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Posted

Hi, I recently installed Invision Power Board using cPanel and I set it to install in the /forums directory.

 

I set my main index.html so that when people go to www.****, it would automatically redirect to www.****/forums. Actually I had to rename the index file to index.php because it was a PHP script that redirects to the /forums directory. I forgot the code but it's something like "Set Location Bar".

 

The redirection works fine, however...

 

I heard there is a way to redirect using .htaccess. Is it better if I use .htaccess?

 

I want to submit my site to the search engines but I haven't done so yet because I don't know if I should add the meta tags to index.php, or /forums/index.php, or both. What should I do?

Posted

dsdemmin is probably the one that you want to reply to this.

 

But from what I've read... .htaccess is the better of the two choices.

 

If I remember correctly, I think that you want to do a "301" redirect.

 

I do know that search engines do NOT like meta tag refresh and other redirects since it often indicates that a "doorway page" is being used to try to spam and trick the search engines.

Posted

ok, so what I'll do is remove the main "index.php" redirect and instead use .htaccess to redirect "mysite.com" to "mysite.com/forums/index.php". Then i'll insert the meta tags in the "mysite.com/forums/index.php" page and this should be search engine safe.

 

If I am incorrect, please correct me.

 

Also, if anyone knows the .htaccess code for redirection, please post it here (I assume dsdemmin knows).

 

Thanks

Posted

Thanks for the code Andy! ;)

 

So now, if I insert the meta tags into "mysite.com/forums/index.php" and sumbit it to the search engines as "mysite.com", it would still be acceptable to the search engines, correct?

Posted

I'm not certain what your aim is here, but yes, if the meta tags and everything are set up correctly in "mysite.com/forums/index.php" and you submit it to the search engines then they will be acceptable.

 

Why are you wanting to redirect? Does your site only have a forum on it? and hence you want all visitors to go straight there?

 

I think doing it this way the search engines will find it happily and index it, but when you look on the search engine it will appear as "www.mysite.com/forums/index.php"

 

You could set up a subdomain as "forums.mysite.com" and then the index would be found automatically...

 

Andy

Posted

Well, I spent hours setting up the board preferences, forums, skins, mods and much more. Is there a way to transfer it to the main directory while not losing all those settings? If not, I'll just wait for the next version to come along.

Posted

Having a quick play with Cpanel I agree, it doesn't seem possible from there to install the forum into your root directory.

 

The methods I see at the moment are;

 

(1) install manually into your root directory.

(2) redirect and accccept that the link in serch engines will be

"www.mysite.com/forums/index.php" - I'll let our SEO guru tell us if there are any drawbacks with that , although I can't think of any.

(3) create a front page introduction, which you will be able to optimise for search engines much more easily and better, which then links into your forums directory.

(4) create a subdomain "forum.****" which will in reality be your main domain!!!

 

If being high in a search engine is important to you, I would personally tend to go for (3) because I would expect you to be able to get a much higher ranking in a search engine that way.

 

Andy

Posted
Well, I spent hours setting up the board preferences, forums, skins, mods and much more. Is there a way to transfer it to the main directory while not losing all those settings? If not, I'll just wait for the next version to come along.

 

Yes, you should be able to transfer most of the settings without to much trouble.

Posted

I'm not much of an FTP expert but I do know the basics.

 

Would it be possible to go on my FTP program, download all of my /forum directory to my computer, delete the /forum directory from cPanel, then upload the /forum directory from my computer to my site's root directory?

 

If so, which FTP program does this best?

 

PS. If this won't work, I'll go for option #3 cause it sounds good to me. ;)

Posted

Yes, you should be able to do that.

 

I would use the ftp to copy your exsisting forum files onto your hard diak first as a backup though - that way you have the data to (1) update the modifications you have already made into the new forum and (2) put back on the server if everything goes wrong :P

 

Andy

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