Critique Please (NBADimensions.net - NBA Forum)

[JMEWLS]

I would like to hear ways to possibly optimize my forums and things I should do to better my SEO. I was requested to make a thread via this post made by Joe Ward.

http://www.vbseo.com/f84/site-report...tml#post218251

Thankyou in advance.

[hornstar6969]

Bug: colour chooser on home - does not work, it just redirects you to the forums. Either fix or get rid of it on the home. On the forums it works fine.

Security: Change your modcp and admincp directories. Also add a htaccess authentication on modcp, admincp and your two new directories for that little extra security.

Upgrade: vbulletin to 3.8.2 and any other modification/software on your site to the latest versions.

Overall: Your site looks great, it is clean, organized and looks fairly active. (Couldn't find any site stats tho. I often like looking at site stats to see how active things are before I sign up on other peoples forums, but this could be a positive if your site stats are low) Overall a great job on the site. Now all you need to do is to keep the quality content coming in, and give your site time. Nothing happens over night. Things usually pick up over time, so keep up the great work, keep things interesting and exciting for your members and you will see your site keep on improving!

Good luck.

[JMEWLS]

Bug: colour chooser on home - does not work, it just redirects you to the forums. Either fix or get rid of it on the home. On the forums it works fine.

Security: Change your modcp and admincp directories. Also add a htaccess authentication on modcp, admincp and your two new directories for that little extra security.

Upgrade: vbulletin to 3.8.2 and any other modification/software on your site to the latest versions.

Overall: Your site looks great, it is clean, organized and looks fairly active. (Couldn't find any site stats tho. I often like looking at site stats to see how active things are before I sign up on other peoples forums, but this could be a positive if your site stats are low) Overall a great job on the site. Now all you need to do is to keep the quality content coming in, and give your site time. Nothing happens over night. Things usually pick up over time, so keep up the great work, keep things interesting and exciting for your members and you will see your site keep on improving!

Good luck.

Just a question, what color chooser are you talking about?

Also, how do I change my adminCP and modCP urls? Do I just change the directory now? For example:

AdminCP too controlpaners1?

Thanks.

[hornstar6969]

The skin chooser (sorry)

you need to change the name like you said, but also in your config file.

[JMEWLS]

Also, when I rename the modCP and adminCP locations will it automatically update in the footer? Just a quick question before I do this.

[hornstar6969]

yes it auto updates those locations.

[JMEWLS]

Okay, I've just updated the adminCP and modCP locations. I'm just about to update vBulletin right now.

[marco1]

Hello Jamie

• Good Forum Design
• i want you to replace your showposts with Permalink Check Out : [How To] Replace Showpost Links with Permalinks - Max Out Search Engine Crawling Efficiency
• You Should Upgrade vBSEO 3.3 Since you use vB3.8
• i can't continue Critique because you are use vBSEO 3.2 and i have some tips for vBSEO 3.3 Only you should upgrade and i will continue Critique your forum

[JMEWLS]

Hello Jamie

• Good Forum Design
• i want you to replace your showposts with Permalink Check Out : [How To] Replace Showpost Links with Permalinks - Max Out Search Engine Crawling Efficiency
• You Should Upgrade vBSEO 3.3 Since you use vB3.8
• i can't continue Critique because you are use vBSEO 3.2 and i have some tips for vBSEO 3.3 Only you should upgrade and i will continue Critique your forum

Hello, I've just replaced my show posts with permalinks. I'm in the midst of upgrading to vBSEO 3.3. I will report back when I am finished.

[JMEWLS]

I have just finished upgrading to vbSEO 3.3. Please proceed with critiquing. Thankyou very much.

Regards, Jamie.

[marco1]

Welcome again Jamie

• i want you to use these RR In your forum : RRs for vBSEO.com
• after you upgrade the all settings is lost so you should resetting permalinks : [How To] Replace Showpost Links with Permalinks - Max Out Search Engine Crawling Efficiency
• I want you to use Virtual HTML Display in your what's going on box Check Out My Blog :[How To] Add Virtual HTML Display In Your Forum Template
• i want you to remove FAQ,Calender from your navbar for guests only
• I want you to remove include every thing in your sitemap (Albums,Members Profiles Pages,Showposts .....etc) and only include thread pages and forum display only From vBSEO Sitemap Generator
• Are you Installed vBSEO Sig ?

[JMEWLS]

Welcome again Jamie

• i want you to use these RR In your forum : RRs for vBSEO.com
• after you upgrade the all settings is lost so you should resetting permalinks : [How To] Replace Showpost Links with Permalinks - Max Out Search Engine Crawling Efficiency
• I want you to use Virtual HTML Display in your what's going on box Check Out My Blog :[How To] Add Virtual HTML Display In Your Forum Template
• i want you to remove FAQ,Calender from your navbar for guests only
• I want you to remove include every thing in your sitemap (Albums,Members Profiles Pages,Showposts .....etc) and only include thread pages and forum display only From vBSEO Sitemap Generator
• Are you Installed vBSEO Sig ?

I have no completed everything, but I don't understand this?

• Are you Installed vBSEO Sig ?

What do you mean? Also, I actually removed the Calendar and FAQ links completely. Is that fine?

[marco1]

vBSEO Sig

• * Increases keyword density for keywords related to the thread topic.
• * Reduces outbound links.
• * Boosts ratio of content to outbound links.
• * Conserves Google PageRank.
• * Improves onpage search engine optimization for relevant keywords.
• * Encourages users to post more detailed messages (helping you build more valuable content).
• * Discourages users from posting with the sole purpose of establishing outbound links to their website(s) within the thread.
• * Reduce the amount of signature clutter within threads.
• * Optionally applies signature actions for pages accessible by guests and search engine crawlers only.

Download : vBSEO Conditional Signatures - Search Engine Optimization Plugin - vBulletin.org Forum

[Joe Ward]

• You should apply the Virtual HTML Display to your pink colored welcome box and also your vBulletin notices.
• Are all of the links in the footer to your sites, or are they paid links, or link exchanges, etc? Also - for the ones that have "index.php" in the link, you should get rid of that.
• You need to choose either www or non-www for your URL, and setup a htaccess redirect that forces one or the other.
• I'm not really sure why you are forcing your homepage to display index.php, but it should be root / and should be index.php
• For the team logos you have at the top, each one of those should have ALT text with the team name, or team name plus some other keyword variation.
• For the titles of the articles you have displaying on your homepage, you should use H1 tags.
• I would replace "Recent Threads" with "Hottest Threads" for guests. For members, you can consider keeping recent threads (when they are logged in), using a template conditional.
• You rank #3 for "NBA forum". You might want to try adding a phrase with about 3 keywords like "NBA Dimensions | NBA Forum: Teams & Fans". That could help you rank better for NBA Teams and NBA Fans. You would have to watch close since it could also possibly cause your "NBA forum" #3 spot to slip.
• Are you ranking for any of the team names in combination with out keywords yet (or the team names alone?). If not, we may want to think about the strategy of linking to them all on the homepage. It might be a matter of linking with different keyword variations rather than the team name itself.
• You rank on page 2 of Google results for "NBA Basketball Forum". You might want to try removing "NBA Dimensions" from the title on that page, to focus it better, and potentially move up to page 1.
• Likewise, you can change your "Forum Home" link in the footer to say "NBA Basketball Forum".
• For you Top 5 stats, I would like to see removed (for guests) Top Posters, and Latest Posts. Leave only Hottest Threads.
• The currently active users box can have Virtual HTML Display applied.
• When you search for each of your sub-forum titles how far are you down the rankings. Please give me a general report for how well you are ranking for your sub-forums. It might be possible to tweak your forum names to make an improvement.
• Your Display Options box can have VHD applied also, and also your post icon legend.
• I would remove the "x posts" link under each user's avatar (for guests).
• Please provide a sampling of some of the top keywords you get hits for, and we might be able to determine a better keyword strategy.

[JMEWLS]

• You should apply the Virtual HTML Display to your pink colored welcome box and also your vBulletin notices.
• Are all of the links in the footer to your sites, or are they paid links, or link exchanges, etc? Also - for the ones that have "index.php" in the link, you should get rid of that.
• You need to choose either www or non-www for your URL, and setup a htaccess redirect that forces one or the other.
• I'm not really sure why you are forcing your homepage to display index.php, but it should be root / and should be index.php
• For the team logos you have at the top, each one of those should have ALT text with the team name, or team name plus some other keyword variation.
• For the titles of the articles you have displaying on your homepage, you should use H1 tags.
• I would replace "Recent Threads" with "Hottest Threads" for guests. For members, you can consider keeping recent threads (when they are logged in), using a template conditional.
• You rank #3 for "NBA forum". You might want to try adding a phrase with about 3 keywords like "NBA Dimensions | NBA Forum: Teams & Fans". That could help you rank better for NBA Teams and NBA Fans. You would have to watch close since it could also possibly cause your "NBA forum" #3 spot to slip.
• Are you ranking for any of the team names in combination with out keywords yet (or the team names alone?). If not, we may want to think about the strategy of linking to them all on the homepage. It might be a matter of linking with different keyword variations rather than the team name itself.
• You rank on page 2 of Google results for "NBA Basketball Forum". You might want to try removing "NBA Dimensions" from the title on that page, to focus it better, and potentially move up to page 1.
• Likewise, you can change your "Forum Home" link in the footer to say "NBA Basketball Forum".
• For you Top 5 stats, I would like to see removed (for guests) Top Posters, and Latest Posts. Leave only Hottest Threads.
• The currently active users box can have Virtual HTML Display applied.
• When you search for each of your sub-forum titles how far are you down the rankings. Please give me a general report for how well you are ranking for your sub-forums. It might be possible to tweak your forum names to make an improvement.
• Your Display Options box can have VHD applied also, and also your post icon legend.
• I would remove the "x posts" link under each user's avatar (for guests).
• Please provide a sampling of some of the top keywords you get hits for, and we might be able to determine a better keyword strategy.

• Are all of the links in the footer to your sites, or are they paid links, or link exchanges, etc? Also - for the ones that have "index.php" in the link, you should get rid of that.

What ones are you talking about? The team links? Or the very bottom links? With courtsideview, BBWForums etc.

Those ones are link exchanges.

• I would remove the "x posts" link under each user's avatar (for guests).

Do I remove the whole link of just the URL? If so how do I just remove the URL

• Your Display Options box can have VHD applied also, and also your post icon legend.

What do you mean by display option?

• For you Top 5 stats, I would like to see removed (for guests) Top Posters, and Latest Posts. Leave only Hottest Threads.

Would it be better to remove the whole box for guests? It's a modification I don't think I can only show these.

• I'm not really sure why you are forcing your homepage to display index.php, but it should be root / and should be index.php

Also what do you mean by this? Do you want my page to point to..
www.nbadimensions.net instead of www.nbadimensions.net/index.php