Have vBulletin 3.8 wondering if I should get VBSEO?

My site is pretty small and just a PR2 site. I have 3.8 and wondering if I should get VBSEO and/or at least install the free sitemap mod.

I've been wanting to install the sitemap mod, but afraid of getting in trouble with Google as some say it's hurts PR.

 

I would say no...my site is fairly new also 6+ months...I have vbseo...and I not see mounds of traffc at my door.
I think you should maybe use any free seo alternates, and I think there is a free seo mod for VB out there. If
you just have money to burn up, then I guess it is ok to buy then, but otherwise, I do not feel that it will
make a marginal difference, maybe when your site is actually pulling in traffic and cash, then revisit vbseo...

 

vBSEO has been great for me - definitely pay for it and install it.

 

maybe you should explain your terms of great?

I have used vbseo on several forums for the last few years....

what is it that you think is great about it other then the fact it just offers SEO url's?

I have used VBSEO for a long time, and I can not really brag that it has done much
for me, nor can I brag that it has brought me lots of traffic.

So why do you think it is great?

personally I think people get VBSEO just to get seo URL's...
I honestly believe if you are going to make it, then you can
make it without vbseo...just because you use vbseo is not going
to make you a success, what your site has to offer just might....

I can pretty much count the "great" successes that I have heard people using
vbseo...well I can count those people on just one hand...I hear few people
getting any real success, but many, many people use vbseo...

same as Vbulletin...many, many people use the forum, but it is rare that
you really hear of a success from anyone using Vbulletin forum....

 

Same here.

Earlier, I had added the free sitemap mod and that had lead to a significant increase in traffic/indexed pages.

Later I bought vbseo too, but that didn't make any significant difference to my site's SERPs.

 

I think people feel that they are not complete unless they have SEO urls...
that is why they are drawn to buy it...OMG, my forum just isnt
complete, nor will I make it unless I have VBSEO...people are brain
washed into thinking they need this or that in order to succeed.

 

so we dont need vbseo? then please name me a few mods that we can use in alternate to vbseo
, and save me and op some $$.

i'm just trying to get more visitors via google and other search engines, mostly visitors from my country, nothing international.

 

Don't buy it, it increases server load for nothing , try free mod if you want.
My forum got >70% traffic from Google with no URL rewriting or else.

Content is king

 

vBulletin 4 has built in SEO urls - which means, if you turn the SEO urls on - you can possibly get a ton of organic results - depending on how many backlinks you have.

I wouldn't pay for software where there's free SEO mods out there - and when vBulletin 4 offers SEF urls.

 

We got VBSO as well, mainly for URL as mention above. But in overall I think it is very good all-in-one SEO package for reasonable price. Also I like the ‘Like’ system.

 

Thanks so much for the info. I've been trying to put loads of content on the site. The site has been running for 2 years and it's dying. I can't really afford to purchase 4.0 as I've already sunk almost $1,000 into my forum already.

I will install the sitemap generator and see what other SEO mods I can find.

BTW, sorry for posting this. I didn't see this vBulletin forum when I posted the thread. I did a search in the SEO forum and didn't see anything so posted the thread there. My bad.

 

You might as well upgrade to VB 4 and use their free URL rewrite option.

Why would this hurt PR?

 

You know, custom URLs don't really do much these days. That was 2007 thinking, this is 2011. Content is key with SEO.

It won't. But he did say that he can't afford to upgrade to 4.0 at the moment. However, is the 3.8 support extension option still out there?

It won't hurt your PR. Google actually wants everyone to have an XML sitemap because it helps them understand the architecture of the site and gives them a clean set of URLs to index. This will also help (rel="canonical" is very, very important).

http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=225117&highlight=rel+canonical

Also, look for a strong robots.txt file for vBulletin somewhere.