[RFC] Search engine optimization: canonical link elements

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Noxwizard
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[RFC] Search engine optimization: canonical link elements

Post by Noxwizard »

To help search engines with duplicate detection, I think it would be a good idea to add a canonical link element to the page header. It is currently possible to reach the same pages under many different URLs, so we are not providing singular addresses to search engines:
  • index.php
    • SID
    viewforum.php?f=#
    • SID
    • start offset
    • sort key
    • sort direction
    • sort days
    viewtopic.php
    • ?f=#&t=#
    • ?p=#
    • SID
    • start offset
    • sort key
    • sort direction
    • sort days
The memberlist also has sort parameters, but I think at the least we should have those three pages set up to provide a canonical address. This would also aid sites that use "pretty URLs." The canonical forms should be:
  • index.php
    viewforum.php?f=#(&start=#)
    viewtopic.php?f=#&t=#(&start=#)
Canonical links are supported by:
Ask.com - Article link is dead
Bing
Google
Yahoo

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MichaelC
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Re: [RFC] Search engine optimization: canonical link element

Post by MichaelC »

+1. Sounds like a good idea to me.
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Re: [RFC] Search engine optimization: canonical link element

Post by Oleg »

Search engines should not be getting urls with sids, but users may use such urls and as a result search engines may index them, therefore I agree with the sid part.

Start offset is needed to index pages > 1, it has to stay.

Sort key, direction and days should only be selectable via a form which search engines do not use. I don't recall ever seeing an indexed viewforum view not in default order. Theoretically we can handle the sort bits but I doubt it's worth the effort.

Viewtopic is interesting as the usual view is the topic view, not a single post view. From my experience with search engine indexed forum posts, sometimes reading just the one post is enough and sometimes I want to see the entire topic. I doubt we can select one or the other for all posts on all boards.

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naderman
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Re: [RFC] Search engine optimization: canonical link element

Post by naderman »

+1 on adding canonnical urls in the header where applicable. I agree with Oleg that we should be careful what to consider duplicate content URLs.

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bantu
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Re: [RFC] Search engine optimization: canonical link element

Post by bantu »

naderman wrote:+1 on adding canonnical urls in the header where applicable. I agree with Oleg that we should be careful what to consider duplicate content URLs.
+1

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Louis7777
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Re: [RFC] Search engine optimization: canonical link elements

Post by Louis7777 »

Was this developed at any point or has it been forgotten?

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Re: [RFC] Search engine optimization: canonical link elements

Post by bantu »


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Pete77s
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Re: [RFC] Search engine optimization: canonical link elements

Post by Pete77s »

Perfect! 3.1 has begun to change my thinking on the need for seo prettyfications when I upgrade.

Great job, guys :)

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rfdy
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Re: [RFC] Search engine optimization: canonical link elements

Post by rfdy »

Why wouldn't the view=print be included in the canonical? It seems like obvious duplicated content. If it isn't a canonical it should at least be include a robots "nofollow" meta.

Related: is there not a default robots.txt file?

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Vinny
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Re: [RFC] Search engine optimization: canonical link elements

Post by Vinny »

rfdy wrote:Why wouldn't the view=print be included in the canonical? It seems like obvious duplicated content. If it isn't a canonical it should at least be include a robots "nofollow" meta.

Related: is there not a default robots.txt file?
https://github.com/phpbb/phpbb/blob/dev ... nt.html#L5

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