Search Engine Optimization for vBulletin Communities and Websites Explained
Matt Price of
vBulletin Skins, vBulletin Themes, vBulletin Styles, and vBulletin templates
First off, we need to come to an agreement of what the basics of search engine optimization include. Basically, search engine optimization has two main categories: On-site and Off-site.
On-site SEO includes optimizing your content to be search engine friendly. What does this mean? It means include your keywords in your content. You will want to have unique content that matches your custom title and Meta tags. Usually these tags include specially researched keywords that you have discovered through an undeveloped or easily marketable niche. There are many SEO tips and tricks out there on various websites but here is a list of personal ones that I abide by and have seen the results myself:
Any website:
- Use your keywords in a paragraph near the top of the page and bottom.
- Use bold or italic text on your specified keywords to influence search engines to think your site finds it important.
- Each page should have different Meta tags to match that page’s topic and keywords.
- Within your site, use hyper-text links to link your pages using your keywords. (For example: Premade vBulletin Skins links to our store page rather than making the link “store”)
- Optimize ALT tags to match your keywords surrounding the image.
- Don’t overdue your keywords. Over saturation could lead to penalties.
- Unique content related to your site with your keywords is a big plus.
vBulletin specific related:
- Change your <title> tags.
- Add new Meta tags.
- Invest in a SEO program such as vBSEO.
- Use forum category names as your keywords.
- Offer articles in another location on the same site.
Off-site SEO includes link-building, link building, and more link building. This is the key to getting a higher rank in search engines. Just as important as having unique on-site content, off-site link building gets you the member base and readers to help promote your site and boost traffic. Some tips for building links are listed below:
- Natural link building - Add quality content and people will link to your site as a resource. This is the best way of getting good inbound links that Google will like.
- Article Submission - Only submit to reliable sources that have strict guidelines.
- Blog Commenting – Google has seemed to care less and less with blog commenting because of the “no follow” feature and mass links. I wouldn’t suggest wasting your time with this nowadays.
- Directory Submission – Like I said, Google and the other search engines are beginning to put less emphasis on links from gigantic link farms. I would dish out $15 for the companies that will submit to 3000 sites and be done with it.
- Forum Posting – Although the search engines don’t count these links as a good resource of gaining PR, they do help get a lot of good targeted traffic to your site.
- Link Exchange – Once again, Google has started to care less and less for reciprocal link trades. They value one-way links much more than two-way.
- Social Book marking – I haven’t personally given this a go.
- One way links – Simply the best way to promote your site for page rank. The optimal way of gaining the page rank juice from another site.
- In content text-links – Getting your website talked about on another site with a paragraph of information and then your link is a very good way to help Google realize what your site is really about. You will see big gains of search engine rank if the site you get on is of a related field and of high quality.
If you are just opening up a new vBulletin forum and are finding yourself with a smaller budget, I would research your competitors and become a member of their site. Why would you join your competitor’s site? You should start your own reputation with a targeted member base. You should promote your new forum to them through signatures and word of mouth.
In-content text links have an untapped power source. Not a lot of web developers realize the power of having a paragraph about your site in the main content of another large site. You get massive traffic and a boost of good link quality from the big Google himself.
Forum ownership is hard, but if you have a development plan and marketing strategy, you can develop your forum not only by other websites, but by ranking so high in the search engines that people will be begging YOU for the link trade.
Hope this was helpful!
Matt Price of
vBulletin Skins, vBulletin Themes, vBulletin Styles, and vBulletin templates 
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