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abbie
Joined:
05 Nov 2005
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2
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Posted: Sat Nov 05, 2005 3:43 am
Post subject: Indexing a phpbb forum
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Hi. I am working with a friend on a phpbb forum. So far we have roughly 10,000+ posts on the forum, about 3,500 of those are individual topics. I was wondering how phpbb forums, such as this one, are able to have so many of the pages indexed, with google in particular. For example, when I did a search for how many listing this forum had on google, it came up with just under 180,000 results, most of which are from the forum. Seeing as there are only 51,000 posts here, how do so many get indexed? Is there a trick or secret to it?
I have already installed the phpbb mods that create static urls (sutra, ftopic, etc...), updated my .htaccess files, defined the robots.txt file, I did the mod that removes SID's, submitted a sitemap to google, the whole works. Still, I get no love. Its been about 2 months so it just doesnt seem to want to update anything. So how do you get all of the ftopic and sutra url's indexed by google? Thanks for any help you can offer. |
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AllanGardyne
Site Admin
Joined:
02 Jul 2003
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6302
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by the beach, Australia
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Posted: Sat Nov 05, 2005 10:37 pm
Post subject: Re: Indexing a phpbb forum
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| abbie wrote: | | Seeing as there are only 51,000 posts here, how do so many get indexed? Is there a trick or secret to it? |
No secret. I hired a programmer to do a mod_rewrite.
We had a long discussion on it here:
This forum software
http://www.associateprograms.com/discus/ftopic3932.html
You'll find links in that thread to other sites which have published articles discussing different ways of doing this stuff.
Ideally, each post would be indexed only once. Perhaps you can find a way of doing that. Good luck!
We also had a briefer discussion here:
This forum now more search engine friendly?
http://www.associateprograms.com/discus/ftopic5778.html
However, it sounds as though you've already done everything necessary.
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Allan Gardyne
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abbie
Joined:
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Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2005 9:02 pm
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| Thanks for your reply AllanGardyne, I guess I just have to play the waiting game for Google to fully index my forum. The links you provided were pretty informative as well. Thanks again. |
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Phil Tanny
Joined:
22 Aug 2003
Posts:
1324
Location:
Gainesville Florida USA
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Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2005 1:03 pm
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It may be too late for this, but another solution would be to move your forum to software that is indexable from the start, without any modifications required.
I love phpBB as a user, it's my favorite, but if I was serious about building a forum I wouldn't use phpBB.
Way back when we had those discussions Allan referred to, phpBB was on the verge of releasing a version that was indexable, without mods. This version still hasn't been released.
The good thing about phpBB is also the bad thing. It's free. Which means nobody is responsible to you for it's operation. It's a volunteer project, which means development may continue or not, etc.
On top of this phpBB has become the prime target of forum hackers, which means you're going to be continually having to apply update patches. The more mods you've made to your board, the more of a hassle this will be.
Personally, I just wouldn't build a serious board using software that hackers love when there was no company behind the software commited to back me up. Yes, the phpBB boards are very helpful, but no one there is obligated to rescue you in a time of crisis.
If you were starting from scratch, I'd suggest you pay one of the other forum development companies to host your forum, which makes them responsible for security, updates etc. If your forum can't generate revenue to cover this bill, are you sure you want a forum?
It's probably not too late now. Any forum developer probably knows how to import your phpBB database in to their software.
These guys might be a place to start:
http://www.invisionboard.com/ip.dynamic/hosting/community/index.html
Just one other way to look at.
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robertb
Joined:
09 Aug 2003
Posts:
1837
Location:
Columbus, OH
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Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2005 2:53 pm
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| Phil Tanny wrote: |
The good thing about phpBB is also the bad thing. It's free. Which means nobody is responsible to you for it's operation. It's a volunteer project, which means development may continue or not, etc.
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So, do you prefer Firefox or IE? 
With a volunteer project, you have people that are working on it for free, and tons of them too. Yes, quality can be an issue at times, but no worry if proper checks and balances are in place: look at Wikipedia.
With 80% of businesses going under within 5 years, and then 80% more within the next 5, it's also possible that you could be stuck with a piece of software that has no active base of modders and no where to go once they pull out.
Just playing devil's advocate. 
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Phil Tanny
Joined:
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1324
Location:
Gainesville Florida USA
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Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2005 3:43 pm
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| robertb wrote: | | With 80% of businesses going under within 5 years, and then 80% more within the next 5, it's also possible that you could be stuck with a piece of software that has no active base of modders and no where to go once they pull out. |
Yea, generally speaking, that's a good point. Especially on the here today gone tomorrow Net.
I use Safari. 
In this specific instance you could probably (not completely sure) move your forum database to another software.
As example, invision is one of the big names in the forum world, so if they went under all the other forum software outfits would likely make it easy for abandoned invision users to move their databases.
It's really just the free hosting vs. paid hosting question. Generally speaking the higher end paid hosts are actually cheaper, when you take time in to account. That said, lots and lots of people make it work with phpBB, just as it is.
| robertb wrote: | | Just playing devil's advocate. |
Watch out, you're infringing on my blowhard brand!
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