would love some suggestions...

...for http://www.puretalkforum.com. vBSEO installed since December '06. Looking for suggestions to improve the experience of the user and to get higher registration and participation rates. Thanks!

• I like the clean template you have selected.
• How are you conversions with the roll-down ads?
• Since you have a general talk forum, you do have a challenge on your hands. I strongly recommend that you consider a strategy such as the following to refine your forum titles and/or descriptions to attempt to be more competitive in some of the related terms you have chosen to represent:
  Google Webmaster Tools - Recommended for All vBSEO Customers
• I would use your welcome message to quickly point your users to a few specific discussions (or even polls) that might get their attention and get them interested early.
• With "any forum", I would never recommend leaving the default welcome message, nor a format similar to it. The FAQ link is completely unnecessary, as is most information regarding registration. Keep that part really simple and concise. Also don't use any bold text on any generic terms, unless it's absolutely necessary for emphasis to the user. Don't allow the search engines to believe you are trying to emphasize generic terms.
• I would disable the top 5 stats for "guests".
• I don't think you need the following text on your template:

Each post and its contents is the responsibility of the OP
The content posted does not reflect the views of the staff

• You could create a sticky with your policy, or a policy link, etc, instead.
• Since you are using the welcome message on all of your pages, I would have to recommend that you convert it to an image.
• You should definitely keep your forum title out of the title of your sub-forum and showthread pages. The title is important. Don't let your generic title skew the emphasis of the document for the search engine bots.
• I think you should use the replace showpost with permalink option (vBSEO Control Panel).
• You should try using our Relevant Replacements feature.
• I would get rid of your vBA homepage. I don't think it is adding value for users or for search engines with the current information that is there.

Thank you so much for putting so much time into critiquing my forums. I really appreciate it!

• I like the clean template you have selected.

Thanks. I like it, too!

• How are you conversions with the roll-down ads?

Not good. I'm getting rid of that ad very soon.

• Since you have a general talk forum, you do have a challenge on your hands. I strongly recommend that you consider a strategy such as the following to refine your forum titles and/or descriptions to attempt to be more competitive in some of the related terms you have chosen to represent:
  Google Webmaster Tools - Recommended for All vBSEO Customers

Thanks. I'm currently using Google Webmaster Tools on the site, so that should be easy to do. I will look at that post.

• I would use your welcome message to quickly point your users to a few specific discussions (or even polls) that might get their attention and get them interested early.

Thanks. I will look into doing this.

• With "any forum", I would never recommend leaving the default welcome message, nor a format similar to it. The FAQ link is completely unnecessary, as is most information regarding registration. Keep that part really simple and concise. Also don't use any bold text on any generic terms, unless it's absolutely necessary for emphasis to the user. Don't allow the search engines to believe you are trying to emphasize generic terms.

Thanks. I will remove the bold and the FAQ links.

• I would disable the top 5 stats for "guests".

I shall do that.

• I don't think you need the following text on your template:

I already have a policies section on the forum, so I will remove that. Thanks.

• You could create a sticky with your policy, or a policy link, etc, instead.

I have done this.

• Since you are using the welcome message on all of your pages, I would have to recommend that you convert it to an image.

Can you please go into a little more detail as to how I would go about doing this? Is there a post somewhere that describes how to do this? Thanks.

• You should definitely keep your forum title out of the title of your sub-forum and showthread pages. The title is important. Don't let your generic title skew the emphasis of the document for the search engine bots.

How do I do this? Is it safe to remove the generic title when I am already indexed? Thanks.

• I think you should use the replace showpost with permalink option (vBSEO Control Panel).

Thanks. I just did that.

• You should try using our Relevant Replacements feature.

I looked at this in the control panel. It's a little confusing. Can you give me a little more detail please? What should I do there?

• I would get rid of your vBA homepage. I don't think it is adding value for users or for search engines with the current information that is there.

I'll ask the members what they think. I didn't want one at first, either, but the members actually asked me for it.

Again, thank you so much for your time!

OK, I figured out how to do the welcome message image, and I added some links to discussions. What do you think of it?

Please also see the above post.

Thanks!

You should be very safe removing the generic title. It should help improve your ranking ability on all pages. Check your stats first, but I'm doubtful that you will find it contributing to helping any pages rank higher, with the exception (perhaps) only of your homepage.

Relevant Replacements:
[How to] Setup Relevant Replacements with vBSEO

If you want to keep the vBA page, I would just review it, getting rid of any fluff (like the calendar), etc, and adding more valuable content than just announcements.

I think you did a great job with your welcome message. I'd like to see more emphasis on the hot topics, just by moving them up. To do so, I'd just get rid of the lines talking about the benefits of joining. I think most of that stuff is obvious nowadays. However, if you want to keep it, you could just move it below the hot topics.

Thank you very much!