as a percentage
    $percent = rand(1,100);
    // determine the class for this term based on the percentage
    if ($percent < 20)
    {
        $class = 'smallest';
    } elseif ($percent >= 20 and $percent < 40) {
        $class = 'small';
    } elseif ($percent >= 40 and $percent < 60) {
        $class = 'medium';
    } elseif ($percent >= 60 and $percent < 80) {
        $class = 'large';
    } else {
        $class = 'largest';
    }
 
    // output this term
    echo "<span class=\"$class\"><a href=\"search.php?query=" . urlencode($tags_array[$ii]) . "\">" . $tags_array[$ii] . "</a></span> ";
}
 
// close the output
echo "</div><p>";
   ?>
 
  1. <?
  2. $tag_string="";
  3. $query3=" SELECT template_name FROM fwt_templates";
  4. $result3=mysql_query($query3) or die(mysql_error());
  5. while ($row3 = mysql_fetch_array($result3))
  6. {
  7.  
  8. $raw_tag=explode(" ", trim($row3['template_name']));
  9.    for($kl=0;$kl<count($raw_tag);$kl++)
  10.    {
  11.       $strr=$raw_tag[$kl];
  12.    
  13.       $strr=str_replace("0"," ",$strr);
  14.       $strr=str_replace("1"," ",$strr);
  15.       $strr=str_replace("2"," ",$strr);
  16.       $strr=str_replace("3"," ",$strr);
  17.       $strr=str_replace("4"," ",$strr);
  18.       $strr=str_replace("5"," ",$strr);
  19.       $strr=str_replace("6"," ",$strr);
  20.       $strr=str_replace("7"," ",$strr);
  21.       $strr=str_replace("8"," ",$strr);
  22.       $strr=str_replace("9"," ",$strr);
  23.       $strr=str_replace("*"," ",$strr);
  24.       $strr=str_replace("-"," ",$strr);
  25.       $strr=str_replace("("," ",$strr);
  26.       $strr=str_replace(")"," ",$strr);
  27.       $strb=str_replace(" ","",$strr);
  28.       if(strlen($strb)>3)//word length to avoid listing words like "and" "of" etc
  29.       {
  30.          
  31.          $tag_string.=$strr." ";
  32.       }
  33.    }
  34. }
  35. $tag_array=explode(" ", $tag_string);
  36. $tag_array=array_unique($tag_array);
  37. shuffle($tag_array);
  38. echo "<div id=\"tagcloud\">";
  39.  
  40.  $tplm=count($tag_array);
  41.  if(count($tag_array)>200)
  42.  {
  43.    $tplm=200;//I want to list only 200 words
  44.  }
  45. // start looping through the tags
  46.  
  47. for ($ii=0;$ii<$tplm;$ii++)
  48. {
  49.    $tags_array[$ii]=$tag_array[$ii];
  50. }
  51. sort($tags_array);
  52. for ($ii=0;$ii<$tplm;$ii++)
  53. {
  54.     // determine the popularity of this term as a percentage
  55.     $percent = rand(1,100);
  56.     // determine the class for this term based on the percentage
  57.     if ($percent < 20)
  58.     {
  59.         $class = 'smallest';
  60.     } elseif ($percent >= 20 and $percent < 40) {
  61.         $class = 'small';
  62.     } elseif ($percent >= 40 and $percent < 60) {
  63.         $class = 'medium';
  64.     } elseif ($percent >= 60 and $percent < 80) {
  65.         $class = 'large';
  66.     } else {
  67.         $class = 'largest';
  68.     }
  69.  
  70.     // output this term
  71.     echo "<span class=\"$class\"><a href=\"search.php?query=" . urlencode($tags_array[$ii]) . "\">" . $tags_array[$ii] . "</a></span> ";
  72. }
  73.  
  74. // close the output
  75. echo "</div><p>";
  76.    ?>
  77.  


Good luck.

Mustafa
  • Anonymous
  • Bot
  • No Avatar
  • Joined: 25 Feb 2008
  • Posts: ?
  • Loc: Ozzuland
  • Status: Online

Post October 1st, 2011, 7:56 pm

  • SpooF
  • ٩๏̯͡๏۶
  • Bronze Member
  • User avatar
  • Joined: May 22, 2004
  • Posts: 3415
  • Loc: Richland, WA
  • Status: Offline

Post October 2nd, 2011, 11:39 am

Don't you think you should count the occurrences to determine the popularity instead of throwing out a random number?
#define NULL (::rand() % 2)
  • Mustafa_Aslan
  • Beginner
  • Beginner
  • No Avatar
  • Joined: Oct 01, 2011
  • Posts: 38
  • Status: Offline

Post October 2nd, 2011, 12:02 pm

That popularity was something I changed later. First I was counting the number of downloads to find the popularity but later on I thought, when I got more than 1000 templates, that only showing popular downloads will be like omitting the rest of the files and always the same words will be in the tag cloud (currently I am showing only 200 and there are more than 2000 words). So I decided to randomize the "popularity" in order to get all the words indexed by search engines, and to show visitors as well.

Then I adopted the rating star to show the popularity.

Regards,

Mustafa
  • Bigwebmaster
  • Site Admin
  • Site Admin
  • User avatar
  • Joined: Dec 20, 2002
  • Posts: 8922
  • Loc: Seattle, WA & Phoenix, AZ
  • Status: Offline

Post October 2nd, 2011, 1:14 pm

I would be very careful with tag clouds as you can easily hurt your site more than help it, especially if Google feels you are keyword stuffing. In your script you are having 200 words show up in your tag cloud, in my opinion that is excessive and would probably be viewed as keyword stuffing from Google's perspective. Typically these days they do not help that much anymore, and many large websites are either removing them or finding ways that Google cannot crawl the links anymore. You may want to watch this video by Matt Cutts, a representative from Google, which talks about whether tag clouds help or hinder SEO:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYPX_ZmhLqg
Ozzu Hosting - Want your website on a fast server like Ozzu?
  • Mustafa_Aslan
  • Beginner
  • Beginner
  • No Avatar
  • Joined: Oct 01, 2011
  • Posts: 38
  • Status: Offline

Post October 2nd, 2011, 1:50 pm

Thank you very much for your warning Bigwebmaster. How many keywords you suggest? I am going to decreese the number to 20 or 30.
  • Mustafa_Aslan
  • Beginner
  • Beginner
  • No Avatar
  • Joined: Oct 01, 2011
  • Posts: 38
  • Status: Offline

Post October 2nd, 2011, 2:16 pm

Just after your warning I searched for the number of the links google doesn't consider as keyword stuffing, and some say 100 links some say 50, some say the number of links is not important but the file size (i.e. less than 101K).

What do you think about this Bigwebmaster?

Regards,

Mustafa
  • Bigwebmaster
  • Site Admin
  • Site Admin
  • User avatar
  • Joined: Dec 20, 2002
  • Posts: 8922
  • Loc: Seattle, WA & Phoenix, AZ
  • Status: Offline

Post October 2nd, 2011, 8:26 pm

I checked on a few blogs I have and I have the max links in a tag cloud at fifteen links. I do not have the source off hand, but I have heard numerous times that Google recommends the max amount of links that you should have on a page overall is 100, this includes all of your links, not just your tag cloud. So maybe keep that in mind too when figuring all of this out. I can actually see myself completely removing the tag clouds one day as I generally don't see it that useful for my members.
Ozzu Hosting - Want your website on a fast server like Ozzu?
  • joebert
  • Sledgehammer
  • Genius
  • No Avatar
  • Joined: Feb 10, 2004
  • Posts: 13455
  • Loc: Florida
  • Status: Offline

Post October 3rd, 2011, 2:10 pm

I think the only place I've found tag clouds helpful in the last year or so, has been on forum search pages. Occasionally I find a new forum with subject matter I'm not too familiar with and having a tag cloud there sometimes leads me to click the tags instead of using the search.
Strong with this one, the sudo is.
  • Mustafa_Aslan
  • Beginner
  • Beginner
  • No Avatar
  • Joined: Oct 01, 2011
  • Posts: 38
  • Status: Offline

Post October 3rd, 2011, 2:27 pm

I have been receiving traffic because of the tag cloud. But decreesed the number of keywords as adviced Bigwebmaster.

It surely does help on SEO of page.
  • Poly
  • Guru
  • Guru
  • User avatar
  • Joined: Jul 31, 2004
  • Posts: 1054
  • Loc: Same place you left me.
  • Status: Offline

Post October 4th, 2011, 12:42 pm

BWM is quite correct on this. Google frowns upon tag clouds of any amount from what I understand after the most recent Panda update. I'm not sure if they are completely ignored now, or set at a very small amount. There has been a lot of speculation on it going through all the iterations of Panda. After the Panda update, DaniWeb(another IT forum) lost over half its US based traffic and one of the contributors to it was the tag clouds.

Check out the video in this article, Dani Horowitz(creator DaniWeb) talks about the changes and what she had to do to get DaniWeb back to the same point it was at.

LINK
Every job is a self-portrait of the person who did it: Autograph your work with excellence.
  • Mustafa_Aslan
  • Beginner
  • Beginner
  • No Avatar
  • Joined: Oct 01, 2011
  • Posts: 38
  • Status: Offline

Post October 4th, 2011, 2:01 pm

The link you gave me explains very well what happened to my traffic about a week ago.

I started to recover but it is going very slow :(

Page 1 of 1

Post Information

  • Total Posts in this topic: 11 posts
  • Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 174 guests
  • You cannot post new topics in this forum
  • You cannot reply to topics in this forum
  • You cannot edit your posts in this forum
  • You cannot delete your posts in this forum
  • You cannot post attachments in this forum
 
cron
 

© 2011 Unmelted, LLC. Ozzu® is a registered trademark of Unmelted, LLC.