Thinking about it.

I've been considering purchasing vBSEO for the longest now, and I have to say that the success stories you publish are a bit tantalizing. However, I'm sure that there are many times more stories of failure.

My board is relatively small, about 1.8k members, and 8.8k posts (down from 14k members and 500k posts after a reboot of the forum), and has been in a kind of limbo for a long time.

I was wondering what kind of impact that vBSEO would have on my board. I've officially gone "live" today, that is to say that I am actively going to be advertising and trying to get the word out.

The amount of activity on my board would probably classify it as "new" or "dead" based on your perspective. I have adsense on my site, and have earned $1.41 for the month of June, to put it into perspective. I would love to make this a day, because then my site would cover the hosting charges a month.

Is vBSEO right for my board?

vbseo is only a Tool to help index your content in a more structured way.

However, if you don't HAVE content, vbseo can't help you.


If you're willing to put the time into your site, creating quality content, then yes, vbseo will help you.
if you expect to sit back and have 3243243242 hits a day from doing nothing, you're going to be mistaken.

Most of the huge success stories have been on large forums. And rightfully so.... there's simply more content to get better-indexed.

Me, i'll never run another forum without it.

However, if you don't HAVE content, vbseo can't help you.

well said

Create quality content as in articles/threads that are relative to the board's theme, correct?

It would almost seem like a catch-22. You can not have a popular board without members, and no members unless the said board is popular.
If all or most of the content is produced by the administrator, then no matter how well indexed a page is, people will see this and it won't look good at all.

I'm wondering if vBSEO is VITAL to a forum's success, much like the transmission of a car.. or if it's just a creature comfort, much like an air conditioner.

Originally Posted by zacarias

Create quality content as in articles/threads that are relative to the board's theme, correct?

Correct. You need to start building keywords to bring in search engine referrals. Also, you should install Google Analytics and Google Webmasters Account asap. You should also think of installing the vBSEO Sitemap pretty soon, too.

Originally Posted by zacarias

I'm wondering if vBSEO is VITAL to a forum's success, much like the transmission of a car.. or if it's just a creature comfort, much like an air conditioner.

Yes, it is. It does most of the *hard* work for you. That's not to say it does everything for you, you still need to put the effort in, building links, creating content, ect ect.

And, like Brian said above, do NOT expect vBSEO to do all the work and expect a flood of new members. Chances are if you believe this, then you can expect not a lot to happen. Finally, as your site is new, I would immediately install vBSEO asap and get creating quality content, building links, ect ect.

Good luck!

a car with the BEST transmission is useless without fuel

your posts are the fuel.
vbseo is the transmission
vbulletin is the engine

if you have all 3, you can pick up passengers for a ride

When you start out new, traffic naturally has to start flowing slowly as you start from nothing, get your first few members/posters, and develop content at a slower rate than forums that have been around for a while.

But vBSEO is going to help accelerate your rate of growth, helping you be better prepared to make the jump to start up to cruising, from good to great.

...and then eventually the upgrade of your server

Originally Posted by Jason Amison

...and then eventually the upgrade of your server

If you have to upgrade your server because of too much traffic, then I would assume you would be very happy to do the upgrade!

Yes, that would be an upgrade I'd be happy to do, trust me.

Well, thanks for your help. I'll be investing in vBSEO this week, hopefully.

Yeah, same here - but with that comes more money.