The latest feature introduced in Discourse uses AI-driven algorithms to showcase semantically related topics to search engine crawlers, significantly improving the visibility and discoverability of forum content. This innovative functionality not only aids in connecting users to a broader range of relevant discussions but also reinforces the forum’s SEO efforts by highlighting interconnected topics that might interest potential visitors.
It is designed to provide an enhanced experience for search engine crawlers by rendering related topics on Discourse forums when a topic is displayed. This helps with search engine optimization (SEO) by showcasing relevant content to the search engines and potentially leading to better indexing and discoverability.
How to enable
Please follow our Enable Related Topics guide.
How It Works:
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When a search engine crawler requests to view a topic on a Discourse forum with this feature enabled, the feature checks whether it’s eligible for displaying related topics.
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It then fetches related topics through a semantic analysis performed by DiscourseAI and builds a list of related topics.
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Next, it generates the HTML content for these related topics using the a new plugin outlet in the view template.
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This list provides additional context for search engines about related content, potentially improving the SEO for the topics within the Discourse forum.
Overall, the feature aims to enrich the content that search engines can see when they crawl a page, leading to better interlinking of topics and potentially enhancing the user experience by providing more relevant search results.