Well as some of you may be aware I have been writting a few SEO tips and ticks for modules. I am going to use Ben Brown, Fernando Santos & Tobias Liegl - Content module in this example but it works for all modules.
This is about URL Optimization with the use of a .htaccess file.
First Up in this example you can see it at work at a site I have been putting together for SEO'ing XOOPS (
http://www.seo-solutions.co.in). This ensures that we have an environment for discussing and maintaining SEO techniques for XOOPS and Websites in general. There are also a few free tools there for you to use.
Ok first up lets have a look at an example .htaccess file
Quote:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^([a-zA-Z0-9\ \'\_\-]+)$ ../modules/freetools/?menu=$1 [L,NC,QSA]
This htaccess file will rewite the URL when a file or path in the /public_html/freetools path doesn't exist ie.
http://www.seo-solutions.co.in/freetools/Position_CheckerYou have to alter the index.php file to support a $_GET['menu'] variable which in my code looks like from line 39 to 46 (Orignally on line 39):
$menu = isset($HTTP_GET_VARS['menu']) ? $HTTP_GET_VARS['menu'] : '';
if (strlen($menu)>0){
$result = $xoopsDB->queryF("SELECT storyid FROM ".$xoopsDB->prefix(_FTS_freetools_PREFIX)." WHERE title LIKE '$menu'");
$rt = $xoopsDB->fetchArray($result);
$id = $rt['storyid'];
} else {
$id = isset($HTTP_GET_VARS['id']) ? intval($HTTP_GET_VARS['id']) : 0;
}
orgianlly this code was only one line which was
$id = isset($HTTP_GET_VARS['id']) ? intval($HTTP_GET_VARS['id']) : 0;Now what this is doing is using the content's title field to look up the ID, the underscore '_' in MySQL support a wild card for 1 character which means that it will with a Like command look up the ID and pass it to the remaining code.
This will then reload the page on the example URL i have shown you without the page even being in that folder. There is a couple of limitations in XOOPS 2.0 and 2.2 that is when you can't rewrite the URL in the mainmenu easily... I am looking into this more, the only problem with this is you get 2 URL in the search index for 1 page.. bit like spam isn't it.
This is all to it, if you want to hire me to optimize your xoops, I am available on ad hoc arrangements - $85AUD p/h. btw you may need this function for your sitemap mentioned in
SEO Tip #3 it is called SEF it changes a title to a URL consistant with a MySQL injection. It removes all the funny characters that can affect a mod rewrite.
function sef($datab)
{
$replacement_chars = array(",",""","","-",":","\","'"," ",".","%","@","#","!","&","/");
$return_data = (str_replace($replacement_chars,"_",$datab));
#print $return_data . "
";
return($return_data);
}
