From IPB to...

I'm currently using ipb 3.1.x on a site but not happy with it's seo (duplicate urls aplenty) and am considering a switch to:

vb 3.8 Tried and tested
vb 4.0 Its loathed buggy successor
Xeneforo Probably a year away from what I want

I'm thinking of switching to 3.8 and watching the vb/xf progress for 12 months.

Any thoughts?

 

Did you even turn on 301 redirecting?

 

Aye, set that up.

 

Then could it be a host setting? Have you even gone to IPS customer support for help? Even then, why go vBulletin? 3.x is going to be out of life soon, 4.x barely even works, and vBulletin 5 isn't even a rewrite and they're going to be begging for your cash.

And why not XenForo? I could understand you'd have to wait until an IPB converter comes out, but they basically have everything you should need out of the box. Or why not MyBB? I'm an IPB license holder myself, but honestly, my best forums have all been on MyBB just purely because I am very knowledgeable at how flexible it is.

 

I've one board running 3.8 and vbseo and it performs well. I've tried the ipb forums and poor seo is not uncommon despite the elaborate robots.txt attempt to rectify duplication.

I like Xf but it's not even gold yet so I'd prefer to give it 12 months whilst the wrinkles are ironed out.

 

If your wanting to get or use vB3.8.

Check here:

http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1972440

I do recommend vB3.8, and there are great SEO addons for free too.

 

IPB 3.1.2's SEO is a lot better than vB 3.8's, so switching would be a downgrade not only because you're downgrading on SEO features, but because all your URLs are all changing at once.

 

just use vBseo and your SEO features have upgraded on 3.8.

 

But I suppose he's right. IPB 3.1.2 has built-in FURL along with the header tags and all that put in already, whereas vBulletin requires the SEO hack, which is $150 along with already the higher price of vBulletin.

 

vbulletin 4.x has built in pretty url's too

I would go with vbulletin hands down

 

Ya I guess you might be right there.

Though vB does have some free SEO mods, but they are average.