Crawling Forums and Blogs with Keyword Research

Crawling blogs and forums such as SMF, VBulletin etc. can sometimes take a long time. However, proper configuration of our keyword research tool can speedup website scans.

General Keyword Research Tips for Crawling Forums and Blogs

Forums and blogs are no different from other websites. Rarely will you ever need to configure keyword research in a special way. However, here is a list of common topics for large and/or database websites:

How some website platforms cause crawling problems.
Use resume scan support in our keyword research tool.
- Notice that you can improve resume by disabling:
  - Older versions:
    - Scan website | Crawler options | Apply "webmaster" and "output" filters after website scan stops
  - Newer versions:
    - Scan website | Output filters | After website scan stops: Remove URLs excluded
    - Scan website | Webmaster filters | After website scan stops: Remove URLs with noindex/disallow
About crawling and finding links in websites.
Adjusting server load and website crawl speed.
Including content otherwise only available for subscribers using password protected pages.
Use output filters to exclude certain URLs from being included website scan output.
Use analysis filters to prevent certain URLs in being crawled / analyzed.

Keyword Research Example Settings for Popular Forums and Blogs

The following settings are for demonstration purposes. Most likely you will never need to configure these options. Should you need to configure settings, take time to investigate above links and what you need. Then possibly look at underneath for inspiration. Remember, few blogs and forums are exactly the same.

Note: There may already be Quick presets... available in Scan website that match your website platform and crawl needs.

Note: If in doubt what Login path and Post form data corresponds to see the help page about password protected pages and login.

List of examples:

phpbb
- Configure login
  - Login path : http://forum.example.com/login.php
  - Post form data : username=yourusername&password=yourpassword&redirect=index.php?&login=Log in
- Configure crawler/analysis and output/list exclude filters
  - Necessary
    - :login.php?logout
  - Recommended
    - :profile.php
    - :login.php
    - :newreply.php
    - :printthread.php
    - :sendmessage.php
    - :search.php
    - :threadrate.php
vBulletin
- Configure login
  - Login path : http://forum.example.com/login.php?do=login
  - Post form data : vb_login_username=yourusername&vb_login_password=yourpassword&cookieuser=1&s=&do=login&vb_login_md5password=&vb_login_md5password_utf=
- Configure crawler/analysis and output/list exclude filters
  - Necessary
    - :login.php?logout
  - Recommended
    - :profile.php
    - :login.php
WordPress
- Configure login
  - Login path : http://blog.example.com/wp-login.php
  - Post form data : log=yourusername&pwd=yourpassword&rememberme=forever&wp-submit=Log+ind&redirect_to=wp-admin%2F&testcookie=1
- Configure crawler/analysis and output/list exclude filters
  - Necessary
    - :wp-admin/
    - :wp-login.php?action=logout
  - Recommended
    - :wp-login.php
  - Note
    - If you do not exclude "admin" section using filters, try avoid edit, post, delete, trash, logout and related link types.

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Complete PPC and SEO keywords toolset. Position check including history, analyze competition, analyze keyword density and content, organize and combine keyword lists and much more.

This help page is maintained by Thomas Schulz

As one of the lead developers, his hands have touched most of the code in the software from Microsys. If you email any questions, chances are that he will be the one answering.