Vega24
Sat 24th Nov '01, 2:11pm
I put together a article detailing some tips that I've come up with that will help you optimize your forum's home page for better search engine rankings. To view the entire article or to download the 15 page PDF version go to my website (www.windowsxplained.com) and click on articles up at the top. I tried to use as many screenshots as possible to help out and I also tried to make it detailed enough so that you will have a good understanding of SEO by the time you finish the article.
Here's a sample:
Introduction
In this article I’ll take you through the steps of optimizing your vBulletin forum for better search engine rankings and then give you some links to some websites that can help you submit your forum’s URL. While this article deals specifically with optimizing a forum, it could easily help you optimize any website. A little reading between the lines is all that is necessary. I’ll start off with the question I know you’re asking yourself.
Why should I spend time optimizing my forum for better search engine rankings when it’s my main site that people are interested in?
Well, people love discussion forums. I can name a dozen sites that, while they have great content, it’s the forums that keep visitors and customers coming back again and again.
Discussion forums are also a great way build your business. A “Q & A” forum, for example, will fit into almost any website and a forum helps to bond a website with its visitors. Creating brand loyalty and consumer loyalty along the way. A forum also helps to make your main site “sticky”. By giving visitors and customers a forum to participate in, you give them a reason to come back to your website again and again, and returning visitors and customers are what we all strive for.
So, with that in mind, let’s get started.
Discovering Your Keywords and Phrases
First, take a long hard look at what your forum is about. This is very important. You need to think about the topics that are covered and the purpose of your forum. Try to get an overall sense of what your forum has to offer people and what special niche does your forum fill.
Now, put yourself in the shoes of someone that has no idea that your forum even exists but would like to participate in your forum if they knew it did. Think about what that person would type into a search box to find a forum like yours. The words you answer with are going to be your Keyword(s) and Key Phrase(s) and you’ll use them to optimize your forum’s home page. Think about this for a while and then write them down because they will be used throughout this tutorial.
Feel free to distribute the article to friends, but if you would like to use it for commercial purposes, please contact me.
Enjoy!
Here's a sample:
Introduction
In this article I’ll take you through the steps of optimizing your vBulletin forum for better search engine rankings and then give you some links to some websites that can help you submit your forum’s URL. While this article deals specifically with optimizing a forum, it could easily help you optimize any website. A little reading between the lines is all that is necessary. I’ll start off with the question I know you’re asking yourself.
Why should I spend time optimizing my forum for better search engine rankings when it’s my main site that people are interested in?
Well, people love discussion forums. I can name a dozen sites that, while they have great content, it’s the forums that keep visitors and customers coming back again and again.
Discussion forums are also a great way build your business. A “Q & A” forum, for example, will fit into almost any website and a forum helps to bond a website with its visitors. Creating brand loyalty and consumer loyalty along the way. A forum also helps to make your main site “sticky”. By giving visitors and customers a forum to participate in, you give them a reason to come back to your website again and again, and returning visitors and customers are what we all strive for.
So, with that in mind, let’s get started.
Discovering Your Keywords and Phrases
First, take a long hard look at what your forum is about. This is very important. You need to think about the topics that are covered and the purpose of your forum. Try to get an overall sense of what your forum has to offer people and what special niche does your forum fill.
Now, put yourself in the shoes of someone that has no idea that your forum even exists but would like to participate in your forum if they knew it did. Think about what that person would type into a search box to find a forum like yours. The words you answer with are going to be your Keyword(s) and Key Phrase(s) and you’ll use them to optimize your forum’s home page. Think about this for a while and then write them down because they will be used throughout this tutorial.
Feel free to distribute the article to friends, but if you would like to use it for commercial purposes, please contact me.
Enjoy!