Requesting a Site Review - www.wellinformed.co.za

[Snoopy_inc]

Hi all,

Moving my query here so that its in the appropriate section.
Thanks in advance for any effort to help me make my site a better and more SEO friendly place ;)

www.wellinformed.co.za

[Chatmaster]

It seems like some of us are a bit busy atm.:) I will give it a bash though.

I would look at the following issues first

Page redirects on your homepage links from internally and from without the www to one URL. They are different everytime.
Keyword and description meta tags of the internal pages (this should be fixed for rankings in Ananzi)
I would look at improving the page titles
I have a problem with exactly what keywords you are targetting. Throughout the site they seem to be very general and competitive
Main menu is images, I would at least alt tags there.
Modrewrite is highly recomended
You need backlinks to internal pages.
You need to increase your backlinks in general.

[Snoopy_inc]

I have posted on a forum that deals with my Forum Software... The message i posted can be found here.... please advise if that makes any sense: http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=189162.0


Many thanks for the review.
and really appriciate the response.

[Snoopy_inc]

I am still waiting for a response from the Simplemachines forum.... i dont think they actually know or have someone that can help out with my situation.... either that or everyone is on holiday :lol:

If anyone here has any ideas on how to fix the above mentioned problem... im all ears ;)

[Paz]

It's a great site with a very strong domain name, and a growing user base, but I think you made an unfortunate choice of software. I'd have gone for phpBB or better still paid $170 for vBulletin. Anyway it looks like there are updates available and maybe you should implement those and get back to us.

Chatmaster's made all the high priority points, but I would add a few.

You seem to be using session ID's and search engines hate these because they will end up indexing a new URl every time they visit, but the URL will have content that they have indexed already eg

http://www.wellinformed.co.za/forum/index.php
http://www.wellinformed.co.za/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=4fbdf89d414bb235a6fa7bda64b3c8 47&


- you don't have many real content pages (posts) indexed in Google.

I don't know the software but try logging into the Admin section and look for something like "force users to accept cookies" and switch this on or alternatively look for "Use session IDs" and switch this off.

One of the most powerful site health diagnostics in Google in the site:yourdomain operator. For your site you need to look here (http://www.google.com/search?num=100&q=site:wellinformed.co.za).

You'll see lots of login pages indexed with titles and descriptions of;
Wellinformed.co.za
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register. Did you miss your activation email? August 11, 2007, 11:27:51 AM. 1 Hour, 1 Day, 1 Week, 1 Month, Forever ...


These and other sets of duplicate pages are very likely hurting your rankings because unique content is important in Google's relevancy/ranking algorithms. I would add a nofollow tag to your "Login" "Register" "Search" and maybe "Help" links.

Top priority for me would be to lose the session IDs.

[Snoopy_inc]

Thanks Paz for the time to do the review. As far as the software is concerned... its alot better then phpbb. I did my research when i first started... i wanted VB but as far as the cost was concerned didnt at the time seem it was nessesary to pay for something i didnt know was going to work.

These are the only settings i can see so far with regards to cookies:
1) Default login cookies length (in minutes)
2) Enable local storage of cookies
(SSI won't work well with this on.)
3) Use subdomain independent cookies
(turn off local cookies first!)

And this on the sessions:

1) Use database driven sessions

Thanks once again for the input :)

[Chatmaster]

I have to agree with Paz. That is spot on. I think the best investment you can possibly make is obtaining vBULLETIN. It rocks and in terms of Usability it is much better than any forum software out there. I think it will be healthy for your community growth as well.

[Snoopy_inc]

Just updated to the latest version of smf now.... so that is done :)

[Paz]

Hi Snoopy,

I'm still seeing session IDs eg
http://www.wellinformed.co.za/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=8e8f61c304587987f75b614ed536b6 ae&topic=840.msg6348;topicseen#new

I doN't know the software so I can't tell you which combination will switch them off for sure, but I dug up a thread on getting rid of them here;
http://www.theadminzone.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-15288.html

If you scroll down to the bit about editing php.ini on your server then it explains there how to switch them off. Can you edit your php.ini file?

If you can trust me I with a forum admin login I can have a look for you.

Cheers,
Paz.

[Snoopy_inc]

hrm let me look into it PAZ

Thanks

Im assuming you mean this option: The big "PHPSESSID" string is only displayed the first time a link is clicked, and only if session.use_trans_ids is enabled in php.ini. If it's turned off (set to "0"), then the PHPSESSID string won't be displayed.

[Snoopy_inc]

Hrm, from what i can see they managed to figure it out to sort out the session problem... the problem with what they are saying is my links that i have up will disappear to nowhereland.

Hrm.... looks like i can alter the SEF. And sort out the php.ini to counter the sessions.
Ill look into the link redirects.

I started a Blog as per chatmasters advise.... will this be enough? http://iblog.wellinformed.co.za

[Chatmaster]

The blog will enable you to give some deeplinks into your site and also to compete for the same keyword phrases as the blog should count as a different website. An added benefit with the blog is to make use of the RSS feed as an additional online marketing benefit to both the forum and the blog. The fact of the matter is that it will not replace the SEO requirements you currently need for your main site. It will just enhance it.

[Snoopy_inc]

thanks Chat.... and thanks to you all i am so greatful i found a place that is so helpful :)

[Snoopy_inc]

OK Paz please test it again... i have changed to Non SEF and changed the PHP files to not take sessions.
Hope that works... also have the solution for the home pages which im busy with atm also.

Thanks


Adding note:

Just stumbled onto this
http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=518
and this
http://www.webmasterstalks.com/search-engine-optimization-for-forums-p16.html
If you wouldnt mind commenting i would appriciate it.

[Snoopy_inc]

These and other sets of duplicate pages are very likely hurting your rankings because unique content is important in Google's relevancy/ranking algorithms. I would add a nofollow tag to your "Login" "Register" "Search" and maybe "Help" links.



How do i add a nofollow tag?

[Chatmaster]

Just add
rel="nofollow"
within the <a>

[Glen]

just incase you didn't understand that it would look like this

<a href="http://www.domain.com" rel="nofollow">Domain</a>

[Snoopy_inc]

So basically i find where the home and search buttons are located in the code and where their url is add the rel="nofollow" to that segement?

If that is right then i know what to do.

[Glen]

I would do it to all the pages Paz mentioned, not the homepage though (not sure if he mentioned that)

I'll do a full review in the next 5 minutes, stay tuned

[Glen]

- It looks like the php sessions are still in the URL's I would look at trying to change that
- I found this that you might want to look into:
http://www.astahost.com/info.php/smfseo-get-smf-optimized-search-engines_t12312.html
- Consider linking to 'Main', 'General' and 'Fun' in your footer so that you have a better link structure on pages such as threads where you cant see the original forum format and profile pages

[Snoopy_inc]

Just stumbled onto this
http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=518
and this
http://www.webmasterstalks.com/searc...orums-p16.html
If you wouldnt mind commenting i would appriciate it.

Glen - Thanks for your side i appriciate it.... i am looking for some info on this SMFSEO as i am not sure about it totally.... seems to be some problems with it etc.

As a matter of interest how do i check if the php sessions are still in urls? Thought i changed that already.

Also please explain the footer that you mentioned.... im a bit lost on that.
Thanks once again :)

[Snoopy_inc]

Ok i have altered the Main page twins :P

I now have 1 web page being www.wellinformed.co.za/forum shouldnt give index.php anymore.

As for the phpsessions i did alter it as mentioned can someone check that for me plz? I would do it myself if i had the tools and know how.

Anything else that needs to be done that i forgot?

[Paz]

OK blocking the session IDs already seems to have kicked in. There are other things you can do to block other duplicate content.

Next I would block your image directories. For instance, I found in Google;
http://www.wellinformed.co.za/forum/Themes/oxygen11final_tp/images/topic/

Also to reduce your similar content I'd block your stats urls eg;
http://www.wellinformed.co.za/forum/index.php?action=stats;expand=200611
http://www.wellinformed.co.za/forum/index.php?action=stats;expand=200707
etc.

I'd also block your "register" "login" "help" and "profiles" to reduce your duplicate content;
http://www.wellinformed.co.za/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=163
http://www.wellinformed.co.za/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=194
etc.

After you've got rid of all those get back to us because we'll likely see other duplicate content we should get rid of.

[Snoopy_inc]

I am assuming i need to use the no follow tag?

[Chatmaster]

I would use a robots.txt file to do this.
For example save the following in a txt file and save it as robots.txt in your root folder. Just add your paths instead of mine.

User-agent: *
Disallow: /forum/Themes/
Disallow: /forum/images/
Disallow: /forum/something_else/


You can also use the nofollow tags on the login, register etc links that the bots do not need to have access to.

[Snoopy_inc]

AWESOME :)

Will implement tonight.

Thanks

[Snoopy_inc]

Ok the Robots is done... still need to do the no follow tags but how do i check if the robots.txt is working?

[Snoopy_inc]

Ok all done... please check me to make sure i didnt miss anything :)

thanks again.

[Chatmaster]

Does the robots.txt work? How did the testing go?

[Paz]

I'm getting a 404 Not Found on the robots.txt ... do you have ftp access Snoopy? If you uploaded a robots.txt, where did you put it ie what's the url?

[Glen]

robots.txt should be in the site root :)

To check its working properly register for www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/ and you can review it there.

[Snoopy_inc]

stuck it inthe main dir. http://www.wellinformed.co.za
planted it there


Should it be in the forums dir?

i have put the following into the txt doc
User-agent: *
Disallow: /forum/Themes/
Disallow: /forum/images/
Disallow: /forum/index.php?action=stats

what have i done incorrectly?

[Snoopy_inc]

Dont laugh but i dont have a sitemap uploaded to google :/

[Snoopy_inc]

this is what i get from a web crawl:

http://www.wellinformed.co.za/forum/index.php?action=links;sa=visit;id=2 URL restricted by robots.txt

I have a feeling its picking up no follow tag.

I am trying to test my robots.txt and Google webmasters info is not right..... :/
To analyze a site's robots.txt file:

*
* Sign into Google webmaster tools with your Google Account.
* On the Dashboard, click the URL for the site you want.
* On the Diagnostic tab, click click robots.txt analysis.

There is no robots.txt analysis on my webmasters??????????????????

[Snoopy_inc]

Ok all should be working if someone can check it for me would be appriciated :)

[Paz]

Ok all should be working if someone can check it for me would be appriciated :)

Well the robots.txt is working OK, but few of your content pages are being indexed; I think because you're using session ID's;
http://www.wellinformed.co.za/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=292e92fb5e8d451d5df3abd57b5ef8 79&topic=918.msg6650;topicseen#new

Search engines hate them with a passion... switch them off!!!!

Another thing I notice is that you're not redirecting your non-www pages to their www equivalent and Google is indexing both as you can see below;

http://www.digital-m.co.za/images/well-informed.gif

There's actually a potential penalty/filter for having the same content indexed on different urls, and it's a must to redirect the non www pages to their www equivalent. Best way to do this is with an .htaccess in your root. It's quite difficult to set up, but if you like you can PM me with a ftp username and password and I can do it for you.

Cheers,
Paz.

[Chatmaster]

Yah, those 301's is not working on your non-www domain. Use http://web-sniffer.net to test it when you are done. It should give you a "301 moved permanently"

[Snoopy_inc]

Strange, I thought i sorted out sessions....


As far as the www. vs non www. i did sort that out already? Im confused now?
I did the redirect on the server from http://wellinformed.co.za to www.wellinformed.co.za

[Dave A]

Snoopy - if you've got modrewrite available - add this to your .htaccess file
RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.%{HTTP_HOST}/$1 [R=301,L]
Solves all those www issues in a flash.

[Snoopy_inc]

Hrm i am assuming modrewrite is for server config and not for Forum software?

[Dave A]

Yep. It's an Apache module. If you made that hosting move you were talking about a couple of months ago it should work fine.

[Snoopy_inc]

ahh thanks dave... will give it a bash.

[Snoopy_inc]

Ok my htaccess is edited ;)

Can someone show me how to check for sessions?

[Snoopy_inc]

Ok if possible another check on the site?

Im glad that this has helped alot. i am getting so much more out of my site now as far as people hitting it etc. New signups etc

Can we check if i have missed anything?

[Snoopy_inc]

Hey all,

I would like to thank you all for the great help you have given... My site has had a massive impact from the SEO optimization and im thrilled at having my site at number 1 on the list of engine searched ;)

[Chatmaster]

This is fantastic news! Thanks for the feedback, always great to hear if things work out. :)

[Snoopy_inc]

Ok i have a question now.... What next? Where do i go here with SEO for My site?

[Chatmaster]

Well you can publish articles and issue press releases. The main objective offcourse is to continue doing link building.