If you have a popular blog that generates income through advertising, chances are you offer an RSS feed that contains only an exceprt of each entry. This is a good way to encourage readers to visit the blog to continue reading. In the similar interest of drawing traffic to the site, you should also want to make the best use of Google’s new Blog Search function (info). Unfortunately, Google currently uses only RSS feeds (rather than readable pages) to index weblogs, meaning in many cases only a portion of each entry is searchable.
Here are a few steps to allow Movable Type to generate two RSS feeds — one with excerpts for the public and one with full entries for Google — and allow them to be accessible via an identical URI.
This makes use of .htaccess and mod_rewrite, and I’ve tested it with Linux and Apache Server.
Step The First: Ensure You Have Two RSS Templates
Here are two samples you can use. Add these (or replace the others) as Index Templates in your blog settings.
Template Name: Public RSS 2.0 Excerpts
Output File: index.xml
<rss version=”2.0″ xmlns:dc=”http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/”
xmlns:sy=”http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/” xmlns:admin=”http://webns.net/mvcb/”
xmlns:rdf=”http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#”
xmlns:content=”http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/”>
<channel>
<title><$MTBlogName remove_html=”1″ encode_xml=”1″$></title>
<link><$MTBlogURL$></link>
<description><$MTBlogDescription remove_html=”1″ encode_xml=”1″$></description>
<language>en-us</language>
<dc:creator><MTEntries lastn=”1″><$MTEntryAuthorDisplayName$></MTEntries></dc:creator>
<dc:rights>Copyright <$MTDate format=”%Y”></dc:rights>
<dc:date><MTEntries lastn=”1″><$MTEntryDate format=”%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S”$><$MTBlogTimezone$></MTEntries></dc:date>
<admin:generatorAgent rdf:resource=”http://www.movabletype.org/?v=<$MTVersion$>” />
<admin:errorReportsTo rdf:resource=”mailto:<MTEntries lastn=”1″><$MTEntryAuthorEmail$></MTEntries>”/>
<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
<sy:updateBase>2000-01-01T12:00+00:00</sy:updateBase>
<MTEntries lastn=”30″>
<item>
<title><$MTEntryTitle remove_html=”1″ encode_xml=”1″$></title>
<link><$MTEntryLink encode_xml=”1″$></link>
<description><$MTEntryExcerpt remove_html=”1″ encode_xml=”1″$></description>
<guid isPermaLink=”false”><$MTEntryID$>@<$MTBlogURL$></guid>
<content:encoded><$MTEntryBody remove_html=”1″ words=”100″ encode_xml=”1″$>
<![CDATA[<p>This is an excerpt.</p><p><a href="<$MTEntryLink$>">Read this full entry and discuss.</a> <MTEntryIfAllowComments><a href=<$MTEntryLink$>#comments" title="Comment on: <$MTEntryTitle$>">(Comments: <$MTEntryCommentCount$>)</a></p>
</MTEntryIfAllowComments>]]></content:encoded>
<dc:subject><$MTEntryCategory remove_html=”1″ encode_xml=”1″$></dc:subject>
<dc:date><$MTEntryDate format=”%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S”$><$MTBlogTimezone$></dc:date>
<dc:creator><$MTEntryAuthorDisplayName$></dc:creator>
</item>
</MTEntries>
</channel>
</rss>
Note: In the above exceprt entry, I have chosen 100 words for the excerpt. If you would like to modify the size, look for words=”100″ and change as you see fit. I don’t use the MTEntryExcerpt tag here because it is used as a shorter excert for other functions.
Template Name: Private RSS 2.0 Full Entries
Output File: index-private.xml
<rss version=”2.0″ xmlns:dc=”http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/”
xmlns:sy=”http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/” xmlns:admin=”http://webns.net/mvcb/”
xmlns:rdf=”http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#”
xmlns:content=”http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/”>
<channel>
<title><$MTBlogName remove_html=”1″ encode_xml=”1″$></title>
<link><$MTBlogURL$></link>
<description><$MTBlogDescription remove_html=”1″ encode_xml=”1″$></description>
<language>en-us</language>
<dc:creator><MTEntries lastn=”1″><$MTEntryAuthorEmail$></MTEntries></dc:creator>
<dc:rights>Copyright <$MTDate format=”%Y”></dc:rights>
<dc:date><MTEntries lastn=”1″><$MTEntryDate format=”%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S”$><$MTBlogTimezone$></MTEntries></dc:date>
<admin:generatorAgent rdf:resource=”http://www.movabletype.org/?v=<$MTVersion$>” />
<admin:errorReportsTo rdf:resource=”mailto:<MTEntries lastn=”1″><$MTEntryAuthorEmail$></MTEntries>”/>
<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
<sy:updateBase>2000-01-01T12:00+00:00</sy:updateBase>
<MTEntries lastn=”30″>
<item>
<title><$MTEntryTitle remove_html=”1″ encode_xml=”1″$></title>
<link><$MTEntryLink encode_xml=”1″$></link>
<description><$MTEntryExcerpt remove_html=”1″ encode_xml=”1″$></description>
<guid isPermaLink=”false”><$MTEntryID$>@<$MTBlogURL$></guid>
<content:encoded><$MTEntryBody encode_xml=”1″$>
<$MTEntryMore encode_xml=”1″$>
<![CDATA[
<p><a href="<$MTEntryLink$>">Read this entry and discuss.</a></p><MTEntryIfAllowComments><p><a href="<$MTEntryLink$>#comments" title="Comment on: <$MTEntryTitle$>">Comments (<$MTEntryCommentCount$>).</a></p>
</MTEntryIfAllowComments>]]></content:encoded>
<dc:subject><$MTEntryCategory remove_html=”1″ encode_xml=”1″$></dc:subject>
<dc:date><$MTEntryDate format=”%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S”$><$MTBlogTimezone$></dc:date>
<dc:creator><$MTEntryAuthorDisplayName$></dc:creator>
</item>
</MTEntries>
</channel>
</rss>
Step The Second: Create or Edit .htaccess
This is where the magic happens. Create a module template. It should include the following at the top, before any redirects to FeedBurner or other modifications. (Thanks to Nickel for a reminder.)
Template Name: htaccess
Link this template to a file: .htaccess (Note! Remember to include the period before the name of the file.)
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Googlebot [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Technoratibot
RewriteRule ^index\.xml$ http://www.yourdomainname.com/index-private.xml [R,L]
Note: I added a line in there which redirects requests from Technorati as well, but I’m not sure if they crawl RSS feeds.
Step The Third:
Make sure your HTML index templates all contain this line in the <head> section:
Step The Fourth: Rebuild!
When readers subscribe to your blog’s feed, they will see the excerpts. However, when Google crawls your site, entire entries will be indexed. You can also give the direct private URI (with the file name index-private.xml) to friends and trusted readers if you don’t mind them viewing full entries via syndication.
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