hi

i have a question regarding the directory structure in mixed rewrite mode.


let me use this site here as an example:

http://foro.comunidadjoomla.org/


im not affiliated with this site, im just using it as an example, as i think that it serves as a better illustration of my question than my test install.



note that they strutured thier forums into sections by using the parent forums as categories.


like so:
http://foro.comunidadjoomla.org/zona-anuncios-joomla/
http://foro.comunidadjoomla.org/zona-comunidad/
etc.

note also that the forums in each 'category' do NOT have the directory of the category as a parent directory int their URL

for exmaple:



is the first forum in:

http://foro.comunidadjoomla.org/zona-anuncios-joomla/



is ..

http://foro.comunidadjoomla.org/anuncio-joomla/




rather than ...


http://foro.comunidadjoomla.org/zona-anuncios-joomla/anuncio-joomla/





my question:
my test installation here works the same way as http://foro.comunidadjoomla.org/

however, i would like to inlcude the directory of the paretn category in the url of the forums under it.

like so:
http://foro.comunidadjoomla.org/zona-anuncios-joomla/anuncio-joomla/


i believe it makes more sense, as the links to the forums under a category appear nicley listed under its url. so why shoudl its name not be inlude in the URLs of the forums ?


is there a way to do that ?

regards and thanks!!
dee

doonee wrote:hi

i have a question regarding the directory structure in mixed rewrite mode.


http://foro.comunidadjoomla.org/zona-anuncios-joomla/anuncio-joomla/


i believe it makes more sense, as the links to the forums under a category appear nicely listed under its url. so why shoudl its name not be inlude in the URLs of the forums ?


is there a way to do that ?

regards and thanks!!
dee

Hi Doonee,

My forums on all my sites work the same as your so it's not a misconfig (I know that was not your question).

The phpbb-seo team here will need to answer the question however from a design standpoint, I think the fact that Parent Forums are not injected into the URLs of Child Forums and Topics in Child Forums is by design. You see, as it stands today, Search Engines don't like Long URLS. The shorter the better. If you were to inject parent forums into the URL and you go several sub categories deep, you have the potential to have a REALLY long URL. When it comes right down to it, I think the way the phpbb-seo team has done it is the best. The Form the topic is posted in should be the most relevant from an SEO standpoint so that's all you need in the URL.

Now if you want the entire URL path injected for a reason OTHER than SEO, then ignore the comments and continue to seek guidance from the code authors.

Hope this helps

Hi mrgroove, thanks for the comprehensive reply.

I don't have much to add, except that there may be cases where the injection of parent forum/category name into the URL may turn it more comprehensive to humans, for example when the forum/category names contain of product model or brand names and subforum names have less informational 'value' ('support', 'news' etc.).

I was asking because I forsee valid requests from clients in this direction
and I would still be curious if i can configure the premod to inject parent forum/category names if required.

Thanks again
D

You're perfectly right MrGroove, and I appreciate that you like our work here too

@doonee, well I admit that under some circumstances it could be a bit better to have one more level in the uri structure, but the cases are not many.
But even in these cases, the difference would probably not be sensible SEOwise.

Some one recently posted an example of exactly what you want here, but a) I cannot find the post any more and b) he never shared the code so far and I don't know exactly what does he want to do.

You may have more patience than me on this with the search function

Anther thing to consider about this is that implementing such multilevel rewriting would cost more resources, it's as well something to keep in mind IMO.
I really think that SEO should be as light as possible on server load, because it's not the most useful code spent for your users experience (most user do not even notice about it) and you may need resources to add some other mods that will really be useful to your community on a daily basis.

++

hi dcz

under some circumstances it could be a bit better to have one more level in the uri structure, but the cases are not many. But even in these cases, the difference would probably not be sensible SEOwise.
...
Anther thing to consider about this is that implementing such multilevel rewriting would cost more resources ...

Yup, makes sense, also because the 'issue' can be worked around at most times by setting forum titles accordingly (xy-support, xy-news etc.).

Good point about ressources as well, which i hadn't considered.

I'll move this item down in my list of priorities, and will also use the search function some more, altho ive already done so extensively....

cheers and thanks
D

doonee wrote:Hi mrgroove, thanks for the comprehensive reply.


I was asking because I foresee valid requests from clients in this direction
and I would still be curious if i can configure the premod to inject parent forum/category names if required.

Thanks again
D

No problem Doonee,

Just thought of 1 more thing, by only injecting the last Child Forum into the URL, I think this is also handy if you ever want to move that Forum from one Category to another. I've done this on my boards a few times.

-MrGroove