How to make the URLs of our Social Network SEO Friendly

[Learning2Ning]

I want to know if this is possible using Ning....as to having Forum Titles and Blog Post Titles showing in the URLs instead of the confusing urls now..

[Phil McCluskey]

Hi Learning2Ning,

We have a project to improve the urls in the social network in the works. It will probably arrive in the release after next. Generally speaking, if you wanted to tackle this yourself in the interim you would need to do a query to locate the object you want to display based on its title rather than load it via its id, and you may need to modify your network's url mappings accordingly.

Thanks,
Phil

[Hue And Cry]

Hmm.... a very technical answer.

>> do a query to locate the object you want to display based on its title rather than load it via its id, and you may need to modify your network's url mappings accordingly.>>

Could you 1) explain how to do that, and 2) give us a sense when the 'release after next' will be?

best, pk

[Phil McCluskey]

Hi pk,

Making modifications to the way urls work in the network is quite technical, and it probably shouldn't be tackled unless you are an experienced php developer, since you will end up making some fundamental changes to your network code. The developer network has additional information on how to use the Ning content store (check the quick links in the right hand column), but generally speaking rather than loading an object with its id, using XN_Content::load(), you would need to do a query for the item using XN_Query and filter the query based on a new attribute you created which represented the part of the url slug which was specific to the object. When a new object is created you would need to create the new slug attribute, based on the title or something else, and likewise, you would need to make modifications where the url links for objects were being created. The url mappings can be found on the main editing page for your network code.

The next major release should be out in a couple of weeks, and one that follows will likely be 4 weeks or so after that.

Thanks,
Phil

[Tony]

So, does anyone know if this has this happened yet? I've been cruising around Ning trying to evaluate it as a viable social networking platform for my company, and this is something we consider very important. However, I'm not seeing it anywhere besides the Ning blog. Am I missing something? Thanks!

[Mike Nicholson]

Hello Tony!

This is still on our roadmap but we have not yet implemented it. This is a feature that can be added with access to your source code, though.

Cheers!
Mike

[The Godfather]

This was something Media Now from WL offered...I hope it's included in the new media now offered by ning in the future. It made all of us novices, somewhat savy at network design.

[Eric Shannon]

I am waiting anxiously for this - we have the developers to hack the code, but I don't want to do it. As soon as it is offered, I will create more networks and start phasing out drupal installations.

[Bashar]

I pretty much thank all NING team for the hard work and continuous updates. But for me, what can be more important than letting people find my content? So SEO Friendly URLs is a top priority to me.

[Evan]

Hi Bashar!

We're planning on making some SEO improvements in upcoming releases. We're aiming for the end of October or early November.

Cheers,
Evan

[Eric Shannon]

are SEO Friendly URLs imminent?

-- Eric

[Evan]

Hi Eric!

Nope, they're not imminent. They're already implemented on your network :)

Any new content created on your network — forum posts, videos, etc — will have a short URL. Check it out!

Cheers,
Evan

[Eric Shannon]

fantastic Evan!! I am truly a fan:)

Now, I am a little embarrassed that I didn't notice this after making so much noise about needing it. When did you release this? how did I miss the news? Just checked your announcements forum and I don't see it there... what gives?

Thank you!
Eric