Spider friendly URLs

For vB 2.0

This little hackette is a quick fix to allow search engine bots to spider your threads.

Although this will allow the bots to index every thread on your site, it will not make the threads 'search engine optimized'. They will see exactly what you see when you visit your site. It simply removes the CGI bits from the URL's which prevents most search engine bots from spidering more than one level deep.

If you want a hack that allows to fully customize how the thread will look to the search engine bot, you should look at Overgrows more complete hack here.

The advantage of this hack over Overgrows is that it does not require htaccess support which can have performance issues. This could also be seen as a disadvantage though as my hack requires that you have mod_rewrite enabled on your Apache Server, whereas Overgrows method should work with just about any web host out there.

Take yer pick

[MrNase]

does this work for 2.3.2 without problems?

i need a .htaccess Version that works with 2.3.2. Please help me

[mottokrosh]

Hey guys,

Having gone through this thread from the beginning to establish the definitive hack installation, the mention of vb3 caught my eye.

Will vb3 have spider-friendly URLs by default? If so, when is it coming out, any ideas? Is it possible to download a beta?

M.

[gmarik]

Does this works for:
1) 2.3.2
2) vB3 beta 7 ?

[buro9]

Originally Posted by gmarik

Does this works for:
1) 2.3.2

yes

Originally Posted by gmarik

2) vB3 beta 7 ?

not with these precise instructions, but you could adjust it to make it work on any website... the reliance is an mod_rewrite and not any particular code underneath.

but being cautious... i'd say don't do this until VB gets out of beta... they'd be too many releases and too much pain re-implementing on each version in between

[PurpleCow]

hello,

I am using this hack, ... lierduh's instructions in this post https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=223 and its is working fine with some minor problems.

I have teh done exactly the same as you specified in that post excepting this change as i could not find that code in my online.php

In online.php, find:

$loc=preg_replace("/\?s=[a-z0-9]{32}(&)?/","?",$loc);

add the following lines:

$loc=preg_replace("/f(\d+).html/","forumdisplay.php?forumid=\$1",$loc);
$loc=preg_replace("/t(\d+).html/","showthread.php?threadid=\$1",$loc);
$loc=preg_replace("/t(\d+)-(\d+)-(\d+).html/","showthread.php?threadid=\$1",$loc);

Now the problem is, the multi page navigation.

Please check this page : http://hostmarket.hostbubble.com/f22.html

It does show the multiple pages, but when i clcik on the second page, it shows all the threads and there is no links at the bottom for next or previous page. What wrong have i done.

My forum is here : http://hostmarket.hostbubble.com

Thanks much for any help
Cheers

[PurpleCow]

Okay, I think, i have solved the above mentioned problem and works fine.
However, i'll have to say that, what works on my forum is :

for multi page nav - this is the urls : t3-5.html and not of this type t3-15-5.html ... and actually this t3-5.html works fine. Is that okay and should not have any other problems ???

Okay, another request though :

is it possible to convert the forum jump url's and page navigation urls ( Marketplace > HostBubble Lounge > Suggestions & Feedback ) also to static using lierduh instructions and buro9 instructions.

Thanks much

[iceman11111]

Help, found a little problem

When I try and Update my counters I get a error for:

Update Thread Info


Database error in vBulletin Control Panel 2.2.9:

Invalid SQL: UPDATE thread SET lastpost=1055471230,replycount=9,postusername='tla ne', postuserid='2575', lastposter='GYMBRAT',attach= WHERE threadid=1999
mysql error: You have an error in your SQL syntax. Check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'WHERE threadid=1999' at line 1

mysql error number: 1064

Date: Thursday 11th of December 2003 03:38:08 PM
Script: http://www.intense-training.com/foru...dmin/misc.php3
Referer: http://www.intense-training.com/foru...ion=chooser&s=



Thanks
iceman

[lierduh]

Originally Posted by gmarik

Does this works for:

2) vB3 beta 7 ?

With the Beta 7, I have dropped the whole idea. There is too much to modify. I have adopted the easy way out: Kill the seesion ID, and be done with it.

Without the session ID, Googles etc will index the forums. Find sessions.php under includes. Note the codes already include disabling session ID for Googles. What I have done is:

diff sessions.php~ sessions.php

PHP Code:

380,381c380,381
< if ($nosessionhash == 1 OR preg_match("#(google|slurp@inktomi)#si", $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT']))
< { // if user is working through cookies, blank out the sessionhash
---
> //if ($nosessionhash == 1 OR preg_match("#(google|slurp@inktomi)#si", $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT']))
> //{ // if user is working through cookies, blank out the sessionhash
385c385
< }
---
> /*}
392c392
< 
---
> */ 


Basically I completely disabled the session ID. So the forums can be indexed by any search engine. So far no member has complained that cookies-on is the only way to use the board.

With forums used my rewriterules. It is essential to modify the rewriterules so that an old link to the f123.html etc still works, search engine will have your old URL for the forums and threads, you need to make sure they work. I have:

RewriteEngine on 

RewriteRule ^f([0-9]+)\.html$ forumdisplay.php?f=$1 [L]
RewriteRule ^f([0-9]+)-([0-9]+)\.html$ forumdisplay.php?f=$1&page=$2&sort=lastpost&order=&pp=25&daysprune=1000 [L]
RewriteRule ^t([0-9]+)\.html$ showthread.php?t=$1 [L]
RewriteRule ^t([0-9]+)-([0-9]+)-([0-9]+)\.html$ showthread.php?t=$1&pp=$2&page=$3 [L]

[lierduh]

I have noticed Google does not index the archive pages. Probably the contents of the url after the "index.php/" are ignored by Google. I have made a rewrite rule trying to overcome this.

RewriteRule ^arc/(.*)$ archive/index.php/$1 [L]

All I need to do is including the above to my existing rules, and find "footer" template, change "archive/index.php/" to "arc/".

Nothing else needs to be changed.

The actual url for Google to see will be:

http://www.mysite.com/arc/f-40

etc. Now if Google does not index this, I don't know what would they index.

(I am using v3 Gamma at the moment).

[gmarik]

I'm been hacking vB2 for quite a long time (about two years), but still I could not figure out all about the re-write function that some vb board use. And now with vb3 Gamma things have changed. What I could really use would be:



1) every forum (forumdisplay.php?f=55, for example) has another field called "description", let's say "sport", for example.

2) every subforum can be called as /forums/sport and it goes right to it, with no ".php?f=" between them

3) it should be as an on/off option admin could choose from



Respect, Marco