Google Webmasters Account (or Google Vs. Dolphin)

Ok, Google hates me/you/all of us.... well not really but it definitley hates Dolphin.  if anyone doesn't have a Google Webmasters account (google.com/webmasters) you should probably create one and then prepare to cry just a little, or throw up whichever comes first. If anyone isn't familiar this is the Google service that lets you see what google thinks of your site. I just upgraded a few of my sites from 6.0.4 to 7.0.6 (why yes I do live under a rock, thanks for asking!) and this is now what Google thinks of my sites:

Keywords (this is what Google thinks my site is about, in order):

1. search

2. calendar

3. featured

4. tags

5. categories

It shows the same thing for every site I upgraded.. thanks Dolphin! I'm willing to bet since most people don't play around with the "title=" or "alt=" tags or the page title there are about 1,000,000,000 Dolphin sites that look exactly the same to Google. Before someone asks "didn't you change the meta info in admin??", I sure did.. but Google quit paying attention to "meta keywords" a loooong time ago. I'm my opinion you have two options, 1. Buy an SEO mod that lets you put different titles on each page 2. Hard code alt and title tags on all links and pictures. If you choose option 2 don't even try to upgrade in the future (one of the reasons I stuck with 6.0.4 so long).

As usual this is just my 2 cents, I'm sure most people won't even read this post but instead will skip to the one above or below it which is probably "how do I change Copyright 2011 my company???".

I read it and actually posted on this topic many moons ago. People thought i was nuts too

Well if no one else reads it besides you that will still be 1 more than most of my posts, lol. I wish we could get Boonex to focus more on SEO and a little less on other bells and whistles. I think the spam prevention and security added to 7.0 is a huge improvement (even though phpid requires a lot of tinkering), now we need to focus on making Dolphin a google magnet. Wordpress has a plugin that let's you add a different title and description to EACH PAGE... not to mention an awesome sitemap generator. I know they hate people comparing Dolphin to Wordpress but I can throw up a wordpress site and Google knows EXACTLY what it is about. Google thinks all my Dolphin sites are about calendars, lol.

This is my ideas and dream to make dolphin much better

http://www.boonex.com/trac/dolphin/ticket/2600

Whelll i thin that in my site only keywords is 

1st - Tags
2nd - Calendar
3rd - Popular
4th- Feautered
5th - christian (my site is christian portal... i think that this word need to be on 1st place)

Boonex pls make true the UFO360 dream :) 

Useful information shared..I am very happy to read this article..thanks for giving us nice information . Fantastic walk-through. I appreciate this post.

I also think google hates dolphin maybe because they all look same in a text browser like lynx. I got this as my keywords:

search

videos

tags

photos

sounds

 Yup, that's exactly what I mean.. In Googles eyes our sites are all exactly the same! I think everyone here would be shocked if they setup a Google webmasters account because those same 5 keywords are what we would all have!

i don't think its gonna be easy to change this. If we tried to solve this we have to change dolphin core and after that much change it will be a whole new software not dolphin.

booya!!!!!!!!! we made a software better than dolphin in terms of SEO and we will name it shark :)

well i can say, from years of experience with dolphin 7+, SEO is non-existent, and truly, it is up to the site owner to optimize their site. yes alt tags on images, descriptions on links. i have not added my dolphin site to google webmaster tools, though i can say that on a set of keywords that i have optimized for, we do pretty well.

one of the things i find many focus on which is totally non-conducive to SEO, are the aesthetics of a dolphin site. the search engines could careless about how pretty your site is, and if you do not have consumable textual content, then you end up with a bland or generic reference to your site.

though in most cases i have taken steps to enhance my discoverable presence of the dolphin site.

yes, quit adding bells and whistles work on the sites SEO and Security features. work on providing the admin with admin priveleges that dont require delving into the code.

work on that hideous shopping cart, if you wish to call it that. work on that lack luster email system, work on that hideous email template option.

work on reducing redundant data, work on removing the dependencies and interdependincies. work on the failed install ORDER OF PRECEDENCE when one would install the modules.

much to work on, quit with the bells and whistles

oh did i mention work on the SPAM issues.

and one other thing, do something with CAPTCHA

Amen to all those brother!

 i've been down this road before, and was told this:

"thats the way it has been, and that is the way it will continue to be" and the thread was closed.

i think my post was the only one i have seen as being closed. they do not like hearing what is wrong with dolphin, only wish that we all kiss their ass and tell them how great it is when its not great.

that notice about dolphin having security issues should have been a public notice to all dolphin users. that is a real problem. yes the thread was hidden, it was hidden because it would only lead to others trying to hack the sites. a newsletter should have been sent out by boonex instructing on how to correct the security flaw. it was not, it was buried.

and dont think that upgrading is the answer, i have been told this as well, you should not upgrade until you have tested the application fully. meaning to me that it is not tested, and i can attest to this fact, where the focus is put on what has been added, never once does the announcement come out as to what was removed in regards to functionality on dolphin. i.e. recurring payments from Dolphin v-6 removed on Dolphin 7 for paypal, and never has been expressed. so all subscriptions you had for members on a dolphin 6 site, would need to be cancelled, and recreate a new subscription without recurring billing.

go figure that one out. i came aware of this problem on a 6.1.6 upgrade, and payments were failing, why were they failing, because one reason is that the paypal payment module itself was wacked, then they removed functionality and never informed users.

ok done ranting.

Dolphin is still great, but takes a lot of work.