Forum SEO tips

Tariel Zivzivadze · 03-19-2007, 06:04 AM

could you recommend the topics, articles or etc. which can be used for seo of forums?

thanks

Immo · 03-19-2007, 06:09 AM

Depends on the subject matter, what is the forum about?

Tariel Zivzivadze · 03-19-2007, 06:19 AM

here is the case ...

www.conference.ge is about everything related to business ... this is a business conference online and I can not just name a topic and say that this should be a search term ... no way ...

fact:
on March 17-th I opened a topic regarding the 300 - the new film. I opened a topic named ”სამასი - 300 - აი მესმის ...” ...

the word "სამასი” is "three hundred" in Georgian ...

on 19-th I see that if you search in google by the search term "სამასი”, the topic I opened appeares first -http://www.conference.ge/index.php?showtopic=2481

I know this is very good, but I want more ... I get more than 40 % of my website isitors from google search. But I want to do it better.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated ...

Immo · 03-19-2007, 07:59 AM

Firstly you could look into some "hacks" for phpBB (im assuming thats what you are using based on the url). For instance if you look at the URL on this thread you can see that its layed out as /forums/seo-forum/51149-forum-seo-tips.html instead of forum=X&thread=X&post=X.

Basically get rid of the variables in the URL, either using a hack for phpBB if thats what you are using or by looking into mod_rewrite in htaccess to display "friendly" url's.

Other than that you can obvisouly mess with the code (if you know PHP) so that certain on page elements appear bold, add H1 - H6 tags where nessesary etc.

John Scott · 03-19-2007, 08:05 AM

I love the increased search visibility gained from mod rewriting the URLs to appear static.

Tariel Zivzivadze · 03-19-2007, 08:23 AM

thanks my friends

one note: I am using IPB
And they say that they have no official responce on the SEO optimization of IPB

mod_rewrite in htaccess - to say the truth I do not know what it is, but I guess what it does - it gives static URLs. Hope I'll find a hack for ipb to get that result.

"certain on page elements appear bold, add H1 - H6 tags where nessesary etc." - I kno that H1-H6 tags matter but did not use that trick before ...

thanks ...

any other tips?

gio · 03-19-2007, 08:28 AM

what type of forum script are you using for your forum?

Tariel Zivzivadze · 03-19-2007, 08:32 AM

I am using IPB

Johan007 · 03-19-2007, 09:48 AM

Server re-write is arguably effective. I would suggest these tips...

1. Forums are full of links and information. Remove as many non essential information as possible and those that do not need to appear in in Search Engines stick in a nofollows or better robot.txt

2. Keep your title tag 100% descriptive and avoid repetition words/phrases.

3. Keep your forum 1 step lower down in the architecture should reduce the amount of PR given to those page saving it for your sites main pages.

Immo · 03-19-2007, 10:03 AM

Other things are to limit or not allow signature links which obviously screw up your pages. Profiles are for links to home pages not forums pages...

Some people will disagree with me on that point but I think signatures just screw a page up and dilute the content.

Also get rid of any unneeded repetition of text. Forums have a habit of spitting out lots of unneeded text.

Tariel Zivzivadze · 03-19-2007, 10:41 AM

thanks Johan007

1. I try to remove not only nonessential information, but non essentioal links as well. For example I removed all unnessaccary links from lo-fi version and inserted the link to domain into the template to accumulate PR on the domain. I do not use robots.txt. Should I? Let the bots follow all the links, or that is not good? If I restrict a bot to follow a link, that page will not be indexed, but how will that affect PR? Does is make sence?

2. I really folow this...

3. How can I realize that? Each forum receives a link from the first page. If I will not do that, they will not be shown ...

PLus,
I try to remove all the unneeded links from the internal linking system in order to save PR and pass that to more important pages

and what is server rewrite?

Immo,

I allow the links into the signature, but restrict it to only one link [we have a code of conduct].

But could not grasp the second point about the profiles - " Profiles are for links to home pages not forums pages...".

Immo · 03-19-2007, 11:40 AM

I dont like signature links basically. They dilute the on page content so I always disable them.

server rewrite = mod_rewrite

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/mod/mod_rewrite.html

A lot to take in but worth a read.

cybersaber · 03-19-2007, 12:46 PM

Well for phpBB2 I can recommend my SEO services: phpbb2 SEO

If anyone is interested PM me. I'll show you a DEMO.

ninjashoes · 03-19-2007, 03:34 PM

Set up a main page using a portal mod. Have it pull posts from your most popular forum area. Make sure this portal page is optimized for a few high traffic keywords.

Now get some quality backlinks!

Tariel Zivzivadze · 03-20-2007, 12:47 AM

Immo,
nice link, thanx, but is there a easier way? I'm not a programmer ...

ninjashoes,
I would not do that. I would get a separate domain for the portal and arrange it there ... I am saying that from the point of Marketing perspective ...

any other tricks?

Johan007 · 03-20-2007, 03:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tariel Zivzivadze

Immo,
nice link, thanx, but is there a easier way? I'm not a programmer ...

You do not need to be a programmer, I am not convinced they help significantly to even bother removing "?" and "=" from URL's and replace them with key word rich titles. But I am in the minority.

Robot.txt could help you remove pages instead of trying to find everylink to that page to add "nofollow".

I use ASP forum and remove these...
Disallow: /forum/post.asp
Disallow: /forum/faq.asp
Disallow: /forum/policy.asp
Disallow: /forum/password.asp
Disallow: /forum/members.asp
Disallow: /forum/search.asp
Disallow: /forum/pop_profile.asp

User-agent: Googlebot
Disallow: /forum/post.asp*?

(I dont think I needed to add the Google bot wild card but I am just showing off).

Run any Robot.txt through a few validations including http://tool.motoricerca.info/robots-checker.phtml to make sure they work.

Immo · 03-20-2007, 04:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tariel Zivzivadze

Immo,
nice link, thanx, but is there a easier way? I'm not a programmer ...

ninjashoes,
I would not do that. I would get a separate domain for the portal and arrange it there ... I am saying that from the point of Marketing perspective ...

any other tricks?

If its a standard installation you can probably download an example file on the web somewhere. Have a look around. I dont use IPB so I wouldnt know where to get one.

Tariel Zivzivadze · 03-20-2007, 04:15 AM

ok, if I got it correctly, Robot.txt is good for choosing the pages which will not be found by the robots at all. So they will not be indexed, but they will not be able to pass that PR to other pages as well.

But, as these pages are still linked from the other pages on the same site, they get their portion of PR from the source page, or this PR is lost at all?

From the point of accumulating PR on the first page my experience is that you need to remove as many internal linkages [but not pages] as possible simultaneusly linking every page to the main one [better to domain].

So that Robot.txt will do good from the point of accumulating PR pn the domain?

Tariel Zivzivadze · 05-02-2007, 01:13 AM

Any suggestions?

Tariel Zivzivadze · 07-01-2007, 09:21 AM

http://www.seoipb.com/
nice set of advices ... and useful ...