Want to be Google best friend

[simplebeer]

Hello @all,

I am searching for the best way to get our forum more Google friendly so more people can find it.
Looking through the mods give a lot of options but can anyone tell in which order i should install them to get the best?
I am sure i am not the first but cant find a topic which says the best order of getting the best results.

Thanks !

[Arantor]

The problem is that there is no magic formula to being 'Google's best friend' (because if there was, everyone would do it), plus Google has been penalising forums of late for being poor quality content and ultimately that's the single biggest thing: good quality content in the posts themselves. No amount of mods can possibly fix that for you.

[Kindred]

the only thing that is really "needed" is a mobile friendly or responsive theme...
if you are using the default theme, aka curve - you can install the responsive curve mod, which makes the curve theme mostly responsive (enough to pass google's tests)

also look at optimus brave... that is useful, but not required...

other than that, the only thing you can really do is focus on getting some good content.

[Missy_D]

Tips to make your forum Google friendly
1. Sub-domain
=> There is no difference if the forum is on a folder or sub-domain. If the content on a sub-domain is on a different web-server and IP address, it's a good idea to register the sub-domain in your Google Webmaster Tools account.

2. Sitemap
=> Forums have a very clear tree-like content structure and so sitemaps aren't necessary.

3. URL structure
=> When it comes to forum post URLs, the real deciding factor is that they are based on the Discussion title. Members of your forum are not likely writing titles with SEO and keywords in mind, so this is something you cannot fully control.

4. 301 Redirect
=> It's a way to tell a search engines that an old URL has moved permanently and it will be redirected to the new URL you specify. You should use 301 redirect if you are about to move old content to new URL. It will keep your SEO ranking for that old content.

5. Things that could hurt SEO
=> There are lots of things that can impact your SEO

a. Buying links
b. Links from bad neighbourhoods.
c. Malware
d. Choosing a bad domain (always use hxxp:archive.org [nonactive] to see what was there before you buy)
e. Spam in your forum

[Kindred]

3- only partially true...   there is very little, if any SEO benefit to "friendly URLS" - those are more for people than search engines