Hello,
I use a very good paid software called website auditor for auditing. It has shown me a few things related to wpforo and I wanted to ask about that today.
1) Resources with 4xx status code:
Under this heading there are HUNDREDS of wpforo related links such as
https://web.whatsapp.com/send?text=Paradigm+Shift+Community+Forum URL: https://www.paradigmshift.com.pk/community-forum/?wpfin=tag&wpfs=islamic%20studies%20past%20papers
I can share the entire list with you if you want.
When I click on the links they take me to web.whatsapp.com
I think this is some sharing post link but my question is can these 4xx wpforo links negatively affect seo?
2) Pages with 302 redirect
There are hundreds of wpforo related links here as well such as:
https://www.paradigmshift.com.pk/participants/?foro=allread&foro_n=fedaefc18c
which redirects to
https://www.paradigmshift.com.pk/participants/
or
Page Redirect Found on pages
https://www.paradigmshift.com.pk/community-forum/zoology-pms/zoology-past-papers-8/?foro=allread&foro_n=fedaefc18c
which redirects to
https://www.paradigmshift.com.pk/community-forum/zoology-pms/zoology-past-papers-8/
I was researching 302 redirects and it said that
302 redirects are temporary so they don't pass any link juice. If you use them instead of 301s, search engines might continue to index the old URL, and disregard the new one as a duplicate, or they might divide the link popularity between the two versions, thus hurting search rankings. That's why it is not recommended to use 302 redirects if you are permanently moving a page or a website. Instead, stick to a 301 redirect to preserve link juice and avoid duplicate content issues.
My domain authority has fallen 1 point although my traffic and speed has risen so I was thinking maybe the forums (wpforo) that we launched a month back have something to do with this.
Could you let me know if this is normal or should I be worried.
https://web.whatsapp.com/send?text=Paradigm+Shift+Community+Forum
This is the WhatsApp share link of share buttons. You can manage your share buttons in wpForo > Settings > Social Networks admin page.
https://www.paradigmshift.com.pk/community-forum/?wpfin=tag&wpfs=islamic%20studies%20past%20papers
This is a topic tag search link. It must work fine if the tag is not removed. Here is the similar link of our forum:
https://wpforo.com/community/?wpfin=tag&wpfs=new%20features
2) Pages with 302 redirect
There are hundreds of wpforo related links here as well such as:
https://www.paradigmshift.com.pk/participants/?foro=allread&foro_n=fedaefc18c
which redirects to
The links with /?foro=allread&foro_n=fedaefc18c parts are action links, they are dynamic so they should not be indexed. They should be either redirected to the base path (/the-one-before-?-symbol/) or set as no-index. In other words all is ok here, the redirection is correct because it should be redirected to that page. This action link marks all new topics/posts as read and it's located in the forum footer. The base path of this link is changed corresponding to the each page URL. For example:
- https://wpforo.com/participants/?foro=allread&foro_n=ff612bdaee
- https://wpforo.com/community/how-to-and-troubleshooting-2/seo-question-2/?foro=allread&foro_n=ff612bdaee
So the issues you're mentioning should not impact your SEO. You can turn off the share buttons if you want, but the dynamic link redirection should be there. It's a normal action without any SEO issues.
The 4xx status codes and 302 redirects related to wpForo could negatively impact SEO, so consider fixing broken links and using 301 redirects for permanent URL changes to preserve link equity.