When you have a moment - Critique & Feedback

Hello all,

As you have probably already realised I am posting here as I am extremely keen to get the most out of vbSEO and the site that it is running on. This request has been born out of my perception, as an SEO newbie, that I am not getting the best from SEO and my recent realisation that vbSEO is not an install and forget product.

As a result of the comments made in the post linked above, in the last few days I have spent time reviewing my implementation of vbSEO and how I use this in conjunction with site configuration & management. As such I would really appreciate some honest (even negative) feedback on what I am about to describe. So without further ado the site in question can be found here:

http://www {dot} therevcounter {dot} com

I have no idea what information will help you guys with the critique so below I have spammed just about everything I think might be relevant:

vbSEO Configuration & General Information

There are countless extremely informative posts here that detail optimisation/configuration (i.e. this and this). Based on the information I have found I have made numerous changes to the site, my management of it and of course vbSEO configuration. The following describes the highlights of these:

• I am using robots.txt to block bot access to areas that do not provide any SEO value (i.e. mods such as casino, arcade). I have attached the actual robots file to this thread.
• I am leaving all linkbacks etc unmoderated. I periodically look at them for curiosity sake but do not do anything with them.
• I am using Google webmaster tools.
  
  • I have set this to use the "www" prefix and I have a .htaccess directive that 301 redirects none www requests.
  
  
• I have changed the default vBulletin welcome header phrase (for forum homepage) to something more site specific. I have not implemented a image based welcome message for all pages as the information this would contain is next to the header logo.
• I am not using any subdomains for any content.
• With the exception of the HTML validation exceptions that vBulletin is capable of creating on its own, pages should validate.
• Archive is disabled.
• I am currently using relevant replacements for guests viewers only, this places relevant information directly underneath the page header and inside H1 tags. In addition to this I have edited the showthread template to include thread tags under the RR items (inside a H2 tag) *.
• I am not currently using any important rewrite rules.
• I am using a regex (^[a-zA-Z0-9\s]+$) to limit usernames to alphanumeric and spaces
• Powered by vBulletin & forum title has been removed from page titles
• Homepage does not have pointless widgets (rather subjective ) and is used to showcase what can be found in the site.
• Navigation to all areas is fairly obvious (I think).
• I use Google Analytics (code for this was added to VB footer template before I installed SEO, so I haven't used the vbseo option for this, I assume this doesn't make any difference)
• Site was submitted to DMOZ but I believe it is still not on.
• I use vbSEO sitemap generator (see below for more information)
• I use vbSEO conditional sigantures (see below for more information)
• CSS is in an external file

Rather than write down my full vbSEO configuration here, I have attached the XML file that is generated from settings export. Before upload I have edited the XML to remove some configuration values that I would prefer to remain private (VBSEO_DOMAINS_WHITELIST, VBSEO_DOMAINS_BLACKLIST)

* To enhance the effectiveness of the Relevant Replacement & Tag system mentioned above, I have recently started the manual process of going through threads that are older than 2 weeks and changing the title to something more SEO friendly, this also includes adding more relevant tags (or removing irrelvant ones).

Sitemap Generator Configuration

The following describes my current sitemap generator configuration.

1. vBSEO Installed? Yes
2. If you have vBSEO, include old urls? No
3. Max URLs in Sitemap Files? 30000
4. Include Show Post Pages? No
5. Include Member Profile Pages? No
6. Include Archive Pages? No
7. Include Show Thread Pages? Yes
8. Include Forum Display Pages? Yes
9. Include Poll Results Pages? No
10. Include Blog Pages? Yes
11. Include Member Profile Album Pages? Yes
12. Include Social Groups Pages? Yes
13. Include Social Groups Picture Pages? Yes
14. Include Tag Pages? Yes
15. Excluded Forums List? All non conversation forums, i.e. FAQ, Site Help etc
16. Page Update Frequency - Show Post? Never
17. Page Update Frequency - Member Profile? Monthly
18. Page Update Frequency - Forum Display? Hourly
19. Page Update Frequency - Poll Results? Monthly
20. Page Update Frequency (Default) - Show Thread? Hourly
21. Page Update Frequency - Blog Entries? Weekly
22. Page Update Frequency - Album? Weekly
23. Page Update Frequency - Social Groups? Weekly
24. Page Update Frequency - Group Picture? Weekly
25. Page Update Frequency - Tags? Daily
26. Smart Frequency for Show Thread Pages? Yes
27. Priority - Show Post? 0.1
28. Priority - Member Profiles? 0.2
29. Priority - Forum Display? 0.6
30. Priority - Poll Results? 0.1
31. Priority (Default) - Show Thread? 0.9
32. Priority - Blog Entries? 0.6
33. Priority - Member Profile Albums? 0.2
34. Priority - Social Groups? 0.3
35. Priority - Social Group Pictures? 0.2
36. Priority - Tags? 0.5
37. Smart Priority for Show Thread Pages? Yes
38. Auto-Notify Search Engines? Yes
39. Generate Yahoo-Compatible Text Sitemap? Yes
40. Delay Execution After Each Sitemap File? 20
41. Sitemap Files URL? Blank
42. Receive Email Notifications? Blank
43. Addon Generator Modules? Blank

Conditional Signatures Configuration

I am also using the vbseo developed conditional signatures modification, the following details my current configuration:

1. Select Signature Action for Short Posts? add rel="nofollow"
2. Apply Conditional Signatures For Guests Only? Yes
3. Set Minimum Post Length (# of Words)? 100
4. Set Minimum Post Count? blank
5. Set Maximum Posts Per User Per Page? 0
6. Specify Excluded Users (IDs)? Blank
7. Specify Excluded User Groups (IDs)? 26 - This is my sponsors group so I allow them to have links without nofollow

Other odds and sods

• Google analytics current shows 10,483 different search terms driving traffic to the site.

Site Software & Modifications

1. vBulletin 3.7.3 Patch Level 1 - Will be upgraded to 3.8 when it goes gold and all mods support it.
2. All Albums 2.3
3. Auto Database Backup 2.12
4. vBCasino
5. Geek Article Review System 2.1.9
6. ibProArcade 2.6.7 & ibProArcade CMPS 1.0
7. My Forum 1.0
8. No Links or Images Allowed for People with Fewer than X posts 1.1
9. Personal Notepad
10. Post Thanks
11. Radio & TV
12. vB Google Adsense site search for navbar and search 1.4
13. vBadvanced CMPS 3.0.1
14. vbSEO 3.2.0
15. vBSEO Conditional Signatures 1.4.2
16. vBSEO Sitemap Generator 2.2
17. vBulletin Blog 2.0
18. Miscellanous BBCODE enhancements (i.e. embedded youtube, googlemaps etc)

As you can see from the site link above I am using a custom style, this is primarily changes to the default colours/images and various minor template changes. In the main the style changes are purely visual.

Areas where I "think" am probably lacking

As mentioned earlier, I am something of an SEO newbie and I am not ashamed to admit that alot of what I read makes little or no sense to me at all. Based on what I have understood these are the areas where I believe I am lacking and having an adverse impact on SEO, there are probably more:

1. I haven't put much work into getting other sites to link to mine, I realise it is good for the site but it just seems a bit spammy and I don't want to get a reputation as a spammer. Having said this my members seem to do a good job of this.
2. I have not tried running any promotions/competitions.
3. The reviews area is somewhat lacking, loads of members not many of them can be bothered to submit reviews and I am no journalist and I don't want o simply copy other sites content.
4. An "Articles" section has been in the pipeline for month, but again I am no journo and I don't want to simply copy other sites content.
5. There are no blog details on the homepage.
6. I don't actively submit anything to digg, stumble etc.
7. I have not given much thought to submitting RSS feeds to the various sites out there.
8. I am not really sure of what I can do with the information that Google Webmaster tools provides me with.

So that is that and everything I can think of. I am in no doubt that I have probably missed some important keystone information so feel free to ask any questions.

Thanks in advance.

Here is something that has just occurred to me:

I currently use GARs for the classifieds and reviews section, I also intend to use this for an Articles section. However, at the end of the day GARs is just a restyled thread/forumdisplay - this might sound like a stupid question but would a search engine "mark down" the content as it seems to be on a forum, if it was a more traditional content layout would the search engine look on it more favourably?

Anybody?

i have small thing about your robots file
Check that
Robots.txt

• The notices are not helpful for SEO.
  
  • However, once vBSEO 3.3.0 is released you will be able to use them without impacting your SEO. Right now you have the same notice text at or near the top of every page on your forum. This is not a good indicator of unique content.
• You have the same welcome message on your homepage as you do on your forum homepage.
• I would remove "Community @ The Rev Counter" from your sub-forum page TITLEs.
• Your sub-forum descriptons could use some work. In some of them you do have related niche keywords which is excellent. Others have very general statements like "Discussion & comment...", etc. This stuff does not add much search value to your page. For some of them that are so general that you can't find many keywords to add into the description, you can consider leaving them without a description at all.
• Keep in mind, if you have a sub-forum that (a) you can't think of any niche keywords to add for it, and (b) it does not describe itself without a description, then it's probably not a good choice for a sub-forum to have on your board. It's too vague.
• You can also link up some of the keywords in your sub-forum descriptions, if you have a good article or thread that you want to try to help rank for the keyword.
• I would remove the actual username links (on your homepage) for guests only, in the "Online Users" module.
• I prefer to replace the showpost links (on your thread pages) with a Permalink. This effectively disables your showpost pages altogether, and provides for a massive boost in crawling efficiency (90%+) by getting rid of this largely duplicate content. You can disable this in the "Permalinks" section of your vBSEO settings (vbseocp.php). If you choose to do so, you should also remember to disable "Include Showpost URLs" in your vBSEO Sitemap options.
• I would either (a) remove the following text, or (b) convert it to an image:
  
  • These advertisements are removed when you register and become a TRC Supporter / Sponsor member.
• For the H1 you are using in the Relevant Replacements (on your thread pages), I would:
  
  • Apply the H1 tag *only* around the thread title part, not the sub-forum title and text snippet. Just the thread title.
• Why do you have "Olly" and "Demographic" linked at the top? I would remove these links from your header area, at least for guests.
• I think I would reduce the # of tags you have in your homepage tag cloud by about 50% or more.
• I would disable the Random Social Groups module for guests.
• I would disable "Today's Birthdays" for guests. Guests are not going to care as much about birthdays as your active members *might*.
• On your homepage:
  
  • I would disable the Forum link, next to your "Sell and buy for free" listings.
  • I would disable the Forum link, next to your "Latest reviews from..." entries.
  • I would also disable the Forum link, next to your "Latest Community Discussions" entries.
  
  
  
  • • All of these forum links are not really necessary for the user, yet they are consuming homepage links. It's not that it's bad for there to be a link to a sub-forum from your homepage. It's actually good. However, the entries are bringing up duplicate links to the same forums.
    • I'd rather make your link profile more efficient on the homepage, and better channel your link value into the forum.
• Are the terms in your tag cloud producing any traffic for you? Check in your Analytics. If there is nothing substantial, then I would delete the cloud entirely and further optimize your homepage link value flow.
• You listed a whole category of marketing things you're not doing. I think it would be a great exercise for you to try 1 or 2 of them out soon, and see what kind of results you end up getting. vBSEO will take care of your SEO, but it's not a replacement for general marketing strategies.
• You might even consider merging all of your TRC trader sub-forums into one, and setting up some forum rules that ask them to label the threads with "[WANTED]", "[FOR SALE]", "[FREECYCLE]", etc.

Originally Posted by Joe Ward

....an invaluable critique....

Many many thanks for the feedback, I will work on all of these suggestions over the next few days.

Originally Posted by marco1

Good but i have small thing about your robots file
Check that
Robots.txt

I will look into that as well

Rightio, based on the feedback given I have made some changes. In an effort to help others the following is a description of what has been done:

The notices are not helpful for SEO.

The notice is there for the competition I am running at the moment but I see what you mean, so I have changed the notice so that it only displays to logged in members, and changed the homepage guest welcome message to contain a competition description.

You have the same welcome message on your homepage as you do on your forum homepage.

The welcome message on the forum homepage has been removed completely, the homepage one has been left

I would remove "Community @ The Rev Counter" from your sub-forum page TITLEs.

Done, the required changes to the FORUMDISPLAY template.

Your sub-forum descriptons could use some work. In some of them you do have related niche keywords which is excellent. Others have very general statements like "Discussion & comment...", etc. This stuff does not add much search value to your page. For some of them that are so general that you can't find many keywords to add into the description, you can consider leaving them without a description at all.

I have updated every description to be, I hope, keyword rich while still be human usable.

I would remove the actual username links (on your homepage) for guests only, in the "Online Users" module.

I have changed the 'forumhome_loggedinuser' to include a conditional statement that uses profile links for logged in members and straight text for guests/bots:

Code:

<if condition="$show['member']">
	<if condition="$show['comma_leader']">, </if>$stylevar[dirmark]<a href="member.php?$session[sessionurl]u=$loggedin[userid]">$loggedin[musername]</a>$loggedin[invisiblemark]$loggedin[buddymark]
<else />
	<if condition="$show['comma_leader']">, </if>$stylevar[dirmark]$loggedin[musername]$loggedin[invisiblemark]$loggedin[buddymark]
</if>

This means that members still get the links, and guest can still see that it is an active site without loads of links that they are not interested in and bots shouldn't follow, everybody is a winner!

I prefer to replace the showpost links (on your thread pages) with a Permalink. This effectively disables your showpost pages altogether, and provides for a massive boost in crawling efficiency (90%+) by getting rid of this largely duplicate content. You can disable this in the "Permalinks" section of your vBSEO settings (vbseocp.php). If you choose to do so, you should also remember to disable "Include Showpost URLs" in your vBSEO Sitemap options.

I have changed the vbseocp "Forum Permalinks" setting to "Replace post number link with Permalink" and "Include Show Post Pages" has been set to no in "ACP -> vBulletin Options -> vBSEO Google/Yahoo Sitemap Generator"

I would either (a) remove the following text, or (b) convert it to an image:

• These advertisements are removed when you register and become a TRC Supporter / Sponsor member.

The text is a reminder to users that they can upgrade and remove adverts and tells guest that the site doesn't spam adverts once registered and logged in, so I have changed this to an image that links to register.php

For the H1 you are using in the Relevant Replacements (on your thread pages), I would:

• Apply the H1 tag *only* around the thread title part, not the sub-forum title and text snippet. Just the thread title.

Done, the H1 surround the thread title, and h2 around the text snippet/tags

Why do you have "Olly" and "Demographic" linked at the top? I would remove these links from your header area, at least for guests.

Removed for guests

I think I would reduce the # of tags you have in your homepage tag cloud by about 50% or more.

Having checked analytics stats the tag cloud doesn't seem to be doing anything really, so it has been killed

I would disable the Random Social Groups module for guests.

Done, however this was a route for the bot to follow into the social group system, groups on my site are fairly popular and currently have almost 8000 messages. So I have update the navigation panel to include a link to the group homepage.

I would disable "Today's Birthdays" for guests. Guests are not going to care as much about birthdays as your active members *might*.

Agreed, disabled for guests

On your homepage:

• I would disable the Forum link, next to your "Sell and buy for free" listings.
• I would disable the Forum link, next to your "Latest reviews from..." entries.
• I would also disable the Forum link, next to your "Latest Community Discussions" entries.

Agreed, disabled.

Although, regarding the first two, these are something I intend to work on. Both of these areas use GARS and have thumbnails, so I intend to create a VBA module that pulls the information in and renders thumbnails and title.

Are the terms in your tag cloud producing any traffic for you? Check in your Analytics. If there is nothing substantial, then I would delete the cloud entirely and further optimize your homepage link value flow.

As per the comment above, the tag cloud is now disabled.

You listed a whole category of marketing things you're not doing. I think it would be a great exercise for you to try 1 or 2 of them out soon, and see what kind of results you end up getting. vBSEO will take care of your SEO, but it's not a replacement for general marketing strategies.

I apologise for what is a rather fluffy question, but what sort of "marketing" do you think is a worthwhile?

You might even consider merging all of your TRC trader sub-forums into one, and setting up some forum rules that ask them to label the threads with "[WANTED]", "[FOR SALE]", "[FREECYCLE]", etc.

hehehe, now there is a thing - originally it was joined up but members hated it.

You've done a lot of great work to optimize here. Very impressive.

I would love to see the difference between your long tail 60 days before your update and 60 days afterward.

Please let us know if the changes result in some fast impact.

Marketing provides so many different options! I recommend doing some research on some of the forums dedicated to that topic.

Thanks for taking the time to say how you made the changes you made on your forum for SEO benefit. I appreciate it and have used some of the things suggested here as well.

Cheers,
Bruce

Originally Posted by Joe Ward

I would love to see the difference between your long tail 60 days before your update and 60 days afterward

Here you go:

• Before Changes - 1 Oct 2008 - 30 Nov 2008 : google sent 79,662 total visits via 24,576 keywords
• After Changes - 1 Feb 2009 - 31 Mar 2009 : google sent 82,710 total visits via 31,098 keywords

So not a massive change but it is certainly heading in the right direction, and I have to admit that I haven't been adding the tags to old threads so the tag list in H2 on the majority of threads is empty.