SEO

Since I run a forum where we actually have real discussion, I've always wanted a simple template like the stock vb one, but just a little better. Cleaned up. Faster.

The closest I could find was at vbStyles.com. I bought the very elegent (relative to other templates available) Element template there.

Immediately, everyone hated it... said it wasn't as readable as the stock template.

Gave it another week, thinking they just weren't used to it.

They still hated it. Participation went down.

We're talking both men and women here, from college age to their fifties or so.

Ugh!

Now the template here is so darn sparklingly clean and simple. Much more clear. Very phpBB like (I think that's the best looking forum, even though vb is superior).

It's not at all like the insane over-the-top Doom inspired crap that companies seem to focus on when selling vB templates.

Where'd this one come from? Can I buy it (at least as a starting point)? Pleeeeeease? For the love of god, and all that is good in the world?

And does anybody know if there are any template designers out there who actually understand USABILITY and screen READABILITY... people who loathe video game inspired insanity (mind you, I like video games -- just not in my forum, please!)... someone who can make things even more usable than stock vb, even prettier than phpBB?

Actually Juan designed the entire look and feel for vBSEO.

FYI I believe is something else on the forums that is working on a stripped back template with SEO mind. I'll see if I can find the thread.

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Joe Ward / Crawlability Inc.
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Check out this thread:
http://www.vbseo.com/f4/de-tablizing-my-vbulletin-4603

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Joe Ward / Crawlability Inc.
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Then Juan should be selling templates.

I'm serious.

There's 8 bazillion nightmare inspired, barely usable templates for sale out there -- starting at $30 a pop. Great for teenagers talking feeling alienated, but what about the pro sites?

It's just weird... vB is the choice of some of the biggest pro sites out there... I mean, heck, VB costs money, unlike phpBB (which, stock, is perhaps a little more professional looking & definitely clearer).

Yet there are no real "pro" looking templates out there for vB, like this one.

Nor can most of the big sites vbulletins find good designers. I've looked, and they look just as poorly designed as mine. Heh (a really HUGE non-vb site for Nikon users that makes over $1million a year in revenue looks like HTML vomit!)

That Juan -- I tell you -- he has a good eye, and a real understanding of usability.

But will it look great like this?

I know this just looked stripped to me initially, but it's a little more than that. He made careful font and color choices, too.

It's really a VERY thoughtful template.

Whoa! Now that's stripped.

I just want something like *this*, what you're seeing here at vbSeo.

I just saw that someone else thinks highly of the vbSeo.com look, too. Someone over at vbulletin.org apparently made their admin area look like this?

Yes - they released a vBSEO style for the Admin CP. Very cool.

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Joe Ward / Crawlability Inc.
Support Team Launches New DeskPro Powered Tool Enhanced Support at Your Service

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I think it has become quite apparant within the vBulletin community that designers design, and coders code. The problem being with this is that designers will often focus more on the intricate and over the top designs rather than finding something simplistically professional backed up by inventive codings and layouts. Often leaving many templates looking inefficient and excessively large. The same can be said for coders whom quite often want to roll out the project first and then concentrate on making it asesthetically appealing to the audience.

I'd have to agree that this style is absolutely fabolous. Low on graphics and images, infact it has no gradients i don't believe, yet works wonderfully resulting in these color combinations becoming highly associated with vBSEO.

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yup. definitely some good branding here.

I'm still on the oem template for now, as I want to fix the markup and template issues before I address making it look pretty.

I've been contacted to possibly go further with the optimized skin, so stay tuned. Something may come of this just yet.

I TOTALLY relate to hating most of the 'gamer' vB designs. There's a thread over at vB.or with a fairly comprehensive list of vb Skin sites.

Glad I'm not the only one.

And trust me, I've probably looked at all the "professional" skin sites.

Every month or so, I'll take a look at every one I can find, and all there are are more Templates of Death available.

Vbstyles.com Element & Satellite are probably the two most professional of the paid skins, but when I tried them my vb stats went down. They're clean skins, but they remove a lot of usability elements -- visual cues that are important for users.

I've seen one or two free skins at vb.org that almost qualify as good upgrades to the default skin. The only problem is that they're free, and thus they don't get updated or debugged as much as they should. Paying has it's benefits.

I think the market for PROFESSIONAL skins is huge. I'd buy this one by Juan, for instance, no problem.

Hehehe, you won't have to pay a dime for it

We are working to make it available to you guys free of charge. That is, if I get Brian to help us out with some CSS refining there, right Brian?

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Juan Muriente / Crawlability Inc.
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<--- pleads the 5th

I really appreciate the link in the resource link (http://www.vbseo.com/vbulletin/)

Yes, there are very clean templates available.

You may have a look at these, which are all very popular, at our test board:

Transverse Styles - vBulletin skins, vBulletin styles - Powered by vBulletin

Transverse Styles - vBulletin skins, vBulletin styles - Powered by vBulletin

Transverse Styles - vBulletin skins, vBulletin styles - Powered by vBulletin

You can have a look at the main Web site for more information. Thanks.

Um, well, I didn't mean the links to appear as the title... just the normal links.

Hi James - you've got some great looking styles. Maybe you should consider vBSEO-enabling your vB support forum & participating in our affiliate program.

http://www.vbseo.com/aff/

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Joe Ward / Crawlability Inc.
Support Team Launches New DeskPro Powered Tool Enhanced Support at Your Service

vBSEO 3.2.0 Launched - Maximum Overdrive for Your Web Traffic! Over 100 Instant SEO Optimizations

6X Traffic - $1400 in One Day with vBSEO! Imagine What the vBSEO Patent Pending Technology Can Do For You.

Hi Joe,

I've thought about it, but my main forums are IPB simply because I've used them from the start... I'll think about the affiliate program.

Thanks.