New to VBSEO, Advise Please

Hey all,

I just purchased 2 licenses.. now as if not used VBSEO before (well i installed it for a client years ago).. but other than that i don't have any experience with any settings etc.

I was hoping someone could share some tips / tricks to help get the most out of this product, or even if someone could link me to some helpful guides / settings guides, I would really appreciate any help on this topic.

Ive not yet configured my 2 new boards as of yet, as i would like to hear some feedback advice as to what are the best practices are for installing vbseo.

Keep in mind i am new to this and have not even looked into the vbseo admincp section yet.

One last question is... vBulletin 4.0.4 is due out in just a few days.. would i best best waiting for the 4.0.4 release before installing vbulletin / vbseo.. or does it not matter.. i can install 4.0.3 now and update once the newer version is available... would there be any problems going down the upgrade path ? or am i best to wait for 4.0.4 before starting my 2 new sites ?

Any help on these topics is greatly appreciated.

Regards, Darren

Hi Darren,

You can install now on 4.0.3. We don't anticipate any compatibility issues with 4.0.4, but if there are an update will be released.

In general, you want to use one of our pre-sets for url settings. If you allow special characters in urls, you should use a rewrite that uses ID's in everything.
I have a config file you can use as a template if you wish. This is preset 1 (.html links) on all 3 sections (forum/cms/blog), but includes IDs in all necessary urls.

You can import this right through your xml importer in vbseoCP. Note, it says rc3, but it will also work with 3.5.1 gold as well.

That should get you started in the right direction.

Note, after import, you may need to re-save your password and/or license key again, as this file will blank those out.

Excellent Brian, muchly appreciated

Again i really am out of my depth here, ive installed it years ago for a client but never had the chance to play around with any configuration settings etc.. just got 2 new projects ready to go and can not afford to stuff these up lol... so i thought i best ask for some advice first.

NOTE: I will be out of the office from 6/11-6/13.... Getting my wisdom teeth out :( Please open a new ticket if you are waiting on me. Another tech will assist you.

You poor bugga :( im going through the same thing at the moment, except no dentist will touch mine as apparently it's to close to a major nerve... it's the worst pain a guy can go through... Best of luck with it.. "SEDA LOTION" "NUROFEN PLUS" "CEPACAINE" <--- they are helping ease the pain for me.

Cheers

I'm on percoset (oxy/abap) and penicillin, and they really aren't working well at all. Just make me sleep with a throbbing jaw line :/

Thanks for the .xml i have imported this...

Now ive set the cms, forums and blogs to 002 (vbseo.com) method for all of these.. as i am new to vbseo, i really don't know what the best method is and would love some more advice please...

I currently have one post on my forums: example.com/f2/website-under-construction-1-new/ <--- is that "1-new" a good or bad thing ?? and if it is a bad thing.. what should i replace it with and how would i go about changing this.. appreciate any help on this, i am more than happy to provide advice / support once i get the hang of things and do further testing.

Regards, Darren

If you've changed to a preset after importing the file, you changed everything that the file attempts to fix This file is basically "001" format, but includes ID's in everything to prevent duplicates from having issues (ie, $Bill and -Bill users may end up having the same site.com/user/-bill/ profile page without it).


The ID's are always required in threads.
the "new" represents the fact that its a new post to you logged in. guests (bots) won't see that as they don't have a session. Plus, you can even use vbseo's guest only enhancements to turn the last post off for guests.

Thanks Brian...

So i should re-import the file you gave me and leave it alone ?

If that is what you want. If you prefer the 002 style urls, you are free to use that as well. It's all optional based on what you want your site to look like.

my last post.. when i first imported the .xml, it said:
"The following URL formats are currently empty and should be corrected:
VBSEO_URL_CMS_HOME"

So i got worried and selected the (VBSEO.com) as the preset for the CMS was set to:"Current Preset: 002" i changed the forums and blog settings to match that one.. so if forum and blog is best set to "None" than i will leave it like that ?

I just want the best chance of a successful board... so as i don't have exp with vbseo as of yet i am relying on help for this one.

Thanks again.. (sorry to be annoying lol, just don't want to stuff it up)

The cms home setting doesn't need a custom setting unless you move the cms.
by default, if you're in site.com/forum, the cms loads in site.com/forum/content/. with the cms home url setting, you can make the cms homepage run as site.com (root) without moving the whole forum. Its ok for that to be blank.