noindex, nofollow in the header

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Marek Muc
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noindex, nofollow in the header

Post by Marek Muc »

Hi All,

I would like every page on my board to have this tag:

<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW">

I'm using prosilver SE and I wanted to confirm with you that it is as simple as editing the overall_header.html and simple_header.html files and just adding this tag before </head>

I've tested it on local server and it seems to be working fine - won't it cause any issues that I don't see now?

thanks!
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janus_zonstraal
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Re: noindex, nofollow in the header

Post by janus_zonstraal »

Why not just block the bots in ACP?
won't it cause any issues that I don't see now?
Nobody will find your board, but maybe you want it that way?
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Marek Muc
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Re: noindex, nofollow in the header

Post by Marek Muc »

I'm not sure how blocking bots is effected by phpBB, I tried to disallow them in ACP, but I could not see how it is effected in the html file. Does it give any specific instructions in html of the page?

As far as I know, the best way is to disallow them in robots.txt and I also wanted to add this <META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW"> just to be sure.

I'm aware about the effect that this command will have on google etc., I just wanted to make sure I won't mess up the operation of phpBB software, hm?

thanks
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stevemaury
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Re: noindex, nofollow in the header

Post by stevemaury »

Give the Bots group a No access Role for all forums in Group forum permissions. If there are particular bots you want to block that are not included with phpBB, you can add them.
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Marek Muc
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Re: noindex, nofollow in the header

Post by Marek Muc »

OK, so I get the ACP method. But if a stubborn folk would like to add <META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW"> into the overall_header.html and simple_header.html files - would it do any harm to the operation of phpBB?
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Lumpy Burgertushie
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Re: noindex, nofollow in the header

Post by Lumpy Burgertushie »

no, it will not have any affect on phpbb.


never did understand why people want to do this. the whole point of the web is linking back and forth for information.

oh well,

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Re: noindex, nofollow in the header

Post by janus_zonstraal »

No
Sorry! My English is bat ;) !!!
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Marek Muc
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Re: noindex, nofollow in the header

Post by Marek Muc »

thanks!
Lumpy Burgertushie wrote: Sat Apr 20, 2019 6:29 pm
never did understand why people want to do this. the whole point of the web is linking back and forth for information.

my board is a part of a larger website, and I feel (though I'm a novice) that keeping the board out of google index will be beneficial for the website overall. That's from the content perspective and technical, too. But that's a lengthy SEO-related discussion, I'm not sure whether you're up for it :)
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Lumpy Burgertushie
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Re: noindex, nofollow in the header

Post by Lumpy Burgertushie »

I assume that your board is related to the rest of your website. If so, then having the content of the board added to the content the main website can only help your search engine rankings etc.
there is no way it can hurt your website rankings.

as a matter of fact, you can increase that by making sure that your board's forum and topic titles use keywords related your site's subject.

the main thing google cares about is relevant content and lots of it. if members of your board are discussing things relevant to your main site subject matter it is a great help to ranking etc.

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Re: noindex, nofollow in the header

Post by Marek Muc »

well, what is your opinion based on? don't get me wrong, this really is a question!

As I wrote before, I'm a novice, but I've been reading a lot about SEO. And it seems that more is not better. A few strong (i.e. of good quality and length) pages seem to work better than more not so good quality pages. For example, take a look at this study by Ahrefs. So I figure, if I keep the rest of my website to be of good quality and updated, it may be better to noindex my board and just use the discussions held there as a valuable input to the rest of my website. But I haven't decided yet on what to do...

And there is also the more technical side. I feel that phpBB could do better when it comes to telling bots which links to follow. For example, why are login/register/new topic/reply etc. links dofollow links? (see the last paragraph here).

And, since we're discussing SEO, what do you think about robots.txt of arstechnica.com? They've blocked lots of paths of phpBB. Maybe this is a good idea for blocking bots from visiting links unimportant for SEO.

Marek
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Re: noindex, nofollow in the header

Post by Lumpy Burgertushie »

I get my opinions from over 20+ years of experience and from google itself.
most of the SEO info you come across online is based on old information. google says that content is important. the more relevant content the higher the ranking. whoever told you that there can be soo much content doesn't know what they are talking about .

it all boils down to what the purpose of your board is in relation to your website.

if your website is selling something and your board contains discussions bout those products etc. then it will only help . by default, it will contain keywords that are relevant to your products etc.

eventually, as you add more and more relevant keywords/content your site will move up higher and higher in the search returns.

that is simply how it works.
'
luck,
robert
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Welshman45
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Re: noindex, nofollow in the header

Post by Welshman45 »

There are good reasons for blocking access to bots, including:
  • A test/development site that has to be available to those who know about it, but which should not be viewed by others
  • Temporary site that will soon be gone and would give frustrating "not found" results if indexed
  • Duplicate sites during a migration
  • Private discussion site
I respect the wishes of anyone asking for advice. By all means suggest other ways of doing things, but never presume to know better than the person who needs advice. I base my views on over forty years in the IT industry. An old colleague used to tell me that there are no stupid questions and frequently no wrong answers, just different right answers. Using the tags seems to be a perfectly acceptable right answer.

It would be nice if there was a simple "No index" option for the whole site in the ACP.
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Mick
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Re: noindex, nofollow in the header

Post by Mick »

@Welshman45: As this is three years old I suggest you create your own topic.
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