phpBB SEO

[Nokia999]

I want to do SEO of phpBB i have downloaded mod from A2K.
But i am not getting help where to place it.
And in its description it does removing of SID and convert static at same time.
But i want to remove SID only.
How to do it?

[protesto]

#
#-----[ OPEN ]------------------------------------------
#

includes/sessions.php

#
#-----[ FIND ]------------------------------------------
#

$SID = 'sid=' . $session_id;

#
#-----[ REPLACE WITH ]------------------------------------------
#

if ( $userdata['session_user_id'] != ANONYMOUS ){
$SID = 'sid=' . $session_id;
} else {
$SID = '';
}

[Nokia999]

Oh Ok it means i have to act upon instructions not to paste this cod anywhere :).
Is that only thing to do for SEOing phpBB ...?
Or anyother thing is required?
I m going to remove SID only.

[aaron_nimocks]

Thats it for modifying SID, but I would do all the steps minus the mod_rewrite. Doesnt take that long I did it all to a forum yesterday in about 10 minutes.

[Nokia999]

#
#-----[ OPEN ]------------------------------------------
#

includes/sessions.php

#
#-----[ FIND ]------------------------------------------
#

$SID = 'sid=' . $session_id;

#
#-----[ REPLACE WITH ]------------------------------------------
#

if ( $userdata['session_user_id'] != ANONYMOUS ){
$SID = 'sid=' . $session_id;
} else {
$SID = '';
}




Even after replacing the code i am still seeing sid=XXXXXX
what went wrong :o

[Nokia999]

but I would do all the steps minus the mod_rewrite.
i don't know about it :o
what's that ?

[aaron_nimocks]

Even after replacing the code i am still seeing sid=XXXXXX
what went wrong :o

Are you seeing it after you log in? Trying loggin in the forum and navigating and see if you see it still.

[Nokia999]

Are you seeing it after you log in? Trying loggin in the forum and navigating and see if you see it still.
Yes i am log in.

[aaron_nimocks]

I dont know what to say if you edited includes/sessions.php and replaced that line and saved it then it should work.

[Nokia999]

probably i did something wrong and something right :)
because i see sid=xxxxx only when i pass log in page.
After that sid=xxxx is not appearing.

[blinxdk]

You can always download phpbb2 again and then just reupload that single file and start over with the editing if you didn't create a backup first.

Removing SID really is all there is too it, I looked at rewriting too first, but as soon as the SID was gone googlebot was all over the pages.

[Nokia999]

You can always download phpbb2 again and then just reupload that single file and start over with the editing if you didn't create a backup first.

Removing SID really is all there is too it, I looked at rewriting too first, but as soon as the SID was gone googlebot was all over the pages.
I don't know why i am not so genious! my bad.
I have still one confusion.
After SID will be removed.
Do i have to consider job is finished and my phpBB forum is SEOed?
Or there is anyother thing to do as well.

[Nokia999]

probably i did something wrong and something right :)
because i see sid=xxxxx only when i pass log in page.
After that sid=xxxx is not appearing.

I noticed sid=xxxxxxx only appears on index.php page when i log in.But when i visit forums it disappears.
Now things are on right way?
Or sid should entirely gone even on that single page after log in?

[aaron_nimocks]

I noticed sid=xxxxxxx only appears on index.php page when i log in.But when i visit forums it disappears.
Now things are on right way?
Or sid should entirely gone even on that single page after log in?

Thats the way mine works too.

[blinxdk]

I don't know why i am not so genious! my bad.
I have still one confusion.
After SID will be removed.
Do i have to consider job is finished and my phpBB forum is SEOed?
Or there is anyother thing to do as well.

I havn't done much more and I get +1000 hits from googlebot a day on the forum.

[Nokia999]

Thats the way mine works too.
So is it normal?
And the work is completed at my end.
Thank You Guys :)

[aeiouy]

It does not remove session ids from everyone. PHPBB still needs session ids for logged in users.. It removes them for guests.

So log out and you will not see any session ids.

[mdvaldosta]

correct, you should see no sids when logged out, but you will still have sids when logged in

[Nokia999]

correct, you should see no sids when logged out, but you will still have sids when logged in
Yes same is the case with me
So it mean i have done SEO to my phpBB forum YahOOOOO :)

[blinxdk]

Congrats! :)

[Nokia999]

Firstly i was thinking there would be whole bunch of cruel things i have to conquer upon for SEOing my phpBB forum.
But there was a single trick only :D.

[minstrel]

That MOD removes the session ID for Guests only. Members who are logged in will still see the session IDs, as they should to ensure that the software keeps track of read and unread forums, etc.

Spiders like Googlebot don't log in and are therefore treated like Guests. They won't see the session IDs after this MOD and therefore will follow links and more fully index the site.

Edit - posted before I saw this, which of course is right on:

It does not remove session ids from everyone. PHPBB still needs session ids for logged in users.. It removes them for guests.

So log out and you will not see any session ids.

[minstrel]

Removing SID really is all there is too it, I looked at rewriting too first, but as soon as the SID was gone googlebot was all over the pages.
The remainder of the MOD (minus the mod_rewrite part) optimizes on page content, page titles, etc., to improve indexing. It's worth doing.

[Nokia999]

Why i cannot add some more points to your repute Minstrel.
There should be some exception in vBulletin for such helpful guys.

[blinxdk]

The remainder of the MOD (minus the mod_rewrite part) optimizes on page content, page titles, etc., to improve indexing. It's worth doing.


Now that you remind me, I've actually done that too, just not at the same time :D

[Nokia999]

I have configured all things which were mentioned in that a A2K file except mod rewrite.
But on main page index.php of forum i am not seeing any link to my main website.
Is it normal or i have missed something?
Thank You.

[minstrel]

You will have to add the link to your main website yourself - that isn't part of a standard installation.

Edit \templates\{your template}\overall_header.tpl and add it in where you like. (Or alternatively \templates\{your template}\overall_footer.tpl if you'd prefer the link at the bottom of your forum pages.)

[Nokia999]

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to minstrel again.
:)
But i can say Thank You again

[minstrel]

:) You're welcome, Nokia.

[Nokia999]

One more question which link is better.
"../../../index.php"
or
"http://www.mysite.com"
for getting better SEO results.

[minstrel]

It really doesn't matter as long as the link is constructed correctly.

For the standard phpBB links (forum navigation, etc.), it's best to leave them as is - it makes upgrades easier if you modify the fewest possible lines, If you are adding in links to non-phpBB pages, feel free to use the absolute URL rather than the relative URL, especially if the page is in a different subdirectory.

[sujinss]

Hi
I have changed the code for $SID and after that I found a parser error saying unexpected '/' in /includes/bbcode.php on line 118 , when ever i tried a new post .
I tried uploading the back up file. But the result was the same.
Please help....

Sujin


#
#-----[ OPEN ]------------------------------------------
#

includes/sessions.php

#
#-----[ FIND ]------------------------------------------
#

$SID = 'sid=' . $session_id;

#
#-----[ REPLACE WITH ]------------------------------------------
#

if ( $userdata['session_user_id'] != ANONYMOUS ){
$SID = 'sid=' . $session_id;
} else {
$SID = '';
}

[minstrel]

Show me the line you altered.

You're probably missing one of the delimiters - quotation mark or something.

What is line 118 in /includes/bbcode.php?

[dcz]

Hi there.

hope it won't bother if I talk a bit about some very nice SEO solutions for phpBB that could help out many of us phpbb users ;)

No more Pagination duplicates and a faster code.

As well, mx Google sitemaps is already released with premodded files for the able2know mod rewrite as well as which can both help out ;)

Only thing is I can't post links, if you are interested, you'll have to wait a bit more until I get trusted here ( if only I will, hopfully at least :D ) or try searching for "phpBB SEO mod rewrites"

++

[993ti]

I'm using mx Google sitemaps on 2 of my sites and it works great.
You can post links though but they're not clickable yet ;)
But for those who are interested:
http://www.phpbb-seo.com

[dcz]

Thanks ;)

The next version will be totally rewritten almost from scratch (soon to come though).

I turned more OO and implemented a cache system with gzip support. The complete sitemaps files will be cached and outputted with a simple readfile to output them, allowing to keep the same URLs and to make all the cache process auto ;)

So far I build 5000 topic listing cache file in 1.8 sec on a local window machine with easyphp, so it's quite fast IMHO.

The URLs will turn to the .xml.gz extension automatically when setting up gzip (and it works with gzip on in the forum) so that Google will really understand the format, will be pure gzip from output, less storage and more important less bandwidth used :D as those can easily weight over a meg for big boards (over 5000 topic per forum).

5000 url listing weights about 900ko, but its only 21ko with gzip.

And last but not least, I made all this to allow massive use of those for any bots because I'll implement as well an xsl/css/js design so that user following those small links we'll be able to add in our footer for bots, won't be lost, all links will be click-able , the output 100% valid for Google :D

The purely dev part is ended, I need to rationalize a bit and to implement all the new acp features, not that long until release.

Have your tried mx Sitemaps as well ? can help out quite well for Page-Ranking.

Check this post : http://boards.phpbb-seo.com/phpbb-seo-mods/mx-site-map-module-vt4-45.html#1238

++

[bigcrags]

Just wanted to say thanks for this mod - it worked a treat. Looking forward to having one of my forums properly indexed now.

[Endurer]

Turning gzip on will slow down your server if you have more than 20 co-current users. I have turned it off to speed up the server (it helps).

[Denvar]

why are people suggesting not to use the mod-rewrite mod?

[dcz]

For the Gun-zip and the next mx Google sitemap module, it will reading an already Gzipped cached file, no additional server process once the cache will be built.
This setting will be totally independent from the phpBB gzip settings, so it will only make it a lot faster, will be reading and sending 9mo vs reading and sending 200ko for 50 000 URLs, proper headers will do the rest and it will only be the client to have to work on uncompressing ;)

And Denvar, I don't know actually, there is just no doubt for me mod rewritten URLs are spidered faster and do better transmit and get Ranked by Google.
I think this little confusion comes from the fact it is now a lot more possible to be decently indexed and ranked with regular php URLs, but this does not mean it's any better.

Then for sure, it is very possible to end up with poor results if not none if 1) you're web site does not have any content and 2) you're injecting very bad titles in your URLs. But I am pretty sure such a web site like this would not have better results with regular php URLs ;)

++

[Solicitors Mortgages]

I have configured all things which were mentioned in that a A2K file except mod rewrite.

anyone care to post a link to the A2K file so that i know WTF you are talking about :p

still need to tweak my uk business forum (http://businessforums.justoneuk.com) :o

hehehehehe/// thanks.

James.

[MrX]

http://www.able2know.com/forums/about15132.html

[TheBiaatch]

Visit this :)

http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=407141&highlight=feed

Works perfect 4 me :)