Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

What good is a great community if no one can find it? You have to have great SEO so your network shows up near the top of searches performed in Google, Yahoo! & MSN. Pretty URLs, tag clouds, and meta tags, although not used by many any more, are important.

Dolphin - Dolphin has pretty URLs for much of its content. The major beef with Dolphin is its inconsistency in naming URLs and there is no flexibility in how the URLs are named. Some files end in .php while others do not have an extension at all. Keywords and description are all set globally. A tag cloud is available to help with keyword density.
phpFox - phpFox is pretty good with naming its URLs in a very consistent manner. Meta tags and descriptions are set globally with no control over each page's tags. Like Dolphin, a tag cloud can be displayed to increase keyword density.
Joomla - SEO in Joomla is fantastic. There was one minor change to the core code which made the SEO even better. The sh404sef component makes managing SEO in Joomla a snap. You have control over how each and every article is tagged. You can also control the extension used on the URLs or choose to not display an extension. A tag cloud module is available to help with SEO as well.
Drupal - The SEO modules in Drupal make managing SEO in Drupal almost as flexible as Joomla and sh404sef. Actually, Drupal is as flexible, maybe even more flexible with the powerful Token module. Token, Pathauto and a few additional modules will give you complete control of the meta tags for each page and the URL alias for each page. Tag clouds are available too.
Ning - SEO is controlled completely by Ning. You are allowed to set global keywords and description but that is about it. If SEO isn't working for you on Ning, you have to wait and hope the next release contains improvements.
Kickapps - Well, Kickapps has a LONG way to go with SEO. They do give you better keywords and description control on each page although no one can seem to figure out where the content is coming from. The HUGE drawback with Kickapps and SEO is the atrocious looking URLs generated for your community. Query strings galore just do not make for good search engine indexing.

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Comments

123

0 #30 Megan 2010-02-25 13:41

This article was VERY helpful. I hired a developer to use Joomla to create my social networking site. When he came back and told me phpFox would be better for my needs, I wanted to verify that. This did it for me! Thank you.

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0 #29 Renea 2010-02-15 16:05

I agree with everything in this article (except for Kickapps as I have no experience with it)

Avoid Dolphin. I admit that it looks appealing. But you don't know what you are getting until you have to get into the code. Its a nightmare.

Joomla or Drupal are the way to go in my opinion.

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+1 #28 Networker 2010-02-14 12:55

Would you consider comparing Social Engine Script in this article?
http://www.socialengine.net/
I have used Dolphin, PhpFox, and played a little with drupal and Joomla. and I agree with your results on them.
HoweverI would really like your professional opinion of Social Engine Platform.

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+3 #27 Sam D 2010-02-14 12:14

PHPFox is a great NO NO. Pathetic support & autocratic forum with a half-done script. Heaven for crappy modders

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+5 #26 Site Visitor 2010-02-14 12:03

Don't go to phpfox, they ban people for insane and unjust reasons for silly things like moaning or expressing lite disatisfaction of the product development. The staff that run their community forums are hypocrites of their own policies and the rules don't apply to everyone... Just whomever they feel like applying them too.

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0 #25 Ian 2010-02-05 21:12

How does SocialGo compare to KickApps? Anybody seriously study the two? Thank you

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0 #24 dingoman11 2010-01-29 08:50

This is an excellent article. Thank You!

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0 #23 Richard 2010-01-08 09:50

Boonex is a scam. If you pay 12 months hosting in advance and then you loose your debit card that the hosting was registered for renewal in TEN MONTHS TIME!
So this is 2 months in to your 12 month already paid hosting the direct debit is cancelled they then delete your whole site that has cost in building and advertising nearly $2000 est £1600 GBP ! as they are that stupid to think you would cancel hosting thats costs nothing after spending hundreds on building...SIMPLE WORD JOKERS LOOSERS...TRY CALLING THERE PHONE NUMBER IM SURE THEY RUN IT FROM MC DONALDS OR BURGER KING S PUBLIC LOO AS IT BLENDS WITH THERE SERVICE! sH17....PLEASE AVOID EVERCURRENT LIKE A ROBBER IN A SUIT ITS JUST ANOTHER BUNCH OF NO GOOD HUMAN CON ARTISTS! Boonex is a scam!

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0 #22 site visitor 2009-09-10 20:55

Thank you so much for the helpful article! I will agree that Dolphin comes with it's shares of headaches and to only buy it if you are a sadomasochist.

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