Miscellaneous Hacks - Photopost Pro Canonical Links Tag for SEO

Note on versions:
This should work with every vB-version that uses the plugin system (3.5 and above). If not, please let me know. It also should work with older versions of Photopost. I tetsted on vB 3.8.2 and Photopost 6.22.

The problem: Duplicate content

One of the biggest problems of Photopost Pro when aiming at SEO-optimization is duplicate content - myriads of possible urls point to the same page. This leads to heavy penalization by search engines like Google. Although this has been critizised for years by Photopost customers, the developers were less than helpful, stating this was not "an issue with our program at all"; there are no indications whatsoever that this will ever be addressed.

A solution: canonical links

Not long ago, the major search engines (including Google, Microsoft and Yahoo) introduced a new tag, designed to deal with just that problem. It allows you to define a canonical url for pages that can be accessed via various urls. This is just what Photopost needs and should really help SEO-wise (see Googles explanation):
<link rel="canonical" href="URL" />

What this product does

I wrote a small plugin that is only active on Photopost's showphoto.php, this being the most important and most duplicated page. It extracts the photonumber from the URL and constructs a canonical url that is made up only from the URL to the script and one parameter (the photo number). It works with both Photopost's URL versions (standard and spider-friendly). Additionally, if the URL that was used to call the page is not identical to the canonical URL, a "noindex"-Tag will be added.

Example:

URL to call the page:

http://www.roma-antiqua.de/forum/galerie/showphoto.php?photo=15

will insert:

<link rel="canonical" href="http://roma-antiqua.de/forum/galerie/showphoto.php?photo=15" />

while

URL to call the page:

http://www.roma-antiqua.de/forum/galerie/showphoto.php?photo=15&ppuser=1

will insert

<meta name="robots" content="noindex" />
<link rel="canonical" href="http://roma-antiqua.de/forum/galerie/showphoto.php?photo=15" />

Installation

• import the product
• if you're using Template Management System, you're done. Otherwise, add $cel_photopost_canonical at the top of your headinclude template.

### Don't forget to click install! ###
(No support if you don't)

[cellarius]

If you're running the vBSEO Sitemap Generator:

Originally Posted by cellarius

I corrected an issue and added seperate database support to benFF's addon for Photopost Pro:
http://www.vbseo.com/f44/sitemap-add...tml#post224775

[jw00dy]

Thank you cellarius!

[Worlocked]

This is a very nice and easy fix to one of the worst issues with PP that they will never fix. Marked installed.

I have one question/request though. I have the spider-friendly URLs on, but I used to have a sitemap generator that produced the sitemap with the standard URLs (showphoto.php?photo=XXX). As a result, I have a lot of photos indexed with both versions. This plugin as is works with both, which means it will produce a canonical URL for each version. Is there a way to make this check which type of URL is selected in the admin options of PP, and then produce only that format of canonical URL?

For instance, if you have spider friendly URLs active, and a search engine visits a showphoto.php?photo=XXX page, the noindex meta would be inserted along with the canonical URL as showphoto.php/photo/XXX ? That would be excellent if its possible. Either way, you've managed to do more than PP has for years with this one little plugin.

[Xencored]

Hi cellarius
sorry for my dumb arse question but would this work for Vbgallery (made by photopost)
i know it says photopost pro just trying my luck here

Cheers

[cellarius]

Originally Posted by Worlocked

I have one question/request though. I have the spider-friendly URLs on, but I used to have a sitemap generator that produced the sitemap with the standard URLs (showphoto.php?photo=XXX). As a result, I have a lot of photos indexed with both versions. This plugin as is works with both, which means it will produce a canonical URL for each version. Is there a way to make this check which type of URL is selected in the admin options of PP, and then produce only that format of canonical URL?

That would be possible, but for your problem I'd say it would be the wrong path. In your place, I'd decide which URL I want to use, and then implement a 301-redirect via htaccess to redirect the other. This way, you get the "wrong" URLs out of the search engines.

[Defkalion]

Cool, thanks. Is there any way to check if this works after we install it, and somehow check the results after a few days/weeks on google somehow?

[cellarius]

Originally Posted by Defkalion

Cool, thanks. Is there any way to check if this works after we install it

Of course. Just check the html source code in your browser. The meta tag will be visible there.

and somehow check the results after a few days/weeks on google somehow?

Use Google Webmaster tools. There you can get information on how many and which pages are listed in the Google index.

[cellarius]

Originally Posted by animemike

Hi cellarius
sorry for my dumb arse question but would this work for Vbgallery (made by photopost)
i know it says photopost pro just trying my luck here

As you said: Photopost Pro, not vBG.

[Worlocked]

Originally Posted by cellarius

That would be possible, but for your problem I'd say it would be the wrong path. In your place, I'd decide which URL I want to use, and then implement a 301-redirect via htaccess to redirect the other. This way, you get the "wrong" URLs out of the search engines.

I actually tried that before, but I couldn't come up with any redirect rules that would accomplish it.

[klaush]

Have to uninstall this because of this issue.

Any idea what causes this error?