How to modify topic title in PHPBB3 ?

PHPBB3 is one of the best free forum software.out there. It can easily be modified to your community’s requirement.

One of the problem with the default PHPBB3 installation is the default titles of the topics or posts. The default topic title in PHPBB3 is in the following format.

Site Name • View Topic – Your_Title

Now if some one search for a given topic in Google than he will be presented with such a long title from your website. This decreases the organic traffic traffic to your website. Now this can be improved by modifying a single line in your Overall_Header.html file present in your theme folder. I am here writing all the steps to modify the title:

  1. First go to your PHPBB3 admin panel.
  2. Click on the STYLES TAB on the above menu bar.
  3. Click on the Templates link in the left menu bar which is under the Style Components category.
  4. Now you will see the list of all the styles installed in your PHPBB3 installation. In the front of each style there is an Edit option. Click on it.
  5. Now you will see a drop down list showing different template files. Select the  overall_header.html file.
  6. Now you will a editor window showing some HTML code.
  7. Search for <title> {SITENAME} &bill; <! –IF S_IN MCP –>{L_MCP} &bull; <!– ELSEIF S_IN_UCP –>{L_UCP} &bull; <!—ENDIF —> {PAGE_TITLE} </title>
  8. In the above line of code delete this portion {SITENAME} &bill; <! –IF S_IN MCP –>{L_MCP} &bull; <!– ELSEIF S_IN_UCP –>{L_UCP} &bull; <!—ENDIF —>
  9. After this task click on the submit button.
  10. Now click on the General Tab in above menu bar.
  11. In the middle of the home page of your forums admin panel click on the link in front of Purge the cache option labelled as Run Now.
  12. Now its done.

Now your forums title will not contain useless Site Name and other variables.