www.3reef.com

www.3reef.com

I'd love your thoughts on my SEO and the site in general.

So far, I have custom navbar stuff and of course vBseo. I look forward to installing the new version this weekend and the Google site map.

SEO has really been on my mind lately and I've been trying to incorporate many things from T2DMAN and this site as I can.

I look forward to learning a lot from you all. This is great!

caliman

What do the search engines see of your threads? The guest messages?

• I recommend that you add the guest messages below the navbar. You want the real info about the thread to be as high as possible on the page.

Other recommendations:

• search phrase selection - use the Digitalpoint keyword suggestion tool and find out what people are actually searching for relating to your field.
• Then make sure that those words are actually used in the forum titles and descriptions, and on the index page firstwords - you have to be rather careful in changing the forum names, as that is of course what google has as path and file names for your pages.
• I like having numbered links to each of the main archive pages on the footer - this gets the max Google Pr to the archive pages, therefore to the threads.
• there will be other things, but as mentioned, this is a quicky review of the things that have stuck out for me.

Originally Posted by T2DMan

What do the search engines see of your threads? The guest messages?

• I recommend that you add the guest messages below the navbar. You want the real info about the thread to be as high as possible on the page.

Man that is a really good point. I will change that this weekend. Thank you.

Originally Posted by T2DMan

• search phrase selection - use the Digitalpoint keyword suggestion tool and find out what people are actually searching for relating to your field.
• Then make sure that those words are actually used in the forum titles and descriptions, and on the index page firstwords - you have to be rather careful in changing the forum names, as that is of course what google has as path and file names for your pages.

Thanks I'll check it out that link.. I just recently changed a forum name..ugh.. when I turned on vBSEO does that change forum names in affect?

Originally Posted by T2DMan

• I like having numbered links to each of the main archive pages on the footer - this gets the max Google Pr to the archive pages, therefore to the threads.

Gotcha. I actually was going to sign up for that link exchange you recommend on your site as well.. How id you create the numbered links like that?

Thanks for all this...

The numbered links I create manually - I copy the html of the main archive page into excel and create the html. But now you mention it, would be simple enough to create a bit of php to create the html, then paste it onto the footer. I havn't been bothered till now.

vbseo does not change the forum names, it uses those names for the url's - of course. But that is the issue, if you later decide that you need a more appropriately names title for SEO purposes, then that changes the url of the forum, and all the threads in that forum. vbseo is pretty smart, and can redirect to the new url. But better to have a real good think about search term selection and forum names before you install vbseo, so you dont have all those changes floating around Google, and also confusing your users.

The Link-Vault.com

Links, links, links. Yes, after you have got vbseo, done your onpage optimization, made yourself look fancy so that users like you once they have visited, then you need links. Links are the deciding factor once everything else is right.

The link vault is an amazing system of getting links from other similar websites - you get credit for the PR of your pages (=Vaultage), and then you use up that vaultage by getting links back into you. Its all a big program that does all the work for you. A bit of code via plugin onto your pages, and asking for links on a config page.

BUT, and this is the big but. As good as the system is, Google can see that lots of links are coming into a website. Too many, and it possibly thinks twice about things. With the latest Google update codenamed Jagger, many sites have been hit. One possibility is that over linking may be part of it. I just hate it. How else can you get to the top once you have done everything else right.

So yes, sign up for the Link Vault, but be careful, like a powerful car, it can be dangerious in untrained hands. Like vBSEO, I have had a part in the development of LV, lots of hints, bug fixes, ... fun.

I have got installation details on the following Link Vault and vBSEO thread.

Thanks for the info!

I will install Link Vault this weekend... did you make a script for your footer?

Hey T2DMan, I noticed my links on Google go from 92,000 to 11,900 this week!

I think I know why though... I messed with the Archives link and changed it to 'Site Map.'

PHP Code:

<if condition="$vboptions['archiveenabled']"><a href="$vbpoptions[bbdir]/sitemap/index.php">Site Map</a> -</if> 


I wasn't thinking about Google at the time... what should I do?

EDIT - I restored original footer code until I know what the heck I am doing. See this:
http://www.vbseo.com/f2/please-expla...ur-footer-2029

With any rewrite, it is going to take a while for Google to note all the changes. Of itself, renaming the archive to sitemap would not have made the difference in number of pages in Google.

• Initially you will have heaps more pages, since you will have the original pages, plus the rewritten ones
• You will of course have heaps less pages in Google once Google has updated itself properly to the rewritten pages - you wont have all the junk pages.
• Of itself, the number of pages in Google is not an issue, its how high those pages are in Google that is the issue
• Google is changing its datacenters all the time, and at any one moment, the count may not be totally representative of the number of urls that Google has in its index at any one time
• No, I have not written a script for the footer sitemap/archive generation, but its easy enough to copy and paste etc as I have done numerious times into the footer

I am pretty sure I had that number prior to installing vBseo.. hmm.. well it's too early to tell..

Anyway, thanks for the heads up on the keyword selection tool. That was really helpful and I redid mine after playing with that and realizing how many lame ones I had.

I am currently moving my guest message per your instructions.