Search Engine Optimization CakePHP Plugin

• Author: Nick Baker, Alan Blount, Matt Reishus
• Version: 6.2.1
• License: MIT
• Website: http://www.webtechnick.com

Features

Complete tool for all your CakePHP Search Engine Optimization needs

• Easy yet powerful 301 redirect tools only loaded when a 404 would otherwise occur
• Highly configurable and intelligent 404 deep url guessing utilizing levenshtein's distance and your sitemap.xml
• Highly configurable and customizable Meta Tags for any incoming URI
• Title tag overwrites based on URI
• Custom Status Codes based on URI
• Scrapper Banning administration, complete with honeyPot baiting for scrappers to ban themselves.
• Google Analytics AB Testing Management based on URIs

Changelog

• 6.2.1 Cleaup and bug fix, no more duplicate errors. new is_nocache boolean for SeoRedirects.
• 6.2.0 Added SeoABTesting, update your Config/seo.php file
• 6.1.0 Added special case 200 Status Code to return noindex for easier and low bandwidth url killing than 410
• 6.0.0 Updated for CakePHP 2.0
• 5.1.0 New SeoUrls Shell to run sitemap levenshtein import on-demand.
• 5.0.0 New Levenshtein Distance formula to best guess the appropriate 301 based off the 404 request. This only happens if it's active in the config (default false), and no 301 redirect rules would catch it
• 4.5.1 Fixed a bug where wildcard uri's would match anywhere in the url instead of from the base. /user* would match /users/login as well as /admin/users/login. That is not the desired result.
• 4.5.0 New Seo Canonical gives an SEO the ability to Canonical link any url much like the Seo Title tool
• 4.4.0 New Seo Status Codes gives an SEO the ability to 410, or any other error code based on URI
• 4.3.0 SeoHelper::metaTags now takes in an associative array of default meta tags to use (seo tags have priority)
• 4.2.x Bug fixes and updates, update config file
• 4.0.0 Blacklist added
• 1.0.0 Initial Release

Install

Clone the repository into your app/Plugin/Seo directory:

$ git clone git://github.com/webtechnick/CakePHP-Seo-Plugin.git app/Plugin/Seo

Run the schema into your database:

$ cake schema create --plugin Seo

Setup

Create the file app/Config/seo.php with the following configurations like so:

$config = array(
	'Seo' => array(
		'approverEmail' => '[email protected]',
		'replyEmail' => '[email protected]',
		'emailConfig' => 'default', //config of your email, if false will use default CakeEmail()
		'parentDomain' => 'http://www.example.com',
		'aggressive' => true, //if false, log affenders for later review instead of autobanning
		'triggerCount' => 2,
		'timeBetweenTriggers' => 60 * 60 * 24, //seconds
		'honeyPot' => array('admin' => false, 'plugin' => 'seo', 'controller' => 'seo_blacklists', 'action' => 'honeypot'),
		'log' => true,
		'cacheEngine' => false, // optionally cache things to save on DB requests - eg: 'default'
		'searchTerms' => true, //turn on term finding
		'levenshtein' => array(
			'active' => false,
			'threshold' => 5, //-1 to ALWAYS find the closest match
			'cost_add' => 1, //cost to add a character, higher the amount the less you can add to find a match
			'cost_change' => 1, //cost to change a character, higher the amount the less you can change to find a match
			'cost_delete' => 1, //cost to delete a character, higher the ammount the less you can delete to find a match 
			'source' => '/sitemap.xml' //URL to list of urls in a sitemap
		),
		'abTesting' => array(
			'category' => 'ABTest', //Category for your ABTesting in Google Analytics
			'scope' => 3, //Scope for your ABTesting in Google Analytics
			'slot' => 4, //Slot for your ABTesting in Google Analytics
			'legacy' => false, //Uses Legacy verion of Google Analytics JS code pageTracker._setCustomVar(...)
			'session' => true, //will use sessions to store tests for users who've already seen them.
			'redmine' => false, //or the full URL if your redmine http://www.redmine-example.com/issues/
		)
	)
);

SEO Redirect/Status Code Quick Start

update file app/Config/core.php with the following:

Configure::write('Exception', array(
	'handler' => 'SeoExceptionHandler::handle',
	'renderer' => 'ExceptionRenderer',
	'log' => true
));

update file app/Config/bootstrap.php with the following:

require_once(APP . 'Plugin' . DS . 'Seo' . DS . 'Lib' . DS . 'Error' . DS . 'SeoAppError.php');

Add Redirects

http://www.example.com/admin/seo/seo_redirects/

Add Status Codes

http://www.example.com/admin/seo/seo_status_codes/

NOTE: Special case Status Code 200 will return minimum bandwidth noindex robots page, for alternative url killing (410 alternative)

SEO Meta Tags Quick Start

Include the Seo.Seo Helper to your AppController.php:

var $helpers = array('Seo.Seo');

Alter your layout to include the Seo Meta Tags in the head of your layout

<head>
	<!-- other head items -->
	<?php echo $this->Seo->metaTags(); ?>
</head>

Add Meta Tags

http://www.example.com/admin/seo/seo_meta_tags

SEO Titles Quick Start

Include the Seo.Seo Helper to your AppController.php:

var $helpers = array('Seo.Seo');

Alter your layout to include the Seo Title in the head of your layout

<head>
	<!-- other head items -->
	<?php echo $this->Seo->title($title_for_layout); ?>
</head>

Add Title Tags

http://www.example.com/admin/seo/seo_titles

SEO Canonical Quick Start

Include the Seo.Seo Helper to your AppController.php:

var $helpers = array('Seo.Seo');

Alter your layout to include the Seo Canonical in the head of your layout

<head>
	<!-- other head items -->
	<?php echo $this->Seo->canonical(); ?>
</head>

Add Canonical Links

http://www.example.com/admin/seo/seo_canonicals

SEO BlackList Quick Start

Include The Seo.BlackList Component in your AppController.php:

var $components = array('Seo.BlackList');

Start adding honeypot links in and around your application to bait malicious content grabbers

<?php echo $this->Seo->honeyPot(); ?>

Update your robots.txt to exclude /seo/ from being spidered. All legitimate spiders will ignore the honeyPot

User-agent: *
Disallow: /seo/

Add/Manage Banned IPs

http://www.example.com/admin/seo/seo_blacklists

SEO AB Testing Quick Start

Include the Seo.Seo Helper and the Seo.ABTest Component to your AppController.php:

var $helpers = array('Seo.Seo');
var $components = array('Seo.ABTest');

In your GA code on your site add the line like so:

<script type="text/javascript">
	<!-- GA Items -->
	var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker('UA-SOMEKEY');
	<?php echo $this->Seo->getABTestJS(); ?>
</script>

In your AppController.php, to test if you're on a testable page and serve it do something like this:

public function beforeFilter(){
	if($test = $this->ABTest->getTest()){
		//Do things specific to this test
		$this->set('ABTest', $test);
		$this->view = $test['SeoABTest']['slug'];
	}
	return parent::beforeFilter();
}

ProTip: For debuging in your controller before going live in GA set the debug flag to true, this will return tests that aren't active yet.

$test = $this->SeoABTest->getTest(array('debug' => true));

Add AB Tests

http://www.example.com/admin/seo/seo_a_b_tests

ProTip: By setting the ABTest to debug, it will return true in your controller, but you won't be tracking the GA code.

Wiki Links

• https://github.com/webtechnick/CakePHP-Seo-Plugin/wiki/Seo-Redirects
• https://github.com/webtechnick/CakePHP-Seo-Plugin/wiki/Seo-Meta-Tags
• https://github.com/webtechnick/CakePHP-Seo-Plugin/wiki/Seo-Title-Tags