Review Request: CompuForums - Computer Forums

[www.CompuForums.org]

Hello all,

I'm looking for reviews of my computer-related forum. I'm particularly looking for views on what I should change.

Computer Forums (http://www.compuforums.org/)

Thanks in advance.

[www.CompuForums.org]

Anyone :(

[BamaStangGuy]

Hey Ashley,

Here are some things I have noticed since registering, posting and browsing around your site:

1) Your site loads very slow for me. I don't know where the host is or who it is but it takes 7-8 seconds to load for me and then when making posts it takes over 10 seconds for the posts to go through. I don't know if your host is in the USA or UK but coming from the USA loading the site is really slow.

2) I would not sell footer links. Especially those not related to your site subject. Google can tell when a link is repeated at the bottom of the page on ever page throughout your site.

3) You should expand your robots.txt more to include files such as printthread.php and your archive. I notice I can not find an archive link on your site and I agree with you doing that. No need to waste link authority across your whole site on a duplicate of your original content.

You can check out any of the robots.txt of my sites for additional files/folders to block. I'd also remove the entry that allows robots to access your site from your robots.txt. If it isn't there they access it anyway so there is no need to tell them to.

4) You will have a much higher CTR if you put your adsense ads above the fold. Also I remember you saying a long time ago that you were accepted into Burstmedia. How did that go?

5) Personal preference for me is I would turn on the Database Thread Marking System. I find this much easier for users when browsing and I am more likely to stay active on sites that make it easy to get information quickly

That is a quick observation. You can browse my vBulletin site in my signature as I have covered quite a bit of my views on how you can better optimize vBulletin for Search, Load and User Friendliness.

[www.CompuForums.org]

1) My host's servers are in the USA. I agree with you - I've recently had loading issues as well and so have many other members. It's resulted in the page not reloading properly when you post a new thread/reply and members refreshing it and double posting, thinking it's not gone through. I just opened a ticket with my host before starting to type this reply.

2) One footer link was sold and the other is part of a sitewide exchange. I'll re-locate them.

3) I've ripped your robots.txt file from vBsetup Forums - hope that's OK. I've put a plug for your site in there too if anyone else decides to view it
And I've always hated the archive feature, even before I knew much about SEO. Turning it off was one of the first things I did after installing vB.

4) I've been planning an Adsense position reshuffle for a while now, and I'll do it tommorow to try and make better use out of the 3 maximum slots allowed.

5) Done

Thanks ever so much for the detailed and helpful review - rep coming to your shortly, and I'll be visiting your forum more often in the future when I've got less on my plate.

[BamaStangGuy]

I've ripped your robots.txt file from vBsetup Forums

Not sure if you mean you found my robots.txt file on there or if you think my site is vBulletin-Setup I own vBulletinzone and loco.m owns vBulletin-Setup. Both have great information on vBulletin though

[Keith Cohen]

The slow posting could be related to the Update Services field in vBSEO. Try clearing that field out in your vBSEO Control Panel.