SEO

I have Archive Options: set to Rewrite vB's Archive. Isn't that supposed to mean that the old archive threads will NOT be redirected to the new archive (if you change the rewrite archive root)? In my case, old threads like forum/archive/index.php/t-333.html are redirected to forum/sitemap/t-333.html. How can I disable those redirects? My fear is that Google will consider this duplicate content, although of course the archive threads are not directly linked from within the website.

vBSEO 2.1, vB 3.5.0

This is a feature enabled inside vBulletin. Go to vBulletin Options and then access the Search Engine Friendly Archive area. And edit the appropiate options from their to link to the actual thread instead.

I'm asking how can I disable the old, original vBulletin archive at archive/index.php/. I don't want any of the pages in there to work. I would just like to have the one at the new directory that I've set up through vBSEO - /sitemap/.

Hmmm, do you have any modifications installed in the Archive?
Also do you think you could link us to your forums?

I don't want to post a URL here, so I'm sending you a PM.

Hello PageUp,

'Rewrite vB's Archive' means the URLs in these pages will be rewritten to the actual threads. Thus, yes, they will physically point to your core threads. However, they are not 301 redirected meaning that if someone gets to the original archive thread via previous links, bookmarks, etc., they won't be redirected to the core thread. I suggest having both, Rewrite + 301 Redirect Archive Pages option activated.

They are redirected because you have selected to have your archives in '/sitemap/' now. You can, however have your sitemap reside in it's original location '/archive/index.php/'. The redirect is used to prevent duplicate content issues and let spiders (and users) know where to find it.

As long as the previous content is 301 redirected, it shouldn't be considered duplicate content. 301 redirects are google "safe" way of moving content (see http://www.google.com/intl/en/webmasters/3.html)

I hope this helps =)

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Juan Muriente / Crawlability Inc.
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I have now activated the option to Rewrite + 301 Redirect Archive Pages so the old archive URLs redirect to the core threads. That seems OK.

Thanks for the explanation, Juan.