phpbb and google

[neha_patelx9x]

I have very bad experience with phpbb and google...

gettign a decent page rank is extremely difficult and as there is session id and stuff , i think it doesnt index it very well :(

i have no idea how to maximize such a forum with google ?

please help me out :(

[Michael]

http://www.able2know.com/forums/about15132-0-asc-0.html

- Michael

[neha_patelx9x]

http://www.able2know.com/forums/about15132-0-asc-0.html

- Michael


thanks so much Michael, i will ask some tech guy friend of mine to implement it on our forum.. if i will give it a try , everything will just stop working :D

[mightyb]

I just remove the session IDs which takes a minute and then install a google site map mod. In a few weeks time 90% of your whole forum will be spidered.

-edit-

You can also have topic keywords in your urls with another mod.

[mdvaldosta]

yea the main problem is session ID's and thats a 30 second fix.

[Zapita]

this one works for me
http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=236489

[dcristo]

I have very bad experience with phpbb and google...

gettign a decent page rank is extremely difficult and as there is session id and stuff , i think it doesnt index it very well :(

i have no idea how to maximize such a forum with google ?

please help me out :(

Not true.

Google has no problem crawling large phpbb forums, even without mod rewrite. Just make sure you remove the session ID's...

[dcristo]

I just remove the session IDs which takes a minute and then install a google site map mod.

Mind pointing me to this phpbb google sitemap mod?

[mightyb]

I got it here http://www.webmedic.net but they are upgrading at the moment. Try phpbbhacks.com

[minstrel]

This is categorized as Beta only but looks promising (I haven't yet installed it) - note that it apparently doesn't handle subdomains:

http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=1639895

http://www.streetrod3.com/sitemap_mod.zip
( http://forums.streetrod3.com/sitemap2.phps )

## MOD Title: Google Sitemap Generator
## MOD Author: jhaskins < jhaskins@streetrod3.com > (Joe Haskins) http://www.streetrod3.com
## MOD Description: Generates a dynamic listing of all topics in Google's sitemap xml format
## MOD Version:0.5.0
##
## Installation Level: (Easy)
## Installation Time: 2-3 Minutes
## Files To Edit: admin_board.php, language/lang_english/lang_admin.php, templates/subSilver/admin/board_config_body.tpl
## Included Files: sitemap.php, templates/subSilver/sitemap_body.tpl
##############################################################
## For Security Purposes, Please Check: http://www.phpbb.com/mods/ for the
## latest version of this MOD. Downloading this MOD from other sites could cause malicious code
## to enter into your phpBB Forum. As such, phpBB will not offer support for MOD's not offered
## in our MOD-Database, located at: http://www.phpbb.com/mods/
##############################################################
## Author Notes:
##
## As of version 0.5, everything is configured in the admin panel in the "Sitemap Settings" section of the "General Configuration page.
##
## Gzip compression is controlled by your board config. If you enabled it for the board, it's enabled for this.
##
## The forums to include in the sitemap are selected automatically based on permissions.
## To be included, forums must have the "Read" permission set to "ALL".

[minstrel]

There's another one here:

http://www.phpbbstyles.com/viewtopic.php?p=38305#38305

[Zapita]

if i already have many pages crawled with mod-rewrite, would affect somehow if i also use the google sitemap?

[aeiouy]

I use this one here:

http://www.gotaxe.com/phpbb-sitemap.php

It is pretty nice because it creates sub-sitemaps that keep google from bogging down with big sitemaps if you have a lot of messages. Every since I changed from another phpbb sitemap mod I have seen a marked improvement in spidering.

Very simple to install too..



if i already have many pages crawled with mod-rewrite, would affect somehow if i also use the google sitemap?

I know the one I listed above allows you to easily specify the suffix and prefix on the urls so it works very well with rewritten urls as well.

[robburne]

Hi,

I have used one of the xml site map creation tools and I have noticed that only 3 pages from my board are indexed:

phpbb2/
phpbb2/faq.php
phpbb2/memberlist.php

I guess that I need to change something, I keep reading conflicting solutions to the problem. Someone above said main problem is session ID's and thats a 30 second fix. How do implement this, excuse my ignorance but it this a phpbb setting or Apache.

Many thanks in advance for your help.

Rob.

[minstrel]

Those sitemaps will (often and maybe usually) improve spidering of your site. On their own, they won't affect indexing or ranking.

You don't give a URL for your forum. Have you applied the Able2Know SEO MOD or a similar SEO MOD to your forums? If not, all the sitemaps in the world are probably not going to help you.

[robburne]

No as yet I have not applied the MOD, I'm not sure if I am being dumb or not but I downloaded the zip but could find no instructions........

Is there a general guide to installing MODs as all I can find is two folders named includes and template, or is it a case of simply placing the contents of these two folders into the folders of the same name on my servers?

Sorry for my ignorance.

Rob.

[Nokia999]

thanks so much Michael, i will ask some tech guy friend of mine to implement it on our forum.. if i will give it a try , everything will just stop working :D

I can help you for free ;)

[robburne]

Ok so how do I proceed?

Rob.

[aeiouy]

To manually apply mods you need to edit the relevant files and make the changes specified in the modification.

It will tell you "find" a line. You use your editor to search for the appropriate line in the file.

Then it will likely tell you to "replace" it with another line. If that is the case you copy and paste the new line over the line it told you to find.

Sometimes it will tell you to "add after" or "add before". In that case you add the listed line before or after the line your found.

There is a mod installer program that does work with a lot of mods, but I have never used it, so I can't speak to how it works or how well it works.

[minstrel]

As I recall, the SEO MOD is not EasyMod compatible (that's the installer aeiouy mentioned) so I think you have to do it manually.

In the zip file you downloaded, find a file named "Able2Know.com Search Engine Optimization 2.0.0.txt". That contains detailed instructions on which edits to make in each file.

There is, I believe, a separate instructions file for mod_rewrite (up to version 2 anyway). Don't bother with those changes - they are unnecessary and may cause you complications. All the beneficial changes are in the parts in the main text file identified above.

Note: If you are using a style/theme/template in addition to or instead of subSilver (the default style), then you must make the changes for each of the additional or alternate templates you have installed.

That means all the .tpl files (the .php files are core files common to all templates):

##############################################################
## MOD Title: Able2Know.com Search Engine Optimization 2.0.0
## MOD Author: Craven de Kere (N/A) http://www.Able2Know.com
## MOD Description: The definitive guide to phpBB SEO
## This mod not only removes session IDs for all search engines and adds static URLs
## but it also includes many other changes that will help increase your search engine
## rankings by reducing pagerank drain and greatly improving keyword relevancy.
## Check http://www.able2know.com/forums/about15132.html
## for the latest version or to get help with this MOD
##
## MOD Version: 2.0.0
##
## Installation Level: (Advanced)
## Installation Time: 15 Minutes
## Files To Edit: index.php, sessions.php, viewforum.php, search.php, viewtopic_body.tpl, overall_header.tpl,
## lang_main.php, index_body.tpl

[robburne]

Hi guys,

Further to my request for help in having my phpbb2 board indexed I have made an interesting discovery......

I have noticed that Google has indexed one of my sites that uses the phpbb2 forum but not the other.

The one that is indexed is running version 2.0.16 and the one that isn't is running 2.0.17 - is there any significance in this?

Rob.

[minstrel]

No, I highly doubt it. I have seen phpBB forums still using really old versions that are indexed in Google.

It almost certainly has to do with backlinks to the forums and/or with one having had some SEO and the other being out-of-the-box plain vanilla.

[joeychgo]

I would agree