PHP CMS and SEO problems

Best way to SEO php cms site built with XOOPS

[houseofstrauss]

I have recently begun building a site in XOOPS (like phpnuke etc) Only to find that there is very little opportunity for SEO. I have seen xqasp and was hoping there was something similar for php scripts. I have also seen the apache rewrite engine etc. but this looks quite a complex set-up.

Can anyone define a standard route for optimising CMS in PHP? Bright Planet's survey reckons about 5 billion pages are lost behind query strings and passwords. Surely there is an open market here just waiting to be filled!

Any thoughts and comments much appreciated.

[coopster]

Yes, Apache has a special rewrite module that allows you to translate URL's containing query strings into URL addresses that search engine spiders can follow.

In my own humble opinion, if you are going to be building dynamic sites using the Apache HTTP server and require good SEO, the Apache mod_rewrite [httpd.apache.org] module is a feature in which you are going to want to become quite familiar and comfortable. Yes, at first [httpd.apache.org] it can be a bit intimidating but there is plenty of help [webmasterworld.com] out there as well. Best of luck, houseofstrauss!

[houseofstrauss]

Thanks coopster especially for the links and guidance.

Richard

[lorax]

coopster is right with regards to Apache's mod-rewrite directive.

The htaccess file is a great way to get control over the URL and get your dynamic pages indexed without a worry. The hardest part is learning REGEX!

[houseofstrauss]

Tell me aBout it! I am surprised no-one has offered a service or software package to assist achieving this. Perhaps its too specific. I frequent the XOOPS forums as Im Bulding a site with their cms, and there seems to Be little interest in persuing SEO. The core shell does not even provide for individual page meta tagging, let alone producing SE friendly urls. Another thought I had is to gat access to Googls cache of my site and use that as an indexaBle suBstitute for other SEs There's usually some clever alternative if you look hard enough. ANY IDEAS if this might work?

Richard