How to SEO VBulletin - by T2DMan

[T2DMan]

I happened to come across your forum given that someone has just posted about the echolist directory seo competition.... But enough about such things.

How to SEO VBulletin. Search Engine Optimize VBulletin (http://forum.time2dine.co.nz/showthread.php?t=98) - the thread on Time2Dine has had over 14,000 page views with many successful installations, and webmasters getting far more people coming to their forums.

I always find it interesting to come across seo forums where the seo of that forum is in my opinion less than optimial. Just had a look at the source of the page - two headers. Hmmm. The topic of the thread as the second item on the title, hmmm...

VBulletin is certainly an excellant package, but there are many aspects of it that need work.

I have spent considerable time working on a series of SEO hacks for the VBulletin package. I like your motto - number one or get banned trying. I certainly like to be the best that I can be! A majority of the threads on my restaurants forums are top of the world for the restaurant name. I like the challenge.

The following are some of the issues that there are with the standard installation:



there is more than one url per thread

try the next thread/previous thread at the bottom of each page
latest post, new post
archive version
the actual thread and the url for "page 1" of the thread accessed from the second page.
...



The SEO VBulletin hack makes sure that there is only one url for each thread, so the max Goole PR and link text value goes to each thread and forum, getting each as high as possible on Google.



There is no effective site map for the threads


there is an archive that stores yet another copy of the threads, but there is no site map of all the threads



So the SEO VBulletin hack uses the archive as the site map and instead of redirecting to the so called seo'ed copy of the thread, goes to the actual thread.



Redirects on the forum are the Bad 302 termporary redirects

so the SEO VBulletin hack adds a line and makes them all 301 redirects


Less than optimal titles, meta descriptions, H1 and first words on the page

so the SEO VBulletin hack makes the first words of the title to be the title of each thread. I use the title in the meta description of each thread along with that forums description. I use the title again in the meta keywords. The threadbits become the H1. Then I have created a new concept that I call "Firstwords" - a paragraph just under the threadbits that uses the thread title twice along with the forum description and some descriptive words about the forum.


Or how about one of my latest additions. When you make a post, the url that you are redirect to is yet another version for that thread. Yet I make posts and often like to tell others about that post - with what url. My SEO Bulletin hack changes the url to the standard url so that people can have a proper url to use for their linking.
Get the idea. The above are only some of the many enhancements possible. The enhancements all follow the basic seo principles that are talked about in this forum.

As far as links go, I have had a lot of success with the digitalpoint advertising co-op (http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/ad-network/?signup=1325) but they provide rotating links that are not so ideal for Google. I am now becoming part of the link vault that provides permanent links (http://www.link-vault.com/?referral=820), in my opinion a far safer long term proposition.

So all the best with your forums. I hope you can get good traffic.

[hugoguzman]

Thanks for the pointers.

My partner and I probably won't make any changes to our forum setup, because we suscribe to the the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" ethic, but they seem like pretty solid points to ponder. My partner "Rick James" deals with the programming side of things (vbulletin, CMS, etc...), so I'll have him take a look at this stuff too.

Would you like to have a generic "tutorial" published as an article on the news section of our site?

Let me know.

Hugo

[T2DMan]

My partner and I probably won't make any changes to our forum setup, because we suscribe to the the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" ethic, but they seem like pretty solid points to ponder.
Hugo
I subscribe to the theory
"If I ain't top, it ain't no good"

So, I do anything to get there - well, all the ethical ones. And its so easy to get close to overdoing it.

You will find you will get many more threads and forums found on Google if your pages are optimised correctly. There are heaps of threads that probably have unique information that people are trying to find. But then thats the same message that you preach to all your clients when you seo their sites.

I come across many clients websites that first need their cms reprogrammed, then onpage seo, then many don't actually need to many additional links, just those in the really competitive fields, or new websites.

So when I first got VBulletin, I had a good look around the package and found many places for improvements. It has REALLY made a difference to all the VBulletin forums that it has been installed on. Just done one for http://www.ezliving.com/forum/ and their site had enough PR that each of the pages in the new forum got to top of Google within a few weeks. The power of correct onpage optimization, correct site optimization, and a good amount of Google PR. So much nicer adding pages to established websites, none of this sandbox thing to have to cope with.

[hugoguzman]

I can see that you believe in the power of on-page optimization/site structure/interlinking structure.

My perspective is really somewhat simplistic:

A site with "perfect" on-page optimization (which is of course very subjective) will not rank #1 if it lacks content and/or backlink popularity (usually it needs both) when compared to its competition.

However, a site with even "minimal" on-page optimization will rank #1 if it has superior content and/or backlink popularity (preferably both) when compared to its competition.

I know this might sound radical, but having "imperfect" on-page optimization is not necessarily a bad thing...

In any case your contributions are greatly appreciated. I wish you continued success in your endeavor to master vbulletin and CMS!

Hugo

[T2DMan]

I believe in everything...

A florist shop that was top for most everything was 10th for a particular term, just by the addition of that phrase on the page twice was enough to get her site to the top for that phrase - why bother with getting specific links for that phrase.

You mention "content" - having relevant content is what the onpage parts of the seo vbulletin hack add to a site. Google especially likes content in important parts of the page.

You are certainly right about very competitive phrases though, it comes down to links. But I have seen many people requesting links from me that should first provide themselves with better onpage and onsite optimization - that does the job of a good number of links. After all, Google has many links and is certainly not the top of everything - it does not have every phrase on its pages.

[T2DMan]

Thanks for the article invite. You PM is full, so I can't send this via PM.

Is the current post okay - I'll make a couple of changes - like removing my reference to you, and add some references to some forum sites I have seo'ed.

[hugoguzman]

I just cleaned up my inbox.

Go ahead and send the article via PM. I'll proofread it, then post it on the homepage under one of my news headings...

Hugo