Our specialized, custom built software is designed to be as search engine friendly as possible. We understand how the search engines work and how they constantly update their search algorithms; this is just one of the reasons why we constantly tweak and make updates to our software.

Search Engine Friendly URLs


     Some search engines do not favour sites which use ugly or messy URL structures. For example ones which look something like:
http://some-forum.com/index.php?action=view_topic&board=54&topic=967&page=2
http://some-forum.com/index.php?view=0d49sa2s4ad1w47r7f
     Our URLs attempt to look clearner by use of folder extentions, this means they don't include a file extention such as .php, .cgi or .htm and that they don't include ampersands or equal signs.
     We then try to also make them keyword rich, for example by including parts of the topics subject. So an example URL on our system might look like:
http://some-forum.com/board/coding/action/view_topic/topic/967/need-help-with-php/
     Although this URL looks just as long it includes some key words which search engines can pick up on such as it being part of the coding board and is about need help with php. This can help search engines to index the topic for the relevant key words which will hopefully help drive traffic to your forum.

301 Redirections


     With all forum systems, multiple URLs can be used to display the same page. For example having the parameters in the URL presented in a slightly different order. We are in the process of implementing a new feature which will pickup on when this happens and redirect the user to the standardised structure.
     This should help ensure that you do not end up with duplicate content or multiple indexed URLs for the same page. As with all built in redirections, they will use a 301 header which is read and understood by all major search engines.
     We will post more details when this is ready to go live.

Robots.txt


     This simple text file is a key tool in preventing duplicate content from being indexed by search engines. Forum systems will often display the same information in numerous formats. For example a single post could appear in 4 different places:
  1. The standard view topic page as part of a topic
  2. The printable / cut down version of a topic
  3. The forums recent posts
  4. The users recent posts
     The robots.txt file tells the search engines to only look in the first location and that the other 3 pages should not be indexed.

Meta Descriptions


     All too often the <meta type="description" /> tag is written off as no longer being important for search engines. This is wrong.
     Although the tag carries little or no weight in terms of your position within search results, it plays a fundamental role in encouraging users to click your forums link when it does show up in these results. The description will be displayed directly below the page title so it should try to sum up what the page is about to get the user to click through.
     The majority of hosted forum software avaliable doesn't enable you to enter this tag into the head of your pages. And those which do will display the same description across every single page, this results in masses of duplicate content which search engines frown upon.
     Our software will enable you to enter your own meta description, but then on top of that it will modify or replace the description when necessary. For example if you are viewing a list of topics within a board, and that board has it's own description; then that description will be used within the meta tag as it is deemed more relevant. Similarly, if you are viewing a topic which has it's own description then that text will be used as the meta description.

API Interface


     At the time of writing this, we provide the only remotely hosted forum software which can be accessed via an API interface. This interface is designed to enable you to better link your website and forum together. For example you can display a list of the most recent posts on your website which will encourage visitors to your website to click through. This can also be a useful tool in getting search engine spiders who index your website to index your forum too.
     The API interface can be easily setup on any server running PHP, with the user needing little or no PHP knowledge themselves. If you require help setting up the API interface how you want it then our support staff are happy to help.

 
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