2.4.0 – Frequently Asked Queries

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Changelog

Summarized:

The SEO Framework is now updated to a new second dot version. This means I’ve pushed a huge update and that the API has been optimized.

This also means that there has been an overhaul on many functions. A big rework. While doing so, there were many little bugs found, all of them have been fixed.

Meanwhile, the whole plugin has been improved once more to be faster. I believe the quest for speed has been very successful and come to an end.

The Sitemaps now also adds posts and pages created by Custom Post Types, like bbPress and WooCommerce.

Moreover, Domain Mapping by Donncha is now also supported, to prevent canonical errors and easily transfer SEO value when you map domains and keep them both accessible.

Because The SEO Framework is easily manipulated through the API, feel free to write your own (free or premium) extension plugin to add options.

SEO Tip of the Update:

  • Invalid HTML doesn’t affect your site’s SEO value. However, valid HTML is considered best practice, and with a good reason.
  • The good reason for valid HTML is that you can be certain that your website (almost) looks the same on every browser, so you’re certain that the visitor will see your website as you intended.
  • However, it doesn’t affect your site’s SEO value because Search Engines want to put out the best content for your search, not the most ‘valid’ content.
  • With so many ‘invalid’ websites out there, Search Engines try to read the HTML as many web browsers would: by fixing common mistakes.
  • Still using HTML4 or xHTML? Try to find a way to upgrade to HTML5, its semantic elements are very SEO friendly.

For everyone:

  • Added: FAQ on WordPress.org’s The SEO Framework plugin page.
  • Added: Sitemap WPML compatibility.
  • Added: The default permalink structure and shortlinks now also generate links based on registered query args, e.g. Custom Post Types.
  • Added: Domain Mapping by Donncha support. This plugin is now suitable for every MultiSite :).
  • Added: Removal of the WordPress core shortlink tag for when themes choose to include it, it’s replaced with the SEO framework version if active (faster and more reliable).
  • Added: The SEO Framework now shows you how much page load The SEO Framework has added to your page in the indicator after The SEO Framework Meta. This can be removed through a filter.
  • Added: More sitemap content is available, now it supports posts and pages from Custom Post Types (bbPress, WooCommerce, AnsPress, etc.). Please note that it will combine all post types to prevent exceeding the memory limit. It will limit the maximum CPT posts/pages to 600 by default and are ordered by date, descending.
  • Optimized: The Sitemap generation has once again been optimized. This is especially noticeable when there are many pages which are set to noindex.
  • Changed: The Sitemap now allows for 100 more posts per post type. Making a total of 2100.
  • Changed: The URLs now take your slashes into account.
  • Rewritten: The Title generation has been completely rewritten, requires fewer server resources, is easier to maintain, etc.
  • Rewritten: Massively improved the Title Cache by preemptively notifying the plugin if the theme is doing it wrong or right. It’s now two to three times as fast on the front end which could save up to 0.2s of load time on old servers.
  • Updated: Translation POT File.
  • Updated: Dutch Translations.
  • Removed: Home Page Title on Doing it Wrong themes is back to default.
  • Removed: Legacy AnsPress title support for AnsPress versions lower than 2.4.
  • Fixed: The Canonical URL is now correct for some plugins which don’t abide to the WordPress default URL structure.
  • Fixed: The title length calculation now doesn’t add 3 characters too many to the counter when emptied.
  • Fixed: The post modified time is now correct for posts in the sitemap.
  • Fixed: Filter the_seo_framework_sitemap_posts_count now works again as intended.
  • Fixed: The Homepage Metabox now notifies if the description is fetched from the front page, if applicable, again.
  • Fixed: The SEO Bar on Terms and Taxonomies were incorrect at many points because of caching.
  • Fixed: Bug where pages are output in the sitemap when the Blog Page was the last page added.
  • Fixed: Title Placeholder in the Inpost SEO box was shown as the home page title when using WPML on a translated page using sub directories.
  • Fixed: The SEO Bar title length calculation for every page when WPML is activated, it thought every page was the front page.
  • Fixed: Home Page title could have unexpected results with the separator and separator location.
  • Fixed: WPMUdev Domain Mapping external mapped URL now checks for scheme again.
  • Fixed Typo: Therefor is now Therefore on various places.

For developers:

  • Added: New filters!
  • Added: User defined $query->set( 'post__not_in' ) compatibility. This plugin now merges all values set below 999 priority for search queries on the pre_get_posts filter.
  • Added: Better version compare: Use the_seo_framework_dot_version( '2.4.x' ), this returns true if the version is at least 2.4.0 and at most 2.4.9.
  • Added: The debugger now also processes two dimensional arrays.
  • Added: The SEO Framework Post Type support can now also be determined on init.
  • Added: Sitemap generation time when debugger is active.
  • Reworked: With over 734 lines of combined code, before it’s too late: AutoDescription_Generate:title was very smelly because of compatibility with so many themes, plugins, etc. So it’s now separated over different functions for different hooks, which all fall back to cached title. Please note that the parameters will output a _doing_it_wrong notice if your input call is invalid. The code will continue to run normally but will ignore your parameters set.
  • Removed: AutoDescription_Load class and file. It has been replaced by The_SEO_Framework_Load since 2.2.5.
  • Changed: moved setup_sitemap_transient() from transients.class.php to sitemaps.class.php, as it generates output it belongs there more nicely.
  • Cleaned up code.

Note for developers:

  • As with every second dot (2.4.x, 2.5.x, etc.) update, new API functions will be added or changed. Use function the_seo_framework_dot_version() to easily compare. Read all about it here.

About the performance change in 2.4.0:

  • This plugin now adds a total of about 1.5 milliseconds of load time on pages and 15 milliseconds in the admin area on PHP7. Enjoy!
  • The sitemap is now generated within 0.15 seconds when parsing 2100 posts on PHP7.
  • Please note that increasing this limit to 10,000 posts will use up to 80MB of RAM, the current limit has been carefully chosen and missing URL’s within the sitemap doesn’t affect SEO in almost all cases, especially with WordPress.

Coming soon:

  • An Extension Manager, a separated opt-in plugin.
  • The SEO Framework will stay ad-free and will never contain the Extension Manager by default.
  • The Extension Manager allows you to install free/premium extensions.
  • The extensions will be made available through subscriptions, ad-free, all-in-one.
  • Free subscriptions for free extensions will be available, like with Akismet.
  • More on this in December.