Well I heard that Community SEO was supposed to be good for IPB so I went ahead and bought it from their website. Turns out it gave me more problems than good as links didn't work and the file edit instructions were awful. I asked for help in the forums, via the Contact Us option and via their ticket system and didn't get any response. I asked for a refund via paypal and wow, they answered straight away and I got my money back. Even their website gave errors using their own software. I only asked for a refund as I had no joy with them at all.

 

I then went to the free SEO software Minerva SEO and purchased the Sitemap generator. It works properly and i'm happy. ;-) For link SEO i'll stick to the default IPB way.

Thanks for the review, I've been wondering what "SEO" mod I should use here. I don't mind the default URL structure, but I'd like to edit the meta and title tags to make them unique to each post/thread.

I'm getting the impression neither of these two solutions is very popular. As I've stated before, vBSEO is the only thing I am missing about vBulletin.

This topic interests me because I was thinking about purchasing communitySEO the other day. I was comparing both the free option and community SEO. I will take the review on board and decide very soon, thankyou for the review.

 

All I know is that Brandon finally couldn't hide his love for IPB much longer =] he's come over to the dark side =P

All I know is that Brandon finally couldn't hide his love for IPB much longer =] he's come over to the dark side =P

ha.. I'm just exploring my options ;)

Well if vBSEO decided to work on IPB i'd be buying an SEO licence for sure. For now, sticking with the sitemap and default friendly URL's.

Yes, I would purchase four, myself. <shrug> I suppose there are a lot of successful forums getting along just fine without it, so I suppose will be content trying to do the same.

do you have a link for this paid sitemap

 

is there not a free sitemap mod?

 

thx

do you have a link for this paid sitemap

 

is there not a free sitemap mod?

 

thx

Here you go buddy:

 

http://www.devfuse.com/forums/topic/3443-db30-google-sitemap-generator/page__hl__sitemap__fromsearch__1

For what it's worth, I can give you another negative review of CommunitySEO.

 

Neal is right, their file edit instructions were a hoot. I loved the one that identified a block of code needing to be replaced, as //Lots of code here. :rolleyes:

 

vBSEO was so easy to install and configure. CSEO was a PITA and after 5 hours of jacking with it, I removed it and have asked for a refund. It will be interesting to see how that pans out. If I do get a refund, I will finally have something positive to say about CSEO.

 

It looks as if support might be every bit as dismal at MinervaSEO, but at least you're not charged for it.

I'm getting the impression neither of these two solutions is very popular. As I've stated before, vBSEO is the only thing I am missing about vBulletin.

I agree with you. That is one thing that is really hard to make me move some sites over. That, and some of my members would get upset at the change with their profiles and structure.

For what it's worth, I can give you another negative review of CommunitySEO.

 

Neal is right, their file edit instructions were a hoot. I loved the one that identified a block of code needing to be replaced, as //Lots of code here. :rolleyes:

 

vBSEO was so easy to install and configure. CSEO was a PITA and after 5 hours of jacking with it, I removed it and have asked for a refund. It will be interesting to see how that pans out. If I do get a refund, I will finally have something positive to say about CSEO.

 

It looks as if support might be every bit as dismal at MinervaSEO, but at least you're not charged for it.

After some recent information, I wouldn't use any IPB SEO software at the moment, the sitemap I purchased, well I got moaned at for wanting to change the url it was licenced too, even wanted me to buy a new licence!

 

Sticking to free sitemaps from the IPB site for now and the default SEO url structure.

The laddie that is MinervaSEO now says he cannot get motivated to work on the project. Apparently his Don Quixotic charge has slain its last windmill. :rolleyes:

 

The Invision Community Blog script won't work with MSEO and neither will Invision Community Pages 3.1.0 RC 1, so be prepared.

 

Color me the idiot for thinking to use MSEO at all. I reckon I will dump his script off and just use the native IPB FURLs until something better comes along.

I think I'll stick with the built in FURL's as well, I don't want to get locked into a product and the development goes stops updating.

I think I'll stick with the built in FURL's as well, I don't want to get locked into a product and the development goes stops updating.

I don't blame you sticking with the default IPB SEO used for URL structure. When I had IPB3 installed I found that google had no issues at all indexing the pages added the same day or the very next. I really do feel that IPB doesn't need any other SEO add-on at all from what I saw on my own forum at the time and how fast Google was indexing the pages.

 

What I will say though, is I had the forum installed in the ROOT (not a sub-forum folder in it). I think that' the best way to go when installing IPB3, just make sure to edit the robots.txt file to reflect that though, as it's been created by IPB to use a sub folder called "forum".

 

Quite interestingly also. Because I had the forum installed in the ROOT. All dead links in Google lead to the forums own 404 page. But when I tested the forum in a sub-folder. Instead it showed the server host 404 page instead of the IPB3 one. So that might be worth noting also why it's better to install IPB3 in the ROOT.

I've just moved my largest site (Still small compared to others) back to IPB and Google has is showing the new url's already i'm pleased to say using the default FURL's and the free sitemap generator from the IPB website. Also glad to see I have MORE guests and people visiting again after dropping from vB4.

I noticed that on http://computerhelpforums.net after I converted. The next day my new urls where listed in google and the ones that remained from the vbulletin install where redirecting with 301 header correctly.

I noticed that on http://computerhelpforums.net after I converted. The next day my new urls where listed in google and the ones that remained from the vbulletin install where redirecting with 301 header correctly.

Off topic, but love the look of your computer forums.

I noticed that on http://computerhelpforums.net after I converted. The next day my new urls where listed in google and the ones that remained from the vbulletin install where redirecting with 301 header correctly.

I had same experience, last week I decided to give minerva a shot, changed URL structure ( by default I'm not using FURL at all) the next day new urls have been indexed as well. that was pretty cool for a private community with no access for bots!

I sort of agree. My forum's pagerank was hovering between 1 and 2, and although it basically brought it to 1, SERPs went up and more pages were indexed because of Minerva.

I think anyone buying any SEO mod should wait bcz as all knows better than me that IPB is improving its SEO in v3.1.0