[Split] Extension for - Friendly URL ?

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janurmas
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[Split] Extension for - Friendly URL ?

Post by janurmas »

Is anyone here can suggest an official tested module for the phpBB to make the URLs SEO friendly? It's really bad for SEO for having posts' URL with "?" string.
Last edited by Mick on Tue Sep 04, 2018 12:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Split from https://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=496&t=2470861
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Re: [Split] Extension for - Friendly URL ?

Post by Mick »

janurmas wrote: Tue Sep 04, 2018 12:29 pmIt's really bad for SEO for having posts' URL with "?" string
Why, can you please explain?

I’m not certain there’s anything immediately available here but there was a similar question only yesterday and if you have a search there have been many discussions on the subject.
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Lumpy Burgertushie
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Re: [Split] Extension for - Friendly URL ?

Post by Lumpy Burgertushie »

not to start this up again, but there is absolutely no evidence that google etc. has any problem with dynamic urls like phpbb uses . ( and just about every other software like it. )

years ago, that was true but search engines have learned a lot since then.

bottom line, this is simply not anything you need to worry about. if you don't believe it, ask google.


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Re: [Split] Extension for - Friendly URL ?

Post by janurmas »

Mick wrote: Tue Sep 04, 2018 12:45 pm
janurmas wrote: Tue Sep 04, 2018 12:29 pmIt's really bad for SEO for having posts' URL with "?" string
Why, can you please explain?
Sure! We all are know how to check whether or not a search engine, in this case, Google, indexes a page correctly. I will use my site's URLs to explain what SEF URL should be. To do so, I will use the search keyword like;

site:(the URL of a single web page URL (SEF URL) you want to check)

The search result would be showing one result like the following:

Image

If you want to check short of URLs under a category indexed by Google;

site:(the web category URL)

The SERP would be showing short of indexed URLs under a web category, like the following result;

Image

But what if a single webpage URL with the string "?" on it. Google doesn't recognize any string(s) after the "?". Take for example this page's URL I checked on Google. It won't show a specified web page. Instead, the search results are all pages from this site that contains all strings before the string "?". Look at this;

Image

It means Google ignore all strings after "?" because it's probably a string for a dynamic web page. I don't know. Phpbb would be much better if not using the string "?" for a static page. I gonna make 2 community forums on different URLs but since the first time I installed phpbb couple weeks ago, I should postpone it because I haven't found any solution to make it SEF URLs. Phpbb is a good forum software that meets my requirements in terms of ease-of-use and board features compared to other free open source forum platforms. But unfortunately, it's not SEF. Mannn, come on, you need these SEF URLs to feature on phpbb and watch phpbb users increasing. Believe me! But probably you don't want it. Thanks!
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Re: [Split] Extension for - Friendly URL ?

Post by janurmas »

Lumpy Burgertushie wrote: Tue Sep 04, 2018 4:40 pm not to start this up again, but there is absolutely no evidence that google etc. has any problem with dynamic urls like phpbb uses . ( and just about every other software like it. )

years ago, that was true but search engines have learned a lot since then.
Why there's no evidence? You can try it, and if you care about SEO and have been learning SEO, you must be knowing why string '?" in a URL isn't good for SEO.
bottom line, this is simply not anything you need to worry about. if you don't believe it, ask google.
Oh, come on..!
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Re: [Split] Extension for - Friendly URL ?

Post by Lumpy Burgertushie »

your examples are not good. they do not represent actual searches with keywords. people do not search for urls, they search for keywords.

if you do a search for keywords/phrases then when google finds a post on a phpbb board with those keywords it will show up in the serps no matter what the url is .
the ranking will then depend on how well the html of the page is setup for those keywords etc., not on the url of the page.
talk to google, they have said for years that dynamic urls with ? or other characters do not make any difference in serps.
be sure you are reading current google texts and not something from years ago.


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Re: [Split] Extension for - Friendly URL ?

Post by Ger »

Like lumpy Burgertushie wrote: people don't use search engines to search for URL's. If you know the URL you just put that in the address bar. A more real world example would be:
Image
or even
Image

As you can see in the latest screenshot, the forum results are actually even better than the CMS results that have "Friendly URLS".
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Re: [Split] Extension for - Friendly URL ?

Post by Peter77sx »

janurmas wrote: Wed Sep 19, 2018 5:01 am
Mick wrote: Tue Sep 04, 2018 12:45 pm
janurmas wrote: Tue Sep 04, 2018 12:29 pmIt's really bad for SEO for having posts' URL with "?" string
Why, can you please explain?
...

But what if a single webpage URL with the string "?" on it. Google doesn't recognize any string(s) after the "?". Take for example this page's URL I checked on Google. It won't show a specified web page. Instead, the search results are all pages from this site that contains all strings before the string "?". Look at this;

...

It means Google ignore all strings after "?" because it's probably a string for a dynamic web page. I don't know. Phpbb would be much better if not using the string "?" for a static page. I gonna make 2 community forums on different URLs but since the first time I installed phpbb couple weeks ago, I should postpone it because I haven't found any solution to make it SEF URLs. Phpbb is a good forum software that meets my requirements in terms of ease-of-use and board features compared to other free open source forum platforms. But unfortunately, it's not SEF. Mannn, come on, you need these SEF URLs to feature on phpbb and watch phpbb users increasing. Believe me! But probably you don't want it. Thanks!
This is because Google respects Cananical URL: https://support.google.com/webmasters/a ... 9066?hl=en

phpbb3 uses the Canonical meta tag. All different versions of of a topic get a "301" with the Canonical version of the topic. Not a true 301 but from what I read in the past, it's basically same deal.

This helps prevent duplicate content in search results.
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Re: [Split] Extension for - Friendly URL ?

Post by janurmas »

Peter77sx wrote: Wed Sep 19, 2018 10:13 pm
janurmas wrote: Wed Sep 19, 2018 5:01 am
Mick wrote: Tue Sep 04, 2018 12:45 pm
janurmas wrote: Tue Sep 04, 2018 12:29 pmIt's really bad for SEO for having posts' URL with "?" string
Why, can you please explain?
...

But what if a single webpage URL with the string "?" on it. Google doesn't recognize any string(s) after the "?". Take for example this page's URL I checked on Google. It won't show a specified web page. Instead, the search results are all pages from this site that contains all strings before the string "?". Look at this;

...

It means Google ignore all strings after "?" because it's probably a string for a dynamic web page. I don't know. Phpbb would be much better if not using the string "?" for a static page. I gonna make 2 community forums on different URLs but since the first time I installed phpbb couple weeks ago, I should postpone it because I haven't found any solution to make it SEF URLs. Phpbb is a good forum software that meets my requirements in terms of ease-of-use and board features compared to other free open source forum platforms. But unfortunately, it's not SEF. Mannn, come on, you need these SEF URLs to feature on phpbb and watch phpbb users increasing. Believe me! But probably you don't want it. Thanks!
This is because Google respects Cananical URL: https://support.google.com/webmasters/a ... 9066?hl=en

phpbb3 uses the Canonical meta tag. All different versions of of a topic get a "301" with the Canonical version of the topic. Not a true 301 but from what I read in the past, it's basically same deal.

This helps prevent duplicate content in search results.
Yes, Google respects all canonical URLs. But if you read that reference thoroughly, making a site with too many url versions without a <link> tag for a single page will increase the crawling time. It means not good for SEO. I know you guys will always insist to say that Phpbb URLs are better for SEO compared to other CMSes. It's up to you. I think I gonna buy Xenforo or Vbulletin. Those two forum platforms are much better than phpbb.
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Re: [Split] Extension for - Friendly URL ?

Post by Lumpy Burgertushie »

you can certainly do as you please but I seriously doubt that any other bulletin board software is any better with seo than any other bulletin board software.

the trick for good seo is mainly good content.
after that, you look at the standard things like keywords ( related to good content naturally ), keywords in h1 tags, meta descriptions , relevant inbound and outbound links etc. etc.

so called "friendly urls" are way down on the list of things that google cares about.

once more, ask google. they have posted many times about this subject and how they feel about "friendly urls".

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Re: [Split] Extension for - Friendly URL ?

Post by DavidIQ »

As was already mentioned absolutely nobody goes to Google and searches for a URL so not sure how you thought that would make a good example. They enter keywords and, as has already been proven to you, that absolutely works and returns results as intended even from forums. "Pretty" URLs are just that: Lipstick for the URL that is only for humans to benefit from it (sometimes easier to remember and identify), which is why those are more appropriately referred to as "human readable URLs" because search engines care little to not at all about them, again as has been proven to you already. Of course we are not proclaiming ourselves as the forum software to rule them all so if you want to hop on another platform that you have to pay for that is your right to do so. :)
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Re: [Split] Extension for - Friendly URL ?

Post by janurmas »

DavidIQ wrote: Wed Sep 19, 2018 11:55 pm As was already mentioned absolutely nobody goes to Google and searches for a URL so not sure how you thought that would make a good example. They enter keywords and, as has already been proven to you, that absolutely works and returns results as intended even from forums. "Pretty" URLs are just that: Lipstick for the URL that is only for humans to benefit from it (sometimes easier to remember and identify), which is why those are more appropriately referred to as "human readable URLs" because search engines care little to not at all about them, again as has been proven to you already. Of course we are not proclaiming ourselves as the forum software to rule them all so if you want to hop on another platform that you have to pay for that is your right to do so. :)
I am very sorry for having so many discussions here. Everything we are talking about here is all about SEF. But not the way how common people search a certain keyword on search engines. All short things I explain here is not the way we search for something on the engine. But at least, it's one of the many ways to prove that phpbb's native URLs are bad at all !!!!!!!!!!! I hope you enjoy the way you respond me here. Shame on phpbb team.
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Re: [Split] Extension for - Friendly URL ?

Post by DavidIQ »

I think that your desire for wanting pretty URLs (SEF or not) are more important to you than what we are telling you. Locking this topic now since there is only one direction this will go unfortunately. Best of luck with your purchase.
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