SEO with EXT:news

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

Page title for single news

EXT:news implements a custom pageTitleProvider GeorgRingerNewsSeoNewsTitleProvider 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
                    additionalWhere =
                    sortField = sorting
                    lastModifiedField = tstamp
                    pid = 26
                    recursive = 2
                    url {
                        pageId = 25
                        fieldToParameterMap {
                            uid = tx_news_pi1[news]
                        }

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

                        useCacheHash = 1
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

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 {
    config {
        xmlSitemap {
            sitemaps {
                news {
                    provider = GeorgRinger\News\Seo\NewsXmlSitemapDataProvider
                    config {
                        excludedTypes = 1,2
                        additionalWhere =
                        ## enable these two lines to generate a Google News sitemap
                        # template = EXT:news/Resources/Private/Templates/News/GoogleNews.xml
                        # googleNews = 1

                        sortField = datetime
                        lastModifiedField = tstamp
                        pid = 84
                        recursive = 2
                        url {
                            pageId = 116
                            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
                            }

                            useCacheHash = 1
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

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

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!

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 :html:`<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>