Spider Friendly URL hack

I've started using better URLs for the search engines and I'm looking for some advice on what templates to modify. I also don't have the multi page part working right currently so I could use some help on that.

I haven't figured out the part to go to specific posts quite yet but I thought I'd share what I have so far.

URLs for the threads now look like this:
http://www.iamnotageek.com/t-76948.html

Insert this into your .htaccess file in your forum base directory.

  RewriteEngine on
  RewriteRule ^t-([0-9]+) showthread.php?t=$1 [L]

Now test it by using a URL like domain.com/forum/t-THREADID.html

If that shows the thread properly THEN go into your admincp and use the template search function. Do a search for showthread.php and start editing those templates to send people to these new URLs. Don't modify things like the next page links.

This could potentially raise CPU usage quite a bit but my site pulls a decent amount of people per day and I'm not noticing much of a spike in CPU usage.

This can also be done for forums. I've done it here http://iamnotageek.com/f-46.html

If I can get the next page system working right I'll get the full instructions together.

[Logikos]

Maybe you should just MOD_Rewrite like dbforums.com. -shurgs-

[msimonds]

here is the link to Dani's mod_rewrite. I use it on my forums and it works perfectly

http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/thread9379.html

[58sniper]

mod_rewrite is how we pulled it off at http://www.gurusnetwork.com/discussion/

Keep in mind that you'll be touching a LOT of templates to complete it.

[krohnathlonman]

This is using mod_rewrite guys..... Dani's tutorial has some good ideas, but I had already achieved everything I was trying to do before I saw it.....

I went about doing basically the same thing in a different way... I ended up hacking up more PHP files.

[Logikos]

If you can Figure out how to make links the forumtitles, then it would be much more usefull to spider.

Instead of:
www.mysite.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=1

it could be :
www.mysite.com/forum/f-$forum[title].html
www.mysite.com/forum/f-site-announcements.html And replace spaces with a dash (-) an force all lowercase letter. The that will make vb3 true spider friendly!

[Polo]

looking good

[msimonds]

Originally Posted by Live Wire

If you can Figure out how to make links the forumtitles, then it would be much more usefull to spider.

Instead of:
www.mysite.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=1

it could be :
www.mysite.com/forum/f-$forum[title].html
www.mysite.com/forum/f-site-announcements.html And replace spaces with a dash (-) an force all lowercase letter. The that will make vb3 true spider friendly!

Danni's mod_rewrite already does this, there are two versions in her post!

It is easy to put in place and remove if so needed

[Logikos]

Without having to edit the file everytime you need to add/delete a new forum.

[msimonds]

yes you can do this! If you want help? Contact me on one of my IM's

[msimonds]

I did my own forum and three others

check out this one that I did it to! http://www.sectalk.com/boards, it has many forums

* this is not my site!