phpBB forums, SEO & Google Sitemaps
October 16th, 2008 0 CommentsIf you run a phpBB forum (as I do), and it’s older than v3 (as mine is), and search engine presence is important to you (as mine is) then you should probably consider upgrading to phpBB v3 (as I am).
Apparently older versions of phpBB create something called a ‘bot-trap’ because they generate urls with session id’s for non-authenticated visitors (like bots). This means the bots encounter an endless number of links.
This phenomenon is also a problem if you automatically generate a Google Sitemap. The sitemap generator spiders the site like a bot and also encounters an endless number of links. This apparently chews up bandwidth and stops your generator from finishing the task.
I haven’t finished investigating this issue, but it all seems to point toward upgrading to v3 of phpBB – which apparently sorts all of these issues automatically.
See here and here for more info.
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Please comment below with your thoughts. I'm not so old a dog that I can't learn a few new tricks!