Matt

Hi all,
I have a request that will only take a few minutes of your time, and will give you something in return.
We're finally getting around to creating books and guides to help new customers get comfortable on the Invision Community platform.
I'm looking for a few positive quotes and 'soundbites' we can use on a few pages around the site, on social media and in these guides.
Hopefully you've got nice things to say. @LaCollision gave us a very nice quote a while back.
So things like:
That sort of thing. If you have a specific use for Invision Community, then we'd love to hear from you.
If you are happy to leave a comment, please also leave your name and URL to your site.
If the site is safe for work, then we'll link back to it when using any quotes on our site and on social media.
We get a fairly health bit of traffic so I'm sure you'll get a good number of click throughs too.
If we get 20 useable quotes, I'll post an exclusive picture of Charles and Lindy holding a hotdog from 2008. I did not seek their permission before making this promise.
Thanks for reading!

Hi all,
I have a request that will only take a few minutes of your time, and will give you something in return.
We're finally getting around to creating books and guides to help new customers get comfortable on the Invision Community platform.
I'm looking for a few positive quotes and 'soundbites' we can use on a few pages around the site, on social media and in these guides.
Hopefully you've got nice things to say. @LaCollision gave us a very nice quote a while back.
So things like:
That sort of thing. If you have a specific use for Invision Community, then we'd love to hear from you.
If you are happy to leave a comment, please also leave your name and URL to your site.
If the site is safe for work, then we'll link back to it when using any quotes on our site and on social media.
We get a fairly health bit of traffic so I'm sure you'll get a good number of click throughs too.
If we get 20 useable quotes, I'll post an exclusive picture of Charles and Lindy holding a hotdog from 2008. I did not seek their permission before making this promise.
Thanks for reading!

We added Bitcoin support via Stripe. A few weeks later Stripe pulled support because the exchange was too volatile.
As it stands, we have no plans for Bitcoin.

We added Bitcoin support via Stripe. A few weeks later Stripe pulled support because the exchange was too volatile.
As it stands, we have no plans for Bitcoin.

Is this really starting all over again? How many times does it have to be pointed out that URL delisting shown in the Search Console cannot be caused by the sitemap generation?
Listing and delisting happens when Google crawls the actual URL and it is decided based on what it finds on that URL. That’s it!
The sitemap can only help Google to find the URL faster. Nothing in the sitemap will cause an URL to be delisted. How could it? It’s just URLs saying “please check this out, Google!”. No slow or incomplete sitemap will cause delisting. No faulty sitemap will cause delisting. No entirely missing sitemap will cause delisting. Nothing in the sitemap can cause delisting. 
If you find an actual bug in the sitemap creation you can demonstrate to be true, better open a support ticket or start a new topic about this bug and nothing else instead of adding it to this huge pile of “I don’t like my Google stats and I will just blame IPS and ask them to fix it”. 

Thanks, I missed that! I see the timestamp now that's it's rebuilt. ?

10 days might be fine depending on how often Google visits your site.
Again, the frequency that Google visits your site has nothing to do with the sitemap.
In 4.3, we have added the lastmod timestamp, and added a button to rebuild your index from scratch.
Also, just double check your forum and topic permissions. Remember, if a guest cannot see the page, then Google cannot either.

We've added the timestamp into the sitemap and we're looking to add a tool to quickly rebuild the sitemap on demand.

Also, make sure if you have switched to HTTPS that you add your HTTPS link to Google's search console, or it won't pick up those hits and indexes.

We've seen this being the reason that people have seen drop offs in multiple cases now. There isn't a drop off, it's just Google dropping http indexes and picking up https indexes.

I'm so excited you took my post about Bing seriously! I bet someone at Microsoft employed to monitor references to Bing in social media/forums is super happy right now. Being taken seriously rarely happens with Bing.

My sitemap has everything in it. It's updated daily. Still I got slammed pretty good.
Years ago, I probably had 90% of my sitemap indexed. Now it's less than 10%. Nothing much has changed with the actual type of content. I've had ssl for years. And redirects from that have long since cleared.
So Google basically says most of my site isn't worthy of it's index. In the old days, it would be the other way around - 900k submitted and 850k indexed.

 

 
I don't think a special formula of sitemaps and meta tags are the ultimate fix here. It appears to just be Google deciding what's important.
The burden might just fall on the webmaster doing something their content versus Google's algorithm.
Here's a pretty decent article going into the Fred update with some ideas on what to do about it:
3 Examples of Impact From the March 7, 2017 Google Algorithm Update (AKA Fred)
https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/march-7-2017-google-algorithm-update-fred/
Also see the Goole Quality Rater Guidelines:
https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.com/en//insidesearch/howsearchworks/assets/searchqualityevaluatorguidelines.pdf

I think we need to be mindful the the sitemap is just one way that Google discovers and crawls links.
What goes in the sitemap isn't a hard rule that Google must only check out those links, so there's little point in adding too many restrictions here and there because it'll be mostly pointless. You'll submit fewer links, but Google will still pull up the ones you didn't add.
I did add a setting for profiles, because of the huge number of 'dead' profiles that stuff up the sitemap, which is just a waste.

What may or may not be in the sitemap doesn't solve why Google is shedding indexed pages.
That said, when using the new search console, the figures are totally different.
We have 92k indexed pages
We have about 400k pages that Google has either 'discovered' or 'crawled but not indexed' due to its own algorithms. These are 301 redirect links (this is OK, it has no reason to store these) and empty profiles which have almost zero content.
But it's important to realise that Google is not punishing us, it is just working harder to index content that it thinks others will find useful, and "Johnny@11" who registered in 2011 and has never posted doesn't count any more.
 
 

Just so you know, we're watching this topic and looking at our own stats to build a better picture.
The facts we know:
1) Almost every site I've got access to (via friends, etc) have seen a massive drop since June of indexed pages. This is not exclusive to Invision Community powered sites. I've seen the same with Wordpress.
2) Google slipped in an update in 2017 to target several things, one of these things is poor backlinks and other poor quality links. It looks like this means that user profiles that have no content have been dropped from the index along with links that 301. That is fine. You don't want Google storing the 301 link, as long as it stores the real link (and it does seem to).
3) A drop in what is indexed doesn't actually correlate to the health of the site. We've seen our index volume drop, but clicks, engagement and discovery slightly increase (probably due to better quality results?)
As always, Google say nothing so we're left guessing.
We will look at stopping user profiles from being submitted. For example, we see nearly 380k links as 'discovered' but Google has chosen to not index them. Looking through the list, it's all user profiles.
This means:
1) Sitemaps are working fine. There's no massive problem with them that correlates with a drop in indexed pages
2) The cornerstones of good SEO are taken care of in the software
3) Google is being weird and mysterious as always.
What can we do in the short term?
1) Stop sending profiles with no content to the sitemap. They are now ignored and Google appears to be dropping them from its indexes
2) Add in nofollow on links that 301 so Google doesn't bother 'discovering' them at all.

Ok, so it's worth rounding up what Invision Community DOES do in terms of SEO.
Auto generated meta tags for description Custom meta tag editor for finer control in a single area Uses appropriate header codes 200 for OK, 301 for redirects, 303 for 'the page is actually here', 404 for not founds, 403s for permission errors, etc Uses appropriate HTML markup to highlight important content (h1, h2, etc) Uses rewritten URLs for a cleaner structure packed with keywords Creates and submits a sitemap to show Google which URLS are important to your community Uses nofollow where appropriate to stop pages like 'Contact Us' from being crawled Uses JSON-LD micro data markup to tell Google about what data they are seeing and how it should be used Allows easy integration with Google Search Console for tracking Uses https Has a responsive theme which gets the "Mobile Friendly" badge Here's what is coming in 4.3
Meta description expanded to 300 characters Ability to rebuild your entire sitemap quickly Lastmod tag added to sitemap files Not to mention other retention tools like
Bulk emailing tool available Emailed notifications Promote to social media Share to social media There seems to be a level of worry in this topic, and while I'm happy to field any questions you have, Google is a bit mysterious and prone to changing things overnight.
We adhere to good standards and do all the right things as you can see from this list.
We are not adverse to change and adding new features, but we never do it in a panic or with a knee-jerk until we get some hard evidence which supports the reason for change.
We have been monitoring our own Google Search Console and clicks/impressions are up, indexes are down slightly, but Google has seen them and flagged them as 'discovered'. These tend to be profiles from people who have never posted (and we have about 200k of those alone).
I do not believe we are facing any crisis, or that anything is substantially wrong.
We can always do better, and we're listening. We just need a little more than a few charts to go on before we make drastic change.

Google "Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon".
Basically you are now tuned into believing IPS has an SEO problem, so you are seeing 'evidence' of that everywhere, whereas you are not really active over at xenForo so you do not notice the issues they may (or may not have).
Also: https://xenforo.com/community/threads/seo-poor-after-move-to-xenforo-from-ipb-help.129943/

I like this idea.

I feel a new conspiracy theory is just being developed. Perfect for your site!  

Ok, so it's worth rounding up what Invision Community DOES do in terms of SEO.
Auto generated meta tags for description Custom meta tag editor for finer control in a single area Uses appropriate header codes 200 for OK, 301 for redirects, 303 for 'the page is actually here', 404 for not founds, 403s for permission errors, etc Uses appropriate HTML markup to highlight important content (h1, h2, etc) Uses rewritten URLs for a cleaner structure packed with keywords Creates and submits a sitemap to show Google which URLS are important to your community Uses nofollow where appropriate to stop pages like 'Contact Us' from being crawled Uses JSON-LD micro data markup to tell Google about what data they are seeing and how it should be used Allows easy integration with Google Search Console for tracking Uses https Has a responsive theme which gets the "Mobile Friendly" badge Here's what is coming in 4.3
Meta description expanded to 300 characters Ability to rebuild your entire sitemap quickly Lastmod tag added to sitemap files Not to mention other retention tools like
Bulk emailing tool available Emailed notifications Promote to social media Share to social media There seems to be a level of worry in this topic, and while I'm happy to field any questions you have, Google is a bit mysterious and prone to changing things overnight.
We adhere to good standards and do all the right things as you can see from this list.
We are not adverse to change and adding new features, but we never do it in a panic or with a knee-jerk until we get some hard evidence which supports the reason for change.
We have been monitoring our own Google Search Console and clicks/impressions are up, indexes are down slightly, but Google has seen them and flagged them as 'discovered'. These tend to be profiles from people who have never posted (and we have about 200k of those alone).
I do not believe we are facing any crisis, or that anything is substantially wrong.
We can always do better, and we're listening. We just need a little more than a few charts to go on before we make drastic change.

This is correct, but Google will not see that as a unique link for that post. It'll see that link as a unique link for that page, which is why it says "Page 5 -".

We do not provide direct permalinks to posts because there is little value, and you create duplicate content. vBSEO did (for a while) load a single post in a new window with a permalink, but that was back in 2008 and I'm sure it's moved on since then.

4.3 also uses 300 characters for meta description

4.3 also uses 300 characters for meta description

Ok, so it's worth rounding up what Invision Community DOES do in terms of SEO.
Auto generated meta tags for description Custom meta tag editor for finer control in a single area Uses appropriate header codes 200 for OK, 301 for redirects, 303 for 'the page is actually here', 404 for not founds, 403s for permission errors, etc Uses appropriate HTML markup to highlight important content (h1, h2, etc) Uses rewritten URLs for a cleaner structure packed with keywords Creates and submits a sitemap to show Google which URLS are important to your community Uses nofollow where appropriate to stop pages like 'Contact Us' from being crawled Uses JSON-LD micro data markup to tell Google about what data they are seeing and how it should be used Allows easy integration with Google Search Console for tracking Uses https Has a responsive theme which gets the "Mobile Friendly" badge Here's what is coming in 4.3
Meta description expanded to 300 characters Ability to rebuild your entire sitemap quickly Lastmod tag added to sitemap files Not to mention other retention tools like
Bulk emailing tool available Emailed notifications Promote to social media Share to social media There seems to be a level of worry in this topic, and while I'm happy to field any questions you have, Google is a bit mysterious and prone to changing things overnight.
We adhere to good standards and do all the right things as you can see from this list.
We are not adverse to change and adding new features, but we never do it in a panic or with a knee-jerk until we get some hard evidence which supports the reason for change.
We have been monitoring our own Google Search Console and clicks/impressions are up, indexes are down slightly, but Google has seen them and flagged them as 'discovered'. These tend to be profiles from people who have never posted (and we have about 200k of those alone).
I do not believe we are facing any crisis, or that anything is substantially wrong.
We can always do better, and we're listening. We just need a little more than a few charts to go on before we make drastic change.

Ok, so it's worth rounding up what Invision Community DOES do in terms of SEO.
Auto generated meta tags for description Custom meta tag editor for finer control in a single area Uses appropriate header codes 200 for OK, 301 for redirects, 303 for 'the page is actually here', 404 for not founds, 403s for permission errors, etc Uses appropriate HTML markup to highlight important content (h1, h2, etc) Uses rewritten URLs for a cleaner structure packed with keywords Creates and submits a sitemap to show Google which URLS are important to your community Uses nofollow where appropriate to stop pages like 'Contact Us' from being crawled Uses JSON-LD micro data markup to tell Google about what data they are seeing and how it should be used Allows easy integration with Google Search Console for tracking Uses https Has a responsive theme which gets the "Mobile Friendly" badge Here's what is coming in 4.3
Meta description expanded to 300 characters Ability to rebuild your entire sitemap quickly Lastmod tag added to sitemap files Not to mention other retention tools like
Bulk emailing tool available Emailed notifications Promote to social media Share to social media There seems to be a level of worry in this topic, and while I'm happy to field any questions you have, Google is a bit mysterious and prone to changing things overnight.
We adhere to good standards and do all the right things as you can see from this list.
We are not adverse to change and adding new features, but we never do it in a panic or with a knee-jerk until we get some hard evidence which supports the reason for change.
We have been monitoring our own Google Search Console and clicks/impressions are up, indexes are down slightly, but Google has seen them and flagged them as 'discovered'. These tend to be profiles from people who have never posted (and we have about 200k of those alone).
I do not believe we are facing any crisis, or that anything is substantially wrong.
We can always do better, and we're listening. We just need a little more than a few charts to go on before we make drastic change.

PM me with your site link, I'll take a look.
We have an "Analytics" section in the ACP to paste in your tracking code making it really easy to get Google Search Console tracking your site. You don't need to worry about editing templates, etc.

Ok, so it's worth rounding up what Invision Community DOES do in terms of SEO.
Auto generated meta tags for description Custom meta tag editor for finer control in a single area Uses appropriate header codes 200 for OK, 301 for redirects, 303 for 'the page is actually here', 404 for not founds, 403s for permission errors, etc Uses appropriate HTML markup to highlight important content (h1, h2, etc) Uses rewritten URLs for a cleaner structure packed with keywords Creates and submits a sitemap to show Google which URLS are important to your community Uses nofollow where appropriate to stop pages like 'Contact Us' from being crawled Uses JSON-LD micro data markup to tell Google about what data they are seeing and how it should be used Allows easy integration with Google Search Console for tracking Uses https Has a responsive theme which gets the "Mobile Friendly" badge Here's what is coming in 4.3
Meta description expanded to 300 characters Ability to rebuild your entire sitemap quickly Lastmod tag added to sitemap files Not to mention other retention tools like
Bulk emailing tool available Emailed notifications Promote to social media Share to social media There seems to be a level of worry in this topic, and while I'm happy to field any questions you have, Google is a bit mysterious and prone to changing things overnight.
We adhere to good standards and do all the right things as you can see from this list.
We are not adverse to change and adding new features, but we never do it in a panic or with a knee-jerk until we get some hard evidence which supports the reason for change.
We have been monitoring our own Google Search Console and clicks/impressions are up, indexes are down slightly, but Google has seen them and flagged them as 'discovered'. These tend to be profiles from people who have never posted (and we have about 200k of those alone).
I do not believe we are facing any crisis, or that anything is substantially wrong.
We can always do better, and we're listening. We just need a little more than a few charts to go on before we make drastic change.