What is the best SEO hack? (3.5.0)

[mojo]

There are quite a few at vb.org. but which ones really work?

Dean C's seems to be the easiest as it is a simple plug in

Which ones are you guys using, which ones seem to work the best?

[DMB]

VBRanking works perfectly except for a set of calendar links...

I hear vbSEO is nice but it costs more/same as a vBulletin's license.

[phoenixdown21]

I'm not crazy about vbseo being encoded.

[mojo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Newmanium VBRanking works perfectly except for a set of calendar links...

Did you notice a signifcant inprovement in SERP with this hack?

[amykhar]

Dean's never worked for me. Some links changed, many didn't. That's why I went with vbseo.

[DMB]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mojo Did you notice a signifcant inprovement in SERP with this hack?

100 indexed to 1000 indexed

PR1 to PR2

May be just a coincidence

[Jonathan]

Check out some of the talk on vBSEO.com about ranking and PR improvements. vBSEO isn't cheap, especially when considered as a paid vB "hack". But, when compared to paid search engine marketing of any other type, the ROI is superb.

I wouldn't touch vBRanking. It was marketed by someone who attempted to become a vBSEO beta tester. After he was denied, he started vBRanking, and illegally copied vBSEO's trademarked name into his meta tags. Once this was discovered, he reverted vBRanking from pay software to "donations accepted". The plugin that he's unethically peddling can be obtained for free from vb.org.

Agreed on the encryption -- I'm not crazy about it either. Hopefully, it won't be that way forever.

[MMM]

Quote:

Originally Posted by phoenixdown21 I'm not crazy about vbseo being encoded.

I agree with you 100% Phoenixdown21. God only knows what's under that encryption. I value my database far too much to take a chance on any encoded file

[mojo]

I have heard pros and cons on vbseo. Server load seems to be a big problem with many sites using it.

[uglued]

i installed a mod found at able2know ...

i heard somewhere that yahoo or google might find it agaisnt their term and remove ur site completely

[mojo]

any other opinions on this?

[TalkParanormal]

I will personally confirm vbSEO as being the absolute best SEO compliant hack/mod product around for Vbulletin- and this is coming from someone who swore up and down, literally threw a fit at the price! Is it worth it? Simply, yes it is.

I am not fond of it being encrypted, but they have to do what they need to, to keep their code, theirs.

[MMM]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TalkParanormal I am not fond of it being encrypted, but they have to do what they need to, to keep their code, theirs.

If vB doesn't need to do it, then the bottom line is that neither do they (unless they're encrypting it for some other reason). I'm not worried about what they're trying to protect, I'm worried about what they're trying to hide

[MGM]

Besides, it's not like they're the ONLY SEO site on the planet... there's thousands out there, just not many that do it using plugins (which isn't all that hard to begin with). What are they trying to hide? For that reason alone I won't be using vbSEO and will find other solutions or create a custom solution.

MGM out

[motorhaven]

How is the fact that vbRanking is free unethical? Yeah, he tried to see what his competitors where doing... who doesn't? I'm registered at serveral forums simply so I can get any announcements they email for competitive reasons.

Using his competitor's product name in the meta tags, well I don't like that but apparently he's learned from his mistake because its not there anymore.


vbRanking - shareware, open source
vbSEO - not shareware, closed source

The choice is clear for me... I'm not going to throw $150 at a hack for a 3+ million post forum only to find out that it causes load problems or end up getting stuck with an unsupported product two years from now should the publisher go under. I prefer to be able to change the code if I need it.

If I find problems with vbRanking I'll fix them and post them for everyone else and vbulletin.org

[MGM]

I'm currently using vBRanking and I am quite impressed with the amount of links it changed... There's still a few .php's here and there, but those are due to modifications. I'll provide more info when my board goes live and has been live for a while, and let you guys know how well it SEO's vB.

MGM out

[vprp]

i've done my research on vbseo and would like to implement it on my site but two things bother me: encoding and not being able to remove the copyright.

[Joe]

i'm a big fan of the OEM archive...

[Lightning]

vBSEO is the way to go. I beta-tested it and helped them work out maybe 5 or so bugs, so I have a license for free. I'm not into paying, but this is easily worth more than vBulletin to me. Now my forum has some 25,000 indexed pages. I wouldn't have that without vBSEO. I've seen my threads rank better than pages on my site (in fact, my forums rank higher than my site on MSN). Their support has been excellent with me, and since Gold I haven't had a single problem at all so I didn't even need support!

I haven't tried out the vBRanking one or even heard about it until this thread, but I suppose it's good for a free product. I think vBSEO is coming out with a vBSEO Light, and that simply would kick-ass for a free product even if it only provides more SE-friendly URLs.

How anyone would complain about the encoding and copyright is beyond me. I don't code myself, and I'll leave that to the experts. You can get some programs to decode it anyway if you were set on it. The copyright is simply giving back to the people who wrote the program. I've considered adding it in more places simply because I am more than satisfied with vBSEO.

[GeorgeB.]

Quote:

How anyone would complain about the encoding and copyright is beyond me. I don't code myself, and I'll leave that to the experts.

That's probably why you don't see an issue with the encoding being a problem. I'm a coder and for me the whole protecting your code issue doesn't fly with me. If that were really necessary then vbulletin would be encoding their code as well as plenty other major PHP app developers. The code can simply be copyrighted just like any other software app. For me all that leaves is the potential that they're hiding something. Wouldn't it be ironic to find out you're defending them encoding the script to protect their code when they actually are encoding it because they stole someone elses code?

As a coder myself I'd never pay for an app that I couldn't tweak the way I want it whenever I want to. The security issue of allowing unknown encoded code on your production server alone should be enough to make anyone with a major site just say no to this product.

But that's just my 2.