upgrading to phpbb3 without losing pagerank

[philipissa]

Hi,

I've been looking into upgrading to phpbb3 from phpbb2, but am afraid that by doing so I may lose pagerank on my existing site. Specifically, I've noticed that the URLs have changed format.
The old urls look like:

Code: Select all

http://www.mydomain.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=10

and the new urls look like:

Code: Select all

 http://www.mydomain/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=10973

Spefically, the new urls have the forum id added to the url (f=4). Both URLs actually seem to resolve without any problem.

Will this change affect my pagerank for my already-indexed topics in google?

Sorry if this has been answered before, I did try to search for this question but didn't have any luck.

Thanks,
Philip

[DavidIQ]

Aren't the phpBB developers nice enough that they thought about this when they created phpBB3, keeping the main pages functionally the same (for the most part) as phpBB2?

Unless you changed the directory your forum is in I don't think you need to worry much.

[philipissa]

Well, I am happy that the URL didn't change too much...but isn't the addition of the "f=id" enough to still make it seem like a different page to search engines? Wouldn't the old pages get unindexed, in favor of the newer (and therefore lower rank) pages?
Philip

[DavidIQ]

Someone that's a bit more familiar with how pageranks work would be better suited to answer...like maybe EXreaction.

[thecoalman]

Your old URL's will still work: http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=1247355

The only issue with SE's and PR is that you no longer have any internal links pointing to them and the new URL's are duplicates. I don't have the code you need to change but you can remove the f=4 part if you wanted too. AFAIK its only used for the online listing at the bottom of individual forums.

[blakebowling]

AFAIK its only used for the online listing at the bottom of individual forums.

And to show which forum name appears in the trail for a global announcement

[Derky]

Open: viewtopic.php

Find:

Code: Select all

// General Viewtopic URL for return links
$viewtopic_url = append_sid("{$phpbb_root_path}viewtopic.$phpEx", "f=$forum_id&t=$topic_id&start=$start&$u_sort_param" . (($highlight_match) ? "&hilit=$highlight" : '')); 

After add:

Code: Select all

// Add forum_id in URL when missing
if (!isset($_GET['f']))
{
    if ($start)
    {
        $url = append_sid("{$phpbb_root_path}viewtopic.$phpEx", "f=$forum_id&t=$topic_id&start=$start");
    }
    else
    {
        $url = append_sid("{$phpbb_root_path}viewtopic.$phpEx", "f=$forum_id&t=$topic_id");
    }
    header("HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently");
    header("location:$url");
} 

I think this will work properly for old phpBB2 links. The PageRank should be transferred to the new page with this.

[DavidIQ]

From a reputable source regarding this topic:

PR is not very important and gets updated after a few months. Likely their PR on the forum is little anyways, especially in topics.

[philipissa]

Thanks to everyone for (1) the hack to show the old links (2) the understanding of the impact of putting in the hack. DavidIQ - I know you mentioned that the PR is generally not very important, and I agree that the PR on its own probably isn't. But I have many pages that have been highly indexed and that (together) bring in a significant revenue stream, so I want to be very cautious about changes that might impact this. I'll see if I can message EXreaction as you suggest to get some extra info on how going to the new links might (or might not) affect me before putting in the hack. Thanks again,
Philip

[thecoalman]

I moved an entire forum to a new domain, using a 301 redirect and all the pages maintained their previous place in the results. Results may vary....

[kulinar]

Open: viewtopic.php

Please, allow me to make a few corrections to improve your code

Find:

Code: Select all

// General Viewtopic URL for return links
$viewtopic_url = append_sid("{$phpbb_root_path}viewtopic.$phpEx", "f=$forum_id&t=$topic_id&start=$start" . ((strlen($u_sort_param)) ? "&$u_sort_param" : '') . (($highlight_match) ? "&hilit=$highlight" : '')); 

After add:

Code: Select all

//SEO Add forum_id in URL when missing and correct forum_id if thread was moved
    if (!isset($_GET['f'])||$_GET['f']!=$forum_id)
    {
        if ($start&&start!=0)
        {
            $url = "{$phpbb_root_path}viewtopic.$phpEx?f=$forum_id&t=$topic_id&start=$start";
        }
        else
        {
            $url = "{$phpbb_root_path}viewtopic.$phpEx?f=$forum_id&t=$topic_id";
        }
        header("HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently");
        header("location:$url");
    }
 

this code will not only redirect old pages (without f parameter) but also will redirect topics that are moved from one forum to another (when f parameter is changed). Also if start parameter is equal to 0, it will be skipped.

[Derky]

Open: viewtopic.php

Please, allow me to make a few corrections to improve your code

That's fine, let me take a look:

Code: Select all

//SEO Add forum_id in URL when missing and correct forum_id if thread was moved
if (!isset($_GET['f'])||$_GET['f']!=$forum_id) 

You should request_var() over here. Since the $forum_id is already grabbed with request_var, you could add an extra variable that is not overwritten.
Find: $forum_id = request_var('f', 0);
Replace with: $req_forum_id = $forum_id = request_var('f', 0);
Then change the check to:

Code: Select all

if ((!isset($_GET['f']) || ($forum_id != $req_forum_id)) 

Code: Select all

if ($start&&start!=0) 

If $start is 0, the if ($start) check will fail also.

Code: Select all

            $url = "{$phpbb_root_path}viewtopic.$phpEx?f=$forum_id&t=$topic_id&start=$start";
        }
        else
        {
            $url = "{$phpbb_root_path}viewtopic.$phpEx?f=$forum_id&t=$topic_id"; 

You need to use append_sid() like I did. If the user is a bot, phpBB will automatically strip of the &sid=.. from the URL.

And you also need to use some spacing, see the Coding Guidelines (See: Use spaces between tokens)

[kulinar]

Thanks, I took into account all your remarks.

Open: viewtopic.php

Find:

Code: Select all

$forum_id    = request_var('f', 0); 

Replace with:

Code: Select all

$req_forum_id =    $forum_id    = request_var('f', 0); 

Find:

Code: Select all

// General Viewtopic URL for return links
$viewtopic_url = append_sid("{$phpbb_root_path}viewtopic.$phpEx", "f=$forum_id&t=$topic_id&start=$start" . ((strlen($u_sort_param)) ? "&$u_sort_param" : '') . (($highlight_match) ? "&hilit=$highlight" : '')); 

After add:

Code: Select all

//SEO Add forum_id in URL when missing and correct forum_id if thread was moved
    if ((!isset($_GET['f'])) || ($forum_id != $req_forum_id))
    {
        if ($start)
        {
            $url = append_sid("{$phpbb_root_path}viewtopic.$phpEx?f=$forum_id&t=$topic_id&start=$start");
        }
        else
        {
            $url = append_sid("{$phpbb_root_path}viewtopic.$phpEx?f=$forum_id&t=$topic_id");
        }
        header("HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently");
        header("location:$url");
    } 

[Derky]

Code: Select all

            $url = append_sid("{$phpbb_root_path}viewtopic.$phpEx?f=$forum_id&t=$topic_id&start=$start");
        }
        else
        {
            $url = append_sid("{$phpbb_root_path}viewtopic.$phpEx?f=$forum_id&t=$topic_id");
    } 

Also, there shouldn't be a questionmark after $phpEx.

Code: Select all

        $url = append_sid("{$phpbb_root_path}viewtopic.$phpEx", "f=$forum_id&t=$topic_id&start=$start");
    }
    else
    {
        $url = append_sid("{$phpbb_root_path}viewtopic.$phpEx", "f=$forum_id&t=

So then it's almost identical to my code, except the extra check for moved topics.