getting forums spidered

[on way to fame]

Hi,
i recently launched my forums (phpbb) at [snip], although my site has been indexed by google, my forum has not been indexed...i dont have much content on the site accept a temporary homepage, as my main site is still under construction and would be launched in about 30 days.
Now i wanted to know what basic measures should i take to get my forum pages spidered..( i cant afford professional SEO as i have already exceeded my budget trying to get most of the main features of the main site up, although at later stages i may do it)..i am not into programming at all...all though i can make little changes.
any recommendations would be welcomed.

[edited by: pageoneresults at 1:44 pm (utc) on July 8, 2004]
[edit reason] Removed URI Reference - Please Refer to TOS [/edit]

[trillianjedi]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld OnWayToFame!

You should read the WW TOS [webmasterworld.com]. You have a little editing to do on your various posts to bring them into line (specifically remove your domain name).

If you're using phpBB (that's all we really need to know) make sure you're using cookies and not session ID's and use mod_rewrite to make it easier for the spiders to work their way through your forums.

TJ

[rogerd]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld, OnWayToFame... maybe you are on your way to fortune, too!

TJ's comment about avoiding session IDs is a good one. If you visit phpBB's own support forum, there is quite a bit of discussion about this and related topics. You can probably find a hack there that will do what you want. There's a bit of evidence that Google is starting to figure out SessionIDs, but the basic problem is that they make end up creating many unique URLs for the same page. Hence, they confuse search engines.

Getting good linkage to your site/forum will also help spidering frequency and depth, but of course you have to address the technical issues too.

[on way to fame]

hi, thanks for all your really helpful replies.

i am sorry for the TOS thing, i will keep in that in mind from now on.

as per applying the mods, actually i would be integrating the phpbb into my new site, so lots of changes would be made, like the registration page, the profile page and all would be totally different, there would be a points system incorporated in the boards, as in a user gets 1 point for every post he makes..so basically i think it would be safer to go for mods once the new system is up....do you think i should give any specific instructions to the developer to keep in mind...so that i dont have problems later with the forums in general?

[rogerd]

give any specific instructions to the developer

One suggestion: Change as little of the original code as possible, and fully document all changes so that you can make future upgrades as simple as possible. Undoubtedly, new versions of the software will come out (in addition to emergency security updates and the like), and you want to be able to implement these without breaking your site or spending days sorting through code.