Purchasing vBSEO...

[Endlesskiss]

Well, I prefer to post it here rather than on the vbseo.com forums as they will tell me that it's recommended...

As we know the upcoming version of vBulletin will be released soon... and I heard that it will have a built-in SEO with friendly urls... etc...

Therefore most of my traffic will be reduced as the URL format will be changed (I assume).

On the other side, it may take months untill vB4 will be released, and even then, I heard that there will be some kind of an "ImpEx" for the vBSEO so it won't lose it traffic [or at least lose minimum traffic].

So, to buy or not to buy, that's the question

[Mark.B]

I have to say there's already a million threads on this. It's even more boring than my own interminable posts about the beta process.

The answer is...buy it if you think it'll work, don't if you don't. Only you know your own site.

[Loco.M]

I agree with Mark
there are numerous threads asking this same thing
I suggest doing a quick search next time

[bigwater]

Better yet, look at recent threads regarding eliminating VBSEO from sites and determine if it's really something you want to get married to.

I had this girlfriend back in college... nevermind...

[Zachery]

Do you have any content yet? Work on your content first.

[anthonyparsons]

Not sure if any person should advise whether you buy it or not, as that is a personal decision, not a collective. Its your money... do with it what you choose.

[Endlesskiss]

Do you have any content yet? Work on your content first.

I do have stuff on my forum [members content threads etc].

I can afford the price of vBSEO, my question is about the elimination and if I should just wait for vB4 [as it has a built-in SEO].

And, even after vB4 will be released, which SEO will be better?

[beishe8]

And, even after vB4 will be released, which SEO will be better?

You would need a future teller to answer that question...

[nexialys]

1- upgrade to vB 4.0 will be free for you
2- vBSEO is 180$

what is the chance that vbSEO is more performing on your site than vB 4.0 SEO? even god can't tell, even Google SEO Masters can't tell...

it's up to you. as others said, it's your money.

[Mark.B]

I agree with Nexialys(!), vB4 is almost certainly less than six months away and will have perfectly adequate SEO built in. My gut feeling is to go with that.

[MRGTB]

I don't think it even boils down to which has the best SEO Tools. I think what matters most in your decision (regardless of the power, or lack of vB4 SEO power). Is does Google, which lets face it, is the only search engine that really matters out there these days. Capable of indexing your forum no problem without the need for any SEO Tools at all. Using just a robots.txt file to help point it in the right direction it needs to go, and places it doesn't need to go.

We already know Google removes duplicate content itself in it's search results for you, so we don't need any SEO Tools to do that. Does the URL (keyword) re-writes matter these days anymore, not really as Google (due to spammers abusing it) - put little weight on URL keywords anymore, and instead uses page content in it's ranking of your pages. No SEO Tools can help you with that, unless they can write articles for you. Little things like this should also be thought hard and long about.

There are other factors that come into play which no SEO Tools can help you with, like domain age and how long it's registered for. It's been said now for a long time, that domains registered for only a year - are not taken as serious by search engines as one's registered for 10 years. I have no proof of this, so believe it or not. My point is though, some factors do not even involve SEO at all. What about people who "PAY" Google to get a higher ranking, no amount of SEO will ever get you ranked above them.

[nexialys]

75% of the SEO work will be done inside vB 4.0 without even activating the SEO engine itself... better markups and semantic will be enough to make your site enhanced for web crawlers and newer web browsers.

the ones telling that vbSEO is essential for your site are the ones willing to make profits from you.

25% of vbSEO is just a markup engine that search/replace any string in your templates to make them work properly... that part is now obsolete with vb 4.0...

then we have the better urls from vbSEO... vb 4.0 will have better urls and the switch to activate the permalinks, *(permalinks are the friendly urls)... so vbSEO will be obsolete with this as well.

what about Google Sitemaps provided by vbSEO?... free, and available from 3 to 5 coders without thinking of vbSEO... search on vb.org!

so just that, vbSEO is obsolete in most parts. vbSEO is an engine that modify the content of vBulletin to make it use proper markups and proper links structure "for search engines"... does that make it a good piece of code for the members of your site?...nope... it slows down the process of your site --- ok, vbSEO techies will tell it's not slowing it... yeah... but it makes your server require 20% more RAM for a single page and it loads more than 500 lines of code for each page processed...

oh, and btw, vbSEO is a commercial script and does not have to be discussed on vb.com

[MRGTB]

Personally, Nex

I think most people will look at it this way. They have to pay an extra fee to use vBSEO annually, on-top of their vB license cost. Why do that anymore if vB4 has it's own SEO Tools to use. They can cut their cost down and just make use of vB4 SEO.

Honestly, I think that will be the single biggest factor that will come into play here (against vBSEO). It will all boil down to cost forked out. People will decide to save money (seeing as vBSEO is not cheap), and just use the built in vB4 SEO Tools instead. Expecting over time they will be improved on. Most people only bought vBSEO in the first place because vBulletin had no SEO Tools built-in, and people are very hessitant about using any hacks from vB.org created by an amiture coder, that a week later may abandon the product, or it make even have problems.

Now that they are being added into the offical product, peoples mindset will change. They'll feel confident (seeing is offical now), that it's good enough to use out the box and save money in the process.

[Endlesskiss]

Well guys... after I read all of your comments I understood that you are right.

vBSEO is too expensive for what it does, and in any case, in few months vB4 will be released, which has built-in tools for SEO.

Thank you, I decided save the money

[AVC]

This software has never been needed, it is way too complex, unless you want to go to vBSEO college and spend time learning how to use it properly you are wasting your time, just looking at the ACP long ago was enough to scare the hell out of me.