Vbulletin and the Archive function.

Ok I just figured out after several months that the Archive feature in Vbulletin was not working on my site www.ClubArmada.com I found out it was because of a problem with Apache servers running PHP in CGI instead of as a module. Well I found a workaround now that finally has it working properly. I have heard that the Archive function of Vbulletin was the main way that Google spidered Vbulletin sites. Is this true? If so how much do you think my site will benefit from it working now.
thanks
M4ck

 

The archive function is the main way it spiders the site, as the pages are free from heavy graphics etc. and are html based with few links and just content, which I guess Google likes. Usually although there isn't that much of a difference archive pages will be 1 or 2 spots higher than the actual page.

I doubt if the forum has already been up for several months that it will make too much of a difference, but it will probably cause at least a few more pages to be spidered.

 

It is true and it is a big deal - it basically doubles your pages and gives google much more to see.

I use the archive hack -- http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=65703

and it works wonders for me - I make alot off adsense on my archives!


Be sure to submit your archive url to google and place a link to it on your home page (besides the one in the footer.

You should think about joining the COOP AD NETWORK which is part of this site. IT WORKS GREAT! Trust me.



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Tried to join ad network like you said but it will not validate. I get this error.

Ads not found on http://www.clubarmada.com/adserver/adjs.php?n=

Everything seems to be correct. This error is pointing to the software I use for the rotating banner ads I sell on my sites. Any idea why it is trying to validate that. I thought it was supposed to validate the forum.
M4ck

 

are you trying to rotate the coop ads?

 

No I followed the directions exactly as given.
but when it tries to validate thats the error I get.
M4ck

 

you must have not followed the directions --- you had to do something wrong.....

 

Just an update. Only 1 day after getting the archive function working properly my Nissan Armada Forum moved up 12 places for the main keywords I'm targeting for that site. I am very happy today. Its a great start. You should all check your Vbulletin sites. If your Archive function is not working then do what you can to get it going. It really seems to help.
M4ck

 

Just wanted to let you guys know. I got the Archive function working on my Nissan Armada Forum and 1 day later the site moved up 12 positions for the keywords I'm targeting. Thanks for the tips in this forum. Had I not known how important the Archive was to having the Vbulletin forum spidered I would never have worried about getting it fixed. If you run Vbulletin make sure your Archive works. It will help a lot.
M4ck

 

Finally figured out the problem. well sorta. For some reason when it would scan the directory that my Adserver software is installed in on the site it would fail to validate the site. I renamed that folder and it worked. After it validated I went back and renamed the folder and all is well. Thanks for the tip I hope this helps the site even more.
M4ck

 

Yeah, my archive was out of commission after a server move. I wasn't too worried about it since I was 9th for my term and on the way up. I dropped to 11th after the server move and then re-added the archive (had the CGI issue instead of running apache as a module). Today, my archive is being browsed quite a bit by our visitors and Yahoo and Google both had a field day this weekend playing in my archive.

 

How is it that you know its Google or yahoo crawling the site and not just a bunch of visitors?
haven't figured this out yet. I can see more visitors on at certain times but don't know how to tell the difference between spiders or people.
M4ck

 

From the Quick Links menu select "who's online". Under the active people you'll see a user agent option box. Change it to yea, then press the display button. You'll be able to tell bots from people pretty easy.

 

Cool thanks man. How bout in PHPNUKE
thanks again
m4ck

 

Sorry, can't help you with that one. Haven't done much with PHPNUKE in a long time.