New Seo Update Suggestion

[Intasar]

Hi,

I'M not eligible to comment on the Main topic of the new 3.4 SEO improvements. so i leave the feedback here with more specific and targeted suggestion.

The new URL structure is 3.4 are:

board.com/topic/123-title/

it will be more nice and relevant and can getting high rank in SEs if the URL new structure will be.

board.com/123/title/

instead using "topic" word in URLS make this word very higher and rich keyword for any IP.Board site. so our natural keyword actually low-down due to these few keywords that showing in every topic, forums, profile urls.

and the same pattern use for forum and profile.

instead using structure that called the word "forum" and "user"

board.com/forums/123-title/

board.com/user/123-title/

Use simple high and only useful keyword URL.

board.com/123/title/

search engine showing this URL "board.com/123/title/" like "board.com/../title/" but this URL which have word will be showing exactly like "board.com/forum/123-title/" because according to search engines these words "topic, forum, user" are the most detectable keywords.

This change will be very SEO friendly with quality productivity.

Also, make another modification builten that offer manual permanent 301 to any url. for example if we want to redirect some of the 3 old event topic to the new event topic. so can add the link in admin CP that permanent redirect them.

I Hope, you consider this useful suggestion.

[Rimi]

I like it the way it is now. Or the way it's going to be rather.

[Charles]

I'm afraid what you're proposing does not work. Look at your own example you show "board.com/123/title/" to reference three different things: a topic, a forum, and a user profile. How would the system know what to show you when you typed in board.com/123/title? :smile:

That's why we have the content-type in the URL as you have to know "what" you're accessing. It really does not impact SEO as really in this case search engines are smarter than that. No different than someone with a blog having /blog/whatever in every URL. It's ok to have "blog" as ... that's their blog.

[Marcher Technologies]

As above, feel free to modify your furlTemplates thus, and watch your site fall apart as only one application could ever function/load.

[Wolfie]

I'm afraid what you're proposing does not work. Look at your own example you show "board.com/123/title/" to reference three different things: a topic, a forum, and a user profile. How would the system know what to show you when you typed in board.com/123/title? :smile:

Was gonna mention that myself, you beat me to it.

instead using "topic" word in URLS make this word very higher and rich keyword for any IP.Board site. so our natural keyword actually low-down due to these few keywords that showing in every topic, forums, profile urls.

and the same pattern use for forum and profile.

instead using structure that called the word "forum" and "user"

Use simple high and only useful keyword URL.

search engine showing this URL "board.com/123/title/" like "board.com/../title/" but this URL which have word will be showing exactly like "board.com/forum/123-title/" because according to search engines these words "topic, forum, user" are the most detectable keywords.

This change will be very SEO friendly with quality productivity.

Now only what Charles pointed out, but there's the fact that it's easier for a person to know what the link is to as well. They see the word 'topic' within the URL and they'll know it's a topic. Same with forum, user, blog, gallery, etc.

I should also point out that for many sites that have it structured in the same or similar fashion, Google will actually show you the branch/tree/path (whatever you want to call it) so you know where on the site it is. Something along these lines:

somesite.com » forum » name of topic

and it's shown in small green text. Remove the words and you lose the possibility of having that.

Only suggestion I'd have that is any bit related would be to allow URL's to end with the ID number instead of requiring a dash. So if someone wants to link to somesite.com/forums/123 then it would work. Yes, the site would still append the title to the URL, but if someone chops off a part of it (including the entire topic/forum/user/etc ID) then I think it should still work. But that's from the user end, not the URL that is being generated by the software, so it's related but it's different.

As above, feel free to modify your furlTemplates thus, and watch your site fall apart as only one application could ever function/load.

If they were to make those edits, I wouldn't be surprised if the site all but crashed.

[Intasar]

@Charles,

Thank you for describing. I understand this words "topic, forum, user" telling system what called or what not. but its the programming on directory based that actually work on IDs and help developers to program code easily without being confused in thousands of function in 1 file, RIGHT ?.and your already use both IDs and directories in URLs that is poor exercise for SEO.

My Topic point is, if you are using IDs in URLs then what is the point to using directory name ? that cover the useful keyword area. ?

I'M giving you the example of "Wordpress" here. you can't see IDs in their fURLL Structure. and they already given advanced tool so its up on to user what type of fURL they want. for example with IDs and category and user and author things words, or without them.

I Know this is Board and that is CMS. but both are PHP based and offer "SEO" that is the same for both.

I don't think without adjusting useless keywords directory, it will improve the URL structure in existing structure.

That's why we have the content-type in the URL as you have to know "what" you're accessing. It really does not impact SEO as really in this case search engines are smarter than that. No different than someone with a blog having /blog/whatever in every URL. It's ok to have "blog" as ... that's their blog.

Agree with you, but if you noticed that there were already have another Word called "Forum" so its ok, that is their forum. Done, but what if their "blog" produce more blog ? like "theirdomain.com/blog/blog/ID-Title/" . bold word is really useless. make the confusion. its same what if "theirdomain.com/forum/forum/ID-Title/" ?

[bfarber]

You're missing the picture. Wordpress serves one furl'd item - a blog entry. It doesn't NEED to know if it's a topic, a profile, a blog entry, a forum, and so on.

We do not use directories for different applications (at least in the user-accessible face). Look at our URLS.



If this were to change to

http://community.invisionpower.com/367567/new-seo-update-suggestion

as you suggest, the system would never know if that's a topic, a forum, a user profile, a blog entry, a gallery image, a file in IP.Downloads, and on and on.

[Aiwa]

If you have your board installed in .com/forum... you're furl would not be .com/forum/forum/id-title... It would be .com/forum/topic/id-title.

Say i'm user 1...
it is .com/forum/user/1-aiwa
you suggest .com/forum/1-aiwa

What if I make a topic id happens to be 1 and the title is 'aiwa'...
it is .com/forum/topic/1-aiwa
you suggest .com/forum/1-aiwa..

Now you have 2 different pieces of content, a user profile and a topic, with the EXACT same FURL. That would be poor SEO. Note that it's a FURL... it is NOT a directory. There is no such directory as /forum/topic on the web server.

If a user installs their board in /blog and their url is /blog/blog, they that is poor domain management on their part. If installed in /forum... It would be /forum/blog/id-title

You have to have some way to distinguish what 'id-title' is referring to as Brandon said above... CMS's only have one piece of content to worry about where IPS has multiple community products that all interface together into one system.

As Marcher said... Feel free to edit your FURL templates and watch your board fall apart with the /topic /user /blog /gallery etc missing..

[Wolfie]

My Topic point is, if you are using IDs in URLs then what is the point to using directory name ? that cover the useful keyword area. ?

Each application uses it's own 'counting' system for identifying content. A topic with an ID of 123 and a blog entry with an ID of 123 have the same ID number but different content. Only way it would work is if IPS were to do a SEVERELY MAJOR overhaul of all its products and make it so that each item had a unique ID that no other item could have. Meaning if there is a topic with an ID of 123, then there could never be a blog entry with an ID of 123. Maybe that's something that the devs would be willing to consider for a future version of the software but for now, it's not 'broke' so why 'fix' it?

Agree with you, but if you noticed that there were already have another Word called "Forum" so its ok, that is their forum. Done, but what if their "blog" produce more blog ? like "theirdomain.com/blog/blog/ID-Title/" . bold word is really useless. make the confusion. its same what if "theirdomain.com/forum/forum/ID-Title/" ?

When that happens, it's because the location/URL to the install is done in a way to create that issue.

Take this community for example. If you go to a forum or a topic, you don't have 'somesite.com/forum/forum/ID-Title' nor do you have 'somesite.com/blog/blog/ID-Title' or anything else like that. You have a structure of 'somesite.com/forum/ID-Title' and 'somesite.com/blog/ID-Title/' and 'somesite.com/blog/ID/entry-ID-Title/' so that's a site arrangement issue, not a software issue.

[Marcher Technologies]

@Charles,

Thank you for describing. I understand this words "topic, forum, user" telling system what called or what not. but its the programming on directory based that actually work on IDs and help developers to program code easily without being confused in thousands of function in 1 file, RIGHT ?.and your already use both IDs and directories in URLs that is poor exercise for SEO.

My Topic point is, if you are using IDs in URLs then what is the point to using directory name ? that cover the useful keyword area. ?

I'M giving you the example of "Wordpress" here. you can't see IDs in their fURLL Structure. and they already given advanced tool so its up on to user what type of fURL they want. for example with IDs and category and user and author things words, or without them.

Speaking of programming accessibility, there is one IPS application that you have fairly full control of all url's with Furls in unto the point of 'id' removal, Content.
Trust me when I say, this does NOT help with programming accessibility, and actually adds many more queries and additional overhead to the system.

[Intasar]

@ALL,

I don't know why you peoples not understanding simple thing.

Most of you said its the wrong hosting and domain setup if you have two times "forum, "forum" in your URL.

i will prove you its the Application fault.

Suppose, i have a website on my "domain.com" and i want to run forum in my "sub directory" my subdirectory name is "forum" so my url should be "domain.com/forum/" RIGHT ? now i browser the forum and i wantt o go to my forum category. so my URL should be "domain.com/forum/forum/123-CategoryTitle/" so by default its showing two times.

You people are saying that the person who have his forum install in sub directory and directory name is forum so he is WRONG ?

But my question is, how many IPS client does not have installed forum in their sub directory called "forum" or "forums" ?

The exsisting URL structure only valid for peoples who run the board on main index so the forum word appearing one time in their URL.

Technically, IPS forum installed in their sub domain called "community" but what happen if IPS choose the word forum for their sub domain ? so they probably get the duplicate word "forum once they go to in their category and category forum like "forum.invisionpower.com/forum/123-CATEGORYTITLE/"

Hope you understand my point.

[Marcher Technologies]

@ALL,

I don't know why you peoples not understanding simple thing.

Most of you said its the wrong hosting and domain setup if you have two times "forum, "forum" in your URL.

i will prove you its the Application fault.

Suppose, i have a website on my "domain.com" and i want to run forum in my "sub directory" my subdirectory name is "forum" so my url should be "domain.com/forum/" RIGHT ? now i browser the forum and i wantt o go to my forum category. so my URL should be "domain.com/forum/forum/123-CategoryTitle/" so by default its showing two times.

You people are saying that the person who have his forum install in sub directory and directory name is forum so he is WRONG ?

But my question is, how many IPS client does not have installed forum in their sub directory called "forum" or "forums" ?

The existing URL structure only valid for peoples who run the board on main index so the forum word appearing one time in their URL.

Technically, IPS forum installed in their sub domain called "community" but what happen if IPS choose the word forum for their sub domain ? so they probably get the duplicate word "forum once they go to in their category and category forum like "forum.invisionpower.com/forum/123-CATEGORYTITLE/"

Hope you understand my point.

and you miss the point yourself, in such a scenario, as always, the furlTemplates can be edited.
suppose we are installed in /forum/ then happy days, a quick edit and we have "domain.com/forum/board/123-CATEGORYTITLE/" or "domain.com/forum/subject/123-CATEGORYTITLE/"
frankly, your 'goal' of removing the intermediary 'slugs' defining where we are, app and area-wise is tantamount to saying lets break the ability to have more than one application installed and lets limit that application to one content type.... an example of said functionality, completely custom url's, lies in content, and oh golly be, we STILL NEED a MARKER to know where you are.
Let us stretch the content example some.
domain.com/ <-- homepage
domain.com/articles <-- example articles page
domain.com/articles/index <-- example articles folder with example index page
domain.com/articles/_/category/ <-- example articles category
domain.com/articles/category/ <-- example articles folder with a category page
now, without the unique marker present there, what would be the difference in url's between the last 2? same issue, you go on about WP, but WP has but one content type(jeez, has no concept of 'member' beyond admin even), but one 'app' Content alone allows MANY, now add apps. Strangling the url depth telling the system where you are is not an answer, it is a spectacular way to break IPB.




All THAT said, I would like to see seoTemplates imported to DB on app install/removed on uninstall, and user management thereof, thereby sidestepping the direct need for furlTemplates.php management by user in the first place.

[Aiwa]

Why would it be /forum/forum? There is no /forum furl....

My reference was to blogs. If you install IPB at /blog you'll get /blog/blog.

Again, that's a user installation issue. As said above, edit your furls, or install in root.

I understand you want a simpler URL, but what you are asking for would only work with 1 app installed. And you are getting hung up on the one or two duplication issues that arise from improper domain management.

You have yet to provide a 'working' example of what you are after. The example you provided in your first post doesn't work as there are duplicate URL's.

[Rimi]

Why would it be /forum/forum? There is no /forum furl....

My reference was to blogs. If you install IPB at /blog you'll get /blog/blog.

Again, that's a user installation issue. As said above, edit your furls, or install in root.

I understand you want a simpler URL, but what you are asking for would only work with 1 app installed. And you are getting hung up on the one or two duplication issues that arise from improper domain management.

You have yet to provide a 'working' example of what you are after. The example you provided in your first post doesn't work as there are duplicate URL's.

Actually there is /forum furls... .

Honestly if you just use your brain when you setup your forum then you shouldn't have a problem. Regardless, suggestion in OP is still invalid.

[Wolfie]

@ALL,

I don't know why you peoples not understanding simple thing.

Most of you said its the wrong hosting and domain setup if you have two times "forum, "forum" in your URL.

i will prove you its the Application fault.

Okay I'm going to try breaking it down for you.

The words in the URL that you see (forum, topic, blog, entry and so on) are 'keywords' for lack of a better word. When the software runs the requested URL through its URL handler, it looks for those keywords as part of it, so that it knows the proper application to use as well as what to do. So those words are a necessity, as in, not really optional. If you want to remove the word 'forum' from the URL, then you can (as mentioned before by others, edit a file and then in the ACP use the function to rebuild the cache). But doing that would only work for modifying ONE out of many URLs.

Using the example from the first post, let's say that you removed all of the keywords from the URLs. Now someone wants to visit the following URL:

http://domain.com/123-some-words-here/

Which content are they supposed to see? Are they trying to visit a topic? Maybe there's a member named "some words here" or there's a blog entry titled "some words here" or something else like it. How does the software know which to load up? You say it's a bug/fault of the software, but really it's not. The software is working fine as it is. It doesn't control the URL that you decide to give it. That's on you. If you install it within a folder named "forum" then that's YOUR doing, not the software's doing. I'll give you an example. Let's say that someone installs their IPB to 'domain.com/board' and so they get URLs like 'domain.com/board/forum/123-some-title/', do you see the word 'forum' in that URL twice? No, because the root URL doesn't have 'forum' in it. The 'issue' only exists when the ADMIN creates the issue. Here's what you're trying to tell people: It's the fault of the software that I installed it to "domain.com/forum" instead of using a different URL. The software doesn't control you though, and that's what you're failing to understand. To put your view into a different context, what if someone on your community made a topic named "somesite", so the URL is "somesite.com/forum/topic/123-somesite"? Are you honestly telling us that it's the fault of the software that they made a topic with the same name as your website? After all, the URL has 'somesite' listed twice in it and heaven forbid that it should be a human generated issue. Seriously, stop and think this through. The software produces the same structure regardless of where it's installed.

http://somesite.com/

http://somesite.com/board/

http://somesite.com/community/

http://somesite.com/discussions/

http://somesite.com/forums/

http://somesite.com/gabbing/

The list goes on infinitely for what the URL could be for the root of the community. In the ones I listed, there is only ONE where you would have an issue of the word "forum" appearing twice before the ID/name of the forum, and that's a human generated issue from using the URL of "somesite.com/forums". Show me where the same issue happens from someone using "somesite.com/board" that isn't a human created issue, and then you'll have a valid point.

[Intasar]

@ALL,

As i said above that i understand that without these words IP.Board have no sense what visitor asking if visitor click "domain.com/123-etc/. maybe its forum, profile, member or topic.

But please remmeber that we are talking here about SEO. so we just focus on the things that is friendly for SEO.

Please open your webmaster tools account if you have integration. and check What Google showing most detecting keywords.

That is "forum, topic, user" because its a general words and readable.

What i think the solution is by using forum, topic, user. why IP.Board not pick the short ? like "f,t,u" ? IP.Board can surf with the short codes also. and Google or other search engines will not detect this word. because all the major search engines will not consider 1 word as the site most useful keyword.

As you know that this word is appearing all url. it means if we have 1000 topic so 1000 time topic word detect. so IP.Board should be use t instead full topic.

This is the simple concept and before the same thing implemented by IP.Board paid Seo modification for 2.3.6 version. they use short word like f, t, m etc.

I think this technique can be reduce these useless words. and we then also use the board in sub diectory with name "forum, forums o topic or board etc".

Thanks

[Rimi]

If you're concerned with keywords then that's when you start developing the content on your site. URLs don't control everything.

Content is king. Hehe.

[Marcher Technologies]

@ALL,

As i said above that i understand that without these words IP.Board have no sense what visitor asking if visitor click "domain.com/123-etc/. maybe its forum, profile, member or topic.

But please remmeber that we are talking here about SEO. so we just focus on the things that is friendly for SEO.

Please open your webmaster tools account if you have integration. and check What Google showing most detecting keywords.

That is "forum, topic, user" because its a general words and readable.

What i think the solution is by using forum, topic, user. why IP.Board not pick the short ? like "f,t,u" ? IP.Board can surf with the short codes also. and Google or other search engines will not detect this word. because all the major search engines will not consider 1 word as the site most useful keyword.

As you know that this word is appearing all url. it means if we have 1000 topic so 1000 time topic word detect. so IP.Board should be use t instead full topic.

This is the simple concept and before the same thing implemented by IP.Board paid Seo modification for 2.3.6 version. they use short word like f, t, m etc.

I think this technique can be reduce these useless words. and we then also use the board in sub diectory with name "forum, forums o topic or board etc".

Thanks

and once again, you can oh-so happily make that change, doing so within IP.Board for existing customers as the stock would not be SEO-Friendly at all when known urls suddenly 404 for every IPB owner.
Also, there are but 26 latin characters, you would limit the entire FURL system for applications to such a finite number?

[Rimi]

If you've got 26 applications I would say you've got a bigger problem on your hands. :unsure:

[Aiwa]

@ALL,

As i said above that i understand that without these words IP.Board have no sense what visitor asking if visitor click "domain.com/123-etc/. maybe its forum, profile, member or topic.

But please remmeber that we are talking here about SEO. so we just focus on the things that is friendly for SEO.

Please open your webmaster tools account if you have integration. and check What Google showing most detecting keywords.

That is "forum, topic, user" because its a general words and readable.

What i think the solution is by using forum, topic, user. why IP.Board not pick the short ? like "f,t,u" ? IP.Board can surf with the short codes also. and Google or other search engines will not detect this word. because all the major search engines will not consider 1 word as the site most useful keyword.

As you know that this word is appearing all url. it means if we have 1000 topic so 1000 time topic word detect. so IP.Board should be use t instead full topic.

This is the simple concept and before the same thing implemented by IP.Board paid Seo modification for 2.3.6 version. they use short word like f, t, m etc.

I think this technique can be reduce these useless words. and we then also use the board in sub diectory with name "forum, forums o topic or board etc".

Thanks

So you see the writing on the wall... Finally... You can edit the FURL templates yourself easily to make your site operate this way..... But now you're talking about changing the URL structure for ALL other IP.Board owners. Talk about throwing a nuke on your SEO rankings... How does that help?

[Marcher Technologies]

If you've got 26 applications I would say you've got a bigger problem on your hands. :unsure:

you don’t need to have 26 applications to hit that Lucy, just 26 unique content types.... forums has an immediate 2.

[Rimi]

Gallery's got three. :D

[bfarber]

You guys are focusing on a minor thing. I'm sure if you reached z, you could jump to aa, ab, ac, and so forth. ;)

I'm not commenting on the suggestion itself, just that focusing on "one letter" is short-sighted of the suggestion itself.

[Aiwa]

You guys are focusing on a minor thing. I'm sure if you reached z, you could jump to aa, ab, ac, and so forth. ;)

I'm not commenting on the suggestion itself, just that focusing on "one letter" is short-sighted of the suggestion itself.

Agreed, it can be expanded, though at some point the information will lose all meaning.

No longer will the URL be friendly / human readable and have a meaning. I think that's the real issue, with respect to his suggestion, at hand here.

[Marcher Technologies]

Intasar.

But please remember that we are talking here about SEO. so we just focus on the things that is friendly for SEO.

Do not miss the forest for the trees, intense SEO optimization at the cost of human usability is not an answer, the best SEO in the world won't help if users flee from your URL structure being unusable.