vbSEO - yay or nay?

**kevinmanphp** · Sat 18 Mar '06, 7:59pm

I've heard both horror stories and success stories... and as an experienced SEO, I am still a bit weary of vbSEO's setup. While it certainly adds a lot of the fundamental features of SEO to your forums, it also goes a little beyond and has not shown itself as foolproof yet, from what I have read in reviews and testimonials.

Having large forums with over 100,000+ posts, I am also very weary to start redirecting all my posts. You can guarentee that the # of indexed pages will drop dramatically at first. It may take months to gain back the same numbers. So even if vbSEO promises deeper crawls and more indexed pages, it most likely isn't without the initial drop in SERPs and indexes. Hard to say.

Honestly, I would think that because vBulletin is such a standard in forum software, that Google, Yahoo, msn, etc have some sort of vBulletin filter of some sort, recognizing posts from vBulletin forums, phpBB, and the like. I can't imagine that there is not some vB filters in the algo's. So if there indeed are, default vB content is probably just as good as any customized/optimized content. The SE's most likely know exactly what it is and where it came from.

If I were you, since your forums are very new and young, I would make the investment now before you start building a large thread index. But as for me, I will be sitting on the sidelines a little more waiting for a solid verdict to appear. I would love to get some opinions from the vB team on vbSEO. I know that SEO is not what they do, but these devs are smart guys and I'm sure they can spot any potential snags that such SEO plugins might have. Good luck and look forward to the other opinions.

**BamaStangGuy** · Sun 19 Mar '06, 10:31pm

Actually I believe it is better to install it earlier since google does not carry over link weight with the 301 redirect. So you want your urls to be the same all the time and not change.

I use it on my Ford Mustang website and my Political Forum and like it.

**Kathy** · Mon 20 Mar '06, 5:46am

I know of someone (rex_b) who just removed it from one of his sites after he tracked Google indexed pages and found a loss for his forums instead of additional indexed pages.....

I've also heard from large forum owners that the mod_rewrites drag the server, causing problems with load spikes.

Additionally (and the reason I won't install) is that the script/code is encrypted. I have no idea what information is really being sent from my database back to the vBSEO mothership. While I'd like to believe the best in people, my database is valuable and I'm not willing to risk it.

**kevinmanphp** · Mon 20 Mar '06, 10:00am

Originally posted by Kathy

Additionally (and the reason I won't install) is that the script/code is encrypted. I have no idea what information is really being sent from my database back to the vBSEO mothership. While I'd like to believe the best in people, my database is valuable and I'm not willing to risk it.

Kathy spews wisdom with every word of this statement!

**BamaStangGuy** · Mon 20 Mar '06, 1:19pm

Originally posted by kevinmanphp

Kathy spews wisdom with every word of this statement!

Yet there is ways to check for the information it is sending back to VBSEO for those inclined enough

By now someone would have uncovered any "mysterious" problems with VBSEO in that effect.

I have nothing to complain about with the software itself. It does what it does better than the people that try to make a free version. Google now has 20,000 of my pages indexed that are all rewritten.

**Kathy** · Mon 20 Mar '06, 1:24pm

Originally posted by BamaStangGuy

Yet there is ways to check for the information it is sending back to VBSEO for those inclined enough

By now someone would have uncovered any "mysterious" problems with VBSEO in that effect.

Not necessarily.....but if you want to chance it, fair enough.

Originally posted by BamaStangGuy

I have nothing to complain about with the software itself. It does what it does better than the people that try to make a free version. Google now has 20,000 of my pages indexed that are all rewritten.

And Google has 171,000 pages of mine without it.

**BamaStangGuy** · Mon 20 Mar '06, 1:27pm

Originally posted by Kathy

Not necessarily.....but if you want to chance it, fair enough.

I have and have nothing to complain about. In my mind it is more along the lines of people like you who are missing out instead of me chancing it

Just my take on that.

And Google has 171,000 pages of mine without it.

Good for you

I don't index showpost.php and a month ago changed the complete structure of my urls causing google to have to reindex my whole site all over again. Before I installed VBSEO I only had 40,000 indexed and most of those were marked Supplemental

Not to mention that I would hope a site that is bigger than mine would have more pages indexed.

**Kathy** · Mon 20 Mar '06, 1:39pm

Originally posted by BamaStangGuy

I have and have nothing to complain about. In my mind it is more along the lines of people like you who are missing out instead of me chancing it

Just my take on that.

And you are welcome to your opinion.

I am not missing out on anything.

I don't plan on using this script because:

1. It isn't proven to increase indexed pages in Google
2. It uses an encrypted script to touch your database
3. It drags the servers during the mod_rewrite on large forums.

My personal choice.

Originally posted by BamaStangGuy

Good for you

I don't index showpost.php and a month ago changed the complete structure of my urls causing google to have to reindex my whole site all over again. Before I installed VBSEO I only had 40,000 indexed and most of those were marked Supplemental

Not to mention that I would hope a site that is bigger than mine would have more pages indexed.

Seems you've lost then going from 40,000 pages to 20,000....

I hope it works for you and you are happy. I just expressed my own opinion for the "nay or yay" debate. My two cents are as valuable as yours.

**BamaStangGuy** · Mon 20 Mar '06, 2:53pm

Originally posted by Kathy

And you are welcome to your opinion.

I am not missing out on anything.

I don't plan on using this script because:

1. It isn't proven to increase indexed pages in Google
2. It uses an encrypted script to touch your database
3. It drags the servers during the mod_rewrite on large forums.

My personal choice.

That is fine, just giving my take on it. I do not believe Rex gave it enough time imo and I believe he should not be using a redirect for cruiselineforums.com to go to cruiselineforums.com/forum/

I am beginning to see great results.

There are plenty of people using it with Large forums and it hardly drags them.

Seems you've lost then going from 40,000 pages to 20,000....

Not when all my previous were supplemental

Plus its not like Google is done indexing my site either.

I hope it works for you and you are happy. I just expressed my own opinion for the "nay or yay" debate. My two cents are as valuable as yours.

I know

Sorry if I came off as a smartass.. long day

**kevinmanphp** · Mon 20 Mar '06, 6:13pm

I have to side with Kathy on this one. You really can't tell, even if inclined, if data is being sent out (or stored in for that matter.. which is just as bad) with vbSEO. And just as a side-note... the main reason I decided not to buy it was because it indeed DID send data to vbSEO at the time... I think it is now an option to send data back (after big controversy when it was uncovered)... but either way... there was intent there already discovered.

I disallow pretty much everything except showthread.php and I have great results. The SE's know all about vBulletin threads... and they know what to look for.. Changing it up now is only going to hurt you for that very reason.

**conqsoft** · Mon 20 Mar '06, 6:17pm

The ONLY time it will (or ever has) contacted vBSEO's servers is if you are running a copy that is not registered. Once you put your license key into the configuration file, it will never contact their servers again.

**Cole2026** · Mon 20 Mar '06, 6:38pm

The reason I'm so found of vBseo is not just because of SEO, but the urls are user friendly.

For those less computer savy, it is much easier to go to:
/forum/articles/articlename.html

It may be a little longer, but seeing as alot of people aren't knowledgable of the ?Request variables, I find it gives a very professional image.

vBseo has worked very well for me as well in SE's, giving me a PR4 in a month.

**AWS** · Mon 20 Mar '06, 9:14pm

Isn't it funny how every thread about vbseo has the same people pop up in it to tell us all how good it is and try to down play that it really doesn't help?
They must pay their shills good.

**BamaStangGuy** · Mon 20 Mar '06, 9:17pm

Originally posted by AWS

Isn't it funny how every thread about vbseo has the same people pop up in it to tell us all how good it is and try to down play that it really doesn't help?
They must pay their shills good.

They don't pay me anything. I am a user and I like the product. I am about tired of people like you trolling these threads and accussing me and others of being paid to say what we say without even dropping a hint of proof. I paid 149 dollars for my copy and in no way benefit from posting my opinion.

So what if the same people show up? Obviosuly we do it because people keep asking. Stay out of the thread if you don't care to add to it.

Thanks for contributing to the thread and helping this person decide if he should buy VBSEO or not

vbSEO - yay or nay?

vbSEO - yay or nay?

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