Negatives of vBSEO

Everyone always talks about the positives of vBSEO but I'd really like to know what the drawbacks of opting for something like vBSEO are - even if they are only temporary or are only potential issue for certain sites etc.

I'm not making this thread to bash vBSEO or implying that it is a poor product, quite the contrary I think it looks like a wonderful product it's just I can't seem to find a good review that explains some of the pitfalls of opting for something like vBSEO, I'd just like to be aware of side effects etc before buying.

 

I did not use it yet but i will use it soon.

In my opinion the negatives as far as i see so far are:

- not-cheap (not-much-expensive either),
- crypted,
- increases server load,
- third-party extension (standard extensions are always better).

 

If you happen to remove vBSEO sometime in the future, you will automatically loose all your links, page rank, etc. You must stay forever with vBSEO.

 

Other than not-cheap, crypted, server load (which isn't much if you do it right), the only actual negative is your regular pages drop from the SERPs for a while (several weeks depending on your PR/backlinks) before the sexy SEO URLs start showing up in them. So you're in limbo for a short while, but it's worth it in the end.

 

A few good backlinks>VbSEO

The stuff about static and dynamic pages is all bullcrap. The only good thing are the keywords in URL's which really dont help all that much imo considering the thousands of factors that decide your pagerank.

Forget VBseo and do your own seo and combine it with Zoints free forum SEO program.

 

Yea I would also say forget it I've had both and seen no difference -

 

What about things like URL canonicalization - isn't this part of vBSEO? I think this would be far more valuable than the keyword integration.

 

Yes it is, and people always overlook that, and just think all it does is do mod_rewrite.

 

Hi everyone,

One way to find out what is included with the vBSEO solution is to check out our demo:

http://www.vbseo.com/demo/

At our forum, in addition to some of the major success stories (see below), you will also find reviews from people at various levels of success with vBSEO.

 

Would you like to comment on your services' own drawback though? Transparency is the best business model...

 

One of the biggest issues with vBSEO is the number of features and options that are available. The average forum admin does not know much about SEO, or how each of these features relates specifically. We built in the flexibility so that everyone can configure their forum the way they believe will deliver the best results.

What we would like our customers to know is that by installing vBSEO, your default settings are often all that you will need. In fact, if you do not know much about SEO, the default settings are probably best for you.

On top of that, the vBSEO Team has always made our customer support a top priority. If anyone has any questions whatsoever, the vBSEO Total Support Team is readily available to assist and provide clarification on features.

With vBSEO 3.0 GOLD (soon to be released) we've taken the extra step of providing preset selections, allowing webmasters to configure their forum CRUs (Content Relevant URLs) similar to other forums such as our own (www.vbseo.com) or even webmasterworld.com, daniweb.com, vbulletinsetup.com, or vbulletinzone.com with a single option selection.

Another common problem is that people get caught up in the idea of "mod_rewrite". mod_rewrite just so happens to be the name of the underlying technology that allows advanced manipulation of the dynamic URLs - and conversion of them to static CRUs (keyword rich content relevant URLs).

Of course, on IIS, we also support ISAPI_rewrite - for those of you who are not on an Apache powered web server.

The key to remember is - vBSEO is a full SEO solution for vBulletin - not just a "mod_rewrite hack" as was common in the 1st generation of this type of rewriting technology.

Having a more structured, content rich URL structure is going to provide better SEO. Noone with knowledge of SEO should question the benefits. Whether this is achieved via a URL rewriting technology, or a built in structure of your forum software or CMS - this is a great advantage for you to have in place. For vBulletin forums, of course, this is achieved with vBSEO.

Remember: Once you set your CRU configuration, keep it in place. In other words, set it and forget it. While your other settings many be changed as desired, it is fundamental to keep your CRU format consistent. Changing them results in disruption of your SERPs and additional 301 redirecting for all indexed content. Set it and forget it.

 

The only thing I dislike is the price. I mean, why charge a product for just about the same price as a vBulletin licence? I think that's one draw back for vBSEO. That's why Zoints is getting more users, just because it is free.

I've co-admin a forum and vBSEO hasn't made TONS of difference. It actually seems to take a while, before you notice any real results.

 

Thousands of forum admins have vBSEO-enabled their forums, far more than any of the various free SEO hacks available, taking advantage of the most powerful SEO solution available, and wisely trusting their SEO to the dedicated, full time vBSEO Total Support Team.

vBSEO is actively developed, made bullet proof by our Pre-Release testing and quality assurance team, and constantly evolving to better meet your SEO needs.

vBSEO 3.0 GOLD, soon to be released will not only be a huge step forward in new features, but will also be our first release with multiple language support to allow our customers all over the world to configure the 100s of options in our vBSEO Control Panel in their native language.

If you haven't heard the buzz about RefBacks yet, please stay tuned for our upcoming vBSEO 3.0 release announcement!

Save 100s of hours of tinkering with potentially dangerous SEO tactics by choosing the simple 5-minute vBSEO installation and have our real-time SEO transform your forum instantly, while the vBSEO Total Support Team stands by to assist you with any questions you might have. In the months to come, you may end up replacing the vBSEO success stories listed below in my signature links.

 

LOL dude - enough with the sales pitch already - I think most people at a forums like DP are at least vaguely aware of the benefits of SEO and they can see what SEO benefits your service offers.

What is harder to know is exactly the drawbacks of your product - like the fact it increases server load, that there are actually reductions in traffic before increases... These are the sorts of things I want to be fully aware of before I plundge into the world of vBSEO.

So what else can go wrong/is a drawback of vBSEO?

 

There are no real drawbacks...the server load is negligible if your server is decently powered. One of my VPS's has 512MB RAM and vBSEO has no noticeable impact on it. The temporary SERP drop is usually brief for those who do experience it. Otherwise, it's a win-win. Of course, there's a lot of optimizations/SEOing to be done to vB even with vBSEO installed, but it's a good start for any forum.

 

no drawbacks on my end ? I have 4 vbseo license and have suggested it to a 100 clients and have heard nothing but positive remarks about it


Some think that it's the end all for seo with vBulletin. It other words, some admins think they if they add vbseo, they will rank #1 for their keywords.
vBseo is only a small part of optimizing vBulletin for SEO. You need quality content, and solid back-links.. Vbseo is just the icing on the cake if you have these 2 factors already

the things I see ppl that haven't really used seo say are negative are mentioned in this thread

price - alltho, I've spent much more then this to promote a site
encrypted files - I believe this helps with the performance, I was hesitant about this at first as well, but after seeing the results after adding vbseo.. the zend isn't such a big deal to Me.
server load - with every update the vbseo team has cut down on server load on large sites. I rarely see these questions at vbseo.com anymore.
copyright - None copyrighted license are soon to become publicly available, they have sold 3 so far.
same thing can be done for free-- This is completely Bs, someone mentioned zoints seo.. well, this is 1. unsupported and 2, the owner of zoints uses vbseo on some of his person sites.. so you figure that one out ..
You can do several things to SEO a vBulletin site that doesn't involve vbseo, but Nothing compares to the control and usability of vbseo.

hope this thread doesn't turn into a bashing thread :| it most likely will once those big haters of vbseo see it..

p.l.u.r.
-Bs

 

I'd buy it, but when it costs almost as much as a vB licence. I just can't fork that much over, atleast not for awhile.

 

Nice points that are in "support" of vBSEO - but I need these vBSEO haters to make an appearence so they can give me some insights into the drawbacks of the service - which is what I'm really after.

 

I think your better off with Zoints SEO or something cheaper.. paying 149 or whatever their rate is now is just tooo expensive for a SEO program. Hopefully soon someone will develop something similar to vBSEO, but for half of the cost. I might even look for some programmers, who aren interested in creating a SEO script for vB.

 

Well the way I'd is if vBSEO didn't harm your site and you ended up making an extra $200 over 12 month that you wouldn't have made otherwise then it is money well spent, becuase the $200 covers the $150 for it and the $50 you might consider the "interest" on spending the money you would have otherwise had. Now ideally most sites are going to make this $150 back many many times over.

See for me I run a forum with 20,000 members, 250,000 posts and traffic of 2,000 visitors a day - if I only see a 10% increase in traffic I'd imagine it would more than pay for itself over the period of a year.