Advanced Noindex (Lite) (Count/Prune/Move) by Forumsetup.net

[tpearl5]

Advanced Noindex makes it amazingly easy to only display your best content to search engines.

It's been debated whether noindexing thin forum content helps or hurts your site. Particularly those that have been hit with a Panda update. There was a pretty good indicator lately that noindexing may be a good option for forums. See this Google hangout with Webmaster Central staff that specifically addresses forums, and managing their content:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r3IIPCHt0E#t=4142

Some more commentary from Google:

Another thing you didn't mention, but which is common with forums is low-quality user-generated content. If you have ways of recognizing this kind of content, and blocking it from indexing, it can make it much easier for algorithms to review the overall quality of your website. The same methods can be used to block forum spam from being indexed for your forum. Depending on the forum, there might be different ways of recognizing that automatically, but it's generally worth finding automated ways to help you keep things clean & high-quality, especially when a site consists of mostly user-generated content.


via: https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/webmasters/WnhIz4fdTbc/discussion

So with that I present Advanced Noindex. There have been other noindex mods created, but this is by far the most advanced.

Here are the features:

For threads:

Everything is done automatically, so if a thread meets one of the criteria set, the noindex tag will be removed without any intervention
All options can be dependent upon one another for some really specific noindexing
Test mode
Minumim number of words to noindex a thread
Minumim number of replies to noindex a thread
Age in days of last post to noindex a thread
Thread prefix ID's to noindex
Noindex threads with attachments or not
Noindex all threads in a forum (and option to noindex forumdisplay pages for these forums)
Noindex their forumdisplay pages
Noindex threads started by usergroup
Noindex specific members' threads
Members to exclude from noindex (whitelist)


For pages:

member profile pages
tag pages
faq pages
calendar pages
memberlist
printthread
all forumdisplay pages


Pro Version
The pro version (http://forumsetup.net/plugins/advanced-noindex/) adds these features. You can count, move, and prune threads based on:

First post thread word count is X words or less
Thread has 1 or more attachments
Thread has 1 or more URLs
Thread has 1 or more external Images
Thread has 1 or more Videos
The title contains
The title does NOT contain
Post text contains
Post text does NOT contain
Original post date is at least X days ago
Last post date is at least X days ago
Thread is sticky
Thread state
Thread status
Posted by User IDs
NOT posted by User IDs
Posted by Guestname
Forum
Prefix


To get the Pro version please go here. (http://forumsetup.net/plugins/advanced-noindex/)

Notes
Before you install, take a good hard look at your Google rankings, your traffic, and your content. If you think that you could do better or have done better then this mod may help. If manual moderation/content deletion is not an option then this mod can definitely help! If your traffic declined after a Panda update it will also help!

If you truly think that all of your content is good content, and you have really good moderators that look after that content, then there is really no reason to use this mod.

Install instructions:

Install the product file
Go to Settings > Advanced Noindex and set everything (things are OFF by default)



There are an infinite number of ways you can noindex threads. Mine are set to noindex threads that have less than 15 words and no replies. This is pretty conservative and I have a high degree of confidence that these threads are junk anyway.

You could potentially noindex threads that have less than 100 words, 1 reply or less, more than 2 years old by members in the registered usergroup.

OR you could simply noindex all threads with less than 200 words.

OR all threads created by a small list of users under the 'news' prefix.

The list goes on and on...


Please be smart and test things after you set something!!


Disclaimer: Forumsetup.net is in no way responsible for loss in traffic to your site.

This modification does NOT insert a copyright on your site. It may NOT be redistributed without permission.

Release log
7/22/14 - initial release
7/23/14 - improved logic considerably, added prefix option, added test option
8/4/14 - added an option to exclude member from noindexing and an option to noindex (or exclude) threads with attachments - created pro version (http://forumsetup.net/plugins/advanced-noindex/) that has a tool to count, prune, and move threads based on advanced criteria

[Marv]

First?

Yes, that?s the mod I was looking for last week. Thanks for reading my mind, tpearl ;)
Testing. Last Google Update for our sites was march, 9th and we expect the next just around the next 2 weeks. So it will take some time to come up with some convincing results.

Good one, tpearl. :up:

[tpearl5]

First?

Yes, that?s the mod I was looking for last week. Thanks for reading my mind, tpearl ;)
Testing. Last Google Update for our sites was march, 9th and we expect the next just around the next 2 weeks. So it will take some time to come up with some convincing results.

Good one, tpearl. :up:

Awesome! Let me know if you have any suggestions! What are you using to track updates?

[Marv]

Awesome! Let me know if you have any suggestions! What are you using to track updates?

Thanks for the offer, but that will take some time to see what it really achieves on the other end. I was using another mod from the graveyard meanwhile and noticed that BigG was dropping a few thousand threads. Of course, I adjusted the screw tighter very slowly and careful. But in the end - after 2 months - I had no significant loss of visitors, but a slightly better time on site, pages per visit. I?ld expect the same from yours and starting at the point, where I?m now leaving the old mod.

We?ve been monitored by AGOF (http://www.agof.de/). Quite expensive, but worth the money. So we always now, when and where Google made an update, called as out with a penalty aso. Guess, there?s something similiar existing for the US.

[tpearl5]

Thanks for the offer, but that will take some time to see what it really achieves on the other end. I was using another mod from the graveyard meanwhile and noticed that BigG was dropping a few thousand threads. Of course, I adjusted the screw tighter very slowly and careful. But in the end - after 2 months - I had no significant loss of visitors, but a slightly better time on site, pages per visit. I?ld expect the same from yours and starting at the point, where I?m now leaving the old mod.

We?ve been monitored by AGOF (http://www.agof.de/). Quite expensive, but worth the money. So we always now, when and where Google made an update, called as out with a penalty aso. Guess, there?s something similiar existing for the US.

Oh I see. Thanks for explaining. Yes, there are similar products available in the US. It will be interesting to see the results from your monitoring tool.

[Alan_SP]

Is there some general guidelines what is optimum setup?

[tpearl5]

Is there some general guidelines what is optimum setup?

It highly depends on your content. I noindex'ed my 'new member introduction' forum, everything but forumdisplay pages, and anything with less than 15 words and no replies. Maybe you have a newbie usergroup or an RSS poster bot whose threads you want to noindex too.

[tpearl5]

FYI, until I figure out how this could be integrated into the mod, you can run this query to determine how many threads you would be noindexing if you set it based on words and replies. Just change the 1 after replycount and 15 after words to whatever.
WARNING: this query could take a while if you have a lot of threads. I ran it on one of my sites with almost 200k threads and it took 5 seconds, but results will vary.

SELECT COUNT(*) AS threads FROM(SELECT LENGTH(pagetext) - LENGTH(REPLACE(pagetext, ' ', ''))+1 AS words FROM post LEFT JOIN thread ON (thread.threadid = post.threadid) WHERE post.parentid='0' AND thread.replycount < '1' HAVING words < '15') AS threads;

[Marv]

Thanks for providing. Roundabout 10k to get rid off, w/o member profiles and other pages. Hope it won´t hurt that much.

[tpearl5]

Just updated to 1.1 !


improved logic considerably
added prefix option
added test option
added options for forum, members, and usergroup conditions to function independently of other options


Please be aware that if in the previous version you had an entire forum, usergroup, or members set and you want them to work independently of the other options you'll have to set the independent option for that option. Otherwise everything will function as an AND statement.

In otherwords, the logic is much more advanced now, so you can say things like "Noindex threads with less than 100 words, 0 replies, 5 years old, in forums 1,2,3, posted by usergroups 5,6 and users 80,90,100."

[Marv]

You?ve set 0 posts and 15 words, John? I have my cleansweep project running with 2 and 200. Will be a surprise what we will see in 3 month. Not sure that my way is the right one - or the highway ;)

Thumbs up for the enhanced product, John!

[tpearl5]

You?ve set 0 posts and 15 words, John? I have my cleansweep project running with 2 and 200. Will be a surprise what we will see in 3 month. Not sure that my way is right one - or the highway ;)

Thumbs up for the enhanced product, John!

Yep, and that actually noindexes a lot of junk for me. Of course it will be different for everyone. I'm confident that Google will appreciate your cleanup!

[goxy63]

How this will work with CMS Articles/Comments ?
Will it work for CMS at all...?

[tpearl5]

How this will work with CMS Articles/Comments ?
Will it work for CMS at all...?

You could noindex the comment forum but that's it for now.

[tpearl5]

Thanks for providing. Roundabout 10k to get rid off, w/o member profiles and other pages. Hope it won?t hurt that much.

You might want to run that query again with what I updated it to above. I had a greater than sign for the reply count when it should have been less than.

[Marv]

Thanks for the head up, John.
Still a few (5719, setting: 2posts and 200words), but this number definitly comforts my healthy eye more than the other one yesterday ;)

[tpearl5]

Thanks for the head up, John.
Still a few (5719, setting: 2posts and 200words), but this number definitly comforts my healthy eye more than the other one yesterday ;)

I can see why :)

[tpearl5]

v1.5 added!

option to exclude member from noindexing
option to noindex (or exclude) threads with attachments
created pro version (http://forumsetup.net/plugins/advanced-noindex/) that has a tool to count, prune, and move threads based on advanced criteria

[SnakeV]

It's possible to combine two conditions at the same time?

For example 'noindex' when thread has less than 200 words and has no replies.

Thanks!

[RichieBoy67]

This is a great mod but has not been updated in a long time and is still in beta. Is it still compatible and has anyone installed it lately?