The Stallion Responsive theme and Stallion WordPress SEO theme includes a large number of social network promotion features, ranging from popular social media buttons (Facebook, Twitter, Google+…) to easy ways to link your WordPress blog with promotion services like Google Analytics and Google, Bing and Alexa site verification. To access the Stallion Responsive Promotion Options page log into your sites WordPress Dashboard and after installing Stallion via the “Appearance” >> “Themes” page on the left menu hover over the “Stallion Theme” menu and click “Promotion Options”. WordPress Social Network Promotion Below is a screenshot of the entire Stallion Responsive Promotion Options page, click the image for the large version. The Stallion WordPress Theme Promotion Options page has settings related to […]
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Google Verification Failed. Your Meta Tag is not Formatted Correctly
Hi, Dave:
I can’t verify my site with google. After I saved the meta tag, this: “” />” appears on my home page, and got the message on google webmaster central: “Verification failed. Your meta tag is not formatted correctly.”
I wonder has anybody else got that problem?
Another quick question: Do I need all the plugins that you recommend for talian 5 as the Stallion has got the best built in plugins already?
Some advices please, Dave.
Thank you very much.
Haiyan
Google Verification Failed. Your Meta Tag is not Formatted Correctly
Google Site Verification Meta Tag
Are you using the Stallion built in Google verification box on the Promotion Options page?
If so looks like you’ve added the entire meta tag code, all you need is this bit:
I think that’s your code, on the options page it’s the bit represented in red as “copythispartofthecode”, the rest of the code is dealt with by Stallion.
If you’ve added the meta tag manually to the header.php file looks like you’ve made a mistake and either pasted it in the middle of another meta tag or something gone wrong.
BTW once verified remove the code, you only need Google to see it once to prove it’s your site.
David
Google Site Verification Meta Tag
Yahoo Site Verification
Adding Yahoo site verification wont work. I tried the way the instructions showed and the verification failed.
Bill
WordPress Google Site Verification
I looked at your site and saw your attempt at Google site verification.
Looks like you pasted the entire meta tag into the Stallion themes options page.
Don’t follow the instructions from Google/Yahoo/Bing for verification, follow the instructions on the Stallion Promotion options page, you only need the code that I highlighted in red on the options page, if you copy the entire meta tag it won’t work.
After a site is verified remove the code from the options page, Google etc… only need to view it once.
David
WordPress Google Site Verification
Move Social Media Buttons
Hi David,
First of all: kudos on making possibly the best WP theme available today!
I have one question for you. I’m mainly promoting my site on Facebook, Twitter and Twingly. Is it possible to add the Like and Retweet buttons just below the post title? I have reason to believe that I’m loosing quite a few likes and retweets since they only can be found at the bottom of the post.
I’m not that much into PHP, but if you could just provide me with some basic instructions, I should be able to work it out :)
Move Social Media Buttons
Social Media Buttons
i found out :)
Google Site Verification Failed. We Couldn't find the Verification Meta Tag
Hey there David
I am adding Stallion to a second website of mine. I did not have to use the Google verification on my first site because it was already verified.
Your code example under the Google verification box on the Promotion Options page looks like this: META name=”y_key” content=
The code on Google Webmaster tools page looks like this:
meta name=”google-site-verification” content=
The reason I mention this is because the verification says “Verification failed. We couldn’t find the verification meta tag.” and I was thinking that your verification code may be different than what Google uses in my account for some reason???
By the way – this options page is simply awesome!
Google Site Verification Failed. We Couldn't find the Verification Meta Tag
Google Site Verification Code
See my comment directly above yours, you only copy and paste the bit referred to on the Stallion options page, not the entire meta tag: most of that is dealt with by Stallion, similar to how you only add your AdSense pub-###### number not an entire AdSense ad.
Once verified don’t forget to remove the code you pasted in the verification box as there’s no reason to keep it on the site when verified.
David
Google Site Verification Code
How to fix the Facebook fb_xd_fragment Bug
Hi Dave,
After getting my design shaped up more or less I finally launched Stallion on my site yesterday.
Things are pretty good, however in wp-stats my Facebook referrer views rocketed from a typical 50-100/day to 764 (I had switched ON the Facebook button feature in the Stallion Promotion panel). A friend of mine with the Stallion theme has been experiencing something similar.
Checking in Google Analytics shows just 48 visits from FB yesterday, nowhere near 764. I also noticed in the Analytics content section that some of my page urls were double-listed, and the extras had the additional ending fb_xd_fragment.
Doing a google search for “fb_xd_fragment” seems to show that it is an FB bug of some sort. I’m not sure if there are any negative effects other than the apparent misalignment of stats. Maybe you are aware of all this and have covered it somewhere I missed, but just wanted to let you know and see if there was a solution.
Thanks,
Erik
How to fix the Facebook fb_xd_fragment Bug
Facebook Like Button fb_xd_fragment Bug
I’m aware of an issue with the Facebook like button fb_xd_fragment bug that’s apparently been an on going bug issue with the Facebook default Like button code for years.
This is a bug in the Facebook coding, not Stallion. I stumbled upon the fb_xd_fragment issue about a week ago on one of my wife’s sites and have been looking for a fix (so far nothing I can put into Stallion).
On my wife’s site there was a frame redirection script (WordPress plugin) running because it’s a photo blog and with photo blogs you get a lot of traffic directly to the image via Google images (the visitor doesn’t actually visit the site). The script forces a page out of a frame and basically redirects them to the site where they get AdSense ads etc… Have to admit the plugin didn’t make any obvious difference to the amount of AdSense clicks.
When I updated the site from Talian to Stallion it would not load a page in Internet Explorer and gave a URL with fb_xd_fragment with in it. Basically would load correctly then reload a URL with the Facebook link code within it and the page would be blank.
Didn’t take long to find info on the Facebook bug, what was happening is there was an interaction between the Facebook iframe code and the WordPress plugin, but only in IE. I disabled the plugin, problem solved.
I’ve updated about 60 domains to Stallion and this is the only time I’ve found this bug and no one else (until now :-)) has reported an issue like this.
If I can’t find a fix (not looking good as I can’t change Facebook’s buggy code on their servers) I’ll be adding a warning to the Promotions Options page about the bug. If a site trips the bug would be a case of either disabling the like button or find what’s causing the bug to occur and remove it.
To test your site for the bug load a post with the like button on in Internet Explorer or check your server logs for pages with fb_xd_fragment within them. I read it doesn’t affect pages that have been liked, so make sure it’s a post which hasn’t been liked already.
This shouldn’t damage a WordPress sites search engine rankings since WordPress has built in canonical URL redirection. Basically these broken URLs if read by Google etc… will be treated as the original page and redirect the benefit. Not suggesting this should be ignored since your visitors running Internet Explorer get a blank page! Once fixed either by finding what’s interacting with the Facebook code or turning the Facebook Like button off there will be no SEO damage.
The Facebook referrer views is another issue. I see it as well on my sites, it appears to be occasionally a page double loads and uses the FaceBook Like URL as the referrer. I’ve looked into it and couldn’t find a reason for this to occur, other have the same issue.
Basically the default Facebook Like button code is poorly written! Facebook can send a fair amount of traffic to some types of site, I’ve got pages with over 500 Likes and wouldn’t want to remove the like buttons, so stuck with buggy code I’m afraid.
David
Facebook Like Button fb_xd_fragment Bug
fb_xd_fragment Bug
I have noticed the same FB url code:
/?fb_xd_fragment=
Just wanted you to know.
Facebook Bug
Thanks David, I appreciate you taking the time to explain this. I thought it might be an Facebook issue and as you explained looks like that’s the case. I guess no company is immune from bugs, even FB :)
Best
Erik
WordPress SEM Theme
I have always somewhat ignored SEM. However, with the recent Panda update I am looking to diversify more into social media and promotion more, just in case.
Do you think in the next release you will expand the social promotion options?
For example:
Stumble is pretty big now (the number 2 source of Social Media traffic), perhaps a button at the bottom option, with fat juicy icons, with number count.
fb_xd fragment could be changed.
Maybe ‘follow us’ or ‘follow me’ including FB, Twitter, Stumble, Youtube widget. The reason here is many non techy people do not even know what RSS is.
Note this is different from the stumble or like buttons at the bottom of the post which gives thumbs up to a post rather than connects you to the feed (you know this writing this for others).
Change the language for example ‘entries RSS’ to something like Post or ‘Articles RSS’ or something non geeks would understand.
Comments RSS I find important as people keep coming back to the comments.
Could be other ideas I am not aware of as I am not an SEM guy.
I know this is a lot of coding and can be done with plugins, but I noticed most social plugins have no follows etc, and really do not do it right in terms of code, although some look pretty cool like ‘share and follow’.
So it is just an idea for the future.
WordPress SEM Theme
Social Media SEO for WordPress
You hit the nail right on the head when you said “I noticed most social plugins have no follows etc, and really do not do it right in terms of code”.
There’s lots of WordPress plugins that do social media promotion that looks good and works from a user perspective, but the code is so wrong SEO wise I can’t use it on an SEO theme! Most of the social media promotion plugins use nofollow on the links and as you know nofollow is so SEO damaging we can’t use it.
It pretty much leaves us with using javascript or possibly iFrames for social media buttons and there’s not a lot of social media promotion plugins built that way. Currently testing this plugin which uses the same sort of javascript/CSS combination code I use for the Stallion link cloaking. Got it running on a development server, but out the box it doesn’t show up on single posts/pages, shows up on archive pages instead (looking into it)! Not spent long on it, but it’s similar to what I’d have designed if I had to build it from scratch.
Although I’m not going to add every feature I use directly into Stallion because some things are better dealt with using dedicated plugins (like the plugins listed at WordPress SEO Plugins) there are more features I want to add to Stallion and better integration into social media networks is on the list. Been looking for auto posting new posts to Facebook for example, but not found a plugin that works yet, use this plugin http://www.ajaymatharu.com/wordpress-plugin-tweet-old-posts/ for Tweeting old posts automatically (had that running on my wife’s sites for a while and it’s generated 3,000 Tweets :-)).
I like the Article RSS change suggestion, will be in the next update.
I’m always open to good ideas, currently looking for a new theme look for a larger sidebar size version of Stallion and not sure what to use yet. Have made a new theme colour that has a different background colour, if you have a monitor setting above 1,000 width the background outside 1,000 is dark purple/blue (added a matching header image and other images).
David
Social Media SEO for WordPress
WordPress SEO Ideas
Dave, I have run the gauntlet on WordPress plugins. Installing and uninstalling them on WordPress test sites for hours. Each one has something that does mess up SEO a bit. Maybe one plugin that is not SEO is OK if you are using Stallion, because you have a good base. However, the thing is if that one thing like a ‘no follow’ shows up on every page and post, it eventually does change how a search engine evaluates your site.
Regarding, ideas, yes it would be great if you had a thread just for ideas and improvements in general. I know you can not do every one and this might open the flood gate for everyone demanding everything, but it could also be a source for brainstorming.
Maybe you open a tread even on Panda or Google changes? I do not know. I know that some of my websites are doing fine and others took a dip. So you could use some of the chatter to come up with ideas, although no one really knows the deal with the change.
WordPress SEO Ideas