vBulletin SEO Setup

So you want your site to be big, and famous and be the envy of everyone in the webmaster world! Well don’t we all, and that presents all us newer sites a huge problem going up against the established sites, they’ve usually got a firm grip on search engines, members, and content and just about everything else you’re going after!

Well put an end to that with a effective marketing campaign. Marketing your site can be as easy as putting a little more detailed information and costing you nothing, to launching a full out attack and purchasing advertising space, Adwords and other methods of showing your site.

But first, you don’t want to send people to an empty site, with no information and a dull boring run of the mill design. So in todays Marketing lesson, we’re covering some of the very first steps to building a sucessfull community. The first thing to remember is “Content is king” this holds true for everything from the search engine spiders, to actual members. If you don’t have content, you’ve got nothing!

You can even create your own content. Make good use of the “Log Out” button, and then make good use of that nifty “Register” button. Create your own seperate accounts and start posting on them like you’re different people. Sure it may sound crazy, but no one will ever know..except of course your 5 other newly created alter ego’s.

The second lesson is, put time and effort into your site, before you expect other people to put time and effort into your site. Don’t use some theme thats been around the internet like my ex-girlfriends nudie pics. Come up with something fresh new, and for the love of man-kind, make it easy on the eyes. Do not go into HTML hell by putting blinking text and scrolling marquee’s every where!

Having a fresh design, is important as the design is the first thing people will see and judge. First impressions last a lifetime!

After you’ve done those really simple steps, its time to add some information to your theme, having “Welcome to my forums, Register blah blah, FAQ blah blah, check it out blah blah” isn’t going to convert anything but your bounce rate. Take 5 minutes, come up with something nice, and think to yourself, “If this wasn’t my site, would I register, or even come back?” If you can honestly answer Yes, then you still need to do more work on it.

Here is a nice easy template to use for an idea:

“All Hail The Mighty {Guest/Visitor/Some Other Catchy name} (make this h1 or h2)
Welcome to {insert name} where we offer {insert product/service}. Our service provides you with {some fancy details, list your 3 best} all for {price}. To enjoy our wonderful service, {registration/sign up instructions} is all you have to do! Doing so will entitle you to enjoy the most wonderful of features such as {different then the first 3 you listed/minor features/hosting plan details/whatever}

• {Something Cool Here}
• {Something Funny Here}
• {Nude Hillary Clinton Pics!}
• {Previous Example was probably bad}
• {Don’t use it!}

We look forward to having you join our great family of {Guilds/Webmasters/Whatever You’ve Got} today!”

Replace whats in between the {} with actual information…obviously Be sure to run a spell check, as having spelling/grammar errors will give the impression of some 5yr old running the show.

See that, now add that to your forumhome template, or if you’ve got the ever popular welcome headers mod, add it there. Whatever you decide, make your header interesting to your demographic.

Those 3 tips, or however many it was, will be a great building block to your sites success! Remember to keep things interesting, kind of humorous if you can, and keep it fresh! Look at this article for example, I could have made it pretty plain and boring, and I bet you wouldn’t be reading past this point. But you are. But it could be because you just love me and my vBulletin tips so much, you can’t get enough!

Good luck with your forums!

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