SEO URLs

[jsebean]

To be honest, I agree that SEO URLs should not be included in phpBB at all (not even phpBB4.). It's not an important feature, and it's not that much of a benefit. The people above posted a good argument about people changing topic titles, etc. I for one don't think phpBB should include SEO URLs as a feature, however, if somebody wants to make a mod or rather a "contribution" to the project that allows SEO URLs, by all means do it, and just like any other mod, board owners would choose to use it.

On my board I would not use SEO URLs, I got a fairly good rank as it is now with dynamic URL. I do have the User Blog Mod installed and it has a SEO URL feature, I do have that enabled, but thats not my board, its user blogs .

So I vote no for the devs to include SEO URLs in phpBB out of the box.

[sooskriszta]

I take it that you haven't read the whole thread, so I'll summarize the "pro" position for you:
It is an oft-requested feature - makes people more comfortable.
Most modern scripts have this feature; it can only increase popularity of phpBB.
Google itself says that pretty URLs help SEO.
If an upgrade breaks pretty URLs mod then that is a critical issue for people using it.

What is the problem created by a pretty URL off/on switch in core for people that don't feel that they can benefit from it?

[DavidIQ]

What is the problem created by a pretty URL off/on switch in core for people that don't feel that they can benefit from it?

I think you missed the part where it was said that this is not a matter or just flipping a switch. Server "configuration" would be required (.htaccess) and it's the same for any other product that uses "pretty" URLs.

[Meis2M]

it is better use seo url tools in MOD and not coming in default phpbb package.

[sooskriszta]

I think you missed the part where it was said that this is not a matter or just flipping a switch. Server "configuration" would be required (.htaccess) and it's the same for any other product that uses "pretty" URLs.

Don't think I missed that part - I'm looking at it from the user (i.e. board admin) perspective. All the scripts I have used have fairly straightforward "switch flicks" - the .htaccess configuration is done programmatically.

Of course, if you are a phpBB developer (as I believe YOU are), then you'll need to do a lot of stuff probably even more complex than changing .htaccess to get this feature up and running...

[sooskriszta]

it is better use seo url tools in MOD and not coming in default phpbb package.

So I keep hearing, but is there a good reason why it should be this way?

[/a3]

The only reason provided was that SEO URLs break when upgrading the MOD. However, as A_Jelly_Doughnut pointed out, could be applied to any MOD.

For example, what if Ultimate Points broke every time phpBB was updated? Do we have to include that as core as well?


Also, lack of implementation is provided. .htaccess is not available on non-httpd servers, and phpBB doesn't favour a particular type of server. There are lots of admins running other servers such as IIS and lighttpd that can also run phpBB and don't support .htaccess.


The example URLs in the quote from Google's Webmaster Central have a very complex URL. phpBB's current URLs are not complex like Joomla! URLs or similar - phpBB's URLs are in fact quite simple and keep parameters to a minimum.


Obviously you seem to think that Google indexes pages because they have pretty URLs. That's not true - Google indexes URLs because they have unique content. You argue that "SEO URLs" can only help the indexing - but by how much? And at what cost?

Again, privacy is still an issue. Webmasters will still use SEO URLs in situations where private information is concerned - or they might make a forum private without realising that SEO URLs are still turned on.

[Oleg]

The issue of privacy is I think quite easily solvable - add a note about private forums next to the SEO checkbox and add a note about SEO next to the private forum option.

The issue of htaccess files should also be moot - for servers other than apache instructions may be provided how to achieve equivalent results, sample configuration files, or both. For example, there is now a sample configuration file for running phpbb with nginx.

Given that there are different ways of putting titles into URLs, would everyone who wants SEO urls be happy with a single chosen method, should SEO urls actually become a core feature?

[sooskriszta]

Given that there are different ways of putting titles into URLs, would everyone who wants SEO urls be happy with a single chosen method, should SEO urls actually become a core feature?

Please can you elaborate? My first instinct would be simply use the title, with <spaces> converted to "-" i.e. domain.com/board-title/sub-board-title/thread-title/post-title

[Oleg]

Taking your url as an example, an alternative would be:

domain.com/thread-title/thread-id

I think by board/subboard you mean forum/subforum. If so the same reasoning may be applied to them - subforum-title + subforum-id instead of forum-title and subforum-title.