JodoHost Customer Forum concern

[JodoHost]

We have a Customer's Forum (JodoHost Forums - Powered by vBulletin). It is quite busy. This forums also sees good amount of search engine traffic without implementing any SEO techniques.

My design/development team has worked on a new style - JodoHost Forums - Powered by vBulletin

My concerns are:

a. Will above new style affect search engine traffic in a negative way?

b. My team is yet to do SEO of this forum. Today I bought vBSEO for them. What kind of improvement I can expect using vSEO in new style?

I look for your suggestions.

Thank you all!

[JodoHost]

I guess, I posted in wrong section. Moderator, please move the thread in Pre-Sales section.

[briansol]

Hi JodoHost,

While your skin is not perfecrt, it's no worse than the default vB template. Unfortunately, that doesn't say much.
I don't have time right now to give you a fill review, but if you search under my name, I have written several thourough reviews of other's sites and a lot of the same issues apply to you as well.

Using vbseo will definitely help with rankings and focusing your content, however, the layout of the page has a LOT to do with it.

The best way to view your site, is with styles off ( use firefox, and grab the web developer tool bar https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/60/ ). On the CSS menu, chose disable styles.

This is what search engines "see". They can't read images, and as you can see from the output, it has a lot to be desired.

I've spent a lot of time helping Brent recently, and he did a GREAT job on converting his Mustang Forums | Ford Mustang Enthusiast Forums site. Take a look at his site with the styles disabled, and you will see what I mean

vbseo is a small part of the total SEO package. Fortunately, its also one of the hardest to do on your own which makes it an integral part to an SEO campaign.

The forums here are great and full of helpful advice. Any questions you come up with along the way will not go unanswered.
There's a diverse group of people here, all with their own specialties.
Me, I'm big with CSS and template optimization. Oleg, Juan, Joe, and Keith among others know the product inside and out and can assist with any troubleshooting you may have with the software itself.
There's also a couple (Pro?) SEO guys here... TDman, Lizzard King, and Micahel especially can assist with taking it one step further.
Got other pages besides vBulletin pages? No problem. vBSEO supports external pages re-writing as well with custom rules. Common software add-ons like galleries and arcades already have code written and available in the Custom Rewrite Rules forum.

[JodoHost]

Thanks for your comments. I will look into it further.

[Joe Ward]

Hi Atul,

Please do the following:
[HOW-TO] Remove "Powered by vBulletin" from Your Page Titles

[JodoHost]

Hi Joe,

My programmer had done that few days ago. However I had him put it back becuase I read somewhere in vBulletin FAQ, that there is extra fee if you want to get rid of it.

[briansol]

No, removing the text from the title is within the vB TOS and does not require a branding removal fee like removing the footer text. Search here, vB staff approved it.