Help me beat my competition

I know practically nothing about SEO so i need your help. What would everyone suggest i do to score better with the search engines?

Reef-Geeks

Hi Chris,
Here's some tips to get you started:

• Your skin is pretty dated. it reminds me of circa 2002 internet. It really needs a face lift. If you're planning to upgrade to vb4, perhaps waiting for this to re-brand is the right choice. If you're going to keep this skin, try to validate it. [Invalid] Markup Validation of http://www.reef-geeks.com/forums/ - W3C Markup Validator
• [How To] Move CSS to file system
• [How to] Setup www.yourdomain.com or yourdomain.com (www vs. non-www) - With .htaccess 301 redirects
• [How To] Completely Turn Off the vBulletin Archive
• [How To] Remove Forum Title from Thread Pages for Long Tail Optimization / Increased Thread Title Relevancy
• fix your left nav: Reef-Geeks both Homepage and Forums go to the same place
• Calculators & Converters left nav heading line breaks and just looks bad. why not replace with "Tools"
• Create a Favicon (for branding purposes)
• [How To] Replace Showpost Links with Permalinks - Max Out Search Engine Crawling Efficiency
• [How To] Add H1 Tags to your vBulletin Templates for Long Tail Search Optimization

Hello Chris,

Here is some more tips :

• Set up your vBSEO RR : [How to] Setup Relevant Replacements with vBSEO
• And Use this RR's Format : Relevant Replacements used by vbseo.com?
• THREADS THREADS THREADS : You SHOULD post some more threads as I mention in some old critiques, your forum threads is your way to get new visitors from search engines
• I'm recommended 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
• Disable your forum archive : [How To] Completely Turn Off the vBulletin Archive
• Are you Installed vBSEO Sig ?

Thanks for the links and feedback. Ill start picking away at this stuff ASAP.

Your skin is pretty dated. it reminds me of circa 2002 internet. It really needs a face lift.

You dont like that skin? I like it and my members do also. I looked around for some time and i would say that 95% of all the skins out there look like someone went crazy with a crayon or are so dark that i felt like i was hiding out in my moms basement. I'll work on validating it and stick with it for now

Are you Installed vBSEO Sig

What is this marco?

I'm recommended 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

I can do this except for members profiles. In the aquarium community people will search for certain members, kind of like groupies.

THREADS THREADS THREADS : You SHOULD post some more threads as I mention in some old critiques, your forum threads is your way to get new visitors from search engines

Im working on it This forum has only been live for a little over 8 or 9 weeks and we already have over 16000 posts.

Thanks again for the suggestions.

Are you Installed vBSEO Sig
What is this marco?

• 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.

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

Thank you. It says for 3.5.4 Does it work on 3.8.4?

yes.