mod_rewrite and vba Gallery URLs
 

is there any way to make the URLs appear static?

This helps search engine spidering a Lot as it allows for keywords in the URL

Re: mod_rewrite and vba Gallery URLs
 

All the good search engines will read the URLs fine...

Re: mod_rewrite and vba Gallery URLs
 

Yes all the major ones maybe able to but there are tons of smaller Niche SEs that may not.

My main concern is having keywords in the URL. IE the gallery title, picture title or some other text in the URL to make the URL have keywords that will make SE searchers find relevant pages.

Re: mod_rewrite and vba Gallery URLs
 

Ahh, I see.

That could make for some long/unruly URLs couldn't it?

Re: mod_rewrite and vba Gallery URLs
 

No youre totally right, it could

but how nice would it be if this url:

http://www.vbadvanced.com/gallery/sh....php?i=470&c=4

Looked like this:

http://www.vbadvanced.com/gallery/470-nubes/

Re: mod_rewrite and vba Gallery URLs
 

infact, that is what Gallery ( http://gallery.menalto.com ) does with its albums now that i think about it.

Re: mod_rewrite and vba Gallery URLs
 

the whole reason this concerns me is that Search engine traffic is the best kind...
its free, the people who come to the site are already interested in what you have, and again, its free lol.

in my personal opinion, optimizing for a search engine is one of the most important steps in having a successful site.

Re: mod_rewrite and vba Gallery URLs
 

But, neither vBulletin itself (nor PhotoPost) use that type of URL...

Re: mod_rewrite and vba Gallery URLs
 

Yes, photopost does use that type of URL.

It has a "search engine friendly" URL open that will make all the URLs into static looking directory URLs.

See this sample showphoto page from Photopost:
http://gallery.deeperblue.net/showphoto.php/photo/3001

I'm hoping that someone can come up with a mod_rewrite hack for vBa gallery that does this (or something similar).

I do a LOT of search engine marketing, and I can tell you for certain that it does help to have simple URLs like that.

There's a vbulletin hack that does something similar here:
http://www.daniweb.com/tutorials/tutorial12725.html

Re: mod_rewrite and vba Gallery URLs
 

That doesn't make PhotoPost put the Filename/Category Name/Keyword/Description/etc into the URL, like he's wanting. It just keeps the URL from having ? or & in it, since that confused some of the older search engines.

Re: mod_rewrite and vba Gallery URLs
 

keeping the URL from having ? or & in it is a big improvement, even for Google. You'll find deeper indexing of your pages that have static URLs.

There's a hack for vbulletin that does what he's asking for:
http://www.daniweb.com/tutorials/tutorial12725.html
(even the daniweb URL uses the forum name as a directory).

Re: mod_rewrite and vba Gallery URLs
 

i currently use that daniweb hack on my forum. It takes like 10 min to install/configure and its the greatest thing ive Ever done for myself.

Even w/o keywords static looking URLs are the best way to go (imo).

So to answer my question, i take it that vba gallery does not support this. Is there a hack that does it? Or is there anyway that you guys can add this essential feature?

Thank you very much to all who have responded btw.

Re: mod_rewrite and vba Gallery URLs
 

I have search engine results that are 20-30 pages deep into some of the threads on my site. I don't see the problem with ? and & anymore. In the past, sure it may have been an issue.

If it was that big of an issue, you'd think Jelsoft would have that as a built-in option?

Re: mod_rewrite and vba Gallery URLs
 

Well they do have the 'archive' and its very obvious that the archive gets spidered WAY more than the regular forum does. try searching some stuff on google and when you get forums in the SERPs, its normally archive pages.

Re: mod_rewrite and vba Gallery URLs
 

True, forgot about the archive, since I've never used it. :) Mainly because my site is always flooding by the big three search engines' spiders anyway, and I don't want people to be linked to the "ugly" archive page if they get my site in their search results. I'd much rather them get the real thread, where the ads, graphics, etc are.

Re: mod_rewrite and vba Gallery URLs
 

(And I just watched about 150 spiders work their way through my Gallery yesterday.)

Re: mod_rewrite and vba Gallery URLs
 

yeah same here... thats why i mod_rewrote my entire forum with the hack above. My site is not linked around the net very much and its not "well known" yet. So i try my best to make the forum EAAAASy for them to get around.

Re: mod_rewrite and vba Gallery URLs
 

i have a hunch that bigger sites get more effort from spiders... as i stated before, my site is not that big yet and i want to give the spiders something easy...
Plus there are other reasons... i mean when you are looking @ some search engine results and u see a URL thats like site.com/subject/ and another that looks like its generated which do u pick? I personally go for a url that doesnt look shadey and i would guess that others do the same.

The url rewriting is really important to me so as i stated before:

Re: mod_rewrite and vba Gallery URLs
 

I haven't seen a hack to convert it, but it shouldn't be very difficult to do.

Re: mod_rewrite and vba Gallery URLs
 

ah i see. Would you guys be willing to offer support for this?