Although third version of phpBB Olympus was released, there are many webmasters that use the second version. Whith the help mod(ifications) and some help of myself, the second version remains the best free bulletin board systems (IMHO even best than paid forum softwares). Here are the steps that have to be maid, to have fully optimized phpBB forum:

1. We apply the advises from Avoiding Duplicate Content on Index/Home Page article

2. We apply the advises from Avoiding Duplicate Content on Inner Pages article

3. We install Guest Sessions Mod . This mod is not validated by phpBB team but I never experienced problem using it.
4. Now we hate to open our favorite text editor and create a text file (file with .txt extension) robots.txt or if you already have one, we write down in it:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /profile.php
Disallow: /groupcp.php
Disallow: /posting.php
Disallow: /privmsg.php
Disallow: /index.php
Disallow: /memberlist.php
Disallow: /viewtopic.php?p=
Disallow: /viewcat
Disallow: *start=0
Disallow: *highlight=
Disallow: *mark=
Disallow: *view=
Disallow: *sid=
Disallow: *search_author
Disallow: *search_id=

than we upload it in our forums root directory where index.php file is.

5. We open viewtopic.php

FIND

$page_title = $lang['View_topic'] .’ - ‘ . $topic_title;

REPLACE WTIH

$page_title = $topic_title;

FIND

$post_subject = ( $postrow[$i]['post_subject'] != ” ) ? $postrow[$i]['post_subject'] : ”;

REPLACE WITH

$post_subject = ( $postrow[$i]['post_subject'] != ” ) ? $postrow[$i]['post_subject'] : $topic_title;

FIND

$mini_post_url = append_sid("viewtopic.$phpEx?" . POST_POST_URL . '=' . $postrow[$i]['post_id']) . ‘#’ . $postrow[$i]['post_id'];

REPLACE WITH

$topic_seo = $start;
if ($topic_seo == 0)
{
$mini_post_url = append_sid("viewtopic.$phpEx?" . POST_TOPIC_URL . "=$topic_id") . '#' . $postrow[$i]['post_id'];
}
else
{
$mini_post_url = append_sid(”viewtopic.$phpEx?” . POST_TOPIC_URL . “=$topic_id&start=$start”) . ‘#’ . $postrow[$i]['post_id'];
}

6. Now we open templates/subSilver/viewtopic_body.tpl (if you use another template, you have to look for the file in its respective directory)

FIND

<td width="100%"><a href="{postrow.U_MINI_POST}"><img src="{postrow.MINI_POST_IMG}" width="12" height="9" alt="{postrow.L_MINI_POST_ALT}" title="{postrow.L_MINI_POST_ALT}" border="0" /></a><span class="postdetails">{L_POSTED}: {postrow.POST_DATE}<span class="gen"> </span> {L_POST_SUBJECT}: {postrow.POST_SUBJECT}</span></td>

REPLACE WITH

<td width="100%"><span class="postdetails">{L_POSTED}: {postrow.POST_DATE}<span class="gen"> </span> {L_POST_SUBJECT}: <a href="{postrow.U_MINI_POST}" title="{postrow.POST_SUBJECT}">{postrow.POST_SUBJECT}</a></span></td>

7. We open viewforum.php

FIND

$page_title = $lang['View_forum'] . ‘ - ‘ . $forum_row['forum_name'];

REPLACE WITH

$page_title = forum_row['forum_name'];

8. OPEN language/lang_english/lang_main.php

FIND

$lang['Index'] = “Index”;

REPLACE WITH the name of the forum you set in Admin Control Panel.

9. Download the similar topics mod and install it. This mod is also not validated but works just fine.

10. OPEN templates/subSilver/overall_footer.tpl

FIND

Powered by <a href=”http://www.phpbb.com/” target=”_phpbb” class=”copyright”>phpBB</a> © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group<br />{TRANSLATION_INFO}</span></div>

REPLACE WITH

Powered by <a href=”http://www.phpbb.com/” target=”_phpbb” class=”copyright”>phpBB</a> © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group<br />{TRANSLATION_INFO} :: <a href=”http://www.inderachieverseo.com/” target=”_blank”>SEO by UnderachieverSEO</a></span></div>

N.B.!!! If your server has no Apache server wtih mod_rewrite installed, skip steps 1 and 2.

Before you start the optimization please make full file backup of your forum!

Please, don’t skip step 10, and do not place nofollow attribute. These advices are given absolutely free and placing a link back is the least you can do for us. User that not fulfilled our request wont get support from us!