SEO

I'd love to get some feedback on my site, GridironFans.com

We just recently added vbSEO to our site and I am hoping to see our sites Google PR to increase over time.

So let me know what you all think!

Site looks good. You might actually want to scale back some of the link content on the homepage.

Check out:
Your Site Review - Stuff to Do First

Also see:
Briansol's Ultimate Guide to vBSEO

__________________
Joe Ward / Crawlability Inc.
vBSEO 3.2.0 Launched - Maximum Overdrive for Your Web Traffic! Over 100 Instant SEO Optimizations

vBSEO Google Sitemap Generator - Version 2.2 Released Mandatory Upgrade for vBSEO 3.2.0 GOLD

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

Anyone want to give any other feedback?

You are doing pretty good. I like your setup. Is the content on your homepage effectively generating hits for you?

How is your long tail growing?
Measuring Your Long Tail - vBulletin SEO Forums

You are doing a great job on your site. My recommendation might be to start looking on ways to just tighten it up a bit further. Look for areas to remove unnecessary noise text/links. Re-order stuff on the guest site such as the tags box at the top of threads (move to bottom for guests), etc.

Your site has a professional feel to it. So I would like to see you start looking at options for updating your template, hiring pro graphics artists to build you a new custom logo, and tweaking some of the display elements. Your homepage has good links, but may a little too many, and perhaps could be displayed a better better.

Again you are doing very good already. But I think you can take it to the next level. Once the vBSEO 2.0 style is released, I recommend that you consider that as an option for your forum.

__________________
Joe Ward / Crawlability Inc.
vBSEO 3.2.0 Launched - Maximum Overdrive for Your Web Traffic! Over 100 Instant SEO Optimizations

vBSEO Google Sitemap Generator - Version 2.2 Released Mandatory Upgrade for vBSEO 3.2.0 GOLD

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

I have to admit I am pretty green when it comes to the concept of SEO so any suggestions I can get are always very helpful. I will set up a Google Analytics account so I can see what my long tail is....although I must admit that just confuses me and I hope I can figure it all out!

I have taken your advice and have moved the tag box at the top of the threads. We actually use our topic tags a bit differently on our site. We don't tag every thread, just the ones in the news section. We also only use a pre-set list that we then have on a java window. All the reporters have to do is click on the tags and they get inserted automatically. I posted the modification that a member on my site came up with on vbulletin.org.

I don't know what you mean though when you say to remove unnecessary noise text/links. Would you mind elaborating on that for this SEO novice? Thank you in advance!

Long tail is just a fancy way of saying "how many different keywords do you get hits for from search engines?".

Noise text/links is stuff on the page that if you read it "by itself" would have no real relationship to your forum theme.

Your donation box for each member (vcash) is noise to the search engines when available for guests.

All of this member info is noise:

Join Date: Mar 2008
Gender: Posts: 3,849
Threads: 57
Referrals: 5
Reputation: 19091

Even your posting rules at the bottom of each thread is technically noise, although not many are inspired to remove it.

Your "Rate this Thread" block would be better (for *search engines*) if you get rid of it, move it down to the bottom, or move it below the first post for guests only. You can keep it in the same place for registered/logged in users.

__________________
Joe Ward / Crawlability Inc.
vBSEO 3.2.0 Launched - Maximum Overdrive for Your Web Traffic! Over 100 Instant SEO Optimizations

vBSEO Google Sitemap Generator - Version 2.2 Released Mandatory Upgrade for vBSEO 3.2.0 GOLD

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

Thank you for the feedback....now some updates:

Rate This Thread=Gone
Posting Rules=Gone

Now some of the info you pointed out is stuff our members like to see....how can I make it so that only members see this kind of info:

Your donation box for each member (vcash) is noise to the search engines when available for guests.

All of this member info is noise:

Join Date: Mar 2008
Gender: Posts: 3,849
Threads: 57
Referrals: 5
Reputation: 19091

You can use "template conditionals". Basically you can edit the templates and enter code that says:

Display this stuff only when a logged in member is visiting the site, otherwise hide it (or display something else).

Here is an excellent guide on template conditionals created by Brandon Shelley of vbulletinsetup.com:
vBulletin Template Conditionals List

__________________
Joe Ward / Crawlability Inc.
vBSEO 3.2.0 Launched - Maximum Overdrive for Your Web Traffic! Over 100 Instant SEO Optimizations

vBSEO Google Sitemap Generator - Version 2.2 Released Mandatory Upgrade for vBSEO 3.2.0 GOLD

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

Steve, you might want to start addressing some of your validation errors - [Invalid] Markup Validation of http://gridironfans.com/ - W3C Markup Validator

Personally, I don't like to display things like users online in the last 24 hours and top 5 stats to guests, either. That might help clean up your forum index page a bit.