Discussion Forums

[mortgage-pro-seo]

How can create a discussion forum which is easily indexed by googlebot?

Also should you host it on your domain? I suppose that would help you get loads of content and backlinks....

Any thoughts or tips would be greatly appreciated.

Or there any web sites on this subject matter?

[Pinyo]

1. You have to choose a good forums program. My first choice would be phpBB. With phpBB there are many hacks and mod to allows spidering of the forums. You can find more info at www.phpbb.com and www.phpbbhacks.com

2. In my opinion, it's better to have a forum as part of a bigger site rather than having a site that is just forum becuase normal content page tends to be indexed better and attract more spiders. You can then link your forums from your content page to facilitate better indexing. You can see an example of this on my own site.

3. This web site is as good as any to find more info. Otherwise, you are always welcome at my forums. ;-)

[I, Brian]

Forums can be a hell of a lot of hard work to buuld and maintain. So many forums die an early death when the admins realise how much effort can be involved in making a forum a success.

Of course, sometimes luck can play a part.