MyBB Community Forums

Hi,
a lot of people use Google SEO plugin for MyBB 1.6
Will be MyBB 2.0 / Yii compatible with its URL scheme? I think that no one wants to change all current SEO URLs of the forum...

If not: Please build the plugin system in the way, it is easy as possible to change SEO URLs with a plugin!

+1

It will be a complete mess if the current Google SEO plugin and MyBB 2.0 url scheme are different...

as far as I understand, Yii supports custom URL schemes, so it should be possible.

Remember, that is a plugin, and not the official SEO urls. I'm not saying this wont be possible, but it isn't MyBB's job to support plugins, thats the job of the plugin author

As for SEO urls in general, labrocca recently posted a very good information source about SEO urls that points to the style used in that plugin actually being a downside. That Google themselves (IIRC) says not to use them, to let their system figure things out. Everything in what he posted points to the built in SEO Urls actually being better.

Ok, I'll correct myself, he didn't post the link. But he made things clearer (or attempted to) in the thread.
http://community.mybb.com/thread-89160.html

Its what I have always done on my own sites as well, and I've usually ranked pretty good for how small my sites have all been.

The URL scheme is defined in the config file of your Yii application (at least that's where I've always defined it).

		// uncomment the following to enable URLs in path-format
		'urlManager'=>array(
			'urlFormat'=>'path',
			'rules'=>array(
				'<controller:\w+>/<id:\d+>'=>'<controller>/view',
				'<controller:\w+>/<action:\w+>/<id:\d+>'=>'<controller>/<action>',
				'<controller:\w+>/<action:\w+>'=>'<controller>/<action>',
				'<controller:\w+>/<action:\w+>/<id:\d+>/<title>'=>array('<controller>/<action>', 'urlSuffix'=>'.html')
			),
		),

I'm not into the development of 2.0 yet so I can't give you trustworthy information about how we're doing it but I believe it is possible to allow such scheme to be used.

I believe with MyBB 2.0 every plugin will need a rewrite. It will be as if the project just started.

(2011-12-04, 07:50 PM)labrocca Wrote: [ -> ]I believe with MyBB 2.0 every plugin will need a rewrite. It will be as if the project just started.

No doubt about that, it's not a belief but a certainty. However, I think his problem is if all the previous URL's suddenly got "lost" if you know what I mean.

I think this is something that needs to be addressed during the next meeting.

(2011-12-04, 05:14 PM)querschlaeger Wrote: [ -> ]Will be MyBB 2.0 / Yii compatible with its URL scheme?

No. I'll put together a piece of code though that will redirect those URLs, if I'm still around if MyBB 2 is released. If I'm not around anymore, well, that's why the plugin is open source, isn't it.

(2011-12-04, 06:09 PM)Dylan M. Wrote: [ -> ]That Google themselves (IIRC) says not to use them, to let their system figure things out.

That's a common misinterpretation of this blog post.

It says not to turn "answer.foo?language=en&answer=3&sid=98971298178906&query=URL" into "answer.foo/en/3/98971298178906/URL" (or even worse variations thereof).

This is bad because random data (in this example, sid= and query=) is rewritten into the static part of the URL, thereby creating an infinite number of static URLs for Google to crawl. It's also completely pointless since both dynamic and static URL contain the exact same information, so the rewrite does not add or improve anything.

Google SEO on the other hand creates only one URL for each thread; and it adds information to the URL (the thread subject). Whether the URL is static or dynamic does not matter all that much (the current version of Google SEO also supports showthread.php?Subject). All other parameters remain dynamic in any case.

The Google SEO plugin is mainly based on Google's recommendations in their SEO starter guide, and it says to use words in URLs.

---

(2011-12-04, 08:28 PM)frostschutz Wrote: [ -> ]

(2011-12-04, 05:14 PM)querschlaeger Wrote: [ -> ]Will be MyBB 2.0 / Yii compatible with its URL scheme?

No.

To elaborate on this a bit more:

Google SEO has a very specific method / sets of rules with which it creates its URLs. Those rules are in part a result of current MyBB's inner workings. It's quite simply not feasible/sensible to recreate the very same method in a new forum system, especially not if the new forum system will apparently be based on an entirely different concept than before (MVC).

Even if you tried to emulate the Google SEO URL scheme, there is no guarantee that the new system would always choose the very same URL as the old system did; as such there is no guarantee that all URLs would work. So it's probably better to have a different URL scheme, that doesn't conflict with Google SEO's or MyBB's old schemes, so a proper and clean redirect can be done.

Everything else will be very if not completely different too (layout, design, logical structure of the document) so Google will have to deal with tons of changes on your site anyway; it's better to wrap everything up in one big whopping update and have a clean cut old vs. new MyBB, with proper redirects, rather than trying to keep old relics around forever.

This doesn't have to be bad - in theory you can implement SEO in a new system much more efficiently and thoroughly than you could ever hope to achieve in a third party plugin.

(2011-12-04, 08:28 PM)frostschutz Wrote: [ -> ]

(2011-12-04, 05:14 PM)querschlaeger Wrote: [ -> ]Will be MyBB 2.0 / Yii compatible with its URL scheme?

No. I'll put together a piece of code though that will redirect those URLs, if I'm still around if MyBB 2 is released. If I'm not around anymore, well, that's why the plugin is open source, isn't it.

(2011-12-04, 06:09 PM)Dylan M. Wrote: [ -> ]That Google themselves (IIRC) says not to use them, to let their system figure things out.

That's a common misinterpretation of this blog post.

It says not to turn "answer.foo?language=en&answer=3&sid=98971298178906&query=URL" into "answer.foo/en/3/98971298178906/URL" (or even worse variations thereof).

This is bad because random data (in this example, sid= and query=) is rewritten into the static part of the URL, thereby creating an infinite number of static URLs for Google to crawl. It's also completely pointless since both dynamic and static URL contain the exact same information, so the rewrite does not add or improve anything.

Google SEO on the other hand creates only one URL for each thread; and it adds information to the URL (the thread subject). Whether the URL is static or dynamic does not matter all that much (the current version of Google SEO also supports showthread.php?Subject). All other parameters remain dynamic in any case.

The Google SEO plugin is mainly based on Google's recommendations in their SEO starter guide, and it says to use words in URLs.

---

(2011-12-04, 08:28 PM)frostschutz Wrote: [ -> ]

(2011-12-04, 05:14 PM)querschlaeger Wrote: [ -> ]Will be MyBB 2.0 / Yii compatible with its URL scheme?

No.

To elaborate on this a bit more:

Google SEO has a very specific method / sets of rules with which it creates its URLs. Those rules are in part a result of current MyBB's inner workings. It's quite simply not feasible/sensible to recreate the very same method in a new forum system, especially not if the new forum system will apparently be based on an entirely different concept than before (MVC).

Even if you tried to emulate the Google SEO URL scheme, there is no guarantee that the new system would always choose the very same URL as the old system did; as such there is no guarantee that all URLs would work. So it's probably better to have a different URL scheme, that doesn't conflict with Google SEO's or MyBB's old schemes, so a proper and clean redirect can be done.

Everything else will be very if not completely different too (layout, design, logical structure of the document) so Google will have to deal with tons of changes on your site anyway; it's better to wrap everything up in one big whopping update and have a clean cut old vs. new MyBB, with proper redirects, rather than trying to keep old relics around forever.

This doesn't have to be bad - in theory you can implement SEO in a new system much more efficiently and thoroughly than you could ever hope to achieve in a third party plugin.

No, thats your interpretation. I posted a link to the thread, and you and labrocca already argued this out. Please don't bring that argument here as well

(2011-12-04, 11:24 PM)Dylan M. Wrote: [ -> ]No, thats your interpretation.

It's not a matter of interpretation really - it's quite clearly, literally, what it says.

Brain damage is always an option, though.