SEO

This chapters covers all configurations which are relevant for search engine optimization regarding the news extension.

Note

All settings described require TYPO3 9 and the the system extension "seo" installed.

Page title for single news

EXT:news implements a custom pageTitleProvider \GeorgRinger\News\Seo\NewsTitleProvider which is called through the controller.

It can be configured using TypoScript:

plugin.tx_news.settings.detail {
   pageTitle = 1
   pageTitle {
      # Register alternative provider
      provider = GeorgRinger\News\Seo\NewsTitleProvider
      # Comma separated list of properties which should be checked, 1st value is used
      properties = teaser,title
   }
}

It is also possible to set the page title through the template by using:

<n:titleTag>
   <f:format.htmlentitiesDecode>{newsItem.title}</f:format.htmlentitiesDecode>
</n:titleTag>

Please disable the usage of the page title provider by using

plugin.tx_news.settings.detail.pageTitle = 0

XML Sitemap

The sitemap includes links to all news records. This makes it easier for search engines to find all news records and to index those.

Depending on your requirements you can either use the simple sitemap provider from the Core or a custom one shipped with EXT:news.

Basic sitemap

The Core ships a basic sitemap configuration which can also be used for news records:

plugin.tx_seo.config {
    xmlSitemap {
        sitemaps {
            news {
                provider = TYPO3\CMS\Seo\XmlSitemap\RecordsXmlSitemapDataProvider
                config {
                    table = tx_news_domain_model_news
                    # exclude internal & external news
                    additionalWhere = {#type} NOT IN(1,2)
                    sortField = sorting
                    lastModifiedField = tstamp
                    changeFreqField = sitemap_changefreq
                    priorityField = sitemap_priority
                    pid = 26
                    recursive = 2
                    url {
                        pageId = 25
                        fieldToParameterMap {
                            uid = tx_news_pi1[news]
                        }

                        additionalGetParameters {
                            tx_news_pi1.controller = News
                            tx_news_pi1.action = detail
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

This sitemap can be added in the site config so it has a nice url:

config/mysite/config.yaml
routeEnhancers:
  Sitemap:
    type: Simple
    routePath: 'sitemap/{sitemap}'
    aspects:
      sitemap:
        type: StaticValueMapper
        map:
          pages: pages
          news: news
  PageTypeSuffix:
    type: PageType
    default: '/'
    index: ''
    map:
      '/': 0
      sitemap.xml: 1533906435

Extended sitemap

The GeorgRinger\News\Seo\NewsXmlSitemapDataProvider provides the same feature set as

RecordsXmlSitemapDataProvider but with some additional ones on top:

  • If you are using the feature to define the detail page through the field Single-view page for news from this category of a sys_category you need to use a custom provider.

  • If you are need urls containing day, month or year information

  • Setting excludedTypes to exclude certain news types from the sitemap

  • Setting googleNews to load the news differently as required for Google News (newest news first and limit to last two days)

To enable the category detail page handling, checkout the setting useCategorySinglePid = 1 in the following full example:

plugin.tx_seo {
      ## enable next line to generate a Google News sitemap
      # view.templateRootPaths.191 = EXT:news/Resources/Private/Templates/News/

      config {
          xmlSitemap {
              sitemaps {
                  news {
                      provider = GeorgRinger\News\Seo\NewsXmlSitemapDataProvider
                      config {
                          # exclude internal & external news
                          excludedTypes = 1,2
                          additionalWhere =
                          ## enable these two lines to generate a Google News sitemap
                          # template = GoogleNews
                          # googleNews = 1

                          sortField = datetime
                          lastModifiedField = tstamp
                          pid = 218
                          recursive = 2
                          url {
                              pageId = 10
                              useCategorySinglePid = 1

                              hrDate = 0
                              hrDate {
                                  day = j
                                  month = n
                                  year = Y
                              }

                              fieldToParameterMap {
                                  uid = tx_news_pi1[news]
                              }

                              additionalGetParameters {
                                  tx_news_pi1.controller = News
                                  tx_news_pi1.action = detail
                              }
                          }
                      }
                  }
              }
          }
      }
  }

Multiple Sitemaps

With TYPO3 10 it is possible to define multiple sitemaps. This can be used to define a normal sitemap and one for google news. This example adds another sitemap for the google news and defines a new type.

plugin.tx_seo {
   config {
      xmlSitemap {
         sitemaps {
            news {
               provider = GeorgRinger\News\Seo\NewsXmlSitemapDataProvider
               config {
                  # ...
               }
            }
         }
      }
      googleNewsSitemap {
         sitemaps {
            news < plugin.tx_seo.config.xmlSitemap.sitemaps.news
            news {
               config {
                  template = EXT:news/Resources/Private/Templates/News/GoogleNews.xml
                  googleNews = 1
               }
            }
         }
      }
   }
}

seo_sitemap_news < seo_sitemap
seo_sitemap_news {
   typeNum = 1533906436
   10.sitemapType = googleNewsSitemap
}

This sitemap can be added in the site config so it has a nice url:

1routeEnhancers:
2  PageTypeSuffix:
3    map:
4      news_sitemap.xml: 1533906436

Language menu on news detail pages

If a language menu is rendered on a detail page and the languages are configured to use a strict mode, the following snippet helps you to setup a proper menu. If no translation exists, the property available is set to false - just as if the current page is not translated.

10 = TYPO3\CMS\Frontend\DataProcessing\LanguageMenuProcessor
10 {
   as = languageMenu
   addQueryString = 1
}

11 = GeorgRinger\News\DataProcessing\DisableLanguageMenuProcessor
# comma separated list of language menu names
11.menus = languageMenu

See also chapter LanguageMenuProcessor.

Hreflang on news detail pages

If using languages with the language mode strict, the hreflang tag must only be generated if the according news record is translated as well!

Note

This feature is only supported by TYPO3 10 and up, described in TYPO3 Explained, ModifyHrefLangTagsEvent.

EXT:news reduces the rendered hreflang attributes by using this event and checking the availability of the records.

Check availability in Fluid templates

If you are building a language menu and want to check if the news record is available, you can use the ViewHelper <n:check.pageAvailableInLanguage language="{languageId}">. A full example can look like this:

<ul>
    <f:for each="{LanguageMenu}" as="item">
        <f:if condition="{item.available}">
            <n:check.pageAvailableInLanguage language="{item.languageId}">
                <li class="language-switch {f:if(condition:item.active, then:'active')}">
                    <a href="{item.link}">{item.navigationTitle}</a>
                </li>
            </n:check.pageAvailableInLanguage>
        </f:if>
    </f:for>
</ul>

Robots: allow indexing of news records, but set 'noindex' to the detail page

By default, the detail page will be listed in the SEO sitemap. But in most cases, you don't want the page itself to be indexed by search engines (means: without a news record to be shown by the plugin).

If you just disable Index this page (no_index) in the page properties, the robots meta tag with noindex value will also be applied to the news records.

Solution: You can use the following TypoScript condition to allow search engines to index the page again, if a news record is rendered:

[request && traverse(request.getQueryParams(), 'tx_news_pi1/news') > 0]
    page.meta.robots = index,follow
    page.meta.robots.replace = 1
[global]

An important part is the replace option. The MetaTag API of TYPO3 will then replace tags which were set before.