This is for dcz and the rest of the experts here,
I have a big problem that i suspect getting me down in ranking big time
I have installed the mixed mod (migrating from able2know) and also GYM Sitemaps 1.2 successfully...
the problem is that when i go to the "webmaster tools" area in google were we submit the sitemaps, i see a lot of errors!
I am getting 882 errors that say: "404 (Not found)"
when looking at the paths i see a double slush after the forum path, it look like this:
http://www.forhair.com/hairtransplant//post2600.html

I have included a screen print photo of the errors:



I have to fix this is it seems to make my site go down on the Google results

Thanks you

GYM sitemaps never outputted post urls.

These reports concern all your web site, not only the url listed in sitemaps.

So I guess this comes from something else, related to the mod rewrite you're using, but I could not find any url with double slashes in your forum's links. So it's hard to tell where these came from.

Anyway, replacing :

Code: Select all

# POST
RewriteRule ^hairtransplant/post([0-9]+)\.html$ /hairtransplant/viewtopic.php?p=$1 [QSA,L]

with :

Code: Select all

# POST
RewriteRule ^hairtransplant//?post([0-9]+)\.html$ /hairtransplant/viewtopic.php?p=$1 [QSA,L]

in your .htaccess should be enough to have these, together with the correct ones, work and be redirected by the zero duplicate.

++

Maybe i should take of the slash before the PHPbb directory (/hairtransplant)?[/code]

Replacing this:

Code: Select all

RewriteRule ^hairtransplant/?post([0-9]+)\.html$ /hairtransplant/viewtopic.php?p=$1 [QSA,L]

with this:

Code: Select all

RewriteRule ^hairtransplant/?post([0-9]+)\.html$ hairtransplant/viewtopic.php?p=$1 [QSA,L]

The important matter is : is it working, and it is not : -http://www.forhair.com/hairtransplant//post5034.html#5034

Have you tried what I suggested ?

Maybe the solution is to activate this rewriterule in your .htaccess :

Code: Select all

# FORUM PROTECTION RULE
# RewriteRule ^phpbb/.*/([^/]+\.html)$ /phpbb/index.php [R=301,L]

shoud be in your case :

Code: Select all

# FORUM PROTECTION RULE
RewriteRule ^hairtransplant/.*/([^/]+\.html)$ /hairtransplant/index.php [R=301,L]

++

Dear dcz
I thought that we solved the errors up until i looked again today on my "Google Webmaster Tools" account, i have 1100 errors and when i click on the errors they are taking me to the home page...very strange
here is a snapshot from the errors:

Code: Select all

URL      Detail      Last Calculated
http://www.forhair.com/hairtransplant//topic1081-10.html    404 (Not found)   [?]    Apr 8, 2007
http://www.forhair.com/hairtransplant//topic1081.html    404 (Not found)   [?]    Apr 8, 2007
http://www.forhair.com/hairtransplant//topic1090.html    404 (Not found)   [?]    Apr 5, 2007
http://www.forhair.com/hairtransplant//topic1092.html    404 (Not found)   [?]    Apr 8, 2007
http://www.forhair.com/hairtransplant//topic1094.html    404 (Not found)   [?]    Apr 5, 2007
http://www.forhair.com/hairtransplant//topic1095.html    404 (Not found)   [?]    Apr 5, 2007
http://www.forhair.com/hairtransplant//topic1096.html    404 (Not found)   [?]    Apr 8, 2007
http://www.forhair.com/hairtransplant//topic1097.html    404 (Not found)   [?]    Apr 5, 2007
http://www.forhair.com/hairtransplant//topic1098.html    404 (Not found)   [?]    Apr 5, 2007

Try to click on the paths...see what happens...
i also including the .htaccess code again...maybe there is something wrong that you can see....:

Code: Select all

DirectoryIndex index.php
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^forhair\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*) http://www.forhair.com/$1 [QSA,L,R=301]
redirect 301 /index.htm http://www.forhair.com/index.php

# Action application/x-pair-sphp4 /cgi-sys/php-cgiwrap/forhair/php4.cgi
# AddType application/x-pair-sphp4 .php

php_value magic_quotes_gpc 1
php_value register_globals 0

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
#########################################################
# PHPBB SEO REWRITE RULES            #
#########################################################
# AUTHOR : DCZ http://www.phpbb-seo.com/
# STARTED : 01/2006
#####################################################
# FORUMS PAGES
########################
# FORUM INDEX (un-comment if used)
# RewriteRule ^hairtransplant/index\.html$ /hairtransplant/index.php [QSA,L]
# FORUM PROTECTION RULE
RewriteRule ^hairtransplant/.*/([^/]+\.html)$ /hairtransplant/index.php [R=301,L]
# CATEGORIES
RewriteRule ^hairtransplant/.*-c([0-9]+)\.html$ /hairtransplant/index.php?c=$1 [QSA,L]
# PAGINATED FORUM
RewriteRule ^hairtransplant/.*-f([0-9]+)-([0-9]+)\.html$ /hairtransplant/viewforum.php?f=$1&start=$2 [QSA,L]
# FORUM
RewriteRule ^hairtransplant/.*-f([0-9]+)\.html$ /hairtransplant/viewforum.php?f=$1 [QSA,L]
# PAGINATED TOPIC
RewriteRule ^hairtransplant/topic([0-9]+)-([0-9]+)\.html$ /hairtransplant/viewtopic.php?t=$1&start=$2 [QSA,L]
# TOPIC
RewriteRule ^hairtransplant/topic([0-9]+)\.html$ /hairtransplant/viewtopic.php?t=$1 [QSA,L]
# POST
RewriteRule ^hairtransplant//?post([0-9]+)\.html$ /hairtransplant/viewtopic.php?p=$1 [QSA,L]
#PROFILES
RewriteRule ^hairtransplant/member([0-9]+)\.html$ /hairtransplant/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=$1 [QSA,L]
# END PHPBB PAGES
#####################################################

#########################################################
# GYM SITEMAPS AND RSS REWRITE RULES         #
#########################################################
# AUTHOR : dcz http://www.phpbb-seo.com/
# STARTED : 2006/02/22
########################
# RSS main
RewriteRule ^hairtransplant/rss-?(l|s)?-?(m)?\.([xml|xml\.gz]+)$ /hairtransplant/rss.php?$1&$2 [L]
# RSS forums
RewriteRule ^hairtransplant/forums-rss-?(l|s)?-?(m)?\.([xml|xml\.gz]+)$ /hairtransplant/rss.php?forum&c&$1&$2 [L]
# RSS all
RewriteRule ^hairtransplant/([a-zA-Z0-9]+)-rss([0-9]*)-?(l|s)?-?(m)?\.([xml|xml\.gz]+)$ /hairtransplant/rss.php?$1=$2&$3&$4 [L]
# RSS forum topics
RewriteRule ^hairtransplant/.+-rf([0-9]+)-?(l|s)?-?(m)?\.([xml|xml\.gz]+)$ /hairtransplant/rss.php?forum=$1&$2&$3 [L]
# SitemapIndex
RewriteRule ^hairtransplant/sitemaps\.([xml|xml\.gz]+)$ /hairtransplant/sitemap.php [L]
# Sitemap modules
RewriteRule ^hairtransplant/([a-zA-Z0-9]+)-sitemap\.([xml|xml\.gz]+)$ /hairtransplant/sitemap.php?$1 [L]
# Forum Sitemaps
RewriteRule ^hairtransplant/.+-gf([0-9]+)\.([xml|xml\.gz]+)$ /hairtransplant/sitemap.php?forum=$1 [L]
# Yahoo! urllist.txt
RewriteRule ^hairtransplant/urllist\.([txt|txt\.gz]+)$ /hairtransplant/urllist.php [L]
#########################################################
# END GYM SITEMAPS AND RSS REWRITE RULES      #
#########################################################

RewriteRule ^hairtransplant/forums.* /hairtransplant/index.php [L,NC]
RewriteRule ^hairtransplant/post-([0-9]*).html&highlight=([a-zA-Z0-9]*) /hairtransplant/viewtopic.php?p=$1&highlight=$2 [L,NC]
RewriteRule ^hairtransplant/post-([0-9]*).* /hairtransplant/viewtopic.php?p=$1 [L,NC]
RewriteRule ^hairtransplant/view-poll([0-9]*)-([0-9]*)-([a-zA-Z]*).* /hairtransplant/viewtopic.php?t=$1&postdays=$2&postorder=$3&vote=viewresult [L,NC]
RewriteRule ^hairtransplant/about([0-9]*).html&highlight=([a-zA-Z0-9]*) /hairtransplant/viewtopic.php?t=$1&highlight=$2 [L,NC]
RewriteRule ^hairtransplant/about([0-9]*).html&view=newest /hairtransplant/viewtopic.php?t=$1&view=newest [L,NC]
RewriteRule ^hairtransplant/about([0-9]*)-([0-9]*)-([a-zA-Z]*)-([0-9]*).* /hairtransplant/viewtopic.php?t=$1&postdays=$2&postorder=$3&start=$4 [L,NC]
RewriteRule ^hairtransplant/about([0-9]*)-([0-9]*).* /hairtransplant/viewtopic.php?t=$1&start=$2 [L,NC]
RewriteRule ^hairtransplant/about([0-9]*).* /hairtransplant/viewtopic.php?t=$1 [L,NC]
RewriteRule ^hairtransplant/about([0-9]*).html /hairtransplant/viewtopic.php?t=$1&start=$2&postdays=$3&postorder=$4&highlight=$5 [L,NC]
RewriteRule ^hairtransplant/mark-forum([0-9]*).html* /hairtransplant/viewforum.php?f=$1&mark=topics [L,NC]
RewriteRule ^hairtransplant/updates-topic([0-9]*).html* /hairtransplant/viewtopic.php?t=$1&watch=topic [L,NC]
RewriteRule ^hairtransplant/stop-updates-topic([0-9]*).html* /hairtransplant/viewtopic.php?t=$1&unwatch=topic [L,NC]
RewriteRule ^hairtransplant/forum-([0-9]*).html /hairtransplant/viewforum.php?f=$1 [L,NC]
RewriteRule ^hairtransplant/forum-([0-9]*).* /hairtransplant/viewforum.php?f=$1 [L,NC]
RewriteRule ^hairtransplant/topic-([0-9]*)-([0-9]*)-([0-9]*).* /hairtransplant/viewforum.php?f=$1&topicdays=$2&start=$3 [L,NC]
RewriteRule ^hairtransplant/ptopic([0-9]*).* /hairtransplant/viewtopic.php?t=$1&view=previous [L,NC]
RewriteRule ^hairtransplant/ntopic([0-9]*).* /hairtransplant/viewtopic.php?t=$1&view=next [L,NC]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*) index.php

Well again, these do not come form the gym sitemap module, and I can't even find where they came from on your site, all links are correct, redirections included.

Anyway, the fix to redirect these wherever they came from is the same as per the double slashed post links, find :

Code: Select all

# PAGINATED TOPIC
RewriteRule ^hairtransplant/topic([0-9]+)-([0-9]+)\.html$ /hairtransplant/viewtopic.php?t=$1&start=$2 [QSA,L]
# TOPIC
RewriteRule ^hairtransplant/topic([0-9]+)\.html$ /hairtransplant/viewtopic.php?t=$1 [QSA,L]


Replace with :

Code: Select all

# PAGINATED TOPIC
RewriteRule ^hairtransplant//?topic([0-9]+)-([0-9]+)\.html$ /hairtransplant/viewtopic.php?t=$1&start=$2 [QSA,L]
# TOPIC
RewriteRule ^hairtransplant//?topic([0-9]+)\.html$ /hairtransplant/viewtopic.php?t=$1 [QSA,L]

In your .htaccess, the zero duplicate will do the rest

It would be better though to still find where theses came from and fix them.

++

where should i look? i don't know where to even start...do i need to look in the phpbb forum pages?

Pretty much everywhere on your site where link are posted to the forum.
But as said, I could not find any, so I guess they only showed up for some time when you where installing the mod rewrite or something.

By the way, I just noticed http://www.forhair.com/hairtransplant//topic527.html is redirected to index.php for now, I thin it would be better to redirect it to the topic url directly.

Just get rid of (or comment) this in your .htaccess :

Code: Select all

# FORUM PROTECTION RULE
RewriteRule ^hairtransplant/.*/([^/]+\.html)$ /hairtransplant/index.php [R=301,L]

To let the other rules do their job.

++

Is there a place on Google that shows the refering page that send the error link?
maybe a software can do that....do you have suggestions?

Have you implemented the suggested code change from this post above ?

Because -http://www.forhair.com/hairtransplant//topic527.html is 404 now, if the above suggested fix does not work, put back :

Code: Select all

# FORUM PROTECTION RULE
RewriteRule ^hairtransplant/.*/([^/]+\.html)$ /hairtransplant/index.php [R=301,L]

An HTTP 301 is better than a 404 on these if they are not this many listed by Google, fewer than a hundred.

i did, now all of the pages have double slashes....it is driving me nuts
I am very desperate...help!!!
I am willing to pay someone to fix this...

i also noticed that i have these 2 lines twice on the script:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /

can this cause the double slashes?

Man, relax.

When I say :

dcz wrote:Pretty much everywhere on your site where link are posted to the forum.
But as said, I could not find any, so I guess they only showed up for some time when you where installing the mod rewrite or something.

I really mean I couldn't not find any double-slashed link on your site. I cannot say there is none, as there at least must have been somewhere at some point, what is for sure is they do not come from GYM sitemaps or the phpBB SEO mod rewrites, at least as the web site is set now.

Our only issue here is to take car about these few links, wherever they came from.

So, I think we just need here to take care about the few double-slashed links Google knows about.

So it seems you implemented the last code change suggested, -http://www.forhair.com/hairtransplant//topic527.html is not a 404 anymore but isn't redirected.

So I think the final solution is to play with the forum protection rule, just put back the single slashed rewriterules for topics, and add this :

Code: Select all

[code]# FORUM PROTECTION RULE
RewriteRule ^hairtransplant/.*/([^/]+\.html)$ /hairtransplant/$1 [R=301,L][/code]

Where you previously add :

Code: Select all

# FORUM PROTECTION RULE
RewriteRule ^hairtransplant/.*/([^/]+\.html)$ /hairtransplant/index.php [R=301,L]

Will do it : //topicxx.html => http 301 => /topicxx.html

++