Forums Folder or NOT

[MRGTB]

If your only going to be running a forum with no portal or web homepage. Just a stand alone forum.

Is is best to still create a folder inside your public_html folder and upload the forums files there.

Or do away with a forum folder altogether and just upload the forums files straight into your public_html folder.

Which way do you do it?

[Floris]

I used to have /forum/ and /community/ but now I load it all from the root of the site. directly after the .com/

[Wayne Luke]

I would just upload my forum files right into the public_html folder. The reason being is that most search engine bots only go X levels deep into your site. Most common being 3 or 4. The more directories they have to dig through to get to your forums the less they index on your site.

Second, if there is nothing in the root of your site why mess with directories and messy redirects that can leach pagerank from you by splitting up how links are created to your site.

[MRGTB]

Yeah, thats what I was wondering, because it then means there is no need for a re-direct index page in the ROOT folder leading to your /forum/index.php file.

[Mazinger]

I would just upload my forum files right into the public_html folder. The reason being is that most search engine bots only go X levels deep into your site. Most common being 3 or 4. The more directories they have to dig through to get to your forums the less they index on your site.

Second, if there is nothing in the root of your site why mess with directories and messy redirects that can leach pagerank from you by splitting up how links are created to your site.

What if I make my forum in a directory... and make a redirecting page in the root? Does that helps for the forum SEO?

[MRGTB]

What if I make my forum in a directory... and make a redirecting page in the root? Does that helps for the forum SEO?

I think its best to have them in your root and do away with a re-direct altogether.

It's quite easy to move your site from your forums folder into your root. I just did it using my servers CP Panel File Transfare feature. I just moved all my forums files from the forums folder into the root.

Then changed the URL for forum address in the Admin CP and updated the config file.

[Mazinger]

I think its best to have them in your root and do away with a re-direct altogether.

It's quite easy to move your site from your forums folder into your root. I just did it using my servers CP Panel File Transfare feature. I just moved all my forums files from the forums folder into the root.

Then changed the URL for forum address in the Admin CP and updated the config file.

And what about indexed URLs in Google?

[MRGTB]

Well yeah, if you've already got a well established site, your gonna suffer with 404's (if thats what there called). Because the links leading to posts will have the /forum/ folder address in them.

So you would have to create a 404 page that leads to the forum so they don't get a page cannot be found in google. And put the 404 code in the .htaccess file that leads to the 404 page

I think thats the way to deal with that anyway, so they still get to you.

[Mazinger]

So, there should be a mod creating fake urls to keep old urls. I.E. website/forum/showthread.php?t=1 will redirect to website/showthread.php?t=1.

[MRGTB]

Well not really, a 404 error page should be used anyway as standard on your site, just in-case you delete threads in the future to trim your board, or move some posts to another forum with a different ID.

A 404 error page is just a standard html page like a re-direct page, that you call 404.html for example. You can then put some code in that page that re-directs them to the forums index.php.

So rather than google showing cannot find that page, and you miss the hit. Instead detects the 404 code in the .htacess file, that points google to your 404 page, that then in turn re-direct them to your hompage, if you get the idea

[MRGTB]

Read this. It will explain things a little better.

http://www.webweaver.nu/html-tips/custom-404.shtml

But you can find loads of info on the net about what a 404 is for and how to create one

[Mazinger]

Thanks for the link, I'll use this.

[Chousho]

What I would do for that is set up a 301 to redirect to the new pages.

http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec10.html#sec10.3.2

[RedTyger]

Absolutely, don't use a 404 whatever you do! Danger Will Robinson! You'll completely destroy your pagerank and any general incoming traffic as well.

If you have mod_rewrite enabled, use this in an .htaccess file in the forum's old location.

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.newforumlocation.com/$1 [R=301,L][FONT=Arial][SIZE=2]
[/SIZE][/FONT]

That will issue a permanent redirect (the 301 part) which will allow for none - or minimal - loss of pagerank and send all old traffic automatically to the new location without any lost links or traffic.

[antiekeradio]

If your only going to be running a forum with no portal or web homepage. Just a stand alone forum.

Is is best to still create a folder inside your public_html folder and upload the forums files there.

Or do away with a forum folder altogether and just upload the forums files straight into your public_html folder.

Which way do you do it?

I have set up a separate subdomain for our forums. in that subdomain, the vbulletin files are in the root.