[Forum] NO formatting on forum pages in google! big problem!

[addamroy]

I'd really like to get some help on this matter...

If you go to google and view the 'cached' version of 99% of the pages on the vbulletin forum, there is NO FORMATTING! It's as if there is no referencable css file! (the issue does not seem to exist for the forum homepage)

This thread explains it in much more detail and this problem is a serious one for SEO! http://www.vbseo.com/f2/google-cache-10643/

Any idea if this issue will be corrected by the vbulletin team?? It's quite an obnoxious problem in the coding of vbulletin forums.

[Andy]

The Google cached results from my forum show properly.

Does this problem only happen for your forum? Do you have an example.

[addamroy]

I guess it could be just mine but I did a google search for the issue and I don't seem to be the only one who's encountered this issue.

[Andy]

Do you have the css as files or in the database?

[addamroy]

I don't know, how do I check?

[Andy]

I'm sure it's in the database as that's more common and the default.

Do you have any modified templates or plugins?

[Zachery]

Its not worth the time and effort to care about what google cached/caches at some point. It'll regenerate the cache eventually.

[addamroy]

Its not worth the time and effort to care about what google cached/caches at some point. It'll regenerate the cache eventually.

Who are you to say it's not worth the time or effort? I do SEO for a living.

This will significantly harm rankings in the search engines. Obviously if Google thinks that there's no formatting on the page it's crawling then it thinks that's what users are seeing also, resulting in a negative impact for search rankings!

I'm offended by that remark you just made, it came across as quite rude to me.

It'll regenerate the cache at some ponit? This IS THE REGENERATED CACHE, and this is what the cache will look like indefinitely until this issue is fixed, which is why I posted this thread.

[Zachery]

The CSS, is not important to google. Google doesn't see your site as you see it in your browser. Google sees the text, without the javascript, and ignores most of the html markup.If the page has good content in semantic html, regardless of all of the fancy css, it would be considered good.

Now, I checked your site, and the google cache vresion of it has css, so it looks fine on our end. Can you give us an example of where its "broken"?

[addamroy]

I sent you a PM zach with multiple links to show you.

And yes, CSS does matter to Google, if you were a search engine, would you rather show your users formatted webpages, or non-formatted web pages? Easy answer.

[Wayne Luke]

The Google Cache has one purpose. It is to allow people a way to view a site that is offline for some reason.

How does that affect ranking? Looking at the source code for a cached page, it has the exact same code as the uncached page. Google simply isn't caching the external CSS that goes along with the page. If they are, then their header at the top is interfering with the rendering of the page. Your ranking shouldn't be affected and including the CSS within the page goes against Google's decree that pages should load faster and be as light as possible. It also prevents the end-user on your site from caching the CSS to make their browsing experience more enjoyable. There has to be a balance to bowing down to search engines and providing an experience to people that is usable.

If you really feel that this is a very major issue, then you should do one of three things... 1) Get Google to cache included CSS. 2) Write custom code to insert the CSS inline and prevent browser caching of thousands of bytes of code or 3) Enter it into the Issue Tracker so the developers can see if there is a way to strike a better balance.

[Andy]

Hi addamroy,

I was wondering how you have this set on your forum:

Admin CP -> Settings -> Options -> Search Engine Friendly Archive -> Forum Archive Enabled

[addamroy]

The Google Cache has one purpose. It is to allow people a way to view a site that is offline for some reason.

How does that affect ranking? Looking at the source code for a cached page, it has the exact same code as the uncached page. Google simply isn't caching the external CSS that goes along with the page. If they are, then their header at the top is interfering with the rendering of the page. Your ranking shouldn't be affected and including the CSS within the page goes against Google's decree that pages should load faster and be as light as possible. It also prevents the end-user on your site from caching the CSS to make their browsing experience more enjoyable. There has to be a balance to bowing down to search engines and providing an experience to people that is usable.

If you really feel that this is a very major issue, then you should do one of three things... 1) Get Google to cache included CSS. 2) Write custom code to insert the CSS inline and prevent browser caching of thousands of bytes of code or 3) Enter it into the Issue Tracker so the developers can see if there is a way to strike a better balance.

It affects ranking because the site itself is of apparent lower quality than other sites. Google's cache may serve that ONE purpose you mentioned for users, but the Google cache is ALSO a signal of how Google sees and interprets your website. You definitely do not want your website to appear to Google as being low quality for users. Notice how 99.9% of Google's cached pages on the web ARE formatted? So yes, it will effect rankings.

Put up 2 pages, one WITH formatting, and one WITHOUT formatting, and see which one ranks better. If Google can't interpret the formatting of a webpage for whatever reason, there WILL be an impact from that.

Also, I did submit a bug report to the tracker already.

[addamroy]

Hi addamroy,

I was wondering how you have this set on your forum:

Admin CP -> Settings -> Options -> Search Engine Friendly Archive -> Forum Archive Enabled

Forum Archive Enabled: YES

Display Simple View of Threads: YES

Forum Archive Threads Per Page: 250

Forum Archive Posts Per Page: 250

[Zachery]

How is the site lower qauilitty if the css isn't cached on a cached page?