Feedback much appreciated

Hi - I've been working the 2 last weeks setting up a new website and forums.I'm finally excited that I installed vBSEO tonight. I'm sure it's just the beginning and I need your help, comments and suggestions so I can improve my website:

GoMorocco.com - The Morocco Travel Forums

Thank you in advance for your time and support.

Thank you Mike -
I just moved the Stats below the forums and will be displayed only to registered members.
I will work on customizing the status buttons and other graphics. also thank you for the link to Joe's list
Thank you for your time and hopefully i get here more suggestions

I think i should install vbseo in this thread so i can get some feedback

this is weird but i noticed less visitors since i installed vBSEO, am i doing something wrong?

Your Site Review - Stuff to Do First

Some quick feedback:

• On your vBA homepage, I would get rid of the calendar, birthdays, news & announcements, online users, login box, stats.
• Also on the homepage, I would prefer the recent threads be in the side bar as just links to the thread, rather than all the extra info about who posted & when, etc. That is noise.
• You should have some custom intro text describing your site on your vBA homepage. Link up any significant keywords directly to sub-forums or threads within your forum.
• I would stop using footer archive links. You have too many of them.
• I would replace showpost with Permalinks.
• Check out our Relevant Replacements.

Thank you for the tips, much appreciated.

Did you go through these resources in detail yet? It seems like there is still some stuff you can improve on.
Your Site Review - Stuff to Do First

Briansol's Ultimate Guide to vBSEO

FYI - I prefer not branding your site title with your domain name (GoMoroco.com). If anyone searches for that, you are going to get the traffic anyway. So I would either take it out of your title, or at least move it to the back such as:

"The Morocco Travel Forums - GoMorocco.com"

• Your flashchat plugin did not work for me. Got to a language selection and locked up.
• You spelled "transportation" wrong on your links page.
• Your links section does not get much activity (only a few links in there). Is it worth keeping?
• Same with your blogs. Only 8 total entries.
• Why don't you try to integrate the "radio" feature right into the template. At least try to create a better page for it in your forum template style. You could get a player that embeds and plays the stream (defaulted to "off" of course). It consumes a link on every one of your pages now.
• Are you getting many donations? If not, I would remove it from the navigation and find a better way to integrate it.
• You need to login to "Invite Friends". Therefore, remove it from the navigation for guests. Use conditions so that it shows for registered users only.
• Your Calender and Member links are only for logged in users. Remove the links with conditionals for guests.
• Remove the link for the FAQ. It's not really necessary.
• You should move your "Register" link up into your login box, and then get rid of it from the lower (pink/gray) navigation area.
• I would get rid of the "Join our Live Chat and Have Fun!!" link. Keep in mind that sometimes the live chat will take away thread content that would have been created.
• I would get rid of all of the following text in your welcome message:

You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join our community today!

If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact contact us.

If you are a guest, lazy to register and want to say hello, leave a comment or ask a question, Please feel free to do it here in the Guests forums.

• You could consider rewriting some of the remaining text to get coverage on some niche related keywords and also to link some of the keywords up to related sub-forums or thread pages that are important on your site.
• I'm not really a fan of displaying recent threads on the forum homepage. I would actually rather see the most valuable niche sub-forums (not feedback, announcements, etc) linked redundantly on the homepage. And if you are linking to threads, I would prefer the hottest threads, most active or most replies, etc. If those threads turn out to have bad titles, try adjusting the titles with some specific keywords. Be careful, often it's the time that might have made it so active.
• You need to review your sub-forum descriptions. Please be sure to remove all the spelling mistakes. Also find opportunities to make them more niche specific, adding keywords that will help enhance the page and also give users more specific ideas about what to start talking about in there.
• You should be trying our Relevant Replacements feature. This would also allow you to get H1s onto the page, if you use our recommended setup.
• You should upgrade to vBSEO 3.3.0 and start taking advantage of our "Virtual HTML Display" feature. Some things I would consider applying it to include:
  • The "myaccount" login area at the top of the page.
  • The entire "What's Going On?" block.
  • The "Display Options" block.
  • The thread icon descriptions.
  • The "Posting Rules" box.
• The photos in this thread are extremely cool. I would consider featuring them right on the homepage:
• Only in Morocco - the weirdest photos
• You should select the option to make your CSS load from an external file, instead of within the page.

See Upgrade Instructions In Readme.html File in your vBSEO Package