Twenty Ten: Restriction on tagline length?
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Is there a limit to the length of the “tagline” field in Settings > General > Tagline?
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Not that I’m aware of, but in general taglines should be kept concise and as short as possible. I remember seeing one blog that had a tagline that should have actually been a post it was so long. Taglines are a good thing for search engines and to clue visitors into what your blog is about, but if they get too long, they could be ignored both by visitors and by search engines.
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A tagline is a short and memorable branding message that can be expressed as a subtitle. It can help define who the blog is for, and what’s in it for them if they stay and read the content. I recommend that it does not exceed 67 characters including spaces. For more tips on creating an effective tagline read > http://onecoolsitebloggingtips.com/2009/06/22/creating-an-effective-blog-tagline/
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We are a political discussion blog, and the admins were kicking around an idea by email that we would post up a different politically oriented quotation as the tagline each week. We have an open forum on Fridays, so the plan was to start a new quote each Friday.
Thus, the quotes would be less than 200 characters, but probably more than the 67 you recommend. We don’t have the branding issue since we’re just a group of friends looking for a political discussion forum and not trying to monetize the experience.
Maybe there is a better way to do this than a tagline; if so, I’m all ears. I suggested a script that would pull quotes from a text file at random, or on a schedule, but I was told that WordPress (for damn good reasons, I bet) doesn’t support that kind of scripting.
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May we also please have the URL of your blog beginning with http to help us make sure we are giving you accurate help?
You could put the quote in a Text Widget in the sidebar.
Make a Sticky Post “Quote of the Week” and change the text in it every Friday.
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Having the tagline change continuously will cause the search engines to become suspicious I expect and it might have an adverse effect on search engine placement and page rank.
I would suggest possibly having the quote either in a stick post at the top of the blog main page, or perhaps in a text widget at the top of the sidebar. That should not cause issues with the search engines.
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Good point. I’m glad I asked. I will suggest to the other admins that they consider the text widget option, which would probably work better for us than the sticky post.
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Yeah, after suggesting the sticky post, I got to thinking having a post change continuously would probably not be a good idea. The text widget would be the best solution.
There is a somewhat complex trick that can be used to move a specific text widget up and into the header area, but it could be problematic and require constant tinkering with positioning, height and width depending on the size of the quote.
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I advise creating a single effective tagline – length no greater than 67 characters including space using it in the tagline field here > Discussion becaus that’s wehre the search engine bots expect to locate it. Doing that will establish your branding consistently displaying in the SERPs.
As far as having a slogan in a text widget that changes weekly got for it, but when it comes to mucking about with the blog’s actual tagline – don’t do it.
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Oh, and thanks timethief, didn’t mean to leave you out. I appreciate your help. The blog is great, too!
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