I recently installed and integrated Buddypress into my website platform and am looking for an SEO solution to leverage the content my community generates. It seems odd I cannot locate anything noteworthy in my searches and am hoping I’ve just had bad luck.

I would prefer a plugin, or insights, as to how I can get the following integrated into my Buddypress installation:

– Permalinks
– Titles
– Keyword Generation
– Meta Descriptions
– XML Sitemap Creation

I am shocked I haven’t found a plugin package I can pay for with these features. Maybe I’m just missing something. Each individual activity, in theory, could be better scanned by search engine robots if these existed. Now, we wouldn’t want to sitemap each individual activity, of course, but title and permalink rewrites would certainly give added weight to the buddypress groups – perhaps I am wrong on this.

NOTE: I have not had any luck with SEOPress on the current version of Buddypress, it appears to rewrite the titles incorrectly.

Any help would be great!

1. Which version of WordPress are you running?
3.4.2

2. Did you install WordPress as a directory or subdomain install?
Directory

3. If a directory install, is it in root or in a subdirectory?
Subdirectory

4. Did you upgrade from a previous version of WordPress? If so, from which version?
No

5. Was WordPress functioning properly before installing/upgrading BuddyPress (BP)? e.g. permalinks, creating a new post, commenting.
Yes

6. Which version of BP are you running?
1.6.1

7. Did you upgraded from a previous version of BP? If so, from which version?
No, this is my first installation.

8. Do you have any plugins other than BuddyPress installed and activated? If so, which ones?
Yes, Buddypress Like, Achievements, Sharing, Activity Bump and Activity Refresh

9. Are you using the standard BuddyPress themes or customized themes?
Customized Theme

10. Have you modified the core files in any way?
Only the theme files as discussed during installation.

11. Do you have any custom functions in bp-custom.php?
No custom functions

12. If running bbPress, which version? Or did your BuddyPress install come with a copy of bbPress built-in?
Not running bbPress yet.

13. Please provide a list of any errors in your server’s log files.
None

14. Which company provides your hosting?
Bluehost

15. Is your server running Windows, or if Linux; Apache, nginx or something else?
Linux

[@djpaul Keymaster 12 years, 3 months ago]

Not aware of any good SEO plugins for BuddyPress.

[@synaptic Participant 12 years, 3 months ago]

Craig, as Paul mentioned there really isnt one right now. But there is something we can do. The best bet is for every buddypress user to contact Joost (Yoast.com) the guy behind the best WP SEO plugin and ask him to integrate buddypress into his amazing plugin.

I’m sure if he sees enough interest expressed he’ll respond.

[@craig-chamberlin Member 12 years, 3 months ago]

Asynaptic,

We should set up something more formal then, perhaps you can put his contact information on here and anyone who comes across this post in the future can contact him.

In the meantime, I think the best solution is as follows:

1. Use a standard wordpress SEO plugin to modify the individual page SEO meta data.
2. Install group forums.
3. Utilize bbPress plugins and features for SEO.

Then push the community to participate in group forum discussions for important questions and answers. It will allow more flexibility in posts anyways.

[@cyber49 Participant 12 years, 3 months ago]

I bugged @yoast twice on Twitter, once a couple of weeks ago and once just yesterday, looking only for a way to simply turn OFF his plugin for anything in my /member-directory folder or deeper.

I figured it’s not worth me being a pest, so this morning after finding yet another new discussion here, I decided to cycle through SEO plugins until I found one that worked –

this leaves my Buddypress title tags intact – HOOray –
https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/gregs-high-performance-seo

I kept a few notes and was going to blog about it (and still might) but Gregs High Performance SEO does appear to work alright with Buddypress,

If i poke around I can likely figure out autogen on the description tags too, because the plugin DOES insert a blank one, whereas none of the others did anything for the desc tag.

Unfortunately, the author hasn’t put out a new one in almost a year, but at least my long running issue of no unique tags tags is solved for now

[@cyber49 Participant 12 years, 3 months ago]

Yeah, Gregs plugin just generates content=”” for anything buddypress – Unique desc tags are nice to have regardless of whether they’re a ranking factor or not, but certainly not a deal breaker. Maybe someone can figure out how to roll it in… Greg?

[@synaptic Participant 12 years, 3 months ago]

Craig, here is contact info:

http://www.twitter.com/yoast
http://www.facebook.com/jdevalk

https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wordpress-seo

This is for ALL BP users, please contact Joost but obviously be polite and gracious in submitting your request.