Hello all ! So it will be my third website, my two others were down for some personal problems ... First of all, I'll present my self, I'm a 16 years old webmaster, you can call me Bouazza . I really like your forum because it's one of the biggest SEO communities in the net . Like any other webmaster who will launch a community, I have a lot of questions . I'm really motivated to launch a French SEO community as I know many SEO tricks like building SEO friendly designs, customizing CMS or forum software to make it more SEO friendly, making good titles to get visitors, making layouts accessible, attractive and SEO-Friendly at the same time etc... And if you type "Référencement" or "Positionnement Google" ( that's "Ranking" and "Google Ranking" in French ) on google.fr, the only site which has good SEO optimization is Webrankinfo, the other sites are only boosted by fan links, and they usually use CMS or forum software which aren't optimized for SEO ( like IPB, PhpBB ) . In site or blog indexation, I don't have problems, but, building a community for a forum is harder ... My questions are : - Why do some people create fake users for their forums ? Is that really successful ? - I'm working on a design for BBPress that is completely different from all forum layouts on the web . Creating an unique design for my forum will help me to get some users ? - Do I have to invite friends on my forums and ask them to write some fake threads ? Will that not be "unfair" ? - I know that quality content has a good role in getting targeted traffic, but doesn't it give an "echo effect" because I write on an empty forum ? - Do I have to do SEO optimization before or after it gets a good number of active users ? - Is SEO enough to get some targeted visitors ? - As I don't like blog comments/forum signatures spamming ( they will only give a bad reputation of my forum ), are there any other ways to promote my forum ? - Do you, forum user, join forums with only 5~10 members, or do you wait until they get something like 100~200 members ? Thanks !
Before you DO SEO in your forum site, you must your site active by posting forum by several people or it may be paid forum post. You can invite your friend to post forum and reply topic too. Many forum sites get popularized by it. First 3 months you have to keep active forums and try posting up 2000 forums and topic must interesting. Don't make people to get your trick. Make also fake members upto 500. You're not doing anything wrong, almost all sites do it for making their business.
While keeping active members, initially try google advertising same time. Turn back your visitor by interesting topic. There are some teams who do this job by money.
Thanks for your response . 16 years old => Can't use Adwords ( and my parents won't let me ) . I also don't want to pay for posting, not that I can't, but this will only give a bad image of my forum, like the fake users technique . So, there isn't another way to naturally promote my forum without spamming, cheating with fake accounts or paying for posts ?
Here are your answers! -Why do some people create fake users for their forums ? Is that really successful ? They create fake user names to make the forum look active, yes it can be successful providing you use different writing styles! - I'm working on a design for BBPress that is completely different from all forum layouts on the web . Creating an unique design for my forum will help me to get some users ? It depends if the design is good then yes definitely, if the design is poor then it will turn visitors away! - Do I have to invite friends on my forums and ask them to write some fake threads ? Will that not be "unfair" ? I wouldn't bother you can if you have lots of willing friends who want to post threads for nothing but its not essential. - I know that quality content has a good role in getting targeted traffic, but doesn't it give an "echo effect" because I write on an empty forum ? I dont think so no. - Do I have to do SEO optimization before or after it gets a good number of active users ? Yes i would think, If your SEO is good then your main source of traffic will be organic which is the best for forum registrations. - Is SEO enough to get some targeted visitors ? Yes for sure, but make sure your targeting the right audience. - As I don't like blog comments/forum signatures spamming ( they will only give a bad reputation of my forum ), are there any other ways to promote my forum ? Here's a list of ways to advertise your forum: 1. Directory Submission 2. Youtube Video Making 3. Forum Posting 4. Blog Commenting. 5. RSS submission 6. Article Submission -> Ezine Articles etc... 7. Yahoo Q & Ans - Do you, forum user, join forums with only 5~10 members, or do you wait until they get something like 100~200 members ? I would only join a forum if its active, It doesn't matter about the amount of members just make sure the ones who join contribute to an active community. Maybe run a competition for the first few months?
Thank you for the pertinent answers and also for sharing so valuable tips here I'll do my Seo homework ( I must rewrite the whole forum template, use correctly the <H(X)> headers and not only add meta tags ) then I'll applicate your tips .