My SEO performance tracking

Hi!
I'm new to the site and vBSEO (and SEO in general), but I thought I would post track our results as a referance for myself and others.

As of March 5th 1pm
Forum Stats: 5400 members, 200000 posts, and 19000 threads.
SEO stats:
Google Pagerank: 2
Indexed Pages: 184,000 (google) & 93,000 (Yahoo)

I installed vBSEO last night along with the Sitemap plugin. I have noticed a HUGE increase in bots visiting the site this morning...so it appears to be working.

So far today in the SE Bots Activity screen we have had:
Google: 14
Yahoo: 13,785
MSN: 45
Total Bots: 13,845

I'm not sure that I'll see a large increase in Index Pages (with google anyway), hope I am wrong though, and hopefully we will see an increase in clickthroughs due to better keywords etc...

If any of you have any other recommended ways to track SEO performance, please let me know, thanks!

ok I've got a question. In the SE Bots Activity Log...if you "view details", it shows you the # of bots hitting the various pages on the site. Now, the pages shown are the usuals, IE: showthread.php, forumdisplay.php etc...

Is that because the log isn't using the Rewrite "hack" and therefore consolidatign results?

It would be a huge log if it showed every single thread that was hit (or post, or member, etc). So, it just shows you which sections of your site are being hit, using the .php files that generate those pages.

That is what I figured, thanks for confirming

Just an update...

As of March 8th 10am
SEO stats:
Indexed Pages: 184,000 (google) & 93,700 (Yahoo)
VBSEO Indexed Pages: 1 (google) & 5 (Yahoo)
Search Engine Refferals: No noticeable change


So not much happening yet...yahoo though definately appears to be more on top of things though so far as far as updating...unfortunately the few threads that it has refreshed (the vbSEO pages) are not among the most popular...but I expect there will be more added before much longer. Now if google would only start to update

Just a small update. I ended up placing the "welcome headers" hack back on the homepage and forumhome (not in the thread or forum display). Registrations per day dropped about 40-50% with that hack disabled, so I'm hoping enabling it on those 2 pages will help...otherwise I may turn it back on fully...we'll see...

In any case, no real change on the stats. Yahoo is now showing 36 reindexed pages, will google has remained completely unchanged so far.

As of March 9th 9pm
SEO stats:
Indexed Pages: 184,000 (google) & 93,700 (Yahoo)
VBSEO Indexed Pages: 1 (google) & 36(Yahoo)
Search Engine Refferals: No noticeable change

If you have it display below the navbar, it shouldn't be a problem to have it on should it?

I'm actually not sure. I do have it above the navbar currently, but would be willing to drop it down if that would allow me to run it without effecting the SEO.

Juan suggested disabling it except for the forumhome, so I just went with his advice.


While I have you here, I have had a complaint about the "last post" url rewrites not working. For example, someone gets an email saying there has been a reply in their thread...they click on the like to the post, and it takes them to the first post. I've noticed myself that clicking on the "last post" from the forum home does not always take me to the last post.

Any thoughts on how to correct that issue?

Last Post or First New Post?

both I believe. The most obvious however is the "Last unread post" from the forumhome. Appears to work correctly about 50%, if that, of the time.

Last Post should always work, no matter what.

First New Post never worked well with vBulletin until they added database support for storing the read markers in v3.5.x. Are you using that option?

another example would be:
I recieved a "reported post" notice a few days ago. Well when I click on the link to the offending post, I'm taken to the first post of the thread

Originally Posted by ConqSoft

Last Post should always work, no matter what.

First New Post never worked well with vBulletin until they added database support for storing the read markers in v3.5.x. Are you using that option?

I thought so, it worked great before.

Where is that option in the admincp, is it
"Thread/Forum Read Marking Type"?

ok, I turned on "Database (automatic forum marking)". it worked fine without it before, but that appears to resolve the current issue with "new posts".

It looks like the problem with the URLs in "reported posts" and "thread subscription" emails is only with the pre-rewrite URLs. I just reported a post to test it out and it appeared to work. I've sent an email to the user that was experiencing the problem to see if he is still seeing the same issue

As of March 12th 3pm (1wk since implementation)
SEO stats:
Indexed Pages: 182,000 (google) & 93,700 (Yahoo)
VBSEO Indexed Pages: 2 (google) & 473 (Yahoo)
Search Engine Refferals: No noticeable change

So still not much activity from google, however yahoo appears to be making some progress. Curious to see what the next couple of weeks will bring