phpBB

phpBB google and adsense

[PeteM]

In an attempt to improve my Google ranking I thought I'd make it easier for Google to spider the forum on my site.

Problem 1)
So I applied the mod to allow Google to spider my forum. Submitted the URL to Google then was pleasantly surprised to see that he'd visited for a deepish crawl a day or so later. However, when I checked the Google index a few days later I found that Google got fed up after crawling (and caching) about 170 member profiles. It didn't progress to spidering the interesting content (i.e. the actual messages). I have now updated my robots.txt to prevent Google from accessing the member profiles. So my questions are:
a) How can I get rid of the cached member pages? Do I have to submit each page to the google delete screen?
b) Will this deter Google from revisiting?
c) Is it safe to re-submit the URL to encourage Google to revisit and crawl some proper content?

Problem 2)
I'm running Adsense on the bottom of some of my pages. Unfortunately the targetting is largely based on phpBB instead of boats! Great for phpBB but not too good for my CPC rate! Is it the "Powered by phpBB" that's causing the problem? What's the best way to prevent this?

Thanks, Pete

[rogerd]

Google will probably figure out your robots.txt on its own, and unless you are concerned about privacy issues I wouldn't bother with the page removal process. Some good links to your forum will speed up the spidering process.

Tool signatures are bad things. Do the page titles also mention phpBB? That could be a bigger factor than the "powered by" footer. I'd try to strip out what you can. I don't know what phpBB's licensing terms are, but I'd read 'em and then change your code.

<added>Welcome to WebmasterWorld, PeteM!</added>

[too much information]

maybe instead of taking out the phpBB text, use JavaScript to encode that portion of the footer. Then the link is still there, the text is still there and AdSense is not confused by the text anymore.

In a recent test of my AdSense placement I found that the ads are influenced more by what appears just below the code than by what the overall page contains. (However this may just be the way I write my content so I am making no claims to being able to influence AdSense.)

[Telco_Guy]

I am using phpBB for a site and have adsense and things are working fine with the proper ads showing up for my site topic.

What mod did you install to make Googlebot happy? Mod Rewrite?

[ScottM]

..use JavaScript to encode that portion of the footer.

Works for me. Then, remove the memberlist link from your overall_header and put It in javascript at the bottom, also.

[PeteM]

Telco_Guy,

The mod is a 2 line change to the sessions.php file. Go to the phpBB website and search for Google.

Looking again at the Adsense problem, it's only the Index page where I'm getting the phpBB and PSA ads. The actual topic pages seem to be well targeted.

Think I might try and move the Adsense code around a little.