Changing some forum and sub forum name - concerned about SEO

[Metalgearsolid_x]

Hi guys,
I am thinking about changing some forum names and sub-forum names in my forum. Now I was wondering, If I change them (add or delete texts), am going to hurt SEO wise? does all the previously cached or crawled link by google or msn becomes invalid? (since there are more or less words now)

Thanks for you time.

[briansol]

Yes, you should avoid doing this if you're indexed well AND use words in your forum rewrite instead of ID's (which is why i suggest using ID's only... you could chage the title all you want and not break links).

If you re-name, you should set up redirects to the new locations. That's been outlined here a couple times with rules form Oleg. do a search.

[Metalgearsolid_x]

Yes, you should avoid doing this if you're indexed well AND use words in your forum rewrite instead of ID's (which is why i suggest using ID's only... you could chage the title all you want and not break links).

If you re-name, you should set up redirects to the new locations. That's been outlined here a couple times with rules form Oleg. do a search.

hmm intersting ..thanks for the heads up.. HOw do I know if I am using ID or text system? My VBSEO was installed by VBSEO.com and vb was done by my hosting company.

Any link to Olegs username or the "rules" thread ?

thanks.

[susanspy]

hey all, nice & interesting posts out here, i just came across this place on a google search & thought or dropping a few lines of appreciation!!!

Keep it up guys!!!

[Oleg Ignatiuk]

Hello,

in case if your forumdisplay links are looking like "www.example.com/text-here/" then you have title-based URLs (which is default), ID-based are looking like "www.example.com/fXX/", where XX is a number.

In case if the forum title has changed, you can setup a "Custom 301 redirect" in vBSEO CP like:

'^old-title/(.*)$' => 'new-title/$1'

[sulley007]

Oleg/briansol - any chance either of you could help me with a big problem before it's too late. can I IM or email? Really need some help on this.

[Oleg Ignatiuk]

Hello Kenneth,

what is the issue you get?

[sulley007]

I have title bars separating the sections and they were renamed. I didn't know how that's going to impact a well indexed site and if it will break the links. I don't have any way to know what they were named to go back and restore.

[Oleg Ignatiuk]

Do you mean renaming the "category subforums"? That's not a problem since you have no threads inside them and child subforums do not include parent category title in URLs.