As you can see in the image above, the search results page lists the post date for the article followed by the description.

Do not confuse the intent here, if you are running a news site or writing about topics whose value is short lived then the adequate thing to do is to continue using dates. However if your traffic from search engines is suffering from users who refuse to visit an old article (and your topics are timeless) then you might want to consider removing the post date from your articles.

So how would you go about removing dates in WordPress?

Google is smart about locating dates on posts so you have to be aware of all the dates present on your WordPress site. Based on discussions on the web it appears that Google uses the post date when listed on a page and when the post date is missing, Google uses dates in comments and even within the post itself. So removing dates will take some cunning.

In order to remove the post date from the posts on your WordPress site you will have to remove the post date from your theme’s template file. In terms of indexing the post date, it appears that Google uses the post date from the single post and not the archive, so for the sake of users and simplicity we are only going to remove the post date from the “single.php” template file.

WARNING! Before proceeding with the modification of any template files, please make sure that you back up your files.

Remove date from single posts

1. Open the single.php file located in the theme directory in WordPress (usually server//wordpress/wp-content/themes/your theme name).

2. Locate the following line of code and remove it (or comment it out) from the template;

<?php the_time(); ?>

Note: The code used by the theme developer may vary from theme to theme and location so make sure you look for the <?php the_time within the single.php template to be sure.

3. Save the changes and refresh your website to see the modification. If the changes don’t appear right away make sure to clear the cache if you are using a plugin like WP-Supercache.

Remove date from comments

In order to make sure that Google cannot find a date on your blog post we will also need to remove the dates associated with comments. This can be a bit frustrating for users who want to follow a comment thread so it is entirely up to you.

1. Open the comments.php file located in the theme directory in WordPress (usually server//wordpress/wp-content/themes/your theme name).

2. Locate the following line of code and remove it (or comment it out) from the template;

<?php comment_date() ?>

Note: The code used by the theme developer may vary from theme to theme and location so make sure you look for the <?php the_time within the comments.php template to be sure.

3. Save the changes and refresh your website to see the modification. If the changes don’t appear right away make sure to clear the cache if you are using a plugin like WP-Supercache.

When removing these PHP functions make sure that you take into account the formatting of your posts and comments to ensure that the removal of this element doesn’t interfere with your theme’s design or break the code.

After these changes are made you will need to wait a couple of hours or days in order for Google’s index to reflect those changes. The variance in time is due to your site’s crawl rate so if your site is very popular and is crawled frequently you may see the update in hours. If your site still appears in the search results with the date, make sure you visit the page and search for the date, remember even dates within the content (originally published on [date]) will be used by Google to stamp a date on the site.

Other solutions for the removal of comments and post dates

If you use a commenting system like Disqus or IntenseDebate that is based on JavaScript then there is no concern for the removal of the date from the comments template. If you are using an older version of WordPress or you feel a bit adventurous you could download the Date Exclusion SEO Plugin from the WordPress plugin directory, just keep in mind that the plugin hasn’t been updated in over 500 days and it’s officially compatible up to 2.71.

Will You Remove Dates from Your Posts?

I’ve mentioned some of the Pro’s related to removal of post and comment dates on your blog:

• Users searching for content on search engines are more likely to click on your link compared to others with older dates.
• Visitors arriving from search engines will not discriminate the age of the content and will instead focus on the content itself, which should increase readership, time on site, etc.

Of course, as with anything as radical as this there can be some repercussions:

• If you employ this “hack” and you run a news site, visitors will arrive, but will quickly realize that the content is dated and leave the site.
• Some users like to know when an article was published and may get frustrated if there is no publish date.
• If you decide to stay away from Disqus or IntenseDebate to manange your comments and remove the dates from the comments, users may be confused and frustrated because they can’t follow a comment thread or identify when it a particular comment was posted. In which case they respond by leaving the site or by leaving a nice comment.

If the content on your blog is timeless and you could increase the amount of traffic coming to your blog from search engines, would you remove the post and comment dates?

Installation

1. Copy and paste the following code into your theme’s functions.php file:

function hls_set_query() {
  $query  = attribute_escape(get_search_query());

  if(strlen($query) > 0){
    echo '
      <script type="text/javascript">
        var hls_query  = "'.$query.'";
      </script>
    ';
  }
}

function hls_init_jquery() {
  wp_enqueue_script('jquery');
}

add_action('init', 'hls_init_jquery');
add_action('wp_print_scripts', 'hls_set_query');

If you are having issues with copy-paste from this blog, here is a link to the same code in a txt file: Code to insert into functions.php

2. Copy and paste the following code into your theme’s header.php file (just before the </head> tag is fine):

  <style type="text/css" media="screen">
    .hls { background: #D3E18A; }
  </style>
  <script type="text/javascript">
  jQuery.fn.extend({
    highlight: function(search, insensitive, hls_class){
      var regex = new RegExp("(<[^>]*>)|(\\b"+ search.replace(/([-.*+?^${}()|[\]\/\\])/g,"\\$1") +")", insensitive ? "ig" : "g");
      return this.html(this.html().replace(regex, function(a, b, c){
        return (a.charAt(0) == "<") ? a : "<strong class=\""+ hls_class +"\">" + c + "</strong>";
      }));
    }
  });
  jQuery(document).ready(function($){
    if(typeof(hls_query) != 'undefined'){
      $("#post-area").highlight(hls_query, 1, "hls");
    }
  });
  </script>

(jQuery code slightly adapted from devthought’s JavaScript RegExp based highlighting.)

If you are having issues with copy-paste from this blog, here is a link to the same code in a txt file: Code to insert into header.php

3. Very Important: Next make sure you change “post-area” in the code (in step 2) to the HTML tag ID of the area you want your search terms highlighted. For example, if you do a view source on Weblog Tools Collection’s search result page, you will see that the results area is enclosed by the tag ‘<div id=”post-area”>’.

4. Optional: You can also change the way the highlighted text look by changing the CSS properties of the “.hls” class in the code in step 2.

End Result

I’ve searched for “greet” on my blog and this is what shows up on the result page:

Conclusion

Few reasons why I like this method:

1. jQuery will let you highlight any text within any HTML element you desire. It doesn’t matter if the text is in the title or is in the actual post content. Just change the ID tag as needed.
2. There is no need for a plugin to do some simple search term highlighting. This method should take you less than 15 minutes to hack into your theme and it makes your WordPress search page look MUCH better.
3. It is highly customizable (provided that you read some jQuery documentation) to fit any blog’s needs.

Do you have a better way of doing this? If so, please share in comments!

Problem

The issue here is that there is no easy way to track if each contestant has actually subscribed to your RSS feed. Without the ability to confirm RSS subscription, anybody can just claim that they have subscribed to your feed and get a free entry into the contest.

Solution

A known solution to this problem is to include a special contest code into your RSS feed and not have this code visible on your website. That way each contestant will be forced to grab the code from your feed and submit the code via comments to verify that they have subscribed to the RSS feed. To implement this solution with the minimum amount of effort you will need to do the following two things:

1. Include the special contest code into your RSS feed

You can automatically do this by adding the following code snippet to your theme’s functions.php. The following code will make the text “Special Contest Code: yourcodehere” show up at the end of each post in the RSS feed, but not show up on your website.

function contest_post_filter($content) {
  if ( is_feed() )
    return $content.'Special Contest Code: yourcodehere';
  else
    return $content;
}
add_filter('the_content','contest_post_filter');

Make sure you change “yourcodehere” to your own special contest code.

2. Automatically censor all comments with the code in it

You can automatically hide all RSS confirmation code in your comments by including the following code snippet into your functions.php:

function contest_comment_filter($comment_text) {
  return str_replace('yourcodehere', '[code hidden]', $comment_text);
}
add_filter('get_comment_text','contest_comment_filter');

Once the contest is over, you can lock the comments on that post and remove the following line to have all confirmation codes reappear for validation:

add_filter('get_comment_text','contest_comment_filter');

Why is Does This Work?

Simply because you do not have to deal with the contest again until your contest is over. Your special contest code is hidden from view, so there is no way of cheating. Once your contest is over, you can just un-hide the contest codes, tally up the participants, and [randomly] pick your winners.

Do you think you have a better method of tracking RSS subscribers in a contest? If so, please share in the comments section.

Most Desired WordPress Hacks: 11 Common Requests and Fixes: Noupe lists 11 commonly requested WordPress hacks and elegant fixes for them. They include avoiding duplicate content, having category specific menus, sidebar login boxes, most wanted categories etc.

10 WordPress Hacks to make Your Life Easy: Jai lists another 10 hacks to play with. His hack tutorials include adding gravatars to comments, Twitter, image gallery, author bio etc.

Some of these are just tutorials on how features work within WordPress and how to incorporate them into existing themes while others are all our modifications of code in themes and in various other places. None of them look too difficult and some of them can be accomplished with plugins. However, all of them are worth checking out.

The topics I will be covering in this article are on separating trackbacks/pingbacks from regular comments, and also how to remove trackbacks and pingbacks from a WordPress theme completely.

Separating Trackbacks/Pingbacks From Comments

I know what you’re thinking: numerous posts have already been written on how to separate trackbacks from comments.

But what I present here is an actual separation using the “functions.php” feature for WordPress themes along with the regular “comments.php“. Both should be located in your theme directory.

Figure 1: Theme Directory Setup

Modifying the functions.php File

The “functions.php” file is a lifesaver for any theme developer or tinkerer wishing to add custom code or functions to themes. The code in the “functions.php” file can be called from all theme files, and can act as makeshift WordPress plugins (without the need for activation).

What we’ll be doing here is adding four functions and two filters into the file.

You don’t really have to understand the functions, but here are some brief explanations:

Figure 2: functions.php Filter and Function Additions

• filterPostComments: Updates the comments number for all posts so that trackbacks aren’t included in the count.
• filterComments: Separates the trackbacks from the comments as global variables.
• stripTrackback: Strips trackbacks from an array.
• stripComment: Strips comments from an array.

The two filters we add in are explained below:

• comments_array: Basically the comments before they are read in the comments loop.
• the_posts: An array of all found posts.

Ok, enough with the explanations. Here’s the code for the “functions.php” file:

add_filter('comments_array', 'filterComments', 0);
add_filter('the_posts', 'filterPostComments', 0);
//Updates the comment number for posts with trackbacks
function filterPostComments($posts) {
	foreach ($posts as $key => $p) {
		if ($p->comment_count <= 0) { return $posts; }
		$comments = get_approved_comments((int)$p->ID);
		$comments = array_filter($comments, "stripTrackback");
		$posts[$key]->comment_count = sizeof($comments);
	}
	return $posts;
}
//Updates the count for comments and trackbacks
function filterComments($comms) {
global $comments, $trackbacks;
	$comments = array_filter($comms,"stripTrackback");
	$trackbacks = array_filter($comms, "stripComment");
	return $comments;
}
//Strips out trackbacks/pingbacks
function stripTrackback($var) {
	if ($var->comment_type == 'trackback' || $var->comment_type == 'pingback') { return false; }
	return true;
}
//Strips out comments
function stripComment($var) {
	if ($var->comment_type != 'trackback' && $var->comment_type != 'pingback') { return false; }
	return true;
}

Do you need to know how it works? Not really. But in summary, it separates comments from trackbacks and updates the comment count for all posts.

Modifying the comments.php file

Unlike most separation tutorials, we will not be modifying the comments loop.

In essence, we are expanding on a previous tutorial that also uses the “functions.php” file for separation of trackbacks and comments.

What we’ll be doing is the following:

• Adding a “trackbacks” global variable right after the comments loop.
• Initiating a trackbacks/pingbacks loop.

Figure 3: comments.php Load Order

Right after the comments loop ends, you would add the following:

<?php global $trackbacks; ?>
<?php if ($trackbacks) : ?>
<?php $comments = $trackbacks; ?>
<h3 id="trackbacks"><?php echo sizeof($trackbacks); ?> Trackbacks/Pingbacks</h3>
	<ol class="commentlist">
	<?php foreach ($comments as $comment) : ?>
<!-- Your trackback HTML -->
<?php endforeach; /* end for each comment */ ?>
	</ol>
<?php endif; ?>

The code looks just like the comments loop except for a few lines of code, and the best part is, no editing of the original comments loop was necessary.

Download the Code

Here is a downloadable copy of the code presented in this post. The files within this zip file are:

• Sample “functions.php” file.
• Sample “comments.php” file.

I realize this solution is not the simplest demonstration of comment/trackback separation, but it allows for two actual and separate loops, and also produces a valid comments number(comments with trackbacks/pingbacks subtracted out) for all posts.

Removing Trackbacks/Pingbacks from WordPress Themes – Three Ways

When I asked the readers here if trackbacks were still useful, several expressed that they would be willing to remove trackbacks/pingbacks from comments.

With WordPress, I have found three ways to remove trackbacks and pingbacks from a WordPress theme.

Method 1: Edit the comments.php File

Located in almost every theme directory is a file called “comments.php“. Within this file is what’s known as the Comments Loop, which is what displays all of the comments for a post.

The start of Comments Loop looks like this:

<?php foreach ($comments as $comment) : ?>

To remove trackbacks/pingbacks from your theme, simply insert this code in the line right after the start of the loop:

<?php if ($comment->comment_type == "pingback" || $comment->comment_type == "trackback") { continue; } ?>

The above code skips over the trackbacks and pingbacks. The disadvantage of this method is that WordPress will still display the number of comments with trackbacks and pingbacks in the count.

Figure 4: Comments count with trackbacks included in the count

Method 2: Edit the functions.php File

Most themes should already come with a file named “functions.php“. If not, you can easily create one using any text editor.

Any code or functions in your “functions.php” file is immediately accessible by all of your theme files. The benefit of removing trackbacks/pingbacks using this technique is that you won’t have to modify any of the core template files and risk messing up your theme.

Within the functions.php file, insert this code:

add_filter('comments_array', 'filterTrackbacks', 0);
add_filter('the_posts', 'filterPostComments', 0);
//Updates the comment number for posts with trackbacks
function filterPostComments($posts) {
	foreach ($posts as $key => $p) {
		if ($p->comment_count <= 0) { return $posts; }
		$comments = get_approved_comments((int)$p->ID);
		$comments = array_filter($comments, "stripTrackback");
		$posts[$key]->comment_count = sizeof($comments);
	}
	return $posts;
}
//Updates the count for comments and trackbacks
function filterTrackbacks($comms) {
global $comments, $trackbacks;
	$comments = array_filter($comms,"stripTrackback");
	return $comments;
}
//Strips out trackbacks/pingbacks
function stripTrackback($var) {
	if ($var->comment_type == 'trackback' || $var->comment_type == 'pingback') { return false; }
	return true;
}

This code is very similar to the code I used for separating trackbacks from comments.

Although not nearly as simple as the “comments.php” method, this method is more flexible and provides WordPress with an actual number of comments without the trackbacks/pingbacks being counted.

Figure 5: Comments count without trackbacks included

Method 3: The Plugin Solution

For those not wishing to modify themes, there is always the plugin solution.

A plugin I wrote called Comment Sorter has a feature that allows a blogger to remove trackbacks/pingbacks (not permanently) from within the WordPress Administration Panel. There is absolutely no theme modification involved.

Figure 6: Comment Sorter Admin Interface

Using the above configuration for Comment Sorter (with the auto-include off and trackbacks disabled), one can easily remove trackbacks and pingbacks from a theme. It’s basically Method 2 in the form of a plugin.

Update for WordPress 2.5 – May 1, 2008

A reader pointed out that the comment count is incorrect on WordPress 2.5. For both techniques, you will want to exclude the filter the_posts and the function filterPostComments. Instead, use this filter and function:

add_filter('get_comments_number', 'filterCommentsNumber');
function filterCommentsNumber($count) {
	global $id;
	if (empty($id)) { return $count; }
	$comments = get_approved_comments((int)$id);
	$comments = array_filter($comments, "stripTrackback");
	return sizeof($comments);
}

Conclusion

Within this post I presented techniques on separating trackbacks/pingbacks from regular comments, and also how to remove trackbacks and pingbacks from a WordPress theme.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment and I’ll do my best to address them.

[EDIT] Chris writes in the comments: “As for spammers – default registration for the site is subscriber, so they won’t get anywhere near the directory until they have been approved by the administrator (currently just me). Sort of in the way that if you submit your website to cssremix, you don’t get shown until John approves it.“

http://www.google.com/reader/m/view/feed/[Your Feed URI]

This is the optimized mobile version of Weblog Tools Collection. Once you have the feed, just create a link on your blog for readers to follow and/or bookmark. Of note is the excellent WordPress Mobile plugin from Alex for those who like a one stop shop.

The author has also written a tutorial on how to add custom columns to the manage posts screen which also applies to these hooks.

• Wizards for tags with parameters
• Help button redirects to codex
• Support for 90% of the tags
• Insert basic loops (wizard)
• Insert headers (wizard)
• Ultimate TagWarrior tags supported (NEW)
• Help button (NEW)
• PayPal button at help screen (NEW)

Is supports Dreamweaver 8 and MX2004 and the author says that it might support some older versions. It is based on a CC license. Thanks to WordPress Candy for the tip.

Regular reader Michelle asks:

I’ve been looking around for a plugin that would allow me to do A/B testing on my clients’ sites. By that I mean something would would allow me to set up a “campaign” where one thing would change (on a page or across the site) and I’d be able to get results showing which faired better. For example, say I’d like to test the wording of a headline and I have 2 or 3 different versions. I’d like to be able to set something up where I could enter in the different options, then WordPress would automatically randomly serve up the different headings to people visiting the site. I could then measure traffic on that page or clicks on a particular link etc. These are common things that marketers like to do: test things on a page, or even different versions of a page. It would need to be pretty broad, allowing for randomization at different levels of content, eg entire pages/posts, blocks of text within a page/post or across the entire site, images, links, form buttons, even themes. I know it’s a big ask, but being able to test these kinds of things without getting your hands too dirty in templates would be great.

Also, Matthew asks the following:

Conduit allows a menu to be created which can pull from an XML file on the server. Well what if there was a plugin for WordPress that could dynamically generate the XML file, say adding WordPress pages or whatever from the blog? Maybe even links to the archives or whatever.
Don’t know if it’s even possible.

Finally Ricardo asked me for the following:

is there any plugin availiable that showcases WP-Themes in a single WP-Page? I mean something like… on the left side a preview screenshot, on the right side a small description with a preview link and the download link.

Do you know of any existing plugins that would accomplish the tasks for them? Are you in the process of developing something that works? Would you have use for the plugins(s) if they were developed?