Topic: Search Engine Friendly

[RoCKeT-88]

Oh I gotcha.  Google bot stops after page1 of a thread.  Least you didn't roll your eyes.  I was affraid they might get stuck like that eventually.  So at this point yes SMF is only slightly indexable.

[Anguz]

wow... I just found a community with 154,000 pages indexed by Google 

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=site:www%2Ewebmasterworld%2Ecom+webmasterworld%2Ecom

I knew about it, but never checked how well indexed it was by the search engine

[Gobalopper]

I think they created their own forum software that is tuned to be indexed easily.

[Anguz]

well... it's not the default install, it's heavily modded from what I remember reading in some of their threads... the reason why I mention it, is to show that forums CAN be very indexable and to have and example we can follow

their urls are obviously a big part of the thing, but I'm checking if there's more to it

[Anguz]

they are using urls relative to the root too

Code: [Select]

<a href="/forum3/">Google News</a>

[pulpitfire]

wow... I just found a community with 154,000 pages indexed by Google 

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=site:www%2Ewebmasterworld%2Ecom+webmasterworld%2Ecom

I knew about it, but never checked how well indexed it was by the search engine

yep, and look how they're formatted:

www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/2657.htm

everything looks like a static page with an htm extension.  no wierd characters.  nothing but slashes. AND no index.php.

[[Unknown]]

Not everything can be done out of the box.  Just because your $80, 000 car can go at 200 mph doesn't mean everyone else on the roads can.  SMF is even for those little buggies that still only go a max of 50 mph. (aka IIS.)

-[Unknown]

[Fizzy]

WW.com has always featured well in search results.
I have always used it for researching spiders and robots.
If you try a Google search for robot names etc you can be fairly sure that WW will come in on the top 5 almost every time with the result taking you straight in to the html page.
It's simple but effective.

Looking at the page links, they use this format

Page 1 - http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum21/6670.htm
Page 2 - http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum21/6670-2-15.htm
Page 3 - http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum21/6670-3-15.htm

always ending with htm extension ? ? ?
Is it possible to end SMF's with php ?


Does SMF's current system of ending as
http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=3410.15
cause a search engine to think that it's not a file at all but perhaps a directory?

I know that I have had problems getting directories indexed if they don't have an index.php or html page.

Just throwing ideas in the pot

[[Unknown]]

Everything is possible, the problem is... do we want to support it?  There are ramifications to adding features that you guys often do not consider!

I'd use one of these: , - _

I ended up using "." - I would assume that's fine, it's just that I don't want to conflict with any parameters.  (_ definitely would!)

-[Unknown]

[RoCKeT-88]

Everything is possible, the problem is... do we want to support it?  There are ramifications to adding features that you guys often do not consider!

I'd use one of these: , - _

I ended up using "." - I would assume that's fine, it's just that I don't want to conflict with any parameters.  (_ definitely would!)

-[Unknown]

Less the ramifications are going to hamper features, add tremendous burdern to you and the coders, etc I think we should try to get as many pages as possible indexed.  It is amazing just how often my forum comes up in google with it only indexing the first page of a thread and the amount of traffic a highly active forum can generate, specailly if you niche is small to begin with.  Just my 2.5 cents.

[[Unknown]]

I'm just saying that things like this:

http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum21/6670-3-15.htm

Are not going to be done, obviously, except by mods.  Just like there are a million ways I could make SMF even faster by using features of MySQL 4, but I can't.

-[Unknown]

[RoCKeT-88]

I'm just saying that things like this:

http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum21/6670-3-15.htm

Are not going to be done, obviously, except by mods.  Just like there are a million ways I could make SMF even faster by using features of MySQL 4, but I can't.

-[Unknown]

Well what ever can be done to improve SEO will be appreciated not only for our sites but for this site as well.

[Fizzy]

Well I guess we can always set mod settings to 1,000,000 posts per page.

I know that Anguz did a cracking mod for YaBBSE with the Smart URL mod which actually formats the URLs very similar to at WW.com, I wonder if he would be kind enough to do the same for SMF ?

[pulpitfire]

Well I guess we can always set mod settings to 1,000,000 posts per page.

I know that Anguz did a cracking mod for YaBBSE with the Smart URL mod which actually formats the URLs very similar to at WW.com, I wonder if he would be kind enough to do the same for SMF ?

[RoCKeT-88]

Well I guess we can always set mod settings to 1,000,000 posts per page.

I know that Anguz did a cracking mod for YaBBSE with the Smart URL mod which actually formats the URLs very similar to at WW.com, I wonder if he would be kind enough to do the same for SMF ?

Hell I would either fall asleep or be retired by the time I scrolled to the bottom of word assocaition thread  :'(

[pulpitfire]

imagine if every page of every SMF that everyone uses was indexed on a search engine, and contained a copyrighted link back here to SMF!  now, why would anyone want to do that?   

[RoCKeT-88]

imagine if every page of every SMF that everyone uses was indexed on a search engine, and contained a copyrighted link back here to SMF!  now, why would anyone want to do that?   

Well like I said before not only for our sites but this site. 

[Anguz]

I'm just saying that things like this:

http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum21/6670-3-15.htm

Are not going to be done, obviously, except by mods.  Just like there are a million ways I could make SMF even faster by using features of MySQL 4, but I can't.

-[Unknown]

I completely agree with you

when I found out the index result for that forum, I was so surprised, and the first thing that came to my mind was to share it here with you guys, so I searched for a Search Engine thread to share it

I just now realize that it's in Feature Requests, I guess I was pretty asleep last night, I didn't mean it as a feature request... I'll write something similar to Smart URLs for SMF

I actually like the way you are formatting the urls here, so don't get it like I'm criticizing your work, cause I'm not

[pulpitfire]

Not everything can be done out of the box.  Just because your $80, 000 car can go at 200 mph doesn't mean everyone else on the roads can.  SMF is even for those little buggies that still only go a max of 50 mph. (aka IIS.)

-[Unknown]

when i was using YaBB perl edition, i had to change to a server that offers mysql in order to even try YaBB SE.  if people are serious about getting their site indexed, and creating jillions of links back here to SMF, it's their responsibility to use the right equipment.  you could always make a switch in modsettings that enables or disables the url mod.

[Anguz]

Not everything can be done out of the box.  Just because your $80, 000 car can go at 200 mph doesn't mean everyone else on the roads can.  SMF is even for those little buggies that still only go a max of 50 mph. (aka IIS.)

-[Unknown]

when i was using YaBB perl edition, i had to change to a server that offers mysql in order to even try YaBB SE.  if people are serious about getting their site indexed, and creating jillions of links back here to SMF, it's their responsibility to use the right equipment.  you could always make a switch in modsettings that enables or disables the url mod.

he already did, pege, you can already change the url format from the settings

if you don't like the format he chose, you will probably be able to change it without much trouble, since the engine for doing the change is already there

I'll anyway write a mod to make it a bit easier for those that do want a different format but don't know how to do it

about the server, it's true that one should be able to choose the best option, but not everyone can, for many reasons, so he's trying to give as good a solution as possible, that'll help in most configurations