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Moving from IPB to vBulletin - having some SEO "Friendly URL" issues

This is a discussion on Moving from IPB to vBulletin - having some SEO "Friendly URL" issues within the General Discussion forums, part of the vBulletin SEO Discussion category; Ok, I'm not sure if this is the correct place to post this question, so my apologies in advance if ...

  1. #1
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    Moving from IPB to vBulletin - having some SEO "Friendly URL" issues

    Ok, I'm not sure if this is the correct place to post this question, so my apologies in advance if it's not in the right place. I am in the process of moving from IPB software using "Kim's FURL SEO URLs" mod to vBulletin. I was able to use the 404 script in ImpEx to redirect the non-SEO'd URLs from IPB to my new vbulletin installation, but I can't figure out how to reverse what the FURL hack is doing. Can anyone take a look at my htaccess and tell me how to reverse it? So basically I want to do this:

    Friendly URL --> IPB Standard URL (index.php?...) --> vBulletin URLs

    In the next week or so I'm going to add vBSEO (use it on one of my other sites and love it), but I want to conquer this step first:

    Code:
    # Gallery
    RewriteRule ^gallery(.*)$      index.php?act=module&module=gallery$1
    RewriteRule ^(.*)-g([0-9]*)\.html(.*)$    index.php?act=module&module=gallery&cmd=sc&cat=$2$3
    RewriteRule ^(.*)-a([0-9]*)\.html(.*)$    index.php?act=module&module=gallery&cmd=si&img=$2$3
    # DO THE TOPIC URLS
    RewriteRule ^(.*)-t([0-9][0-9]*)-s([0-9][0-9]*)\.html(.*)$ index.php?showtopic=$2&st=$3
    RewriteRule ^(.*)-t([0-9][0-9]*)\.html(.*)$ index.php?showtopic=$2$3
    # DO THE FORUM URLS
    RewriteRule ^(.*)-new-topic-f([0-9]*)\.html(.*)$ index.php?act=Post&CODE=00&f=$2$3
    RewriteRule ^(.*)-new-poll-f([0-9]*)\.html(.*)$ index.php?act=Post&CODE=10&f=$2$3
    RewriteRule ^(.*)-f([0-9][0-9]*)\.html(.*)$ index.php?showforum=$2$3
    # DO EMAIL AND PM URLS
    RewriteRule ^(.*)-a-private-message-m([0-9]*)\.html(.*)$ index.php?act=Msg&CODE=4&MID=$2$3
    RewriteRule ^(.*)-an-email-m([0-9]*)\.html(.*)$ index.php?act=Mail&CODE=00&MID=$2$3
    # DO THE PROFILE URLS
    RewriteRule ^(.*)-m([0-9]*)\.html(.*)$ index.php?showuser=$2$3
    # Login/Logout
    RewriteRule ^logout\.html(.*)$ index.php?act=Login&CODE=03$1
    RewriteRule ^login\.html(.*)$ index.php?act=Login&CODE=00$1
    RewriteRule ^register\.html(.*)$ index.php?act=Reg&CODE=00$1 
    # STATS AND LEGENDS
    RewriteRule ^the-moderating-team\.html(.*)$ index.php?act=Stats&CODE=leaders$1
    RewriteRule ^todays-top-10-posters\.html(.*)$ index.php?act=Stats$1
    # MEMBERS LIST
    RewriteRule ^member-list\.html(.*)$ index.php?act=Members$1
    # ONLINE LIST
    RewriteRule ^online-list\.html(.*)$ index.php?act=Online$1
    # HELP
    RewriteRule ^(.*)-h([0-9]*)\.html(.*)$ index.php?act=help&CODE=01&HID=$2$3
    RewriteRule ^(.*)help\.html(.*)$ index.php?act=Help$2
    # USER CP
    RewriteRule ^my-controls\.html(.*)$ index.php?act=UserCP&CODE=00$1
    # MESSENGER
    RewriteRule ^compose-new-message\.html(.*)$ index.php?act=Msg&CODE=04$1
    RewriteRule ^inbox\.html(.*)$ index.php?act=Msg&CODE=01&VID=in$1
    RewriteRule ^sent-items\.html(.*)$ index.php?act=Msg&CODE=01&VID=sent$1
    RewriteRule ^saved-pms\.html(.*)$ index.php?act=Msg&CODE=20$1
    RewriteRule ^empty-pm-folders\.html(.*)$ index.php?act=Msg&CODE=delete$1
    RewriteRule ^edit-storage-folders\.html(.*)$ index.php?act=Msg&CODE=07$1
    RewriteRule ^pm-buddies\.html(.*)$ index.php?act=Msg&CODE=02$1
    RewriteRule ^archive-messages\.html(.*)$ index.php?act=Msg&CODE=14$1
    RewriteRule ^message-tracker\.html(.*)$ index.php?act=Msg&CODE=30$1
    RewriteRule ^new-messages\.html(.*)$ index.php?act=Msg&CODE=01$1
    # SUBSCRIPTIONS
    RewriteRule ^view-topic-subscriptions\.html(.*)$ index.php?act=UserCP&CODE=26$1
    RewriteRule ^view-forum-subscriptions\.html(.*)$ index.php?act=UserCP&CODE=50$1
    # PERSONAL PROFILE
    RewriteRule ^edit-profile-info\.html(.*)$ index.php?act=UserCP&CODE=01$1
    RewriteRule ^edit-signature\.html(.*)$ index.php?act=UserCP&CODE=22$1
    RewriteRule ^edit-avatar-settings\.html(.*)$ index.php?act=UserCP&CODE=24$1
    RewriteRule ^change-personal-photo\.html(.*)$ index.php?act=UserCP&CODE=photo$1
    # OPTIONS
    RewriteRule ^manage-your-attachments\.html(.*)$ index.php?act=UserCP&CODE=attach$1
    RewriteRule ^manage-ignored-users\.html(.*)$ index.php?act=UserCP&CODE=ignore$1
    RewriteRule ^email-settings\.html(.*)$ index.php?act=UserCP&CODE=02$1
    RewriteRule ^board-settings\.html(.*)$ index.php?act=UserCP&CODE=04$1
    RewriteRule ^change-email-address\.html(.*)$ index.php?act=UserCP&CODE=08$1
    RewriteRule ^change-password\.html(.*)$ index.php?act=UserCP&CODE=28$1
    # MODERATOR TOOLS
    RewriteRule ^ip-tool\.html(.*)$ index.php?act=UserCP&CODE=iptool$1
    RewriteRule ^member-tool\.html(.*)$ index.php?act=UserCP&CODE=memtool$1
    RewriteRule ^manage-anoucements\.html(.*)$ index.php?act=UserCP&CODE=announce_start$1
    # GET NEW POSTS
    RewriteRule ^get-new-posts\.html(.*)$ index.php?act=Search&CODE=getnew$1
    RewriteRule ^search\.html(.*)$ index.php?act=Search
    # DO THE FORUM INDEX
    RewriteRule ^forums\.html(.*)$ index.php?act=idx$3
    RewriteRule ^contact(.*)$ index.php?autocom=contact$1

  2. #2
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    it's not going to happen.

    if you ever deleted 1 post, 1 member, or 1 thread, the new vb id's won't match the old ipb id's. there's no real way to redirect it.

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by briansol View Post
    it's not going to happen.

    if you ever deleted 1 post, 1 member, or 1 thread, the new vb id's won't match the old ipb id's. there's no real way to redirect it.
    Ok, I'm sorry, I should have been more clear in my post.

    I'm already successfully redirecting all of my IPB posts/threads to the new vbulletin threads using the Impex 404.php script which uses the importids to match the IPB thread # to the VB thread #. That part of the project is done.

    Now I just need to reverse one the Friendly URLs that I had setup on IPB. Basically I just need to know how to swap this code:

    Code:
    # DO THE TOPIC URLS
    RewriteRule ^(.*)-t([0-9][0-9]*)-s([0-9][0-9]*)\.html(.*)$ index.php?showtopic=$2&st=$3
    I tried just flipping it around but I think my syntax is wrong:

    Code:
    # DO THE TOPIC URLS
    RewriteRule ^index.php?showtopic=$2&st=$3 (.*)-t([0-9][0-9]*)-s([0-9][0-9]*)\.html(.*)$

  4. #4
    vBSEO Staff Array Oleg Ignatiuk's Avatar
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    What is an example URL that you want to redirect (and what is corresponding target URL)?
    Oleg Ignatiuk / Crawlability Inc.
    Security bulletin - Patch Level for all supported versions released

    Unveiling the NEW vBSEO Sitemap Generator 3.0. - available NOW for vBSEO Customers!


  5. #5
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    I'm not an expert on this, but i think $2 and $3 var's aren't set yet, and that's the problem.

    I think you need to do something like

    Code:
    RewriteRule ^index.php?showtopic=([0-9][0-9]*)&st=([0-9][0-9]*)\.html(.*) (.*)-t$2-s$3$
    i doubt that works, but that's the general idea on it.

  6. #6
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    Hi everyone - thank you for the responses so far, they have been very helpful. I'm actually now facing another problem: I had my old IPB forum under the root directory, but I now have the vbulletin forum under /forums. No big deal there. The problem comes in now that I have Drupal installed in the root directory. As soon as I installed Drupal, all of my re-directs from my old threads to my new threads stopped working because Drupal uses the same index.php program file name. So now if you go to one of my old threads under IPB at domain.com/index.php?showtopic=29738 it just shows the default Drupal home page like you were visiting domain.com/index.php. I think this is killing me in Google because all of these similar URLs are showing up in a site:domain.com search way before the new vbulletin urls.

    Here is the code for Drupal's friendly pages. Is there a way to do it so that the "index.php?showtopic=123456" pages redirect to the new forums?

    Code:
      # Rewrite current-style URLs of the form 'index.php?q=x'.
      RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
      RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
      RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?q=$1 [L,QSA]

  7. #7
    vBSEO Staff Array Oleg Ignatiuk's Avatar
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    Make sure that your Drupal rewrite rules are inserted AFTER redirect rules in .htaccess.
    Oleg Ignatiuk / Crawlability Inc.
    Security bulletin - Patch Level for all supported versions released

    Unveiling the NEW vBSEO Sitemap Generator 3.0. - available NOW for vBSEO Customers!


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