Just sharing my little secret for SEOing forums. 0.1) Rename your index.php into index2.php. Before you do this, make sure you update any paths that need to be updated in any configuration. OR 0.2) If you haven’t installed your forums yet, put them in a sub-directory. 1) Create an index.php page in your main www/ folder. This will be the start page. 2) Go download an RSS inclusion script that uses PHP. I can’t remember where the particular one I use is at so I’ll have to come back. 3) Skin the start page to look like your forums. 4) Include via php the link to RSS script so your latest threads show up. 5) Somewhere at the top, include a link to the SEO friendly version of your forums. 6) Fill up the rest of the page with other features the forum has. That’s it! It’s worked every time for me and the search engines index my forums and much more of my forums when I use this method.
Great idea BUT: Not every has $150 Some people already have basic skills/seo skills Not everyone runs vBulletin