Implemented  Please provide the Standard URL option

AndyB

Well-known member
I hope there will be an option in the admin cp to choose Standard URLs. I really dislike Friendly URLs and hope we are not forced to use them on our own forums.

Perhaps Kier or Mike could provide and example of what the Standard URL would look like to display the following:

1) a forum
2) a thread
3) a post within a thread
4) an attachment

Thank you.
 
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We don't provide an option to not have the titles in URLs at this time, though it's probably necessary.

It wouldn't be anything like that URL though. It would be xenforo.com/community/threads/2333/ (which works as is, BTW).
 
There is no showthread.php page, the only pages in the root are admin.php and index.php so that won't be an option.

I don't see why you don't like friendly URLs to be fair, but preference is preference.
 
We don't provide an option to not have the titles in URLs at this time, though it's probably necessary.

It wouldn't be anything like that URL though. It would be xenforo.com/community/threads/2333/ (which works as is, BTW).

I prefer to have short URLs and I think this will be a major issue for many admins if xenForo doesn't provide Standard URLs.

Another reason I dislike Friendly URLs, what happens when the thread title gets changed? The Friendly URL which might have been linked to other websites is no longer accurate, this is a real problem IMHO.

Another thing I noticed is that attachments also use the uploaded file name as part of the Friendly URL. This is prone to abuse as the file name could have unwanted text that should not be seen by anyone.
 
I prefer to have short URLs and I think this will be a major issue for many admins if xenForo doesn't provide Standard URLs.
 
Another reason I dislike Friendly URLs, what happens when the thread title gets changed? The Friendly URL which might have been linked to other websites is no longer accurate, this is a real problem IMHO.
 
Another thing I noticed is that attachments also use the uploaded file name as part of the Friendly URL. This is prone to abuse as the file name could have unwanted text that should not be seen by anyone.
The rewrite is based off of the ID, as long as the ID is in there it should work supposedly.

http://xenforo.com/community/threads/this-is-a-random-thread-title-to-replace-the-real-title.2333/ for example will 301 redirect to the current title. 
 
If you want to avoid the use of URL rewriting entirely, insert 'index.php?' after 'community/' so that you have the following format:

http://xenforo.com/community/index.php?forums/5/

Thank you Kier. So if I understand correctly, xenForo will have an option to use Standard URLs in the form of:

http://xenforo.com/community/index.php?forums/5/
http://xenforo.com/community/index.php?threads/2333/
http://xenforo.com/community/index.php?threads/2333/#post-34528
http://xenforo.com/community/index.php?attachments/1032/
 
Right now that's not an exposed option, but the code supports that format, yes.

What does "exposed option" mean? I assume it means that when we purchase xenForo we will be able to have Standard URLs with a little bit of hacking.
 
Andy, you DO know that this kills any SEO you have on your site?

Google slurps thread titles, too...thus, its important to have 'friendly url's' but hey, suit yourself.

I understand I came a lil' late for this, but that's my 5 cents.
 
Andy, you DO know that this kills any SEO you have on your site?

Google slurps thread titles, too...thus, its important to have 'friendly url's' but hey, suit yourself.

I understand I came a lil' late for this, but that's my 5 cents.
Jesus christ, no it doesn't.

Google will get ANY URL, rewriting them does -nothing-. Its a myth, so quit spreading it. 
 
Andy, you DO know that this kills any SEO you have on your site?

Google slurps thread titles, too...thus, its important to have 'friendly url's' but hey, suit yourself.

I understand I came a lil' late for this, but that's my 5 cents.

Hi Carlos,

I have a very successful forum and have never used any SEO products or Friendly URLs. Content is the most important thing.
 
Hi Carlos,

I have a very successful forum and have never used any SEO products or Friendly URLs. Content is the most important thing.
You have a successful forum because your site is old enough to stand on its two feet. Not many newer sites can stand on two feet - so SEO solutions are available to those who have a big problem gaining new members.

I don't have a problem creating new content, but rather being found on google. I am a writer for god's sakes. I believe that content is king, I agree. And I also believe that quality will bring new people to your site, and unique marketing schemes. I have been marketing the forum on twitter, myspace, n4g, and facebook.

I'll go into more detail below.
Jesus christ, no it doesn't.
What the hell is your problem. Its people like you that persist and tell me something other than what I know. SEO DOES help, especially if it is a small site. I administrate a call of duty website and have seen tremendous growth from the owner's use of vbSEO. He put a lot of time, a lot of passion, and a lot of his skills to the test. He got rewarded with a really nice 1k members.
Google will get ANY URL, rewriting them does -nothing-. Its a myth, so quit spreading it.
If it was a myth, then Kier, and InternetBrands wouldn't champion the 'friendly URL' feature.

And if it was a myth, some sites would never have succeeded with SEO. Wordpress has a lot of SEO on it, and its easy to be found on google with Wordpress. So easy that it costs NOTHING to get hundreds maybe even thousands of users viewing your page. This year alone, I've had 3 thousand people see my blog, and the site has been running for over two years now.

But the forums, is a whole different ballgame, I can't even get members to post new content on the forums EVEN though that I have quality content and SEO. So now I have to rely on my blog to bring traffic. And I plan on buying and launching other websites to bolster traffic on my 'network' forum.

Now, whether google will get ANY URL or not is up in the air. I have tried the standard vbulletin URL system on my network forum...guess what? It didn't yield me any traffic. In fact, it went all the way back of the line on Google's ecosystem. Now, when I started using vbSEO on the forum, google came back more and more.

My view is this. The standard url system that andyB wanted - google doesn't know what the thread is about - so whatever keywords you entered into its "search" box, will only grab your content's words. But if you use a 'friendly url' of sorts...google KNOWS what the content is, and once you use a keyword, and its ON that url structure, it slurps that keywords right out of the box. Snappy. This pushes your site a little higher. Because the word is VISIBLE.

And finally, most people that have the structure that andyB wants, and the standard vbulletin URL structure are paying HUNDREDS, and THOUSANDS of dollars every month JUST to get more visitors to their site via AdWords. You still have to do the same even though you have SEO on your site, but its much harder to run sites that have the structure, rather than the friendly url structure. Just because of what I just said. [Mostly because its a hit or miss kind of thing.] And most of these sites have to resort to finding donors to pay the bills - that includes adwords.

Before you say that I haven't tried AdWords on standard vb structure - I have. Didn't work.

I am very certain about my convictions about SEO in general. Otherwise if I didn't feel confident about the use of vbSEO or any SEO solution...I wouldn't be persistent as I am about it.
 
To me the friendly url feature rather than being a big factor in SEO, is more like an sneak peak of its content when you send a link to someone through IM, or post the link in a forum.
 
You have a successful forum because your site is old enough to stand on its two feet. Not many newer sites can stand on two feet - so SEO solutions are available to those who have a big problem gaining new members.

I don't have a problem creating new content, but rather being found on google. I am a writer for god's sakes. I believe that content is king, I agree. And I also believe that quality will bring new people to your site, and unique marketing schemes. I have been marketing the forum on twitter, myspace, n4g, and facebook.

I'll go into more detail below.

What the hell is your problem. Its people like you that persist and tell me something other than what I know. SEO DOES help, especially if it is a small site. I administrate a call of duty website and have seen tremendous growth from the owner's use of vbSEO. He put a lot of time, a lot of passion, and a lot of his skills to the test. He got rewarded with a really nice 1k members.

If it was a myth, then Kier, and InternetBrands wouldn't champion the 'friendly URL' feature.

And if it was a myth, some sites would never have succeeded with SEO. Wordpress has a lot of SEO on it, and its easy to be found on google with Wordpress. So easy that it costs NOTHING to get hundreds maybe even thousands of users viewing your page. This year alone, I've had 3 thousand people see my blog, and the site has been running for over two years now.

But the forums, is a whole different ballgame, I can't even get members to post new content on the forums EVEN though that I have quality content and SEO. So now I have to rely on my blog to bring traffic. And I plan on buying and launching other websites to bolster traffic on my 'network' forum.

Now, whether google will get ANY URL or not is up in the air. I have tried the standard vbulletin URL system on my network forum...guess what? It didn't yield me any traffic. In fact, it went all the way back of the line on Google's ecosystem. Now, when I started using vbSEO on the forum, google came back more and more.

My view is this. The standard url system that andyB wanted - google doesn't know what the thread is about - so whatever keywords you entered into its "search" box, will only grab your content's words. But if you use a 'friendly url' of sorts...google KNOWS what the content is, and once you use a keyword, and its ON that url structure, it slurps that keywords right out of the box. Snappy. This pushes your site a little higher. Because the word is VISIBLE.

I am very certain about my convictions about SEO in general. Otherwise if I didn't feel confident about the use of vbSEO or any SEO solution...I wouldn't be persistent as I am about it.
Friendly URL's have nothing to do with SEO; No search engine will penalize you for one form of URL over another.

The reason why people have -pioneered- it is because it is user friendly. It gives you a concept of what the thread is about due to the title being in the URL, and it looks nicer.

Feel free to find -one official- statement saying that friendly URL's have anything to do with SEO, and not organic optimization. By official, it has to be by either Google, or someone credible enough to make such statements and be reliable. 
 
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