Search Engine Optimization for vBulletin Communities and Websites Explained

[CompletevB]

CompletevB submitted a new Article:

Search Engine Optimization for vBulletin Communities and Websites Explained

Search Engine Optimization for vBulletin Communities and Websites Explained


First off, we need to come to an agreement of what the basics of search engine optimization include. Basically, search engine optimization has two main categories: On-site and Off-site.

On-site SEO includes optimizing your content to be search engine friendly. What does this mean? It means include your keywords in your content. You will want to have unique content that matches your custom title and Meta tags. Usually these tags include specially researched keywords that you have discovered through an undeveloped or easily marketable niche. There are many SEO tips and tricks out there on various websites but here is a list of personal ones that I abide by and have seen the results myself:

Any website:
- Use your keywords in a paragraph near the top of the page and bottom.
- Use bold or italic text on your specified keywords to influence search engines to think your site finds it important.
- Each page should have different Meta tags to match that page’s topic and keywords.
- Within your site, use hyper-text links to link your pages using your keywords. (For example: Premade vBulletin Skins links to our store page rather than making the link “store”)
- Optimize ALT tags to match your keywords surrounding the image.
- Don’t overdue your keywords. Over saturation could lead to penalties.
- Unique content related to your site with your keywords is a big plus.

vBulletin specific related:
- Change your <title> tags.
- Add new Meta tags.
- Invest in a SEO program such as vBSEO.
- Use forum category names as your keywords.
- Offer articles in another location on the same site.

Off-site SEO includes link-building, link building, and more link building. This is the key to getting a higher rank in search engines. Just as important as having unique on-site content, off-site link building gets you the member base and readers to help promote your site and boost traffic. Some tips for building links are listed below:

- Natural link building - Add quality content and people will link to your site as a resource. This is the best way of getting good inbound links that Google will like.
- Article Submission - Only submit to reliable sources that have strict guidelines.
- Blog Commenting – Google has seemed to care less and less with blog commenting because of the “no follow” feature and mass links. I wouldn’t suggest wasting your time with this nowadays.
-...

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[djbaxter]

Invest in a SEO program such as vBSEO.

Why? Anything that needs doing for vBulletin SEO can be done without paying out money for the hugely overpriced vBSEO.

 

[CompletevB]

Because this article is based around people not knowing what to do. The steps I am explaining are relatively basic and if they really do take anything from my articles they probably don't know exactly how to customize their own vB page. I will get into that later.

 

[djbaxter]

Even if they want some of the useful features that vBSEO offers (as opposed to the many useless features offered by vBSEO), they do not need to purchase vBSEO to get those features.

Anything really useful is offered by the free add-on, Zoints SEO.

 

[Libertate]

Not a bad list, but I think if we are talking about "people not knowing what to do", it should truly explain what doing all this SEO gives them..

Forum Posting – Although the search engines don’t count these links as a good resource of gaining PR, they do help get a lot of good targeted traffic to your site.

I got several high PR threads pointing to my sites from other sites... Giving me PR...

Hey! Welcome back minstrel! Hope all is well

 

[CompletevB]

Not a bad list, but I think if we are talking about "people not knowing what to do", it should truly explain what doing all this SEO gives them..

I got several high PR threads pointing to my sites from other sites... Giving me PR...

Hey! Welcome back minstrel! Hope all is well

Those threads aren't giving you your pr, and if they are I highly doubt google will keep it that way for long.

 

[djbaxter]

Those threads aren't giving you your pr, and if they are I highly doubt google will keep it that way for long.

Why do you say that? Why do you think that links from other forum posts or threads to specific threads or posts on your forum are counted less than other equivalent links?

 

[CompletevB]

Because Google doesn't put weight on forum posts nearly as much as a real website. The amount of links from a forum is gigantic when comparing it to a regular website.

It's basic principals of Google .A site giving off 1000 links has less weight of PR juice than a website giving off 5 links.

 

[djbaxter]

Because Google doesn't put weight on forum posts nearly as much as a real website. The amount of links from a forum is gigantic when comparing it to a regular website.

It's basic principals of Google .A site giving off 1000 links has less weight of PR juice than a website giving off 5 links.

Sites don't "give off PR juice". Pages pass PageRank. And how much they pass basically depends on the PR of the originating page and how many other outgoing links there are on that page.

And in that regard, it doesn't matter whether the link is on a forum page or any other web page.

 

[CompletevB]

Sites don't "give off PR juice". Pages pass PageRank. And how much they pass basically depends on the PR of the originating page and how many other outgoing links there are on that page.

And in that regard, it doesn't matter whether the link is on a forum page or any other web page.

So your saying that if 2 sites both had the same PR and same backlinks and one was a forum with 1000 outgoing links and the other was a regular website with 10 outgoing link, they would give the links on their sites equal pr? That is incorrect.

 

[Libertate]

...how much they pass ... depends on ... how many other outgoing links there are on that page.

So your saying ...

No. He is not saying that...

 

[CompletevB]

Okay so he's agreeing.

Either way, it doesn't matter. Signatures hold less value than a regular link on a regular site. I'd be willing to bet.

 

[djbaxter]

So your saying that if 2 sites both had the same PR and same backlinks and one was a forum with 1000 outgoing links and the other was a regular website with 10 outgoing link, they would give the links on their sites equal pr? That is incorrect.

No. I'm saying that PR (PageRank) has to do with individual PAGES, not sites. Thus, it doesn't matter how many pages a site contains. What matters is the PR of those pages.

Okay so he's agreeing.

No. I am most definitely NOT agreeing.

Either way, it doesn't matter. Signatures hold less value than a regular link on a regular site. I'd be willing to bet.

Whether that's true is somewhat unclear. But that's not what we were discussing. We were discussing the value of a link from another page to a post or thread on your forum.

 

[CompletevB]

No. I'm saying that PR (PageRank) has to do with individual PAGES, not sites. Thus, it doesn't matter how many pages a site contains. What matters is the PR of those pages.

I never meant to say that nor did I hope you took it that way.

I am trying to explain that pages with more OUTGOING links have less value when giving PR out than those with less OUTGOING links. Usually forums contain more links between the signatures, interior links, and advertisements.

 

[djbaxter]

I am trying to explain that pages with more OUTGOING links have less value when giving PR out than those with less OUTGOING links.

Yes, because the value of PR passed is a proportion of total PR for the page divided by the number of outgoping links from that page.

PR[sup]passed[/sup] = .85 * PR[sup]total[/sup] / #outgoing-links

Usually forums contain more links between the signatures, interior links, and advertisements.

That's not necessarily true, though, and there is definite value, both PR value and traffic value, in links from other forums.

 

[CompletevB]

I'm just happy I finally get to talk more in depth about PR than just the normal, "DID PR UDPATE YET!?"

I think we are saying the same thing in different ways.

 

[djbaxter]

- Link Exchange – Once again, Google has started to care less and less for reciprocal link trades. They value one-way links much more than two-way.
- One way links – Simply the best way to promote your site for page rank. The optimal way of gaining the page rank juice from another site.

I'm going to take issue with this point as well. I know this is a prevalent myth which is repeated ad nauseum on webmaster forums but the reality is that it is a misguided assumption with no supporting evidence.

To start with, reciprocal linking frequently occurs organically. Authority sites tend to link to other authority sites and within any content area they typically will link to one another. Reciprocal linking isn't the issue. The issue is whether the links are relevant to page content.

Worrying about one-way linking, three-way linking, etc., is a waste of time and energy. If you're going to worry about your linking strategy, worry about non-relevant incoming links (and to a slightly lesser extent non-relevant outgoing links) and paid links.

 

[CompletevB]

I'm going to take issue with this point as well. I know this is a prevalent myth which is repeated ad nauseum on webmaster forums but the reality is that it is a misguided assumption with no supporting evidence.

To start with, reciprocal linking frequently occurs organically. Authority sites tend to link to other authority sites and within any content area they typically will link to one another. Reciprocal linking isn't the issue. The issue is whether the links are relevant to page content.

Worrying about one-way linking, three-way linking, etc., is a waste of time and energy. If you're going to worry about your linking strategy, worry about non-relevant incoming links (and to a slightly lesser extent non-relevant outgoing links) and paid links.

EDIT: Sorry I don't know what to say.

 

[Libertate]

Okay, I am getting tired.

And foolishly, I was about to hire you for a new skin/coding for my site.

 

[CompletevB]

I am not being foolish buddy, I simply don't know what else to say. That is all I know about seo. Sorry to let you down.