Question Regarding vBSEO URL Structure

G_Man · 01-23-2007, 07:52 PM

Okay...

Riddle me this!

If this is so much better using the f# instead of the name, then why is it not default? (this is a no-sarcasm, serious question)

and how come when I changed mine it broke my forum? None of the links would work anymore...

Code Monkey · 01-23-2007, 08:30 PM

It may be default but it's not what vBSEO.com uses.

G_Man · 01-23-2007, 10:03 PM

That doesn't answer the broken forum question...

Code Monkey · 01-23-2007, 10:08 PM

I have no idea what you did to your forum. Works fine here. You must have made a syntax mistake or something.

G_Man · 01-23-2007, 10:12 PM

How can I make a syntax error... I turned it on in the vBSEO cp and my forum broke...

Code Monkey · 01-23-2007, 10:32 PM

But you set the link structure which has a syntax that must be followed. Did you do a support ticket at vBSEO?

G_Man · 01-23-2007, 10:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Code Monkey

But you set the link structure which has a syntax that must be followed. Did you do a support ticket at vBSEO?

I am not sure I follow. And no I didn't bother with a support ticket. Just switched it back and went on my merry way...

Code Monkey · 01-23-2007, 10:47 PM

Either way, it's not a good idea to change your links after you have been running it so long like that. It's been a couple months hasn't it?

G_Man · 01-23-2007, 10:55 PM

Yeah, about two months... but how is that different than adding vBSEO to a site that is say, a year old??

Code Monkey · 01-23-2007, 11:48 PM

Because vBSEO will 301 redirect the old "vBulletin type" threads to the new ones causeing the SE's to update their cache. With just forum names in the link structure there is no way for it to figure out which forum id to change it to.

Code Monkey · 01-24-2007, 12:07 AM

I moved this to it's own thread since we seriously hijacked another.

Mike_W · 01-24-2007, 08:05 AM

The f# should not mess anything up if all is set up correctly, and I would personally recommend all forums that use vBSEO to utilize it. You never know when you are going to want to change the name of a forum, and that prevents the need to do any further redirects later on.

To keep things even simpler, I like using t# for my threads and removing the f# from showing up when you click on a thread.

I love short urls

Code Monkey · 01-24-2007, 08:21 AM

I have seen that method. Not sure I like it. Don't know why.

The nice thing about using the f[forum_id] method is that if you set up a forum and say down the road you realize it was a flop of an idea. And lets say that forum now has a Page Ranking 4 or something and you would hate to lose that. Well, you can move it to another category, change it's name and topic and guess what, the forum still has that Page Ranking because you have not changed the actual link to the forum. I have done this a few times already since I seem to be good at making forums that flop.

Mike_W · 01-24-2007, 08:31 AM

The thing that got me interested in it is looking at large websites such as ESPN. I looked at their structure at the time and it intrigued me.

I was being indexed pretty well on my ATV forum using f# and keyword threads, but decided to give it a shot anyway. I was shocked to no end when I did it because withing 2-3 weeks, I already had more threads indexed with the new URL structure than I ever had with the keyword structure, and traffic climbed.

I was planning on changing domain names for my football forum, due to almost 2 years of struggling with google. After moving domains, I used this same structure, and it has been wonderful for me there as well.

This structure allows me to easily merge threads into new forums if I decide to get ride of a forum, or run a temporarily seasonal forum, because the f# doesn't exist in the URL. I definitely can't say this is a better setup, but from a personal experience, my sites have actually performed better.

G_Man · 01-24-2007, 03:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Code Monkey

I have seen that method. Not sure I like it. Don't know why.

The nice thing about using the f[forum_id] method is that if you set up a forum and say down the road you realize it was a flop of an idea. And lets say that forum now has a Page Ranking 4 or something and you would hate to lose that. Well, you can move it to another category, change it's name and topic and guess what, the forum still has that Page Ranking because you have not changed the actual link to the forum. I have done this a few times already since I seem to be good at making forums that flop.

Well, I can't figure out how to change it over anyway and it DID f-up my forum. Simply broke all the links... *shrug*

G_Man · 01-24-2007, 03:41 PM

Now it seems to be working, but I did get a few blank pages... but only when refreshing after a change in the vbseocp. If I jump around it works fine...

oddness...

Code Monkey · 01-24-2007, 03:58 PM

Well, you need to refresh the browser after making such changes.

G_Man · 01-24-2007, 04:20 PM

That is what threw me... refreshing the browser IS what was crashing it. If I clicked on a different link, it worked... then I could go back to the link I was at. But refreshing it gave me a blank page...

Anyway, I changed them. Lost about a 100 hundred links on Google I am guessing, but most are still intact.

Will be better in the long run, especially if I change forum names around, which could happen as some galleries get bigger and need to be branched off, etc...

Code Monkey · 01-24-2007, 04:46 PM

You most likely refreshed a page that was the old url style. So the link in your browser was no longer viable.