3 ms·
Ask HN: How Google Knows That A Site is Forum?
I want to create a forum for my community. (Actually, I own one). I have customized Wordpress CMS to act as forum. I had tried other options like phpBB & then choose Wordpress because of its simplicity and SEO.
But, Google has not indexed my site as a forum. I mean to say it is not appearing like a forum appears in search results. (You must have noticed special formatting for forums in SERP) – it appears as a website/blog.
I want to know that how google detects that a website is forum. I have already emulated the wordpress to look like a forum – like threads etc.
do I need to use some other trick??
Any help will b much appreciated!
1> the wordpress comment metadata section includes date & time -and also users' names.
2> I have already change "comment" to "reply"
3> Using Forum in the forum's title (OK blog's title) and the domain name.
4> removed generator tag from the head section.
- rokhayakebe 16y agoMaybe they look at the metatags to find what software you are using. If you are using WP they probably will categorize it as a blog.
- mcbc 16y agoI had already removed the generator meta tag from the head section. After waiting for next few months, I tweaked it again, and changed to phpBB. :(
- byoung2 16y agoI can't say for sure what Google is using to parse results and identify them as a forum, but if you look at most forums, you'll find that the link structure looks like this: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta-skymiles/1096718-various-spoke-cities-double-mqm-up-50-000-bonus-miles-per-round-trip.html http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta-skymiles/1096718-variou... Popular forum software will usually put a meta generator tag as well. In this case it is <meta name="generator" content="vBulletin 3.7.6" /> And there is usually a clear hierarchy in the page and source for forum, threads, posts, and replies whereas a regular site might just have h1, h2, and p tags, and a blog might have blog, posts, comments, and replies. There is likely no sure-fire way to get your site indexed a certain way, these steps are probably a good step. If you're looking for a solid forum platform with ease of use and good SEO, look at vBulletin (full disclosure, I work for vBulletin)