Is phpbb the right board for us?

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cachophrastus
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Is phpbb the right board for us?

Post by cachophrastus »

Hi all,

I hope I'm posting in the right place. A previous developer installed an old version of phpbb. It filled up with spam links the day after it went live so we had to disable it.

I now have a new developer. It would be convenient to install the latest version of the board together with the "links authorisation" extension because I think we could then use the page configuration that I worked on with my previous developer which would save having to do it all over again.

Can you tell me if we can do these things with phpbb 3.2 ?

thread title generates urls
thread title generates meta title
First few lines of first post in new thread generates meta description
google analytics script can be incorporated in head of each page (I know I can just look at the post count on a thread but I would like to be able to see the hits on each forum page when I look at google analytics together with the hits on all the other pages each morning.)

I'm guessing that phpbb is flexible enough to do all these things but if they are not default settings can you tell us how to set up for these things please?

Many thanks in advance
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Mick
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Re: Is phpbb the right board for us?

Post by Mick »

You can’t thread anything, phpBB has topics.
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Re: Is phpbb the right board for us?

Post by KevC »

Preventing spam is only a matter of implementing a good Q&A for the registration page. You don't need to hire a developer to do that. Also tied in with the newly registered user group you can make the first post require approval before it shows so there's no need for any link authorisation either.

You would need to search the extensions database for the kind of SEO features you think you need (not that they make a lot of difference but that's a different debate). If you can't find them you can request them here.
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Re: Is phpbb the right board for us?

Post by stevemaury »

Echoing what KevC said, few issues generate more angst and worry than spam, yet few are easier to solve. With one minute's work, you can stop 99.9% of all spam and by using New member moderation, you can trap the remaining .001%. If you decide to use phpBB, you can ask in our Support forum for more information about this, but believe me, there is no need for fancy methods like "link authorization" or any other hoops to jump through. Trust me.

BTW, there is nothing about spam that is unique to phpBB or even more severe with phpBB. Any website that allows people to join and post, whether it be a bulletin board or a Comments section, will have to deal with spam. No one can write software to know whether a potential user is someone you want to register, or do not. Because until they post, who knows?
I can stop all your spam. I can upgrade or update your Board. PM or email me. (Paid support)
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Lumpy Burgertushie
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Re: Is phpbb the right board for us?

Post by Lumpy Burgertushie »

cachophrastus wrote: Sun Feb 18, 2018 8:05 am threadtopic title generates urls --standard , however the urls are probably not what you are talking about. so called SEO friendly urls are of no benefit to you for SEO. just ask google.
thread topic title generates meta title --there is an extension that does this
First few lines of first post in new thread generates meta description
google analytics script can be incorporated in head of each page --yes, that is standard, works the same way for phpbb as it does for any other web page/site. you simply add your google code to the overall_header.html file of whatever style(s) you are using.
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cachophrastus
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Re: Is phpbb the right board for us?

Post by cachophrastus »

Lumpy Burgertushie wrote: Sun Feb 18, 2018 4:48 pm
cachophrastus wrote: Sun Feb 18, 2018 8:05 am threadtopic title generates urls --standard , however the urls are probably not what you are talking about. so called SEO friendly urls are of no benefit to you for SEO. just ask google.
thread topic title generates meta title --there is an extension that does this
First few lines of first post in new thread generates meta description
google analytics script can be incorporated in head of each page --yes, that is standard, works the same way for phpbb as it does for any other web page/site. you simply add your google code to the overall_header.html file of whatever style(s) you are using.
robert
Hi Robert,

Thanks very much for that. Re: topic title generates urls. You say "standard". What I mean is I post the topic title: "Do free range chickens taste better". I want my url to say ......forum/do-free-range-chickens-taste-better I think you are saying that those are "so called SEO friendly urls' and they "are of no benefit.....for SEO". No good asking google because they don't give out information on such things. We have to guess. (But you know that). So you are saying that I can't get that feature with phpbb. Is that correct?

What about "First few lines of first post in new topic generates meta description?" You did not answer that one.

Cheers Chris
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Re: Is phpbb the right board for us?

Post by Lumpy Burgertushie »

I thought that these two lines were the same thing:
topic title generates meta title
First few lines of first post in new thread generates meta description
phpbb creates a distince url for each post this the one for this post: viewtopic.php?f=64&t=2460081

for it to say Is phpbb the right board for us?
does not good for SEO even though you will find many so called SEO experts out there that will say it does.
Yes, you can ask google or rather you can read what they have to say about it:
https://phpbb.hifikabin.me.uk/app.php/s ... 1472199281


and no, phpbb can not do it by default, however, there have been many MODs and extensions for different url structure.

however , what we have seen is that over time board owners realize that they are more trouble then they are worth. once you start it, you have to keep it forever or your google rankings etc. go down the toilet when you have to change anything about it.

when you leave it as it is you never have to worry about an update changing all your urls and crashing all your google ranking etc.


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Re: Is phpbb the right board for us?

Post by HiFiKabin »

Google themselves have this to say about 'friendly' URL's
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.
They have not changed their views on this 10 years. https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2008/ ... -urls.html
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Re: Is phpbb the right board for us?

Post by thecoalman »

cachophrastus wrote: Sun Feb 18, 2018 8:05 am thread title generates urls
There is no easy out of the box solution for this, at least any available here. I'd caution about the use of any SEO mod using rewrites. The problem is future maintenance and support for it. Many of these mods have come and gone over the years and with no standard for the URL scheme you could be left with huge problem with future releases of phpBB.
thread title generates meta title
First few lines of first post in new thread generates meta description
google analytics script can be incorporated in head of each page (I know I can just look at the post count on a thread but I would like to be able to see the hits on each forum page when I look at google analytics together with the hits on all the other pages each morning.)
If there is no extension available all of these things can be accomplished easily with competent site developer. For example if you wanted Google analytics you could just edit the overall_header.html template.
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Re: Is phpbb the right board for us?

Post by 3Di »

Google analitycs extension took its place there at the CDB
https://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/exte ... analytics/
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Re: Is phpbb the right board for us?

Post by thecoalman »

HiFiKabin wrote: Mon Feb 19, 2018 10:42 am Google themselves have this to say about 'friendly' URL's
The article you are linking to was intended to provide information about poor rewrites. URL's using text instead of parameters are human friendly and that by itself is enough reason to use them and why Google recommends them.
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7451184
Simple URLs convey content information

Creating descriptive categories and filenames for the documents on your website not only helps you keep your site better organized, it can create easier, "friendlier" URLs for those that want to link to your content. Visitors may be intimidated by extremely long and cryptic URLs that contain few recognizable words.

Just to add the URL to that article you posted is:

Code: Select all

https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2008/09/dynamic-urls-vs-static-urls.html
...just saying. ;)
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Re: Is phpbb the right board for us?

Post by HiFiKabin »

thecoalman wrote: Mon Feb 19, 2018 3:52 pm

Just to add the URL to that article you posted is:

Code: Select all

https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2008/09/dynamic-urls-vs-static-urls.html
...just saying. ;)
... which is a static (not dynamic) page ;)
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Re: Is phpbb the right board for us?

Post by juliokr »

HiFiKabin wrote: Mon Feb 19, 2018 6:12 pm
thecoalman wrote: Mon Feb 19, 2018 3:52 pm

Just to add the URL to that article you posted is:

Code: Select all

https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2008/09/dynamic-urls-vs-static-urls.html
...just saying. ;)
... which is a static (not dynamic) page ;)
How will you know that

Code: Select all

https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2008/09/dynamic-urls-vs-static-urls.html
would be a "static page" ?
I would wonder if Google would hard code pages ;)
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Mick
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Re: Is phpbb the right board for us?

Post by Mick »

Don’t anyone dare thinking of turning this topic in to chapter 131 of “Friendly URLS’s & SEO for phpBB”!!

Please stay on topic ie: “Is phpBB the right board for us?”
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Re: Is phpbb the right board for us?

Post by thecoalman »

HiFiKabin wrote: Mon Feb 19, 2018 6:12 pm ... which is a static (not dynamic) page ;)
.html does not necessarily mean there is an .html file. Those pages are undoubtedly generated using a rewrite. e.g:

Code: Select all

https://webmasters.googleblog.com/index.ext?year=2008&month=09&post=123456
Is accessed through:

Code: Select all

https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2008/09/dynamic-urls-vs-static-urls.html
If you knew the real parameters you should be able to access it but would likely be redirected to the friendly URL.
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