SEO URLs

[nekkidblogger]

Oleg writes:

I think it's pretty clear that the side that wants seo/clean urls will never convince the side that does not see their benefits. Rehashing the same arguments over and over again seems pointless.

Those users who want to see seo/clean urls incorporated into phpbb should consider putting their efforts into implementation rather than discussion, as outlined in an earlier post.

I have read the threads, and agree with Oleg's conclusion. It seems to me there is an easy solution to this: Build both versions into the board as alternative options. Let people choose what they want. There is no reason to force SEO-friendly URLs on people who doesn't want it, or any reason to disappoint the people wanting it.

At the same time, both groups seem to be fairly large, and I can't see it as smart to alienate either of the groups. Also, giving people the freedom to choose with one click can only improve the standing of phpBB.

Best,
Peter

[Sierron]

The other thing is: Is the work to implement SEO urls (the right way so it works with other things) worth the work, as people really think that "SEO-friendly URLs" are really search engine friendly... and not no the overall pagerank of the site and other important things.

At the same time, both groups seem to be fairly large, and I can't see it as smart to alienate either of the groups. Also, giving people the freedom to choose with one click can only improve the standing of phpBB.

Yeah, you are right, but I don't think one click would be enough. As soon as it gets implement half the "SEO OMG I WANT IT SO MUCH DO IT FOR ME" people will complain about it not being customizable enough or not the way they wanted it.

I think having right meta-data usage (and extended one) is the more interesting thing for all the seo wanting people, but that's just me...

[nekkidblogger]

There is little need to discuss whether SEO-fiendly URLs work or not. They do!

A simple control question: When searching for "best android app", which page is likely to pop up in google first (other things being equal):

http://www.myprivatelittlesite.com/page?123452.html , or
http://www.bestandroidapp.com/best-app-2011.html ?

This is not a matter of opinion. You can test it easily. I have (not these exact ones - LOL). It is not the first one.

We all know getting the right domain name is important. Some people are willing to pay a lot for great names. And we all know there is a reason. But the rest of the URL is important too, not only the first N letters.

OK. That's my five cents on the topic. But by all means, I think people should have choices and the ability to chose what they want. So building alternative URL-generating systems into the system and giving people the ability to chose with the click of a button seems to me a good way to move forward and leave this whole discussion behind.

Best,
Peter

[atifali]

And nobody has thought what happens when you change a forum/topic name?

If it was made so that it stays with the original:
If Someone made a ridiculous spammy topic title then it would normally be edited but the topic link would remain the same, looking very odd and spammy.

If it was made to change too:
If a link had been bookmarked/posted elsewhere that link would no longer be the topic's link.

I am using phpbb-seo which has SEO-URLs and when I changed topic title, it also changes the topic link and also 301 redirect to the new link.

[callumacrae]

I am using phpbb-seo which has SEO-URLs and when I changed topic title, it also changes the topic link and also 301 redirect to the new link.

I've attempted to install that mod for a client or two before, it also conflicts with most modifications that have their own page

[atifali]

I am using phpbb-seo which has SEO-URLs and when I changed topic title, it also changes the topic link and also 301 redirect to the new link.

I've attempted to install that mod for a client or two before, it also conflicts with most modifications that have their own page

I have installed it on my website http://www.mixforum.net/ and it is working fine so far. I have also used some other MODS after the installation and they are also fine with it but still I want phpBB to provide such features by default because those features are basic requirements for SEO e.g. SEO URLs, Meta Title, Meta Description, Meta Keywords, Sitemap, etc.

[sooskriszta]

There are quite a few benefits of pretty URLs for "the believers":
- Google does look at URLs and include in assigning SERP rank
- On SERP, keywords in URLs are highlighted...so pretty URLs increase the likelihood of user clicking on the link
- In forwards etc, human readability and relevant keywords in URL improve clickability
- Pretty URLs are relatively easier to read and remember for humans
- Google considers the anchor text for links when allocating link juice. Considering that many times the anchor text is simply the URL itself, keywords in the URL can greatly help SERP rank.

On the other hand, there seem to be several reasons for "non believers" to not want pretty URLs, including but not limited to:
- developer time,
- potential impact on performance,
- potential security ramifications for private forums, etc

I am with Oleg - there should be an option for those who don't want pretty URLs to turn them off.

In terms of how to do it, I would once again point to the Wordpress option:
viewtopic.php?f=105&t=35616&start=60#p219081
http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Permalinks

I think this is a good implementation...as not only do admins have the option to use or not use pretty URLs, but they can even define the structure of the URLs...thereby eliminating concerns around what structure the phpbb team should implement.

WP also checks to ensure there aren't duplicates...if it finds them, it quietly adds a number to the URL...e.g.
If you create a post called phpBB is cool, for which the permalink is http://www.greatestsite.com/phpbb-is-cool
And then another post called phpBB is cool, then WP will create the 2nd permalink as http://www.greatestsite.com/phpbb-is-cool-2

They way WP have implemented seems to be a relatively straightforward .htaccess path....although I must admin that while I said straightforward, I am not familiar with how simple or complex it is....also not sure of the limitations or suitability for phpbb.

For starters, I think something like this could work...

Code: Select all

domain.com/forums/
domain.com/forums/forum-title
domain.com/forums/forum-title/topic-title/page
domain.com/forums/forum-title/topic-title/post-title

or, if this seems too long, then

Code: Select all

domain.com/forums/
domain.com/forums/forum-title
domain.com/forums/topic/topic-title/page
domain.com/forums/post/post-title

[sooskriszta]

And nobody has thought what happens when you change a forum/topic name?

If it was made so that it stays with the original:
If Someone made a ridiculous spammy topic title then it would normally be edited but the topic link would remain the same, looking very odd and spammy.

If it was made to change too:
If a link had been bookmarked/posted elsewhere that link would no longer be the topic's link.

Once again, I turn to Wordpress.

If you change the title of a post or page, the URL does not change. Why?
- You don't want to break the link
- This is an edge case not the regular usage...in other words, you don't change the forum/topic name all the time....maybe only 1-5% times that it happens....

Additionally, Wordpress allows you to edit the "title" portion of the URL...so if when changing the URL you feel that the benefit of changing the URL more than compensates for breaking the link, then you can do so manually.

Of course, someone could implement a more complex system (like Wordpress multilingual plugin WPML's sister plugin does) whereby you record the URLs and if it is changed then you do a 301 redirect, thus not breaking the links...but in my opinion that's just too complicated and overengineered and not something that 99.9% situations/people would need.

[sooskriszta]

basic requirements for SEO: Meta Keywords,

I don't know any major search engine that uses these anymore.

basic requirements for SEO: Meta Description

This is becoming less relevant, though still hasn't been depricated.

A few tags frequently overlooked by US-based scripts:
geo.region
Geography
content-language

While these may not seem SEO relevant at first, they actually are for regional websites as Google does consider these tags when assigning regional SERP ranks...

[atifali]

basic requirements for SEO: Meta Keywords,

I don't know any major search engine that uses these anymore.

basic requirements for SEO: Meta Description

This is becoming less relevant, though still hasn't been depricated.

A few tags frequently overlooked by US-based scripts:
geo.region
Geography
content-language

While these may not seem SEO relevant at first, they actually are for regional websites as Google does consider these tags when assigning regional SERP ranks...

I am not an expert of SEO but I thought that Meta Description and Keywords are still necessary.

What about Sitemap? It is still necessary I think, specially with auto-ping to search engines Feature like phpbb-seo have.