Which VBSEO should I install?

Hi all,

Hope you're well.

I have recently bought and installed vBulletin 3.7.0 (I am a new user), and have also paid for VBSEO (but not installed).

My questions are:

- Should I download VBSE0 3.1.0, 3.2.0 RC5, or wait until 3.2.0 Gold (also, how long do you think it will take for Gold to release?)

- Should I also download Sitemap Generator 2.1, or is this uncompatible with one or more of the above?

Many thanks

Callum

3.2 rc5 is pretty stable. there's a couple small bugs that have been worked out since, but nothing too major.
3.1 will work fine, however it was built around 3.6.x so it doesn't have seo options for the new features, like user albums, groups, etc.

it's up to you, really.
rc6 is currently in pre-release, and gold hopefully isn't too far off. Upgrading is a breese so there's no issues in that respect.

The sitemap 2.1 will work with either version. If you do go for rc5, there is one update to be made, as outlined here:
vBSEO Sitemap Update with 3.2.0 Release Candidates

many thanks!! excellent support..

Originally Posted by briansol

3.2 rc5 is pretty stable. there's a couple small bugs that have been worked out since, but nothing too major.
3.1 will work fine, however it was built around 3.6.x so it doesn't have seo options for the new features, like user albums, groups, etc.

it's up to you, really.
rc6 is currently in pre-release, and gold hopefully isn't too far off. Upgrading is a breese so there's no issues in that respect.

The sitemap 2.1 will work with either version. If you do go for rc5, there is one update to be made, as outlined here:
vBSEO Sitemap Update with 3.2.0 Release Candidates

Sorry Brian, one more question:

- I currently have my forum in the root directory.
If I decide to move it to a /forum folder at a later date (I would like to have an impressive vbulletin integrated homepage like VBSEO's and many other vbulletin sites i've seen, and I think it requires me to do that?), will this significantly damage the SEO I have built up?

Many thanks again

Callum

You can fake it

vb supports re-naming index.php to another name, like forums.php

then, you can make index.php your 'portal', set up a CRR for forums.php ->/forums, and bingo, site is still in root

This very method is used here at vbseo.com
homepage runs index.php (via vbadvanced, etc)
forumhome is forums.php, with a crr to /forums/
and the forums are then non-nested (ie, /f2/ instead of /forums/f2/) just like if you only had vb in root with no portal

awesome!!

I realise this is getting off the subject of VBSEO (in which case please do refer me to another site if you want), but can you advise how I do the CRR?

If I understand you right, the only other things I need to do are go to "Forums home page options" in the vBulletin options and edit "Script Name for Forum Home Page" to 'forum', and then edit the index.php file in the root directory to forum.php?


I have vBadvanced installed but its a bit too advanced for me as of yet! ...I'll read up on it this weekend!

correct, do the rename as you stated.

CRR is a part of vbseo.

in vbseocp.php, scroll down about half way.
find: Custom Rewrite Rules header.

add in that box,

'^forum\.php$' => 'forums/'


and that's it

cheers Brian

unfortunately its not working!

I've done everything we spoke about but here's what i'm getting currently:

Index of /


Here are the contents of my custom rewrite box:


'^forum\.php$' => 'forums/'

//================================================== ========================
// Sample Custom Rewrite Rule: showgroup.php as forumleaders.html (Remove the '//' in front of the rule to enable).
//================================================== ========================
//'^showgroups\.php$' => 'forumleaders.html'

//================================================== ========================
// Sample Custom Rewrite Rules: calendar as static pages (Remove the '//' in front of the rules to enable).
// Note: Enable the calendar dropdown redirect rule within the Custom 301 Redirects section below.
//================================================== ========================
//'calendar\.php$' => 'calendar/'
//'^calendar\.php\?c=1$' => 'calendar/'
//'^calendar\.php\?(c=1&)?do=(display.+?)(&year=)?$' => 'calendar/$2/[NF]'
//'calendar\.php\?(c=1&)?nojs=1' => 'calendar/nojs/[NF]'
//'calendar\.php\?(c=1&)?do=(display.+?)&nojs=1' => 'calendar/$2/nojs/[NF]'
//'calendar\.php\?(c=1&)?week=(\d+)&nojs=1' => 'calendar/week-$2/nojs/[NF]'
//'calendar\.php\?(c=1&)?month=(\d+)&year=(\d+)&nojs =1' => 'calendar/$3/$2/nojs/[NF]'
//'^calendar\.php\?do=getinfo&(c=1&)?day=(\d+)-(\d+)-(\d+)(&c=1)?$' => 'calendar/$2/$3/$4/'
//'^calendar\.php\?do=getinfo&e=(\d+)(&day=[0-9\-]+)?(&c=1)?$' => 'calendar/event-$1/'
//'^calendar\.php\?(s=&)?(c=1&)?(week=&)?month=(\d+) &year=(\d+)(&c=1)?(&do=displaymonth)?$' => 'calendar/$5/$4/'
//'^calendar\.php\?c=1&week=(\d+)(&do=displayweek&mo nth=.+?)?$' => 'calendar/week-$1/'


Sorry for the inconvenience

Callum

Brian,

All sorted!! (I called it forum but it said forums in your code)

I'm going to keep it as 'forum' unless there's a special reason why it should be called 'forums' like on VBSEO (other than to be correct grammatically)?
...The reason for this is because I reckon people manually typing in the address will guess 'forum'

All the best and have a great weekend!

Callum

In fact its still not working...

I'm really sorry for all these posts.

Here is the code rewrite:

'^forum\.php$' => 'forum/'

Here is my url:

Index of /

CRR seems to work fine for me: PhoneDevil.com - Powered by vBulletin
You should also add this in .htaccess:

Code:

DirectoryIndex forum.php

Awesome, that's fixed it

Thanks very much both of you, i'll leave you alone now :P

Oh one final thing:

when I type go to PhoneDevil.com in the browser it doesn't show PhoneDevil.com/forum in the browser

I think that is what is meant to happen, but can you confirm?

You should add this in .htaccess right after "RewriteEngine on" line in order to redirect:

Code:

RewriteRule ^$ http://www.phonedevil.com/forum/ [L,R=301]

cheers - is that what VBSEO.com does? I'm trying to copy all the 'big' vbulletin sites that use vbadvanced, where as Brian says:

homepage runs index.php (via vbadvanced, etc)
forumhome is forums.php, with a crr to /forums/
and the forums are then non-nested (ie, /f2/ instead of /forums/f2/) just like if you only had vb in root with no portal



...Also, if I add that line ("RewriteRule ^$ PhoneDevil.com - Powered by vBulletin [L,R=301]), do I keep or remove the "DirectoryIndex forum.php" line?