Question on numbers before descriptive URLs

We currently have our URLs configured so, with an odd number before the descriptive URL:

Victorian Shoot - PhotoCamel - Your Friendly Photo Community

Question: from an SEO standpoint, isn't it better to have that odd number at the end--or not at all?

Note: for some reason, when I paste this URL into the board and hit Save, the title appears as above, rather than the URL, which includes this at the end: 37593-victorian-shoot.html

The number corresponds to the thread ID, and it's recommended that you keep this in place:

NOTE: You should always include [thread_id] within your URL format since threads can often have the same titles.

Whether the number occurs at the front or the back may not be largely significant. However, this is something that is configurable in your vBSEO control panel (vbseocp.php). Once could argue that positioning at the back would be preferred to allow the keywords to take *forward occurrence priority*.

Note: The anchor text that you see your URL replaced with is added by vBSEO. It's our "Add Titles to External Links" feature.

Originally Posted by Joe Ward

The number corresponds to the thread ID, and it's recommended that you keep this in place:



Once could argue that positioning at the back would be preferred to allow the keywords to take *forward occurrence priority*.

Note: The anchor text that you see your URL replaced with is added by vBSEO. It's our "Add Titles to External Links" feature.

If "forward occurrence priority" is even preferable, why is that not the default? If I change my URLs now, they'll break in a million places around the Web.

I'm not suggesting changing your URLs. In fact, I recommend that you certainly do not. There is no proof available at this time that having the # at the start or end of the keywords will provide impact.

Originally Posted by Joe Ward

I'm not suggesting changing your URLs. In fact, I recommend that you certainly do not. There is no proof available at this time that having the # at the start or end of the keywords will provide impact.

Thank you.

On a related question, is there any quantifiable evidence that using vBSEO actually improves search engine rankings? I see that a lot of us assume it helps, but I'm not sure by how much.

We have thousands of customers, and only rarely receive complaints most of which are related to confusion about installation/configuration.

However, we *continually* see reviews detailing growth attributed directly to vBSEO, sometimes moderate, sometimes *explosive*. During the course of almost 3 years, this provides overwhelming evidence of the power of vBSEO. There is a reason that vBSEO has rapidly become known as the definitive SEO enhancement for vBulletin powered forums.

There is no mystery as to why this occurs. vBSEO is founded *100%* on whitehat, safe, effective, well-known SEO principles, many of which are actually advocated as a part of the search engines own published webmaster guidelines in the case of Google in particular.

When you build SEO applications or strategies based solely on whitehat principles, growth is almost guaranteed. Follow best practices. Reap the rewards. But remember, another best practice in the SEO field is patience. SEO is a chess match with moves played in terms of months, not days.

Stick with it, and remember to keep us updated with your success with vBSEO.