Placing an archive link on index page...

Is it beneficial to have a link to your forum archive on the main forum index page near the bottom?

Say place a link to: "http:// www.hometheatershack.com/forums/archive/index.php/" in the footer and title it "Archive Index"?

I've seen a few in various forums... the only difference is their archive had the forum descriptions included... is this better?

Thanks!

Yes - we like to use our "Rewrite Archive Root" feature for this in combination with one of our main Archive Options (see vbseocp.php):

Originally Posted by vbseocp.php

Rewrite Archive Root:
Use this feature to replace the default '/archive/index.php/' part of the archive pages to a more search engine friendly version.

NOTE: Old archive root URLs will be 301 redirected to the new custom formats. Therefore, previously indexed archive pages will still be found by both users and spiders.

Sample Custom Strings:
/hello/google/ or /sitemap/ or /archive/ etc.

Okay... in vbseocp.php the "/archive/index.php/" is checked.

I don't really understand what else I'd need to do. I have 4 options... the one above and these 3:
/archive/
/sitemap/
Custom:

Which would I check and what link would I use in the footer?

Thanks!

Your archive link is already down in the footer next to Contact Us and Home Theatre Shack.

We use /sitemap/ - I prefer that. Of course, with the custom field you could go ahead and be creative and doing something like /home-theater-sm/

heehee... neat... I changed to your recommendation. Thanks for that tip!

Any thoughts on the descriptions... is that something that is needed. I had noticed a few sites had descriptions on their sitemaps.