Hello,
there is a problem with bbpress, that prevents SEO Plugins to do there job.

The problem exists only for the forum index page. Also if you use a standard page an paste the [bbp-forum-index] shortcode.

* That page is not handled anymore as a page, so it gets a noindex tag by the SEO plugins.
* It’s also not possible to add a custom title, description or other meta tags.

The bbpress forum index is completely ignoring all of that settings.
The result is a noindex forum index without a reasonable title and description.

Example:
Forum index

Screenshot of the ignored settings:

I talked with the codes a the German WPseo plugin.
They told me, that bbpress is using so crude things for that index and doesn’t use wordpress standards.

I also found here in the forum and on Google, that Yoast and All in one SEO Pack have the same problems with bbpress.

Is there a way to get that fixed?

A forum index with nofollow makes no sense at all.

thanks
Jochen

[@netweb Keymaster 7 years, 9 months ago]

Unfortunately I’m not on Facebook so I cannot see that conversation you had 🙁

Perhaps you could link to this topic in that conversation and have the WPseo plugin author join this conversation?

As to Yoast, I believe Yoast is compatible with bbPress, @joostdevalk wrote here last year “I’ll bump BBPress on to the list again, we’ve long had issues with that, we should just fix it”, I’ve no idea if anything was updated for bbPress or not, was it @joostdevalk ?

I myself don’t use any SEO plugins let alone any that you mention, we’re happy to work with any plugin author to help add support their plugin if we can.

I’m sure there are other bbPress users who do use various SEO plugins, maybe someone else here has some tips on using Yoast WordPress SEO, WPseo, or All in One SEO?

p.s. This topic is going to attract many a spammer, so if your reply doesn’t show up straight away that will be due to Akismet being proactive, if your reply doesn’t turn up straight away give it some time for the moderators to approve and move out of the spam queue.

[@casiepa Moderator 7 years, 9 months ago]

Hi @netweb, @gmmedia,

I have just installed bbPress 2.5.12 and Yoast SEO 4.4 on a completely new WP 4.7.3. I have found the noindex the very first time on the standard /forums page, but after the following steps it seems I do get SEO info and I can fill keywords at forum level in /wp-admin.

• Install bbPress and activate
• Install Yoast SEO and activate
• In /wp-admin/options-reading.php make sure NOT to have the ‘Search Engine Visibility’ ticked
• Run the Yoast SEO configuration wizard from /wp-admin/admin.php?page=wpseo_dashboard#top#general and make sure to mark forums as ‘Visible’.

So at least Yoast SEO works.

If somebody else can do further testing, that would be great.