There are WordPress SEO Plugins out there that have the potential to seriously damage a sites search engine optimization if you turn the wrong so called SEO features of these WordPress plugins on (they use nofollow and noindex in inappropriate ways wasting link benefit!) .
I’ve reviewed a couple of the major WordPress SEO Plugins at another site under the category WordPress SEO Plugins. I’ve incorporated the findings of the SEO plugin reviews into SEO warnings as part of one of the Stallion SEO Themes option pages: the “SEO Advanced” options page.
Which WordPress SEO Plugins?
If you have activated any of these WordPress SEO plugins:
Yoast WordPress SEO Plugin
All In One SEO Pack Plugin
And have the setting “SEO Plugin Warnings On/Off” set to “Warnings ON” on the “SEO Advanced” options page you will receive an SEO report (at the bottom of the options page) of any issues related to those SEO plugins. You are not forced to turn those damaging SEO features off, but I strongly advise you do. If you receive no red warnings, you probably aren’t damaging your sites SEO using those WordPress SEO plugins.
If you use the above SEO plugins please be aware they add very little if any SEO value to the Stallion SEO theme. The vast majority of the plugin features are already dealt with by Stallion (usually better), but if you do use them there are further settings under the Stallion SEO Themes “SEO Advanced” options page for disabling Stallion theme features you wish the above plugins to take over (meta tags).
David Law
Website - WordPress SEO
27 responses to Stallion Theme WordPress SEO Plugin Support
Hi David,
Just bought your theme for an e-commerce site. We have been using wp e-commerce on another site.
What shops are compatible?
Thanks,
David
WordPress Ecommerce Plugins
I’ve not had any reports of issues with any WordPress ecommerce plugins.
If you run into problem let me know which plugin you are having problems with and I’d take a look.
David
Blanking out
I can’t use the theme on this site.
When I do the WP-Admin page vanishes
leaving me with a blank white screen.
Any ideas?
Sorry,
http://www.marcusg.eu
is the site I’m talking about.
WordPress Error Messages
A white screen can mean a server error or a PHP error or….
impossible to say without error messages.
If the site works with the standard WordPress theme it would suggest an incompatibility with Stallion.
If you are currently locked out of the sites admin screen you’ll need to delete Stallion using FTP or your hosts control panel. Go to /wp-content/themes/ and delete the /stallion-seo-theme/ folder. When an active theme is deleted this way WordPress reverts the site back to the default theme which will give you access to the WordPress Dashboard.
There’s a lot of code snippets and plugins added to Stallion and it can cause issues with other plugins that are running. On this site I used to run a plugin that would randomly ‘crash’ the site (white screen) so had to stop using it.
First step is check your error logs or turn on error reporting in your wp_config.php file or run a plugin like http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/log-deprecated-notices/ that might store the errors before the error takes the site down.
If you can get the error messages we might be able to track down the cause.
David
Stallion Theme WordPress SEO Plugin Support
Help, can't get the theme installed
Hi David,
bought the theme 2 weeks ago, since then tried to install it on 2 different wp-sites but can’t get it installed. I have tried to contact you for 10 days via mail, twitter, facebook but you don’t respond. Is something happened to you? Tell me what to do next. Hope to hear from you soon.
Stallion Theme Support
That’s strange, I’ve not got anything via email (only email with your email address is the original Clickbank order from 1st July) or Facebook (definitely wouldn’t miss Facebook, any direct Facebook message would still be available), my Twitter account I don’t check messages, so no idea about that one.
This is the first comment you’ve made (went straight to moderation until I approved it, that’s normal), checked the comment SPAM folder for your email address didn’t find anything, but have emptied SPAM earlier this month.
Anyway, what’s the problem? Error messages are helpful.
In case you’ve been using the wrong code for your Stallion ID added your email address to the transaction reminder form so you’ll have an email now with the correct Stallion ID.
David
Stallion Theme WordPress SEO Plugin Support
installation failed
Hi David,
The ID I got already was correct and I downloaded the theme zip file. Then in my wp site I went to the place were you can upload the themes. So I did. Then to the right folder with the stallion zip file, select it and push the instal now button. Then there comes a message “are you sure, try again” it stays like this and doesn’t go on. What am I doing wrong?
Marijke
WordPress Error Message - Are you sure you want to do this? Please try again
Is the error message “Are you sure you want to do this? Please try again”
The Stallion Theme zip file is quite big, almost 9MB and can take a while to install. If your host has some settings set low (max_execution_time, max_input_time and possibly memory_limit) it could timeout and I understand the “Are you sure you want to do this? Please try again” is the WordPress error message you get. If it took a while for the error message to show that would strongly suggest a timeout issue.
Come to think of it you can test this by downloading the Stallion Example Child Theme zip file (links on Stallion WordPress Child Themes) and install it like you tried with Stallion.
The Example Child theme zip file is less than 1.2MB so will install much faster so shouldn’t timeout if this is the problem. The Example Child Theme won’t activate (it will install, won’t activate) without Stallion being installed, so won’t cause any harm or anything, if it does install will inform you the Parent Theme (Stallion) isn’t installed if you try to activate. As a side note it’s a good idea to install the Example Child Theme after installing Stallion, makes future main Stallion updates easier.
There’s other things that can cause this WordPress error, but it’s quite a generic WordPress error message so difficult to troubleshoot.
Quickest solution is use FTP to install Stallion. See WordPress Theme FTP Installation Instructions, it’s for another theme (Talian), just replace Talian name for Stallion.
You can also check your upload file size is set high enough. Edit any post, click the add image button and on the window that opens you’ll see a message (close the window after you read the message):
Maximum upload file size: 16MB. After a file has been uploaded, you can add titles and descriptions.
If the MB size isn’t 10MB or more you won’t be able to use the theme installer unless you contact your host to have the Maximum upload file size increased (suggest 16MB) or you change it yourself via a hosting control panel or php.ini file.
Again FTP is the quick solution.
David
Stallion Theme WordPress SEO Plugin Support
Hi David,
Because of my good relationship with my provider: husband
I have now an upload of 32MB and everything went perfectly.
So thanks for your help and advice, now I am going to study all of your info on your sites and try to get it all right on my site.
Marijke
Best WordPress Hosting In the World :-)
LOL, I have a wife like you, she has a bunch of sites and leaves all the hosting stuff to me
I do get told off when I test theme updates before release on her sites like Happy People Good Karma Blog, currently broke her background image!
Glad you got Stallion installed.
David
Just need some ideas
Hello David,
I have tried to create an entertainment blog and I want to add the ads below the post content but I could not do it. It is not in your stallion theme. Could you tell me how can I create a widget for inserting below the post content like stallion theme.
I think that if I could do like that. I could add ads below it.
Thank you and hope you can give me some ideas!
Ratanak
Stallion Theme Bottom Content Ad Widget Area
For blog Posts and static Pages it is already possible with Stallion.
Appearance >> Widgets
Drag and Drop a widget into the “Bottom Content Ad Widget” area and it will load at the bottom of the main content on Posts and Pages only.
Since there’s no bottom of main content on archives (categories etc…) the widget doesn’t load on other parts of the site.
This widget area isn’t really designed for standard widgets (like a Categories widget) which is why it’s called an ad widget, meant for adding custom ad code, so some of the widgets won’t work the same way as adding to a sidebar type ad widget area.
Hmm, wonder if I could break that widget area into two or three similar to the footer widget areas, that might make for an interesting design option.
David
Stallion Theme WordPress SEO Plugin Support
Hi David,
In one of my sites, I’m using Stallion 7.0.1. I tried to use the template Static Page Blank Sales no Sidebars on a new page, but it’s not working. I select it, but then when try to go to that page it does not find it…
I wonder how could I fix it?
I thought upgrading to 7.1.1, but I got the message:
“Updating this theme will lose any customizations you have made”
Any hints?
Thanks for your Help
Regards
Héctor
Stallion Theme WordPress SEO Plugin Support
WordPress Static Page Templates and Theme Updates
Stallion Static Page Templates don’t ‘load’ in their own right, they are like any WordPress Static Page, but with a different template.
The Stallion Static Page Blank Sales no Sidebars is similar to this post, but the sidebar code is removed, so if you’ve actually loaded the Page it will have whatever content you added to it.
I’m guessing this is not understanding how WordPress and Stallion treats new Static Pages.
When you create a Static Page it won’t necessarily be linked from your site, all depends on how you setup WordPress/Stallion.
If you are running with WordPress and Stallion defaults the new Page will be linked on the top navigation menu.
If you’ve added a Custom Menu under Appearance >> Menus to the Primary Navigation area (the top navigation menu) or you’ve disabled that navigation area under Stallion Layouts Options page adding a new Static Page won’t automatically add a link to that new page. These are useful WordPress features, I use Static Pages for the Download and Thank You sales pages on this site customers see after paying for Stallion, I wouldn’t want them linked from sidebars etc… My top navigation menu is a custom menu, you’ll note it also links to other sites, not just pages on this site.
There’s also the Page widget under Appearance >> Widgets that when added to a widget area will load all Static Page links. If you want static Page links on a sidebar I’d build a custom menu, add the links to the menu and use the Custom Menu widget not the Page widget: Page widget adds all Pages, with custom menus you choose what to add, order etc….
If this is your first Static Page either build a custom menu and use it as the primary navigation menu or make sure you haven’t disabled the top navigation menu under the Stallion Layout options page.
I think you’ve misunderstood what “Updating this theme will lose any customizations you have made” means. This refers to editing template files and/or adding your own custom images directly within the /stallion-seo-theme/ folder using an FTP program. If you are running Stallion and have never edited a Stallion file (that’s going to be 99.9% of users) and haven’t used FTP to upload custom backgrounds etc… updating Stallion using the built in update is the way to go.
If you have made customizations take into account using the built in update deletes the /stallion-seo-theme/ folder and recreates it from the update files, which means any editing and images you’ve added will be gone (make sure you have a backup offline). If you do have customizations use FTP to update, download the Stallion zip file, extract and upload via FTP taking into account if you’ve edited Stallion template files to re add any customizations.
If you do have custom images etc… look into installing a Stallion Child Theme, there’s a free example one on the site (link on the home page). When you install a child theme you can put your custom images etc… within the child themes folder (if you use the Example child theme the folder is /stallion-child-example/) so when main Stallion updates none of your custom images will be deleted. for example if you have custom header images under
/stallion-seo-theme/headers/
Move them to
/stallion-child-example/headers/
And they won’t be deleted when Stallion updates.
This is how all WordPress themes work not just Stallion during an auto update. I guess that’s why WordPress added child theme support because it makes updates of customized themes a pain.
Updating Stallion won’t delete your current option settings like your AdSense publisher number. Depending on the update some options might change and need resetting, for example changed where the thumbnail options are located (moved them from one Stallion options page to another, now part of the colour options) and had to set them to off, so if you find your thumbnails turned off you know why
. I think that was the Stallion 7.0 update.
Other than that only other issue I’ve noticed is widgets on some sites (about 10% of my sites) messing up. Added more widget areas (so hard to remember when a feature was added, think 7.1) that split the left and right sidebar widget areas so there’s small widgets at the top and bottom of the left and right sidebars and on some sites after an update the widgets have ‘moved’ (the widgets still exist, so nothing deleted) into the wrong widget area, basically had to move them back.
I found a ‘trick’ to make it quicker to fix, before updating have the Appearance >> Widgets page open in another window. After upgrading Stallion if you find the widgets have moved (view the home page) go to the widgets options page you have open and just drag any widget up or down a bit and drop it back where it started (so like you are going to move the widget, but don’t), this saves all the widgets where they should be.
David
Stallion Theme WordPress SEO Plugin Support
Hi David,
thanks for your useful (as always) response.
About the page… it’s weird, because I cannot see the page (FF tries to open it up, but it just shows blank). I even try to open it up from the dashboard. It only happens with this specific template. This is the link:
http://www.vivirencanada.com/guia-empleo-y-vida-canada-2011/
Uhmm, I think I understand wp pages well. I suspect it’s something else. I see the page in the submenus (top right corner), but as mentioned before even trying from the dashboard does not seem to work. It works well when I change page’s template to anything different from “Static Page Blank Sales no Sidebars”.
I left it active so you can check it out and see what I mean.
Thanks a lot
Héctor
Stallion Theme WordPress SEO Plugin Support
Stallion Theme Page Template Bug
Found the problem, when I was updating code in Stallion 7.0.1 ran a search and replace that added mistakes to a few of the page templates which I missed, I fixed them in Stallion 7.1.
Easiest solution is update to the latest version of Stallion as there’s about 10 changes to that file to fix it. It definitely works in Stallion 7.1+
This gives an idea of how few of the features I add to Stallion get used, suggests no one used that page template in Stallion 7.0.1 as yours is the first error report
David
Stallion Theme WordPress SEO Plugin Support
Hi David,
Thanks. I upgraded to 7.1.1 and now the template works fine. There is a minor thing… The text is showed in a single big chunk of text (a single paragraph). I tried adding extra lines to create paragraphs of 3 lines, but having no luck.
Finally, I entered and in html, and I was able to format my page properly, however, if I go back and switch to Visual instead of HTML it loses all the HTML formatting I had entered previously.
I think I’ve seen this before and does not seem to be a template issue, but I’m not sure.
Thanks
Stallion Theme WordPress SEO Plugin Support
David,
Maybe it’s too much to ask, but a question does not hurt
I wonder if it’s possible to modify the “Static Page Blank Sales no Sidebars” template page in such a way that it also removes the blog name and blog description? so it looks more like a regular HTML-created sales page.
Thanks
Héctor
Create WordPress Page Templates for Stallion
Doh, when I fixed the code error I mentioned above accidentally reactivated one of the Stallion header areas that should be disabled.
I’ll be changing that particular Stallion Page Template in the next update. It’s really easy to fix, simple case of adding a 0.
Opportunity to explain Page Templates
Stallion Static Page Blank Sales no Sidebars is the file page-sales.php and is based on the page.php file (a WordPress template file for Static Pages).
This Page template has a lot more of the Stallion code directly within it because it doesn’t use as much of the Stallion themes styling for the main content (hence your earlier formatting problem) and shouldn’t have the Stallion header (my mistake fixing a mistake), it’s designed this way so you can build your content outside Stallion, but not completely outside.
Most WordPress themes including Stallion use WordPress template files like header.php, footer.php, sidebar.php… these hold the header code, footer code, sidebar code etc… and are ‘loaded’ in a template file like single.php (template file for Blog Posts), page.php (template file for Static Pages) with this code:
<?php get_header(); ?>Because I wanted full control over the page-sales.php Page Template I didn’t use the normal structure, instead copied the code from header.php, footer.php etc… and copied it directly into page-sales.php where you’d normally find
<?php get_header(); ?>This means this file includes the header, footer, sidebar code in one file and can be changed outside of what other Stallion template files do.
If you load page-sales.php in a text editor you will see near the top all the header.php file code.
To fix my mistake find
<?php if(st_header_hide()=='1'){ ?>Change to
<?php if(st_header_hide()=='10'){ ?>This has the same effect as turning the header area off on the Stallion Layout Options page.
The really useful feature of this Stallion Page Template is I didn’t delete the code I didn’t want to load, I changed the options so they would never load which means it can be easily turned back on by removing a 0.
st_header_hide()==’1′ refers to one of the Stallion options (Stallion Layout : Show Original Stallion Header Area). When the Show Original Stallion Header Area option is ticked st_header_hide option is set to 1 and the code after “if(st_header_hide()==’1′){” is loaded. When the Hide Original Stallion Header Area option is ticked st_header_hide option is set to 0 and the code isn’t loaded.
This is why I set st_header_hide()==’10′, it’s checking (does it equal ==) if the st_header_hide option is set to 10, 10 is never set (only options for this setting is 1 or 0, on or off) and so the header code will never load (can only load when set to 1).
This allows Stallion themes users the option to turn features back on by changing a 00, 10 or a 20 (some options have more than 0 and 1 as options) to a 0, 1 or 2 (basically just added a 0 after features that are disabled).
For example if you wanted the social media links, Twitter, Facebook like etc… there’s two bits of code
<?php if(st_social_network()=='10'){ ?>and
<?php if(st_social_network()=='20'){ ?>
The first line is when the links are added above the content, the second below. Changing them from 10 and 20 to 1 and 2 re-enables the links.
If you wanted both a Page Template with and without the social media links you can make a new Stallion Page Template.
Make a copy of page-sales.php and call it something like page-sales-plus-social.php (doesn’t matter too much what the ***** of page-*****.php is as long as it’s unique and starts page-
Edit page-sales-plus-social.php and change the st_social_network code from 10 and 20 to 1 and 2. At the top of the file is the name of template, currently:
Template Name: Static Page Blank Sales No SidebarsChange to
Template Name: Static Page Blank Sales No Sidebars Plus Social MediaSave and upload to your /stallion-seo-theme/ folder or your /stallion-child-example/ folder if you are using a Child theme. Edit the page you want to use the new Page Template on and it will be available.
There’s a file page-example.php which is a copy of page.php ready for Stallion template creation for templates that do use all Stallion features.
This template does use
<?php get_header(); ?>So is for editing the main content, if you wanted more control you could replace the above with the entire contents of header.php, repeat with the sidebar and footer code.
Unlike other WordPress Themes you can use the Static Page templates on Blog Posts as well by activating “Stallion Layout Options : Custom Templates ON”. This setting also activates templates for Categories as well, the Category template files are categories-*****.php file format, same concept as Page Templates with an additional options page under Appearance >> Category Templates. When set the Page Templates are available for Blog Posts, some like the sitemaps are not suitable for blog Posts and shouldn’t be used for Posts.
David
Stallion Theme WordPress SEO Plugin Support
Thanks a lot David.
I edited it the file and now the sales page shows up as I wanted it.
Thanks/Héctor
How can I put the ico file
Hello David,
I always see every website has its icon on the menu like you can see your website has also a horse icon. And I don’t know how can I put it.
Please help,
Thank
Stallion Theme Favicon
Favicon support is built into Stallion 7.1+.
Stallion Colour Options : Stallion Favicons ON
New Stallion Favicons Options page will be available where you can select from the built in favicons or upload your own.
David
How to use Single post widget
Hello David,
Now I saw the Stallion Single Post Widget and I also tried to do and put it on the side bar but I could not see any change display. How can i do it?
Thank you
Stallion Single Post Widget
On Blog Post and Static Page edit screens add whatever code you want shown only for that blog post/static page to the Stallion Single Post widget meta box. You could for example add a banner ad as fully formed HTML code.
On the Appearance >> Widgets page drag and drop the Stallion Single Post widget to a widget area.
This widget will only load on posts and pages you’ve added content on the edit screen.
From the sounds of things you missed stage one, so none of your posts/pages have content for that widget, so it didn’t load anything.
The Stallion Single Post widget is a quick way to add a single custom widget to a post/page, there are other ways to achieve similar results. Every widget can be shown/hidden on various parts of a site. When you view the home page of this site you’ll see some text widgets with information describing how I built the widget, those text widgets only load on the home page.
To have this Stallion feature under Stallion Layout Options set Widget Display ON
Under all multi-widgets (not available under the older single widgets) you’ll have more options to hide/show the widget. Only problem with this feature is if you had a 50 page site and wanted for example a different Stallion Custom Ad on all 50 pages you would have to add 50 versions of the Stallion Custom Ad widget which would be a nightmare to maintain. That’s why we have the Stallion Single Post Widget, a single widget controls all the posts/pages and we add the content on the page/post edit screen.
The Widget Display feature is more for showing/hiding content on a single or small number of category or disabling a widget on a set of posts rather than trying to manage widgets on a post by post basis.
Stallion is much more versatile than your average WordPress theme widget wise.
David
Stallion Theme WordPress SEO Plugin Support
Why My RSS Feed does not work
Hello David,
I placed the Stallion RSS Feed widget and when i click on RSS feed or comment it just appears like a html code, not just simple text.
Hope you check my site for sure and give me why it is like that.
Thank you
Google Chrome RSS Feeds not Working
Your RSS Feeds work fine in Firefox and Internet Explorer, would you be loading them in Google Chrome only by any chance?
It’s a known issue with Google Chrome, view my Article RSS Feed will look like HTML in Google Chrome and load with clickable links etc… in Firefox and Internet Explorer.
If you want Google Chrome to show the feeds like Firefox etc…. does you can install a Google Chrome RSS Feed Add On for example “RSS Subscription Extension (by Google)” which is free from the Google Chrome Web Store. Adding a Google Chrome Add On will only change what is seen for you, your visitors running Google Chrome will still see the HTML like output.
David
Stallion Theme WordPress SEO Plugin Support
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