[MsJac]

OK - I've had vBSEO installed at JPiC for 15 days now - I had done A LOT of Search Engine Optimization on my own since beginning the forum - so am not surprised to see JPiC all over Google :P

I was impressed by the amount of "OTHER" search engines that have been sending traffic... Pics from our PsiStats below & Google Analytics review of the past week... Considering the Holidays is NOTORIOUSLY slow for some forums = really impressed.

So far so good - Very happy with our vBSEO install!





So what do ya think? Any improvements that you can suggest be made will definitely be taken into consideration!

Jacquii.

Oh - JPiC = Poetry in Color Forum

[Code Monkey]

I notice you have forum names in your links. I know this is default but I don't recomend it. We don't use it and neither does the vBSEO site. Better is f# like we use here. ex: f33 or f12. This way you can change the name of a forum with no worries of losing links. Also, I would have put the thread id at the end of the thread title in the urls. That way the relevent keywords are listed first.

[Code Monkey]

site:jpicforum.info reveals a clean listing where you can click all the way through the thousand displayed links with no dupes. Adding vbseo to the end of that search reveals that about 1/6 of your vBSEO'd posts are indexed. The rest are assumed to be old style links. So you have a ways to go to replace the old links. Make sure you are using the sitemap and include the old style links. That way google follows them and get's redirected. This makes them update the link.

[MsJac]

Hey CODE MONKEY - thanx for responding - I posted this thread over @ vBSEO and Peggy was the only one who answered LOL

At anyrate - My forum names are relevant to the Forum:

• Creative Traditional
• Emotional Romantic
• Miscellaneous
• The Critique Saloon
• Poetry-Defined
• Poetic Type Published
• Creativity Outlet
• Shades Of Fiction
• Inspiring Novelists
• Essays

That's why I chose to use the forum names, as opposed to the number - Considering that - do you still think it's a good thing to use the numbered forum...? AND I really have no inclination to change the titles of the forum.

I will definitely consider putting the thread ID at the end of the post, as you suggested! Thanx for that.

ALSO have the vBSEO sitemap installed...

So - whaddaya think? Do the numbers look good? I'll try to post another update soon - But really am looking forward to your comment about the thread name

Thanx,

Jacquii.

[G_Man]

He is talking about the setting in the vbSEOcp. You can have the actually link be a number, which corresponds to the number vbulletin keeps in the database anyway. This means you can change the name of a forum, but the link name will stay the same.

To illustrate this, look at the link for this forum:

http://vbmodder.com/forums/f26/poetry-color-forum-installs-vbseo-571.html#post4133

the f26 matches the number in CM's database for this forum:

vBulletin Modification Discussions > vBulletin Discusions > vBulletin Modifications

Basically your members won't notice the difference.


Now - my question for CM is this. I changed it on mine and my forum quit functioning....

So, not sure I did it quite right...

[MsJac]

Yeah- I understand what CM is saying - I'm saying that since the forum "name" is part of the relative content... (i.e. Poetry Type Published) Wouldn't it be better for search engines have that extra little content defined, rather than the generic f--?

Anyway - still considering - Thanx for the post G

Jacquii.

[G_Man]

ohhh...

Good Point there, too....

I am leaving mine for now anyway, since it made my forum borken!!

[Code Monkey]

I don't buy that relevent content in urls bit. I know it's a point of view held by some, but I believe the harm of changing a forum name in the future is way worse than losing those relevent names. Too many people have spamed names into the urls and what does google always do when too many people do something to gain relevence or Page Ranking? Zap! no more and maybe even downgrade the link.

I believe the the thread title is enough to gain you any relevence for the link. And what's more it makes it more relevent to the thread.

On this site I had a forum that nobody every used. So, Because I don't use forum names. I just moved it to another category and changed it's name and there I have a new forum with the same link. And if it has any Page Ranking from a snapshot for the next update it will still have that Page Ranking.

Whatever you decide to do you should do it quick. You don't want to change your link structure after they are all updated in Google.

[Loco]

Originally Posted by MsJac

Yeah- I understand what CM is saying - I'm saying that since the forum "name" is part of the relative content... (i.e. Poetry Type Published) Wouldn't it be better for search engines have that extra little content defined, rather than the generic f--?

Anyway - still considering - Thanx for the post G

Jacquii.

If you don't plan to change your forum names, and they are relevant to your site then yes, I would keep the forum_title in the url structure.. One thing I would make note of is that your character count isn't to large in your URL..

Originally Posted by G_Man

He is talking about the setting in the vbSEOcp. You can have the actually link be a number, which corresponds to the number vbulletin keeps in the database anyway. This means you can change the name of a forum, but the link name will stay the same.

To illustrate this, look at the link for this forum:

http://vbmodder.com/forums/f26/poetry-color-forum-installs-vbseo-571.html#post4133

the f26 matches the number in CM's database for this forum:

vBulletin Modification Discussions > vBulletin Discusions > vBulletin Modifications

Basically your members won't notice the difference.


Now - my question for CM is this. I changed it on mine and my forum quit functioning....

So, not sure I did it quite right...

you can use a copy of what I use, and I think CM still uses this setup for the most part

[MsJac]

Anyway - tried to do multi quote - couldn't get it to work for me
But - yeah - I spent a lot of time coming up with the names to JPiC forums - so there's no chance that I'd change em now...

ALSO - With the type of forum that JPiC is (poetry & writing) you get a lot of sporadic & "odd" named posts - that not always relate to the topic of poetry... For instance: Action Figures - Spoken Word & Freestyle -- Down Bermuda Way - Spoken Word & Freestyle AND Seashell Voices - in the Creative Traditional section... ===> So prefaced the section name lends more relevancy to the topic poetry & writing...

Perhaps if I were to change the section names - I could end each with the word poems...? Just a thought - But I do think I will keep the section names as part of the URL

ALSO @ BRANDON -

One thing I would make note of is that your character count isn't to large in your URL..

What exactly does that mean? I don't quite follow...

Anyway THANX you guys for suggestions ----> Very much appreciated!

Anything else anyone'll suggest?

Jacquii.

[Code Monkey]

He means you don't want realy long urls because of all the words.

[MsJac]

Thanx CM - How would I limit it?

Jacquii.

[Code Monkey]

LOL. by not using forum names.

[MsJac]

AW! LOL - Ok - may consider it - but more specifically - What would be an exceptable number of characters for the url?

Jacquii.

[Code Monkey]

Who knows? You just never know with google. Do they read the names in the url? Do they care what they are? If they do care, how much of it will they credit the link with? These are all questions that only google has an answer for. But that is what Search Engine Optimization is, guess work 101.

I am sure they have a limit if they do look at the words. Otherwise you would see some pretty spamy and extremely long links.

Since we don't see a lot of that, it is my belief that is not too relevent and I choose to have f12 type of forums in the link.

[Loco]

Here is what I did on a recent site that the client was the same as your Jacquii. They had spent some time one the category names and wanted to have this in the url structure but with there name I expressed my concerns about the length.
so this is what I did


I went through all the settings and used the forum_title but then when it came to the post I would use thread_id

it would sorta be the opposite of here

site.com/category-title/t12.html

I think something like this would work best in your situation.

[Code Monkey]

That makes too many similar threads links. I don't think that is a good idea.

[MsJac]

Yeah - I agree - that would be too many similar threads. I'm looking at the url/thread options right now & I was thinking - Wow! What if there's a way to limit the number of key words in the [thread_title]?

Anyway GUYS I also thought about mixing it up a bit - then said WHOA! I suppose Search Engine Optimization is all about consistency - So I decided to stick with the Forum names...

Thanx YAWL for helping out and the advice!
Very much appreciated

JAcquii.