A few newb questions.

i just purchased and installed vBSEO and i have a few questions. im pretty new to this so excuse me for my questions.

the directions said the default settings were enough for most forums.

anything i should change?

what exactly is link backs?

where are all these links stored?

how is this retroactive to old threads?

im so lost as to how all this works. haha any help and advice is appreciated.

how exactly will this put my site high up in the list if other sites are running the same software.

First you should make sure you know which URL preset you would like. I recommend using our demo to see how each of them looks before installing:
http://www.vbseo.com/demo/

LinkBacks include the 3 ways vBSEO supports detection of other sites that link to your forum, Pingback & Trackbacks (from the blog world), and RefBacks, a proprietary vBSEO term which means a URL that is tracked when someone clicks it to arrive at the site.

All Linkbacks are stored and are visible on your thread pages. You can either approve them for public view, or keep them hidden (moderated).

These links get stored in the database.

When the search engines or users try to follow yourold URLs, vBSEO will automatically 301 redirect them, which is the search engine preferred method for find the new location. They won't get an error. They will be sent immediately to the new page.

It's certainly true that you will have competition amongst other forums running vBSEO. vBSEO is a big part of the success puzzle, but you'll further separate yourself by other things you do including creating great content and getting other sites to link to you. Without vBSEO, you would be at a significant disadvantage to the others.

In fact, you should open a critique request so that we can offer you some additional tips to get you even better optimized:
http://www.vbseo.com/f45/

where are all these links stored?

The list of 'linkbacks' from other forums / websites is stored in the database.

If you are talking about the rewritten URLs of your own forum,
they don't get stored anywhere. They are pre-processed by the vbseo script on-the-fly.

thanks for the speedy response. kind of suprised me. haa

Originally Posted by Joe Ward

First you should make sure you know which URL preset you would like. I recommend using our demo to see how each of them looks before installing:
http://www.vbseo.com/demo/

well i already installed it and i was messing around in the admin panel and read where it said it would reduce my success if i change the format after install. im guessing i can still change it since i installed it a few hours ago.

i was checking the site that gave me the idea to use vBSEO and i noticed their urls are set up like this sites urls is set up. is there any particular reason that format was chosen for this site. right now mine currently looks like this.

/forum/lyfe-chat/60760-whose-up-anyway.html

i noticed this site has F# in place of the forum name. whats the number thats associated with the url?

i also noticed that when i click a thread from the forum home page it takes me to the regular url instead of the vBSEO one.

LinkBacks include the 3 ways vBSEO supports detection of other sites that link to your forum, Pingback & Trackbacks (from the blog world), and RefBacks, a proprietary vBSEO term which means a URL that is tracked when someone clicks it to arrive at the site.

All Linkbacks are stored and are visible on your thread pages. You can either approve them for public view, or keep them hidden (moderated).

so i don't have to turn this on for me to see what sites linked backed to my site. i need to check the admin panel for something about this. i would rather have them just for me to view. no need for the entire site to see.

These links get stored in the database.

When the search engines or users try to follow yourold URLs, vBSEO will automatically 301 redirect them, which is the search engine preferred method for find the new location. They won't get an error. They will be sent immediately to the new page.

It's certainly true that you will have competition amongst other forums running vBSEO. vBSEO is a big part of the success puzzle, but you'll further separate yourself by other things you do including creating great content and getting other sites to link to you. Without vBSEO, you would be at a significant disadvantage to the others.

In fact, you should open a critique request so that we can offer you some additional tips to get you even better optimized:
http://www.vbseo.com/f45/

thanks for all the answers. i will request a site critique

Originally Posted by Shadab

The list of 'linkbacks' from other forums / websites is stored in the database.

If you are talking about the rewritten URLs of your own forum,
they don't get stored anywhere. They are pre-processed by the vbseo script on-the-fly.

got ya thanks

i was talking about the rewritten URLs.

well i already installed it and i was messing around in the admin panel and read where it said it would reduce my success if i change the format after install. im guessing i can still change it since i installed it a few hours ago.

You still have time to tweak them (if you want). It's never too late.
But for users who have been running vbseo for quite a while (like me. ) it *can* be counterproductive.

i noticed this site has F# in place of the forum name. whats the number thats associated with the url?

The number (#) associated with the URL after 'f' is the Forum ID of the forum / sub-forum in which the thread was posted.

i also noticed that when i click a thread from the forum home page it takes me to the regular url instead of the vBSEO one.

Can you post an example of such a URL ?
Normally, it should (301) redirect to the vbseo'd URL.

have a run through my guide as well.
(link in sig)

Line by line analysis - TruLyfe

i get the normal link from every thread i click on from the forum home page. you know where it shows the most recent thread for each forum.

im not sure how to choose which url to use. do i just base it on whether or not i like the look of the format. which format is best for search engines.

i kind of like seeing the forum name im the url vs f#.

another question how does it help with search engines if the link is built on the fly for the user and not stored anywhere?

forgive my newb questions. i never understood how this works. i just know it works. haha

damn i just seen a new post post while i was writing mine. what option is that in vb? i just upgraded to 3.8.1 yesterday from 3.6.8. hahaa

Originally Posted by briansol

have a run through my guide as well.
(link in sig)

this name is crazy familiar from my early days on vb.org 3 years ago. i haven't seen it on vb in a minute. i haven't been active there much since i was using the same version for over a year. ha

i'll take a look at ur guide.

thanks

im not sure how to choose which url to use. do i just base it on whether or not i like the look of the format. which format is best for search engines.

If you rename your threads and/or move your threads quite often, then it's best to have an URL format which is non-hierarchic and purely ID based. Example :

forumdisplay page » /forums/f[id]/
showthread pages » /forums/t[id]/

another question how does it help with search engines if the link is built on the fly for the user and not stored anywhere?

It may or may not help with the SEO (the devs can answer this question better). But processing URLs in realtime is advantageous, IMO.

If vbseo was installed on a board with say... 1Mil. posts / 100K threads and the URLs were stored in the DB, then you would have had to run a separate install script to build the URLs of each and every thread, post, member, sub-forum, tags, blogs, etc. Which could take a lot of time. And if you ever tweaked your URL formats / settings afterwards, you would then run that rebuild script after each change; which would be too much of a hassle.

With the current system, you have to just upload the files and import the XML product file to install it.

Originally Posted by vbreal

this name is crazy familiar from my early days on vb.org 3 years ago. i haven't seen it on vb in a minute. i haven't been active there much since i was using the same version for over a year. ha

i'll take a look at ur guide.

thanks

it probably wasn't me i rarely post on .org