Version 3.8 - SEO improvements

Hi everyone,

In the next version (3.8), we will be incorporating many improvements in the following areas:

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - allowing the Searching Engine to identify your messages easily;
2. Usability - making the software more user friendly;
3. Configurability - less code mod, easier management for the admins;
4. Performance - less memory usage on server, faster perceived performance;

I will be covering the first aspect, SEO, briefly in this note. The major SEO features in 3.8 are:

Site Meta Keywords and Description

This new setting is configurable in the AdminCP so that users can define the desired description for their forum. You will not have to modify the page to add your own keywords and description which often requires re-do on each upgrade.

Automatic Meta keywords and Description

We will take data directly from the forum (Admin CP) and message (first message in thread), and generate the appropriate meta keywords and description automatically for you. This improves the display of search results on search engines.

Canonical URL Link element

We will generate a canonical URL (<link rel=canonical... />) for home, all forums and all message pages to help solve the "multiple URLs pointing to the same page" problem.

Take the following 3 URLs for example:

1. http://www.aspplayground.net/forum/Version-36-Available-Now-m403444.aspx
2. http://www.aspplayground.net/forum/m403444.aspx
3. http://www.aspplayground.net/forum/tm.aspx?m=403444

Although they look different, they all points to the same message. With canonical URL implemented, the search engine will not confuse them as different pages and calculate page rank and popularity separately (an undesirable effect).

When SE's see the Canonical URL in your page source (not visible unless you view the source), they will combine page ranks for the various pages for you, and list the desired URL on their search results. The canonical URL we generate will be based on the setting in your AdminCP (SEO link transformation), giving you full control over how they list your messages and forums.

BreadCrumb - including the current page

In the current version, when you browse the forum and message pages, you won't see the current page appear on the breadcrumb link section. In 3.7, you can choose to incorporate the current page in the breadcrumb, in either plain text or link format.

Why is this important? With the current page added to the breadcrumb, the Search Engines will list your entire forum hierarchy (up to the current level) in "click-able" format. This gives users more links (>1) to visit your site with, even though the search result appears only once.

A dedicated Site Map page

We will produce a site map page that lists various forum pages the search engines will find informative. Of course this will be totally modifiable (it is a page with some automatic link generation) when you need it.


Thanks for your time today, and I will post info on other aspects of 3.8 in another message later this week.

Thanks Samuel, I am really looking forward to these changes.

looking forward to the SEO's
 
I can't emphasize how important I think it is. I am outranked by other dutch fora about the same subject mine is about. Those fora are mostly vbulletin boards. vb even has a special site dedicated to seo and it is sold as a product. it performs very very well
 
here some screenshots on subjects that are started on my forums, but in google my forum isn't find in the first pages, though those other forums are on the first page. Even with topics that are generally popular
 

 
I don't have to be on top in google, and if every one is using the same techniques it will all level out, but my board is very poorly found and I really hope that it will get better.

Thanks for the message. The canonical URL feature will definitely improve SE ranking by combining the page rank from several dynamic URLs into one.