[Mod] Search Engine Friendly URLs aka Short URLs

[Eagle Eye]

From SEO point of view, which is better? (http://www.4homepages.de/forum/index.php?topic=6729.msg57268#msg57268)

1) http://www.your-site.com/img-imagename-andnumber.htm

OR

2) http://www.your-site.com/maincategory/subcategory/imagename.htm

P.S (added the 4th step to make it look like 2nd variant, but nothing seems to have changed, it still appear like the first variant) 


EDIT:

I just installed this mod http://www.4homepages.de/forum/index.php?topic=10625.msg53408#msg53408 Multi-Lightboxes v1.03 and everything seem to be working, expect for the lightbox link,

like after rewritng; it's output is http://www.site.com/lightbox.htm, but pressing this gives a 404 error, same ploblem in the code of Multi-Lightboxes v1.03

Code: [Select]

{if url_lightbox_manage}
<a href="{url_lightbox_manage}"><b>{lang_lightbox_manage}</b></a>
{endif url_lightbox_manage} also the output is http://www.site.com/lightbox.htm?action=manage where as http://www.site.com/lightbox.php?action=manage sovles the problem,

how can i correct this
Thanks

[kief24]

From SEO point of view, which is better? (http://www.4homepages.de/forum/index.php?topic=6729.msg57268#msg57268)

1) http://www.your-site.com/img-imagename-andnumber.htm

OR

2) http://www.your-site.com/maincategory/subcategory/imagename.htm

P.S (added the 4th step to make it look like 2nd variant, but nothing seems to have changed, it still appear like the first variant) 

to see full path, you must not only add step 4, but also comment / uncomment some lines in step two. I don't know if you've done that too ? ( you can read it in the mod ). This mod was tested it and it worked.

As the seo's concerned, if you put full path, you have more keywords in the url, but it's les accurate.
Like if people look for sea, they can get a url like this http://yoursite.com/animals/sea/dolphin.htm
Now they will land on the dolphin page while they were better off on the sea-category page.
If you use only the exact category or image, you will have something like http://yoursite.com/cat-sea-112.htm, SEO's will show this page because sea is only in this url, and people will land on the sea-category-page.

[Eagle Eye]

OMG  i guess i have screwed   my  sessions.php, eveything works, but only like the first variant,  please can anyone see what is wrong in my file... (attached)

[kief24]

I think you want to replace "img" and "cat" in the url by keywords, right ?

this is for url's like this :
for image --->http://www.your-site.com/keywords_for_images-imagename-andnumber.htm
category --->http://www.your-site.com/keywords_for_categories-categoryname-andnumber.htm


1. it should work with .htaccess like this :
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#begin code

RewriteEngine On

#RewriteBase /

RewriteRule ^lightbox\.htm$ lightbox.php?%{QUERY_STRING}
RewriteRule ^lightbox\.([0-9]+)\.htm$ lightbox.php?page=$1&%{QUERY_STRING}

RewriteRule ^search\.htm$ search.php?%{QUERY_STRING}
RewriteRule ^search\.([0-9]+)\.htm$ search.php?page=$1&%{QUERY_STRING}

RewriteRule ^keywords for categories\.htm$ categories.php?%{QUERY_STRING}
RewriteRule ^keywords for categories([0-9]+)\.([0-9]+)\.htm$ categories.php?cat_id=$1&page=$2&%{QUERY_STRING}
RewriteRule ^keywords for categories([0-9]+)\.htm$ categories.php?cat_id=$1&%{QUERY_STRING}

RewriteRule ^keywords for images([0-9]+)\.htm$ details.php?image_id=$1&%{QUERY_STRING}
RewriteRule ^keywords for images([0-9]+)\.([a-zA-Z0-9]+)\.htm$ details.php?image_id=$1&mode=$2&%{QUERY_STRING}

RewriteRule ^postcard([a-zA-Z0-9]+)\.htm$ postcards.php?postcard_id=$1&%{QUERY_STRING}
RewriteRule ^postcard\.img([0-9]+)\.htm$ postcards.php?image_id=$1&%{QUERY_STRING}


RewriteRule ^keywords for categories-(.*)-([0-9]+).htm categories.php?cat_id=$2&%{QUERY_STRING}
RewriteRule ^keywords for images-(.*)-([0-9]+).htm details.php?image_id=$2&%{QUERY_STRING}
RewriteRule ^img([0-9]+).search.htm details.php?image_id=$1&%{QUERY_STRING}


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. add this code to includes/sessions.php

Code: [Select]

 
//Mod_bmollet
/**
* Get the category url
* @param int $cat_id The id of the category
* @param string $cat_url The current status of the URL
*/
function get_category_url($cat_id,$cat_url = '')
{
global $site_db;
$sql = "SELECT cat_name,cat_parent_id FROM ".CATEGORIES_TABLE." WHERE cat_id = '".$cat_id."'";
$result = $site_db->query($sql);
$row = $site_db->fetch_array($result);
$row['cat_name'] = strtr($row['cat_name'], "éèêàëâúóíáABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ","eeeaeauoiaabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz");
$cat_url  = '-'.str_replace('+','-',urlencode($row['cat_name'])).'-'.$cat_id.$cat_url;
// if you want full path of category in url, put next line in comment
return $cat_url;
if( $row['cat_parent_id'] != 0)
{
return get_category_url($row['cat_parent_id'],$cat_url);
}
else
{
return $cat_url;
}
}
//Mod_bmollet
/**
* Get the image url
* @param int $image_id The id of the image
*/
function get_image_url($image_id)
{
global $site_db;
$sql = "SELECT cat_id,image_name FROM ".IMAGES_TABLE." WHERE image_id = '".$image_id."'";
$result = $site_db->query($sql);
$row = $site_db->fetch_array($result);
$row['image_name'] = strtr($row['image_name'], "éèêàëâúóíáABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ","eeeaeauoiaabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz");
// if you want comlpete path to image in url, remove comment from following line
//return get_category_url($row['cat_id']).'-'.str_replace('+','-',urlencode($row['image_name'])).'-'.$image_id;
return '-'.str_replace('+','-',urlencode($row['image_name'])).'-'.$image_id;
}


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. in includes/sessions.php

find

Code: [Select]

  function url($url, $amp = "&") {
    global $l;
    $dummy_array = explode("#", $url);
    $url = $dummy_array[0];

    if ($this->mode == "get" && !preg_match("/".SESSION_NAME."=/i", $url)) {
      $url .= preg_match("/\?/", $url) ? "$amp" : "?";
      $url .= SESSION_NAME."=".$this->session_id;
    }

    if (!empty($l)) {
      $url .= preg_match("/\?/", $url) ? "$amp" : "?";
      $url .= "l=".$l;
    }

    $url .= (isset($dummy_array[1])) ? "#".$dummy_array[1] : "";
    return $url;
  }
 
change to this :
( note where keywords for categories and images are inserted )



   function url($url, $amp = "&") {
    global $l, $user_info;
    $dummy_array = explode("#", $url);
    $url = $dummy_array[0];
    $url = str_replace('&', '&', $url);
    if (!defined('IN_CP')) {
      if (strstr($url, 'index.php')) {
        $url = str_replace('index.php', '', $url);
      }
      elseif (strstr($url, 'search.php')) {
        if (strstr($url, 'page=')) {
          preg_match('#page=([0-9]+)&?#', $url, $matches);
          if (isset($matches[1])) {
            $split = explode('?', $url);
            $url = $split[0];
            $query = @$split[1];
            $url   = str_replace('search.php', 'search.'.$matches[1].'.htm', $url);
            $query = str_replace('page='.$matches[1].'&', '', $query);
            $query = str_replace('&page='.$matches[1], '', $query);
            $query = str_replace('page='.$matches[1], '', $query);
            if (!empty($query)) {
              $url .= '?' . $query;
            }
          }
        }
        else {
          $url = str_replace('search.php', 'search.htm', $url);
        }
      }
      elseif (strstr($url, 'lightbox.php')) {
        if (strstr($url, 'page=')) {
          preg_match('#page=([0-9]+)&?#', $url, $matches);
          if (isset($matches[1])) {
            $split = explode('?', $url);
            $url = $split[0];
            $query = @$split[1];
            $url   = str_replace('lightbox.php', 'lightbox.'.$matches[1].'.htm', $url);
            $query = str_replace('page='.$matches[1].'&', '', $query);
            $query = str_replace('&page='.$matches[1], '', $query);
            $query = str_replace('page='.$matches[1], '', $query);
            if (!empty($query)) {
                $url .= '?' . $query;
            }
          }
        }
        else {
          $url = str_replace('lightbox.php', 'lightbox.htm', $url);
        }
      }
      elseif (strstr($url, 'categories.php')) {
        if (strstr($url, 'cat_id=') && strstr($url, 'page=')) {
          preg_match('#cat_id=([0-9]+)&?#', $url, $matches1);
          preg_match('#page=([0-9]+)&?#', $url, $matches2);
          if (isset($matches1[1]) && isset($matches2[1])) {
            $split = explode('?', $url);
            $url = $split[0];
            $query = @$split[1];
            $url   = str_replace('categories.php', 'cat'.$matches1[1].'.'.$matches2[1].'.htm', $url);
            $query = str_replace('cat_id='.$matches1[1].'&', '', $query);
            $query = str_replace('&cat_id='.$matches1[1], '', $query);
            $query = str_replace('cat_id='.$matches1[1], '', $query);
            $query = str_replace('page='.$matches2[1].'&', '', $query);
            $query = str_replace('&page='.$matches2[1], '', $query);
            $query = str_replace('page='.$matches2[1], '', $query);
            if (!empty($query)) {
              $url .= '?' . $query;
            }
          }
        }
        elseif (strstr($url, 'cat_id=')) {
          preg_match('#cat_id=([0-9]+)&?#', $url, $matches);
          if (isset($matches[1])) {
            $split = explode('?', $url);
            $url = $split[0];
            $query = @$split[1];
            $cat_url = get_category_url($matches[1]);
            $url   = str_replace('categories.php', ' keywords for categories '.$cat_url.'.htm', $url);
            $query = str_replace('cat_id='.$matches[1].'&', '', $query);
            $query = str_replace('&cat_id='.$matches[1], '', $query);
            $query = str_replace('cat_id='.$matches[1], '', $query);
            if (!empty($query)) {
              $url .= '?' . $query;
            }
          }
        }
        else {
          $url = str_replace('categories.php', 'cat.htm', $url);
        }
      }
      elseif (strstr($url, 'details.php?image_id=')) {
        if (strstr($url, 'image_id=') && strstr($url, 'mode=')) {
          preg_match('#image_id=([0-9]+)&?#', $url, $matches1);
          preg_match('#mode=([a-zA-Z0-9]+)&?#', $url, $matches2);
          if (isset($matches1[1]) && isset($matches2[1])) {
            $split = explode('?', $url);
            $url = $split[0];
            $query = @$split[1];
            $url   = str_replace('details.php', 'img'.$matches1[1].'.'.$matches2[1].'.htm', $url);
            $query = str_replace('image_id='.$matches1[1].'&', '', $query);
            $query = str_replace('&image_id='.$matches1[1], '', $query);
            $query = str_replace('image_id='.$matches1[1], '', $query);
            $query = str_replace('mode='.$matches2[1].'&', '', $query);
            $query = str_replace('&mode='.$matches2[1], '', $query);
            $query = str_replace('mode='.$matches2[1], '', $query);
            if (!empty($query)) {
              $url .= '?' . $query;
            }
          }
        }
        else {
          preg_match('#image_id=([0-9]+)&?#', $url, $matches);
          if (isset($matches[1])) {
            $split = explode('?', $url);
            $url = $split[0];
            $query = @$split[1];
            $url   = str_replace('details.php', ' keywords for images  '.get_image_url($matches[1]).'.htm', $url);
            $query = str_replace('image_id='.$matches[1].'&', '', $query);
            $query = str_replace('&image_id='.$matches[1], '', $query);
            $query = str_replace('image_id='.$matches[1], '', $query);
            if (!empty($query)) {
              $url .= '?' . $query;
            }
          }
        }
      }
      elseif (strstr($url, 'postcards.php?image_id=')) {
        preg_match('#image_id=([0-9]+)&?#', $url, $matches);
        if (isset($matches[1])) {
          $split = explode('?', $url);
          $url = $split[0];
          $query = @$split[1];
          $url   = str_replace('postcards.php', 'postcard.img'.$matches[1].'.htm', $url);
          $query = str_replace('image_id='.$matches[1].'&', '', $query);
          $query = str_replace('&image_id='.$matches[1], '', $query);
          $query = str_replace('image_id='.$matches[1], '', $query);
          if (!empty($query)) {
            $url .= '?' . $query;
          }
        }
      }
    }
    if ($this->mode == "get" && strstr($url, $this->session_id)) {
      $url .= strpos($url, '?') !== false ? '&' : '?';
      $url .= SESSION_NAME."=".$this->session_id;
    }
    if (!empty($l)) {
      $url .= strpos($url, '?') ? '&' : '?';
      $url .= "l=".$l;
    }
    $url = str_replace('&', $amp, $url);
    $url .= isset($dummy_array[1]) ? "#".$dummy_array[1] : "";
    return $url;
  }

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

i can't give assistance for point 4 because i haven't used it myself.
( step 4 is needed for url's with full path )
for image --->http://www.your-site.com/img-full path to image.htm
category --->http://www.your-site.com/cat-full path of category.htm

I hope this is somehow helpful to you 

[Eagle Eye]

Thanks kief24
This information was useful, though, it's not what i am exately looking for, i am trying to implent the 4th step (URL's like
   yoursite.com/maincategory/subcategory/imagename.htm) cause a friend of mine who is a SEO expert says that this is better that than (http://www.your-site.com/img-imagename-andnumber.htm)

my sessions.php is messed up, after implementing the 4th step also , no change at all!! it is same like (http://www.your-site.com/img-imagename-andnumber.htm) and i know this works (tested a fresh install)


 

[kief24]

maxpaul, do you know why the SEO expert says that url with full path is better ?
( and i'll try out the 4th step myself this week. If i have problems with it i can contact the guy who wrote the mod and solve them )

[Eagle Eye]

kief24, I just had a talk with him,

he says that when in url we have http://www.site.com/cat_name/subcat_name/imagename.html its more human friendly, bots like Google takes the url into consideration... like it takes the page title, the directory you are in (meaning its name) and the page name itself..... Cause these add to a lot of keywords..... (to make the results more precise)

At the same time long filenames like http://www.sute.com/catname_subcatnames_sub_sub_catnames_imagenames_number.html (yea, sometimes it can become real long in this variants... ) can trigger a spam alarm and Google and other has good penalty for keyword stuffing…
so better and safe way is the directory like structure....looks more real, meaning full and seems to be safer

p.s it seems like www.cat.site.com/file_name.html and www.site.com/cat/file_name.html is considered entirly diffrent by Google… the first url, it considers it as an different site than www.site.com/cat/file_name.html and thus your page rank can be less for you sub domains… (I had made this mistake a lot of times )

note: because of the ever increasing number of people trying to cheat bots, good bots are trying to develop technologies to view the page same was as an human would have done it…. so it does make sense to have an human friendly url…..

[godboko]

This mod is simple and works GREAT thanks!!

[djith]

okay well, back to the original thing here....

short url's....

i applied the first mod in this thread and what happened ? when you visit a page for the first time you get a session id !!
when you visit the second time it disappeared !! what is happening? 

when google visit my site it read's all the session id's and will not take my site into their database ....
realy have to get rid of those session id's .... anyone an idea ?

[Eagle Eye]

okay well, back to the original thing here....

short url's....

i applied the first mod in this thread and what happened ? when you visit a page for the first time you get a session id !!
when you visit the second time it disappeared !! what is happening? 

when google visit my site it read's all the session id's and will not take my site into their database ....
realy have to get rid of those session id's .... anyone an idea ?

yea, i too noticed this problem, how to deal with this?

[V@no]

Trust me, google has no problem with sessionid in the url.
the sessionid is being attached when no cookies are set, and since search engines normaly dont use cookies, they always get sessionid in the url.
So, there is a way to detect a bot and dont attach sessionid for it, but doing so will create new session on each request bot made, that is more server resources, because more files will be created in the server's sessions storage.

So, if you still want to try, install this mod first:
http://www.4homepages.de/forum/index.php?topic=8752.0
(atleast do the Step 3. and if you dont want the whole mod, then remove

Code: [Select]

    $site_sess->login($val, "12345"); line)

Then in sessions.php find:

Code: [Select]

    if ($this->mode == "get" && !preg_match("/".SESSION_NAME."=/i", $url)) {replace it with:

Code: [Select]

    global $user_bot;
    if (!$user_bot && $this->mode == "get" && !preg_match("/".SESSION_NAME."=/i", $url)) {
[EDIT]
In 4images v1.7.6 the line you should find is:
    if ($this->mode == "get" && strpos($url, $this->session_id) === false) {

Replace it with:    global $user_bot;
    if (!$user_bot && $this->mode == "get" && strpos($url, $this->session_id) === false) {

[djith]

I did like you explained , but i see that first time visitors still get session id's .... google too ....

is there another way to get rid of them ?

[V@no]

but i see that first time visitors still get session id's .... google too ....

and how do you see that?

[djith]

i use statcounter on my website and i can see the visitors path through the website... everytime they havae session id's also google registered all the session id's .....

http://www.google.com/search?q=site:http://www.avatarcorner.com/&hl=nl&lr=&start=10&sa=N

and


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6th February 2006   20:47:40   www.avatarcorner.com/avatars-animals-10.htm?sessionid=d08154e1d854a41ef3c28a3e3bd9ebfb
www.avatarcorner.com/
6th February 2006   20:47:42   www.avatarcorner.com/
avatar.startkabel.nl/k/avatar/index.php?nr=1
6th February 2006   20:47:46   www.avatarcorner.com/avatars-arts-77.htm
www.avatarcorner.com/
6th February 2006   20:47:55   www.avatarcorner.com/avatar-dali-2678.htm
www.avatarcorner.com/avatars-arts-77.htm
6th February 2006   20:48:05   www.avatarcorner.com/avatars-arts-77.htm
www.avatarcorner.com/

[djith]

anyone an idea ??