SEO friendly URL

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RobiX
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SEO friendly URL

Post by RobiX »

I would love a extension which creates SEO friendly URLs.

http://example.com/forum.php
=>
http://example.com/forum

http://example.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1
=>
http://example.com/topic/2/thread/1 (or so)

http://example.com/myselfcreatedpage.php?product=123
=>
http://example.com/product/123

Especially, it should work also with customized (self created) pages, e.g., myselfcreatedpage.php.
Unfortunately, currently it doesn't fit together with cron job (see viewtopic.php?f=661&t=2539636)
Last edited by RobiX on Sun Feb 02, 2020 5:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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KevC
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Re: SEO friendly URL

Post by KevC »

They're already SEO friendly but that's a whole other debate that's been done to death many times.

You mean human readable.

There's this by the look of it and it says it's 3.3 ready
https://github.com/phpbb-seo/usu
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RobiX
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Re: SEO friendly URL

Post by RobiX »

No, SEO friendly :) - human readable is both.

I'll will give the extension a try. Tnx.
RobiX
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Re: SEO friendly URL

Post by RobiX »

seems not working for me

at least also @ser commented in github:
ser commented 25 days ago • phpbb 3.3 changed something and extension does not work at all :(
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mrgoldy
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Re: SEO friendly URL

Post by mrgoldy »

RobiX wrote: Sun Feb 02, 2020 5:53 pm No, SEO friendly :) - human readable is both.

I'll will give the extension a try. Tnx.
The current phpBB urls are perfectly fine for SEO friendliness. That’s a fact, a given.
They’re only easier on the eyes.
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Mellx1
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Re: SEO friendly URL

Post by Mellx1 »

Check the [link removed] I think they have extension like this.

Edit: I still like the default phpBB url
Last edited by Mellx1 on Mon Feb 10, 2020 2:59 am, edited 1 time in total.
KYPREO
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Re: SEO friendly URL

Post by KYPREO »

As noted above, the standard viewtopic URLs are already SEO-friendly. Let me repeat: there is no SEO advantage to using a human readable URL version. This is not 2003. Search engines know what query strings are and know the canonical URL structure for phpBB forums.

The only issue with the current URL structure is that the use of f=* in viewtopic URLs is redundant and does not match the canonical URL (Which takes the simple form viewtopic.php?t=*). There is a fix for that pending approval on GitHub and might make its way to the next phpBB release.

As for other custom pages, you can easily convert this to whatever URL structure you like using URL rewrites (in .htaccess or web.config depending on your web server application). As a simple example, many extensions use this rule to convert domain.com\app.php\rules into domain.com\rules. You can check this on my board www.ausrotary.com\rules (which is a rewrite of www.ausrotary.com\app.php\rules).

In fact, all of your examples can be accomplished through a URL rewrite rule without any intervention by phpBB - it is purely at the server configuration level.
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LuigiMdg
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Re: SEO friendly URL

Post by LuigiMdg »

You are crazy.. I work every day and night on SEO and have no idea how much difference having the correct search words in the URL can make.. Starting with the TLD (main domain)
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david63
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Re: SEO friendly URL

Post by david63 »

LuigiMdg wrote: Mon Nov 29, 2021 3:25 pm I work every day and night on SEO
Not sure what requires so much attention.

I spend absolutely no time whatsoever on SEO and guess what - my board is top of the search engines when the correct search terms are entered, and that is with phpBB "out of the box"
David
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HiFiKabin
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Re: SEO friendly URL

Post by HiFiKabin »

I know that its not the answer you want, but have you read what Google says about re writing dynamic URLs?
Q: Does that mean I should avoid rewriting dynamic URLs at all?

A: That's our recommendation, unless your rewrites are limited to removing unnecessary parameters, or you are very diligent in removing all parameters that could cause problems. If you transform your dynamic URL to make it look static you should be aware that we might not be able to interpret the information correctly in all cases. If you want to serve a static equivalent of your site, you might want to consider transforming the underlying content by serving a replacement which is truly static. One example would be to generate files for all the paths and make them accessible somewhere on your site. However, if you're using URL rewriting (rather than making a copy of the content) to produce static-looking URLs from a dynamic site, you could be doing harm rather than good. Feel free to serve us your standard dynamic URL and we will automatically find the parameters which are unnecessary.
https://developers.google.com/search/bl ... tatic-urls

Yes, that post is from 2008 and has not been updated since then.
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LuigiMdg
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Re: SEO friendly URL

Post by LuigiMdg »

david63 wrote: Mon Nov 29, 2021 3:42 pm
LuigiMdg wrote: Mon Nov 29, 2021 3:25 pm I work every day and night on SEO
Not sure what requires so much attention.

I spend absolutely no time whatsoever on SEO and guess what - my board is top of the search engines when the correct search terms are entered, and that is with phpBB "out of the box"
Instead look a bit, I have several sites, in PhpBB and not and they are all at the top of the SERPs, but you have to understand how many keywords and above all how many they can become, by perfecting the SEO..!

SEO is a constant work, you can almost always make improvements and these affect more or less the performance of websites/forums and this of the URLs is a request that should have been satisfied at least 8 years ago, just inquire a little about it or analyze some case studies.
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Lumpy Burgertushie
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Re: SEO friendly URL

Post by Lumpy Burgertushie »

some of us have studied this. we have read different studies and websites that claim to understand SEO etc. etc.

the general consensus is what has already been said multiple times.

most of the SEO claims out there are way out of date.
google should know best and they have said that so called SEO friendlyl URLs don't make much difference in how they rank websites.

even calling them "human friendly" does not make much difference these days.
people don't pay any attention to what a url says, they just click on links.

actually, if you have a working site, you can do harm to your ranking etc. by changing something like phpBB to those types of urls.

it would be much better for people to pay more attention to things that will really make a difference.
for instance;
make sure that things like headings ( h1, h2, etc. ) are relevant keywords.
the subject of the board needs to be narrow instead of trying to be one size fits all,
topic titles,
post subject lines,
and of course, content.

those things is where the keywords are important, not the URL

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vader696
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Re: SEO friendly URL

Post by vader696 »

RobiX wrote: Sun Feb 02, 2020 6:01 pm seems not working for me

at least also @ser commented in github:
ser commented 25 days ago • phpbb 3.3 changed something and extension does not work at all :(
If you still search, this seo url works fine with phpBB 3.3.4 and 3.3.5. Check pull request where you can find fix for PHP 8.0 warnings
https://github.com/tas2580/seourls
socialmediascams
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Re: SEO friendly URL

Post by socialmediascams »

KevC wrote: Sun Feb 02, 2020 5:46 pm There's this by the look of it and it says it's 3.3 ready
https://github.com/phpbb-seo/usu
I've tried uploading that several ways into the ext folder but it's not showing up in the ACP.
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Lumpy Burgertushie
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Re: SEO friendly URL

Post by Lumpy Burgertushie »

1. unzip the ext on your computer.

2. create a new folder named phpbbseo

3. rename usu-master to usu

4. put the folder named usu inside the new folder named phpbbseo

5. upload the folder named phpbbseo to your ext folder of your board.

it will then show up in the customize tab/manage extensions page of the admin panel.

then enable it.

whoever created this extension and put it on github needs to do better about
either the directory structure or at least giving some instructions on how to change it so it works.

luck,
robert
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