Are there any PHPbb SEO tools to improve seo?

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thecoalman
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Re: Are there any PHPbb SEO tools to improve seo?

Post by thecoalman »

RMcGirr83 wrote: Mon Aug 14, 2017 7:51 pm But if a bot had already scanned your site (like google) then the link it will provide will no longer be valid.
When you redirect a URL you send a status message of 301 Moved Permanently.
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Re: Are there any PHPbb SEO tools to improve seo?

Post by 2600 »

I used that SEO extension and it was a giant cluster F^%$. Not only did it cause problems, but once I removed the extension I was getting a lot of Google not found links. That in its self is bad for SEO. Just don't use it. Use this instead. https://www.inveostore.com/phpbb-seo-extension-40
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Re: Are there any PHPbb SEO tools to improve seo?

Post by thecoalman »

John connor wrote: Thu Aug 17, 2017 8:11 am I used that SEO extension and it was a giant cluster F^%$. Not only did it cause problems, but once I removed the extension I was getting a lot of Google not found links. That in its self is bad for SEO. Just don't use it. Use this instead. https://www.inveostore.com/phpbb-seo-extension-40
Just remember John, you are going to need to maintain these URL's into the future. I made a very bad decision years ago with phpbb2 implementing a very poor URL rewriting scheme, it's poor in that the URL's provide no benefit over the standard URL's for URL text which is the primary benefit if you rewrite. It's been a maintenance nightmare maintaining that to the point I'm still on 3.0.14. If support for that product you are using is dropped in the future you may have an issue especially if phpBB implements their own URL rewriting scheme that is incompatible with your own.

As I suggested previously if phpBB does implement a URL rewriting scheme it should have options for how the URL's are constructed.

My forum is getting moved to another domain and one of the things I'll be doing is taking the opportunity to eliminate the URL rewriting. I need to redirect all those URL's anyway so I can finally rid myself of this headache.
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Re: Are there any PHPbb SEO tools to improve seo?

Post by GoesOn »

John connor wrote: Thu Aug 10, 2017 8:29 am
Toxyy wrote: Wed Aug 09, 2017 10:41 pm This works pretty well:

https://github.com/tas2580/seourls
No it don't. It's crap and it messed up my forum with all kinds of trouble.

Here's a pro version that I would use. https://www.inveostore.com/phpbb-seo-extension-40

In addition to that I would use the SEO Sitemap extension. https://github.com/LotusJeff/sitemap

It's not for live sites, but I haven't had any trouble.
Does it work really well and is it easy to install?
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Re: Are there any PHPbb SEO tools to improve seo?

Post by GoesOn »

kaspir wrote: Mon Aug 07, 2017 9:24 am
janus_zonstraal wrote: Mon Aug 07, 2017 9:02 am And you think that after 20 years of PHPBB it is a mistake that the don't use the meta description?
No. Nothing is wrong with the standard phpBB package. What I'm simply saying here is a meta description tag is displayed to humans when the url is shown on search results, therefor enticing human clicks, my definition of being 'used'. And this topic author apparently feels the same way, which is why I offered my post. They see empty descriptions, or ugly ones. Less enticing for human clicks...

Does having a meta name=description help ranking, I believe it will always be debatable.. BECAUSE human clicks does! So yes, I stand on the side of having one, is more helpful than not. :ugeek:

I don't wish to have another SEO debate in a highjacked a topic. You may feel free to PM for further conversation.
standard? Is there a pro version or something else too?
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Re: Are there any PHPbb SEO tools to improve seo?

Post by GoesOn »

HiFiKabin wrote: Sat Aug 12, 2017 6:02 pm
amit4060n wrote: Sat Aug 12, 2017 2:26 pm Friends please tell me how to install extensions downloaded from github. Extension downloaded from here work. But from git hub I do not know author name to put in folder name in ext.
unzip the download and open composer.json

There you will find the name entry which will be like this "name": "hifikabin/headerbanner",

you create a directory using the name from before the / (hifikabin in this case) and name the unzipped download what is after the /

So when you upload to your server you end up with your directory structure like this:-
  • ext
    • hifikabin
      • headerbanner
with all of the extensions files in headerbanner
But does that extension help?
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Re: Are there any PHPbb SEO tools to improve seo?

Post by kaspir »

Some intelligent remarks made by thecoalman imo! :praise:

For all those still thinking about converting urls to friendly, here's my peace... just don't for your own benefit. Your energy can be spent better elsewhere. Let the search engines handle the dynamic urls like they already know how and prefer too. As someone mentioned already, "phpBB didn't get it wrong all these years". Most of us agree, it's not going to help with rankings anyways and on a personal level, the url is not what attracts me to a site for better experience. Then there's the big worry of duplicates, which could effect your ranking in a bad way.

@RMcGirr83, it's all minutia! For one, I dont care what the url says after 'http(s)://thisdomain.we either..

Content.. content.. content.. TELL'EM James! ;)

There IS a butt (i'll keep adding this), I still like my meta descriptions to be filled.. makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.. plus knowing humans interact with that 'better experience" someone mentioned. :P


EDIT: about github download.zips, just open the READ.ME doc like they all have one.. geez! :|
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Re: Are there any PHPbb SEO tools to improve seo?

Post by thecoalman »

kaspir wrote: Fri Aug 18, 2017 7:20 am Let the search engines handle the dynamic urls like they already know how and prefer too.
I wouldn't agree with that either, one of the issues with phpBB is inconsistency in URL's. As I noted previously the f parameter for example, pages being accessed without f parameter should be redirected or get rid of the -f paremaeter.... The other issues most links on the forum use the f parameter yet the canonical URL does not have it.

This topic here for example has the URL with the f parameter indexed as do many others. Whether the f parameter is included or not is irrelevant but there should be consistency and redirects where there is no consistency.

Just to add one of the reasons this is important is you give the bot a clear path to pages and content. Less resources for both the bot and your server, more content indexed or reindexed.


Content.. content.. content.. TELL'EM James! ;)
Clearly it's the most important thing but SEO is not something that should be ignored either.
There IS a butt (i'll keep adding this), I still like my meta descriptions to be filled.. makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside..
Not easily automated with a forum, typically it's just the first part of the first post. This is actually something better left to the bot.
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Re: Are there any PHPbb SEO tools to improve seo?

Post by kaspir »

The other issues most links on the forum use the f parameter yet the canonical URL does not have it.
So glad you said this!

Well, I have not yet seen a fresh phpBB package display any meta descriptions yet for 'topic urls', so not sure about what we are letting phpBB do there, if anything?! Inconsistency in URL's is a needed, no? This is why titles don't end up as duplicate urls to your site. That's NOT something you want to let up to the author, choosing the url!?
Just to add one of the reasons this is important is you give the bot a clear path to pages and content. Less resources for both the bot and your server, more content indexed or reindexed.
I'm going to need another reason please, any site with a mass of content (like forums!) runs into this issue. Besides, all the information I've read 'from' search engine literature, still points to the direction of letting the engines do the work on dynamic urls. I'm almost certain this advice is shared to the public because it would cause more problems with more webmasters' mistakes. But that last sentence is only 'my' theory.

And of course.. I know you're right when you say "SEO shouldn't be ignored" and everyone should just keep believing that phpBB is SEO ready out-of-the-box. That's definitely not the case here or the subject wouldn't keep coming up.

Question for you coalman, do you rewrite your urls on your phpBB install? If so, I would like to see how it's done safety on w/e server your using if I could.
Not easily automated with a forum, typically it's just the first part of the first post. This is actually something better left to the bot.
It IS easy to auto-generate a topic meta description, I have already done so back in FEB 2017, and shared the core edits with Dmzx, so I know he can confirm. It's NOT easy making the extension (at least for me lol). Over the past few months, I have done my best to build n extension to share this element with others. I believe John Conner is testing it out now among others, and I have it running/working on two sites. both 3.2.x, sorry all you 3.1 people, GO UPGRADE, meow!

(disclaimer: First cup of coffee this morning, thanks for conversation!)

EDIT:
:waves: to my fellow pennslyvanian! I'm near the burg coalman!

EDIT2: I went for another cup of coffee and thought more about what you said. I like solutions better than none, so what about this for a starter solution. What if one were to rewrite for just forum categories, that would clearly give you a 'friendly url' for just the viewforum.php?f=1 into domain.com/category-name/ (since it's something the webmaster will control).

Now the topics, we could still let those go, or I guess one could still rewrite viewtopic.php.... to /topic-title?#topic_id but still need an identifier to avoid dupes.

Either way, I clearly don't understand how you wouldn't eventually end up with duplicates without a dynamic url for topics. But with enough thought I guess, there is always a way!
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Re: Are there any PHPbb SEO tools to improve seo?

Post by 2600 »

I sent you a PM. I haven't tried this EXT out until I get a response so I know how to move forward.
kaspir wrote: Sat Aug 19, 2017 6:25 amI have done my best to build n extension to share this element with others. I believe John Conner is testing it out now among others, and I have it running/working on two sites. both 3.2.x, sorry all you 3.1 people, GO UPGRADE, meow!
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Re: Are there any PHPbb SEO tools to improve seo?

Post by thecoalman »

kaspir wrote: Sat Aug 19, 2017 6:25 am
The other issues most links on the forum use the f parameter yet the canonical URL does not have it.
So glad you said this!

Well, I have not yet seen a fresh phpBB package display any meta descriptions yet for 'topic urls', so not sure about what we are letting phpBB do there, if anything?! Inconsistency in URL's is a needed, no? This is why titles don't end up as duplicate urls to your site. That's NOT something you want to let up to the author, choosing the url!?
The canonical URL has nothing do with meta descriptions. A canonical URL is meta tag that tells the bot what is the base URL when the same content can be accessed with different URL's.

Code: Select all

https://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=2433641
https://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=2433641
phpBB uses the first one most commonly for generated links but is using the second one as the canonical URL. For consistency the canonical URL should be the same as what is being generated for the links on pages. In the case of moved topic where the -f parameter is incorrect it should be redirected to the URL using the correct parameter.


As a side note the -f parameter does have some usefulness because it can be used by advertisers to target a specific forum with Adwords and other advertising .

I'm going to need another reason please, any site with a mass of content (like forums!) runs into this issue.


This is not an issue on my site.
Besides, all the information I've read 'from' search engine literature, still points to the direction of letting the engines do the work on dynamic urls.
Bots can handle it but again if you are providing clear and direct paths to the content they don't have to. It's much more efficient for the bot to already have the URL's you want indexed, less wasted resources, more content indexed or reindexed

Question for you coalman, do you rewrite your urls on your phpBB install?
Currently yes I am but as already mentioned this was very poor implementation going back to phpBB2. I have clear path but the URL's themselves are not using text that is human readable. It's been very problematic maintaining this through the years. This forum is getting moved to another domain within a week and I'll be redirecting to the stardard phpBB URL's to rid myself of this maintenance nightmare.

I'll also be fixing the -f parameter issue I've outlined above, beyond that I'll just use other tools available to me like Webmaster tools to tell Google to ignore the other parameters. .

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EDIT2: I went for another cup of coffee and thought more about what you said. I like solutions better than none, so what about this for a starter solution. What if one were to rewrite for just forum categories, that would clearly give you a 'friendly url' for just the viewforum.php?f=1 into domain.com/category-name/ (since it's something the webmaster will control).
Like I said I'm going with the standard phpBB URL's with some minor modifications. It's just easier...

Either way, I clearly don't understand how you wouldn't eventually end up with duplicates without a dynamic url for topics.
You add the the topic ID.

Code: Select all

example.com/phpBB/forum-name/topic-name-xxxxxx-xx
xxxxxxxx is topic ID and XX is start parameter, you'd use the standard ?hilit=sometext for the rest of the parameters.
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Re: Are there any PHPbb SEO tools to improve seo?

Post by kaspir »

John connor wrote: Sat Aug 19, 2017 11:58 am I sent you a PM. I haven't tried this EXT out until I get a response so I know how to move forward.
You should read the README file with the package and follow what it says.

Now if you would like support for it, I would suggest posting 'kindly' where you downloaded it. ;)
Last edited by kaspir on Mon Aug 21, 2017 5:49 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Are there any PHPbb SEO tools to improve seo?

Post by kaspir »

Very Sorry for double post, but wanna shorten conversation with thecoalman.

@thecoalman, thanks for some very valuable info.

So with your current rewrites, you have no issue with dupes simply because, as you stated, one instead uses the topic_id parameter to end the friendly url. Sweet stuff. And like some other things, a simple solution.

How does this effect the canonical, if at all? They are still available to -f bots correct?

So these rewrites... should they not be googlable for both apache and nginx, why would anyone pay?

And you're actually switching back you say? I'm interested in your 'minor modification'! Already thinking about a routing solution for this to add to extension.. what I choose to use, and what I may build for others are two separate things 8-)
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Re: Are there any PHPbb SEO tools to improve seo?

Post by thecoalman »

kaspir wrote: Mon Aug 21, 2017 5:46 am How does this effect the canonical, if at all? They are still available to -f bots correct?
My implementation goes back to phpBB2 before the -f parameter was introduced in phpBB3. As I said it's poor implementation because it doesn't add human readable link text to the URL. The only real benefit of having this over the years is my site is well indexed with very clean URL's.


And you're actually switching back you say? I'm interested in your 'minor modification'! Already thinking about a routing solution for this to add to extension.
The only thing I'll be doing is making simple edits to the core files to make sure all URL's include the f- parameter and redirect any requests to the url with the -f parameter that do not.
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Re: Are there any PHPbb SEO tools to improve seo?

Post by kaspir »

Right on, sounds like you have a great plan and well thought out.

I'm happy with my current index with phpBB dynamic-urls. Generally page one or two currently, and I have little content imo. Of course no matter the site platform, the search terms are the key factor. I also have several WP sites running, all using friendly-URL obviously, and I see absolutely NO difference for page ranking (once SEO gets some love of course). If there are more resources being used for dynamic urls, I'm definitely not noticing it, and don't think anyone else will either. They always seem to grab all the content, but perhaps I may notice it if the forum ever becomes huge in content.


Some highlights:
So I think like Rich said, it's all very minor stuff to worry about.. but also I agree SEO should not go UN-noticed. Every time we come to near end of any SEO conversation, no matter your style, it still boils down to quality content and accurate titles & descriptions of that content. Human clicks generally follow, as far as I've seen.

I like the point you brought to the table about the -f parameter & canonical. phpBB has to be aware, why is that not something they would fix on their own? I mean, the reasoning behind it? And perhaps you could suggest your edits to area51.phpbb mate!
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