vBulletin SEO

[vbalien]

Hello,
I think one of the mysteries that faces most of the vBulletin sites owners is how to get vBulletin optimized for search engines in order to get the highest places in the search results and ensure free traffic to their forums.

I know that there are several addons for vBulletin to do this job, but is that enough?

I don't think using an addon like vbSEO for example is enough to get your forum in a good position on Google search results. And no I don't mean that vbSEO is not worthy or anything but all I'm saying is who doesn't use vbSEO. Almost every vBulletin forum is using it now or using similar free addons. So who will stand out of the crowd? Got my point?

This is not everything, but if you might know that vBulletin by default is not search engine friendly in many ways. Yes it's not and I will explain why:

vBulletin has a real strange thing when it comes to page links, one page can have many links, all pointing to the same page.

For example: here in vbAlien.com when you go to the WoW Style page the link shows as:

http://www.vbalien.com/forums/free-vbulletin-skins/6-wow-style.html

Ok that's fine for now as for sure any page has a URL, ok wait don't judge things fast, just please go to:
http://www.vbalien.com/forums/free-v...ced-style.html
And scroll down the page, just under the quick reply box. Do you see the "next thread" and "previous thread" links, ok please move your mouse over the "next thread" link and see what is the link showing down in your browser, you will simply find:

http://www.vbalien.com/forums/free-vbulletin-skins/38-abeer-multi-advanced-style-next-thread.html

Ok great, no problem so far. Alright now click the link and here comes the surprise, this link points to the WoW Style page.

Ok I don't see a problem in that either. Alright, this simply means that each page has more than a link pointing to it and even more simple, search engines don't like that as they see as if your site has 2 different pages with the exact same content.

By the way, vbAlien.com is already optimized for search engines and still this problem here and showing.

So now if you have a games forum that is talking about PC games, I will grant you that your forum will never make it in the top search pages on search engines for the keyword "games".

Ok we got that but how can we overcome such a problem?
One of the best solutions ever is to use another CMS for your home page beside few other pages if needed. The CMSs I always recommend for such process are either WordPress or Joomla!

Why? Because both of them are:
- Customizable
- Search engine friendly and can even be top notch if optimized the right way.
- Beside that, they are free.
- And still I advice you to optimize your forums as well. As it doesn't make any sense to have a well optimized frontpage and a messed forum.

That's all