vB Easy Archive FINAL - Search Engine Spiderable Hack! Get your posts listed @ google

-- If you've installed this hack, please click here! -- If you want to upgrade to vBulletin 3, look here: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=65703

[high]HOW GOOD DOES THIS HACK WORK??? >>> [/high]Over 29,000 pages spidered since January 1st!!!!!!! Visit http://www3.google.com/search?hl=en&...e+SkuZZy+Xenon to see all the pages this script has helped get spidered into google!

Sub-Forums have been added!

Final Version Released - February 10th

I added sub-forums in this final version, one of the most requested features to be added... but, sad to say... this will be the final version. I never got a chance to add some of the cool features I said, but I feel this archive has served it's purpose and hopefully will continue to do so for all the die hard users who stick with vb 2.2.9. I decided to make this the final version because vb3 is coming out soon and I think this archive is the best archive currently out. Sure, there are more flashy ones, but this one gets the job done and gets results. Hopefully this hack will live on for a while.
Edit by Xenon: Whenever there is a problem, i'll take a look at it, and perhaps add a feature or two

About this hack

This hack will help get all your threads listed in google and other search engines and get your threads easily spidered! It works by creating an archive and turning all your posts into .html format. It doesn't actually create the .html files though, but google thinks they are real! It uses mod_Rewrite. If you don't have mod_Rewrite, you can't use the scripts (sorry).

What does it do?

The purpose of this hack are to get your keywords from your forums listed in google and get people visiting them! Since these are all pure text and don't use tables or excess font tags, they are very friendly on bandwidth! This will display all your files in a nice text format that google will absolutely love! Visit the online demo below to see it in action!

Online Demos

To view a demo of this script, visit some of the "live" demos at the following sites:

http://www.destee.com/forums/archives
http://www.thrillnetwork.com/boards/archive/
http://www.truecountry.com/forums/history/
http://www.strategy-forum.de/easy_archive/index.php
http://www.pimprig.com/forums/archive/
http://www.jokersrewards.com/forum/history/
http://board.midibuddy.net/archive2/
http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/forums/archive/
http://www.macfora.com/forums/archive/
http://www.rcgroups.com/archive/
http://www.codewebs.com/forums/archive/
http://www.lcdmod.com/forums/archive/
http://www.source-forums.org/vB/archive/
http://www.subduck.com/history/
http://www.thesistersthree.com/archive/
http://www.a51forums.com/archive/
http://www.yes-its-free.com/easyarchive/
http://www.wcgateway.com/forums/archive
http://www.toyotaimportsforum.co.uk/forum/archive/
http://www.prisontalk.com/forums/archive/
http://www.gamesites200.com/archive/
http://www.allthingsmoto.com/archive
http://www.2spoemas.com/foros/archive/
http://www.mysticwicks.com/archive/

Requirements

Apache
vBulletin 2.x
mod_mime installed
.htaccess
5 minutes of your time...


Known Problems/Confusion

Mod_mime - You will NEED mod_mime to run these scripts. Mod_mime is a free module which enables a directive called "ForceType". This allows you to use the .htaccess file included to force your files into php mode, which allows simple URL's, without .php in them. If you can see the front page of your archive, but get an error page when you click on any links then this is your problem. To fix it, you will need to install mod_mime, or ask your host to do it. It's a FREE module. For more information, visit http://httpd.apache.org/docs/mod/mod_mime.html

Private forums - Private forums are NOT shown and they will NOT be spidered. Some people say the private forums show up, that is because you are logged in as the admin and the archive uses permissions. So anyone who has permission to view the private forums on your forums, will beable to view them on the archives also. But if you log out of your account OR log into an account that doesn't have access to them, then you won't beable to view them

Credits

Biggest credit goes to Xenon who originally coded the scripts. He is the man! Also thanks to everyone who tested it out for me and kept bugging me about releasing it (when I was too lazy to).

Agreement

By using these scripts & installing them, you agree to leave the small (virtually unnoticable) copyright text and links at the bottom of all pages. You also agree to leave jelsoft's copyright there as well. You can modify the scripts much as you want, but this portion must remain intact (links must stay) and visible. This is all we ask

Download Final

To install, just download the file below and open the "_readme.txt" file. All is explained there. Installation should only take a couple of minutes. If you have problems with this script, post them in this thread and I will try and get around to answering them.

[WebMasterAJ]

Originally posted by Smoothie
@Skuzzy-

This hack really screws up the who's online. A possible fix? I added FireFly's add who's online from the admin cp, but it won't work with these archive .html files.

Same here... are there any possible fixes for this? I have 16 guests and its all reading:

Unknown Location: /boardvb2/archive/topic/6785.html?

Which is a good thing... but... it doesn't look too good

Any help?

[TECK]

Stefan, from my experience with search engines (and I did searched a lot), indexes will drop your site for the following reasons:
1. no unique meta tags for each page (most important)
2. popups or any other external links, that direct your crawler outside the site
3. deprecated html code

Now, others will argue with me and tell me: "heh my archive is listed..."
Let me know for how long. I guarantee you that by the end of the month your links are dropped.
The best way to test your links is to go to Google and search for:
site:yoursite.com archive

So, I strongly recommend you Stefan to update your code, related to those issues I mentioned above, orelse the archive pages will NOT be indexed.
vBulletin.org decided to install my archive because of "no. 1 reason", listed above.

I know that "some" people (same who rated 1 my archive) will consider this as "spam" or "advertising" my own code... believe what you want, I simply try to help.
Feel free to read more here to see that what I say is true:
http://www.searchengineforums.com/

[cklaszlo]

@TECK: Our Results 1 - 10 of about 8,530 from google.

So Teck, are you saying that in a months time these pages will be removed?

Isn't a "title" a meta tag and there for each of these pages will be unique in the meta tags?


@Xenon: I put 2 links from our main index page (http://www.thrillnetwork.com) and also on our board pages. The bots loved this.

[Javazoid]

ok , i have added a big archive at the bottom of my forum home "http://www.wcgateway.com/forums" at the bottom to the archives ? will this help

[cklaszlo]

I'd also add it to http://www.wcgateway.com on the index page. Thats what we did and Google and inktomi have been spidering us for a few months now.

[FlyBoy73]

Did I miss google? I got hit by Inktomi hard on the 27th of January, but have not seen google yet. Have they done their main spidering yet?

[TECK]

Originally posted by cklaszlo
@TECK: Our Results 1 - 10 of about 8,530 from google.
Isn't a "title" a meta tag and there for each of these pages will be unique in the meta tags?

The meta tags are what users enter in the search when they request information from search engines.
Also, the index(crawler) associates each page with your meta tags.
Example:

<meta name="keywords" content="indexer the lounge" />
<meta name="description" content="TeckWizards.com - Introduce yourself and discuss anything you want here" />

Those are the meta tags for the forum listed below:
http://www.teckwizards.com/forumdisplay/f-8.html

[cklaszlo]

@teck: OIC. But it seams that the Meta tags are not that imp to google as one might think. I mean this hack did index over 8000 of our pages. What I do like about your is the integration with VB. I like that it splits up pages.

[TECK]

Remember, is not me who say this, but the tech guys from Google and other search engines.
Search at http://www.searchengineforums.com for more details to see the real facts.

The split pages are good for large forums with millions of posts.
An site like overgrow's or avsforum.com will crash the server while displaying over 50,000 threads in one page, for 10 simultaneous guests, if split pages are not present.

[saint_seiya]

I know this is offtopic but can anyone help me, thanks:

-----------------

I want my urls to be rewritten with mod rewrite like:

PHP Code:


[url]http://www.vgcity.com/index.php?temp_view=game_info.php&game=ATV%20Offroad%20Fury%202&id=384[/url]

to

[url]http://www.vgcity.com/index/php/temp_view/game_info/php/game/ATV%20Offroad%20Fury%202/id/384.html[/url]

. with /
? with /
= with /
& with /

At the end add .html (after 384)