Submitting forum to a google search engine?

deepndark · Post by **deepndark** » Mon May 20, 2019 9:23 am

Hello, I was searching my forum with a google search by typing "reason forum" but my site was not found with these words. Is there a good guide how to get my site listed in the google search? I want my site to be found when someone searches for "reason forum" as my forum url DOES have these both words in it. ( http://reasonheads.com/forum/ )
The google search console thing, is that the only way, and if it is, is there a step by step guide or youtube tutorial that how to do it properly?

Thanks!

david63 · Post by **david63** » Mon May 20, 2019 9:36 am

deepndark wrote: ↑
Mon May 20, 2019 9:23 am
Is there a good guide how to get my site listed in the google search?

Yes - plenty of relevant content, and patience. Google will index your board eventually and when it finds it then you will be in the search results but you need to keep getting more posts with the relevant keywords in the content to get higher up the rankings.

You are also better off not using "common" search terms but having something that is unique. Searching for "widgets" will give thousands of results but searching for "green right handed widgets" will yield only a few results.

There is no magic formula to get to the top of the search results - if there was then everybody would be at the top.

Post by **KevC** » Mon May 20, 2019 10:51 am

Further to David's point about relevant posts, you don't have a very high 'keyword' count for what your site is actually about. The word 'reason' on its own is not going to get a good result because it's not a very unique word. That's also a bit of a fault of the software makers as they would get better results if they'd come up with a quirky word or spelling of it.

I had to do a bit of googling to even find out what Reason was. None of the forums, descriptions or posts actually mention that. It would help to have at least 'reason music editing software' somewhere on the front page. Or even a post that says welcome to the site, this is for people using ..... and then fully describe what the site is for and make sure that forum is indexed by the bots.

Post by **Mick** » Mon May 20, 2019 12:37 pm

KevC wrote: ↑
Mon May 20, 2019 10:51 am
It would help to have at least 'reason music editing software' somewhere on the front page

‘Propellerhead Reason’ may work better.

As you’re probably aware your subject is quite popular (I’m a Reason fan myself) so you have to offer something a little different. If you have a difference flaunt it.

Post by **thecoalman** » Sun May 26, 2019 1:08 am

Google measures and lists your site based on a wide array of things. The meta title is one of the most important things. Open overallheader.html and find:

Code: Select all

<title><!-- IF UNREAD_NOTIFICATIONS_COUNT -->({UNREAD_NOTIFICATIONS_COUNT}) <!-- ENDIF --><!-- IF not S_VIEWTOPIC and not S_VIEWFORUM -->{SITENAME} - <!-- ENDIF --><!-- IF S_IN_MCP -->{L_MCP} - <!-- ELSEIF S_IN_UCP -->{L_UCP} - <!-- ENDIF -->{PAGE_TITLE}<!-- IF S_VIEWTOPIC or S_VIEWFORUM --> - {SITENAME}<!-- ENDIF --></title>

Replace with:

Code: Select all

<title><!-- IF S_IN_MCP -->{L_MCP} | <!-- ELSEIF S_IN_UCP -->{L_UCP} | <!-- ENDIF --><!-- IF S_INDEX -->Your Keyword Text Here<!-- ELSE -->{PAGE_TITLE}<!-- ENDIF --> | {SITENAME}</title>

Your Keyword Text Here Should contain keywords you are targeting. You can also improve the forum titles, use more keywords and make them a little longer.

odf · Post by **odf** » Mon Sep 02, 2019 10:38 pm

thecoalman wrote: ↑
Sun May 26, 2019 1:08 am
Google measures and lists your site based on a wide array of things. The meta title is one of the most important things. Open overallheader.html and find:
Code: Select all
<title>({UNREAD_NOTIFICATIONS_COUNT}) {SITENAME} - {L_MCP} - {L_UCP} - {PAGE_TITLE} - {SITENAME}</title>
Replace with:
Code: Select all
<title>{L_MCP} | {L_UCP} | Your Keyword Text Here{PAGE_TITLE} | {SITENAME}</title>
Your Keyword Text Here Should contain keywords you are targeting. You can also improve the forum titles, use more keywords and make them a little longer.

Out of curiosity, how many keywords can one put? Should they be separated by , ; or no separators?

3Di · Post by **3Di** » Mon Sep 02, 2019 10:47 pm

With a comma plus a space ,

Lumpy Burgertushie · Post by **Lumpy Burgertushie** » Tue Sep 03, 2019 3:23 am

also, having keywords in your domain name is of some help, but as you found out, it is not very high on the things that google looks for.

as mentioned above, keyword rich site description in the header, keyword rich forum/topic titles etc.

you need to post often and use keyword rich content.

remember, nobody goes to google to look for your site. they go looking for content. they do that by typing in keywords relevant to the subject.
If your site has that content and therefore those keywords, it will show up in the SERPs ( search engine return pages ).

robert

Exclusive · Post by **Exclusive** » Sun Oct 06, 2019 8:56 pm

deepndark wrote: ↑
Mon May 20, 2019 9:23 am
Hello, I was searching my forum with a google search by typing "reason forum" but my site was not found with these words. Is there a good guide how to get my site listed in the google search? I want my site to be found when someone searches for "reason forum" as my forum url DOES have these both words in it. ( http://reasonheads.com/forum/ )
The google search console thing, is that the only way, and if it is, is there a step by step guide or youtube tutorial that how to do it properly?

Thanks!

Probably a wrong keyword in quotes. Your forum is "reasonheads" and your searching for "reason forum" you would probably not get a definite result related to your site. Just like searching for "php forum" when this is "phpbb forum"

To add your site to Google search console, you need a sitemap, I believe there is a sitemap extension here (quickly search the forum for it), then add the sitemap to your Google Search Console, and add good meta tags to your board too.

KYPREO · Post by **KYPREO** » Sun Oct 06, 2019 11:58 pm

Exclusive wrote: ↑
Sun Oct 06, 2019 8:56 pm
To add your site to Google search console, you need a sitemap, I believe there is a sitemap extension here (quickly search the forum for it), then add the sitemap to your Google Search Console, and add good meta tags to your board too.

You don't need a sitemap to enable Google Search Console. You just need to validate the site by uploading a verification HTML to the website root.

The sitemap is not needed for indexing either - you just need to make the forum available to Google's crawler bots. This can be done through the ACP. Be careful about which sections and pages the Google Crawler is allowed to search. I don't think you'd want Google indexing private areas or harvesting user profile pages where they might get personal data.

A sitemap *may* help Google navigate the site and index it more comprehensively, while meta data *may* help SERP performance, but this not crucial. Relevant content is key. Google knows how to navigate a phpBB forum.

I don't have any form of SEO optimisation or a sitemap - just a vanilla phpBB forum with lots of relevant content for particular keywords. My site ranks 1 or 2 for search terms directly relevant to phpBB topics on my board and 80% of my board traffic comes from Google.

The main thing that helped my search engine optimisation was to adopt a mobile sensitive theme when I upgraded from phpBB 3.0.x.

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