Using folders vs using just .html extensions

Newbie Joined: Sep 11, 2006 Posts: 83

I am slightly curious into using folders vs html extensions.

For instance

Code:

http://mysite.com/forums/index.html

Or something like that. I did a test run with no good results. Would this require some rewriting of shortlinks?

EDIT: maybe my problem was I was using an actual path. Hmm...

Spam Stopper - Comments Modules · Site Admin Joined: Jul 18, 2005 Posts: 307

Yes, thats correct, you were using an actual path that obviously doesnt exist. For something similar you would have to re-write to something like mysite.com/forums-forumpostid.html

In an ideal world it should be
mysite.com/forum-cat-name-here-forum-subject-here.html

Newbie Joined: Sep 11, 2006 Posts: 83

Yeah that would give you one more keyword in the url. I like how most wordpress blogs rewrite though with the path in url.

I am gonna have to play at it again. I would like something like this.

Code:

http://www.mysite.com/forums/general/this-is-my-post.html

nods

Spam Stopper - Comments Modules · Site Admin Joined: Jul 18, 2005 Posts: 307

Thats an idea!
Wordpress uses tags to define the url like this;

Code:

/%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/

which gives you a re-written url like this
http://yoursite.com/2007/07/02/sample-post/

The re-write rules thus;

Code:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

I havent delved into it much but if I remember correctly, there are some nifty functions in wp_admin/options_permalink.php for Wordpress.

Site Admin/Owner Joined: Feb 12, 2005 Posts: 946

Floppy,

I think you will run into some issues with potentially some scripts (would be minimal at best) that would need to be accessible directly.

However, I think that this should be possible as is actually something that I am already considering for a 2.0.0 release based on some reading that I have been doing.

Consider trying something like this instead:

Code:

http://mysite.com/m/forums/index.html

What I am thinking is that adding the extra /m/ in there, you would keep the direct access links from ever being re-written. Then, you can in the .htaccess look for the /m/ and turn it and everything after it into /modules.php....

Just a thought. That is actually what I was considering doing anyways.

My biggest concern, of course, is once you have the search engines "backed into" the current scheme, like I was with GTNG, how do you do such a massive "change over" to a different scheme without completely destroying your SE cache and PageRank? I have heard different schools of thought on the whole 301 redirect issue... (but I do not have a solid position on it as yet).

Some "food for thought".

Site Admin/Owner Joined: Feb 12, 2005 Posts: 946

Oh, BTW, have also been reading that keywords in the URLs is definitely better than not having them. Unfortunately, this can create really horrendous issues with dynamic sites and ensuring that the URL's do not change, hence making it look like you have multiple URLs going against the same page as well as 404 errors up the wazzu...

But, that also begs the question: how do I get true "keywords" and not the equivalent of "Dynamic Titles". In my mind, it really is not an easy problem statement on a dynamic site, because how do you define the keywords? I am anxiously awaiting kguske's Dynamic Meta Tags work to see what he can cook up...

Newbie Joined: Sep 11, 2006 Posts: 83

Yeah keywords in urls give the search engine one more keyword to reference you by. It works I have proven that. Of course like you mentioned these words can't change. Thats a real real bad thing to a search engine. It would work for a little bit though haha. I smell a grey hat function Very Happy

My question about dynamic urls how do we do it dynamically? Man I have pondered that one. I wrote my own function and dropped it in mainfile so I could use all over my site, but its a lot of handwork. Not for the everyday beginner.

In a few days after I get done redesigning www.t3gaming.com I will put it up in replace of www.t3gamingcommunity.com. I am going to use 301's to test the above theory. Its a good site for it too because my clan could care less if our page rank was 1000. I plan to record my backlinks, current pr, and few other misc stats to see how many I can bring with me.

Newbie Joined: Sep 11, 2006 Posts: 83

BTW if you can afford the book

www.seobook.com is a great read for general seo practices.

Spam Stopper - Comments Modules · Site Admin Joined: Jul 18, 2005 Posts: 307

I'm sure I sent kguske a class file from phpclasses.com some time ago for him to look at. Basically you can either select your own keywords or the class file will dynamically create relevant meta tags based on the frequency of words or word phrases within the page.

I thought at the time it might be possible to use it as a dynamic meta tag creator (this is what is was written for) although at the time I was specifically looking to use it, or something like it in the news(full article page) and content module to see how it faired.
Unfortunately it was one of the many things I have looked at over the last year and due to other things happening, it got consigned to the 'pending' bin.

Site Admin/Owner Joined: Feb 12, 2005 Posts: 946

Yeah, my "pending bin" is huge and it is now so insurmountable that I refuse to look at it any longer... Sad

Floppy, that is a great link. Thank you for sharing that.

Newbie Joined: Sep 11, 2006 Posts: 83

Yep a really good glossary and blog too. A matter of fact that glossary is golden.

Guardian, using some of the theory from dynamic titles you could create a page that collected new meta data rather simply. Basically the problem is finding out which words mean the most. Not a simple task, but its do able. I would like to take a look at that class if you run across the link. I will have a glance over there tomorrow or so.

Spam Stopper - Comments Modules · Site Admin Joined: Jul 18, 2005 Posts: 307

Here you go
http://www.phpclasses.org/browse/package/3245.html
This site should be on everyones mailing list

Newbie Joined: Sep 11, 2006 Posts: 83

Hey thanks! I been looking for something similar to this to create dynamic tag clouds for my articles.

Then use that tag cloud to relate to searches. Which in turn could create dynamic pages for Google.

Spam Stopper - Comments Modules · Site Admin Joined: Jul 18, 2005 Posts: 307

Were getting off topic (well I am) but there is a cloud class
http://www.phpclasses.org/browse/file/16540.html
If you look at the useage sample, you could get really clever and instead of using a hard coded array for the tag words, you could populate the array from the phpbb wordlist table or anything.

Newbie Joined: Sep 11, 2006 Posts: 83

Yeah I breezed through that one. I didn't think of the phpbb word table, but I have thought of splitting $thetext from an article and trying to filter out the good words. That is where it gets tricky.

I built my own search engine on clan themes, but have yet to start recording searches for security reasons.