Moving high traffic 200.000 threads to new VB version and vBSEO

[MartijnH]

I'm hoping for some advice of the experts here as I'm a little stuck on making a decision and to see if it's worth the effort.

Our forum is pretty big with nearly 100k visitors every day and over 200.000 threads. Nearly all our traffic is currently coming from Google and I would like to keep it this way.

Now there are several things we have been delaying as I assume there is a risc that we lose a lot of traffic:

• We want to change our layout from the current one to a new so it's consistent with our frontpage again
• Upgrade Vbulletin from v3.0.x to v3.6.x
• Install VBSEO to it as well

This would mean that Google will see new pages (layout) and new URL's.

So my question is:

1. Should I worry about the URL's, will vBSEO rewrite and redirect the URL's (currently still showthread.php?t=n) so well that I should not worry that Google will drop pages?
2. Will pages that are ranking well, drop in the SERPS's (even temporarily?)
3. Will vBSEO also make sure that the new layout is optimised or should I find more 'design guidelines' for SEO purposes? E.g. does it also enhance keyword density by putting text on places where the default VB installation doesn't do it?
4. We are already using TD2Man sitemap for VB, do we need to replace it with the one of vBSEO?

Is there anyone who can answer these questions or is able to help (paid) with this process? I look forward to any replies and if anyone else has feedback or suggestions regarding this update, then please let me know.

[Mert Gökçeimam]

Hello ,

1. All old vBulletin url's will be 301 redirected to new url's. In one or two month google will reindex your site and within this period you'll not loose any new visitors.
2. As they will be 301 redirected you will not loose your high ranked keywords instead you will get better rankings because of link consensus and keyword density.
3. In the new layout i will advise you to use header structure like :

• h1 : Site Name
  site description
• h2. Thread Name / Forum Name
  first x words of thread / forum description
• h3. Reply

Also you can achieve this pretty easy by using Relevant Replacements which is a feature of vBSEO. vBSEO also released a seo optimized style to license owners for free ( the current one you see on the board ). You may use the style as basic to create seo optimized new layout.
4. I advise you to upgrade vBSEO Google/Yahoo Sitemap Generator v2.0.

If you have any other question please donot hesitate to ask.

[MartijnH]

Thank you for your very quick reply, much appreciated!

Another question, how do you think the load would be. I read in another thread that it would be an increase of about 0.1? With so many pages and traffic, do you think it will also be that low?

[Michael Biddle]

Well if you have a custom skin let me tell you, you are in for some work because the vb style has changed dramatically from 3.0.x. But getting the latest and the greatest is always a good idea

[Mert Gökçeimam]

Thank you for your very quick reply, much appreciated!

Another question, how do you think the load would be. I read in another thread that it would be an increase of about 0.1? With so many pages and traffic, do you think it will also be that low?

If the server resources are not enough and the server is already having difficulties then vBSEO may crash down the server.
If the server is well optimized and has enough resources than you will see only a little increase in load average. You can also check vBSEO Optimization Tips for optimization tips.