I am planning to have my forum in "/forum" directory. However, the root would be empty and the domain would be redirected to /forum. Would this create any issue with search engine optimization? or would crawlers face any issues? Any inputs would be appreciated. Thanks.
Use a 301 redirect and no they will have no problem indexing it.... May I ask why you're using a subdirectory if your main domain is available? It is the most valuable page on your site and I would highly recommend against do it your way.
Only reason m adding it to sub-dir, is just because it would be easier in future to add other scripts along with it like directory, imagehosting etc etc. If you see my point. If we add forums in root, then sometimes it becomes pain to install other scripts on the same domain. Let me know if my way of thinking is wrong.
Google likes websites, not domains. Does not matter in the long run. I thought your question was going to be on forums in general. I had to delete my forum. Google liked it, I suppose, it got indexed right away. But getting new members, readers, etc., and deleting spam was a 24/7 job. I did not have the time. It became a nightmare. Stephen C
What has this got to do with the original question? @Jen If you install the forum on the main domain, you can always create a subdirectory (/directory or /imagehosting) at a later date and install the script to there instead.... But what you could do is put a nice homepage together with some text and a menu with a link to the forum ... then just add menu items as & when they become available. If you want to PM me your site URL or idea I could advise better.
Lol yeah, how was that thing related to my question? Anyway, I have seen this issue where .htaccess gets overwritten when forum is in root. or something like that.