10. Tips & Tricks

     10.1 Using listings without URL's
     10.2 Using images in link listings
            10.2.1 Adding images to link listings
            10.2.2 Adding images that is hyperlinked
     10.3 Recommendations For Large Search Engines
     10.4 New & Popular graphic indicators
            10.4.1 What it is / used for
            10.4.2 Settings
            10.4.3 Implementation
            10.4.4Customizing the 'new' & 'pop' graphics
     10.5 How to optimize generated (static) category pages for Search Engines

10.1 Using listings without URL's

By default when no URL is supplied when adding a listing from the control panel it will be accepted and treated as a link without a URL. When viewing the listing, it will automatically not be linked because the scripts recognizes that it does not have a URL.

When adding a link without a URL from the control panel just leave the 'http://' text as is where you normally supply a URL.

Important Note:

If you accept new submissions where the addition of URL's is optional you will need to do the following: Go to the Control Panel >> Settings >> Global Engine Settings. Go to the 'New Submission Settings' section. Look for an option that reads 'Check that a URL is present when submitting a new listing:' - Set this to 'No' so that users are not required to supply a URL when doing a new submission.

10.2 Using images in link listings

As of PowerSeek Ver 3.0 you may upload images. This means that each link listing can have one uploaded image. If you would like to have more than one image per listing use the following to include extra images in link listings.

10.2.1 Adding images to link listings

To use images in link listings use the [img] tag. For example:
[img]http://www.yourdomain.com/image.gif[/img]

Images are supported in the description field or any other fields/keys that you create.

10.2.2 Adding images that is hyperlinked

In the event where you would like images to be linked to the URL of the link listing use the [imglnk] tag. For example:
[imglnk]http://www.yourdomain.com/image.gif[/imglnk]

The image will be displayed in the link listing and will be linked with the URL of the link listing.

Also See:

3.5 Extra Field/Key Settings
11.5 How to let submitters upload images

10.3 Recommendations For Large Search Engines

PowerSeek has been built to support search engines with hundreds of thousands or millions of links, but please keep in mind that the more links you have, the more processing power and memory (RAM) you will need. The amount of traffic you receive might also influence the amount of processing power you have available.

If you have more than 15 000 links please generate all categories/directories so that it is available as HTML files (run a static directory). This ensures that the minimum amount of server resources are used when users browse your directory and search engine. Just loading normal HTML files is probably a couple of times lighter on resources than executing CGI scripts.

Use Telnet/SSH when generating HTML files. This is many times faster and lighter on server resources.

If you have more than 70 000 links we recommend that you switch to a dedicated server. This amount is a ball park figure. Note that this figure may vary and also depends on the traffic your Search Engine & Directory receives.

Use MySQL's FULLTEXT searching with PowerSeek. To set this option, go to the Control Panel >> Settings >> Global Engine Settings >> 4. Search Settings

Use the 'Add URL' form for large search engines. See:
8.1.1 Medium-Sized and Large-Sized Search Engines Add URL Forms

10.4 New & Popular graphic indicators.

10.4.1 What it is / used for:

The 'new' graphics next to your directories indicate that there are new links {urls} inside categories or it's sub-categories. Different colortypes indicate different levels of “newness”.
Popular links are indicated in the same way, but with their own graphic.

10.4.2 Settings

Various settings about the 'new' graphics can be set when you go into the ‘Control Panel >> Settings >> Global Engine Settings’.

10.4.3 Implementation

For categories:

To have the 'new' graphics displayed next to categories, you need to include the necessary variable inside the template HTML code. For example, by including the variable, !!new!! into the directories1.html template will result in the ‘new’ graphics being displayed next to categories where new links has been added.

For Links

To have 'new' and 'pop' graphics displayed next to links that are considered to be new or popular, you need to include the necessary variable inside of the template HTML code. For example, by including the variable, !!new!! and !!pop!! into the tmplsearch.html template will result in the ‘new’ and 'pop' graphics being displayed next to links - if link listings are considered to be new or popular.

Eg.

<li><font face="Arial" size="2">!!title_with_link!! !!new!! !!pop!!</font></li>

Templates where the !!new!! & !!pop!! variable words can be used in, are:

Category link style templates: tmplsearch.html, tmplsearch_prem.html

Search results templates: lsearchres_loc.html, lsearchres_loc_prem.html,

Link information templates: linkinfo.html, linkinfop.html

The what’s new template whatsnew_lists.html, whatsnew_lists_prem.html

The popular hits template tophits_listings.html, tophits_listings_prem.html

10.4.4 Customizing the 'new' & 'pop' graphics.

The 'new' and 'pop' graphics can be customized to your liking by editing and/or overwriting the following files:

new1.gif
new2.gif
new3.gif
pop.gif

The above files are located in your PowerSeek 'html' directory. This directory is explained in the PowerSeek installation instructions.

10.5 How to optimize generated (static) category pages for Search Engines

All web site owners including Search Engine owners normally want as much traffic as possible. This is one of the vital things when it comes to owning a successful Search Engine. Promoting your Search Engine is one of the most important things you can do.

PowerSeek provides you with the ability to provide custom page titles and meta descriptions and keywords for generated category pages. The title of the page will normally play a large role in gaining a good position in the search results of other Search Engines. There are other Engines out there where Meta tags also plays a large role.

To provide custom page titles and meta descriptions and keywords for generated (static) category pages add an additional title to each category. Also add meta descriptions and keywords. This can be done when adding or editing a category from the Dir Manager. It will be best to supply the key words or phrases in the title on what the specific category is about. Note that the title you supply will also show in the search results of other Search Engines that people browse when they are searching. Ensure that you create a readable title that makes sense.

Also make sure that the description describes what the page/category is about. Ensure that the meta keywords you supply in the meta keywords box is available throughout the category page and is relevant to what is provided in the specific category.

After supplying custom titles, meta descriptions and keywords to categories, edit the template that is used to display categories with. This can be done by going to the Control Panel >> Template Manager >> Directory Template HTML Code (defdir.html)

Make sure that the template contains the following between the <title> tags. For example:

<title>%%custom_pagetitle%%</title>

Make sure that the template contains the following between the <head> tags. For example:




Note that if you are using custom templates for categories that you will need to edit the custom category display template instead of the default category template.

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