A friend of mine once said that forum SEO is a myth. He even wrote a topic about it on another forum and the topic became quite huge. So I started really researching what works in terms of forum SEO and what doesn’t work. It objective to note that forums are a user-community unlike a blog where you are writing most of the content! Your forum members are not thinking about search engine optimization when they are making new topics or replying to current ones. And who are we to try to force them to be more SEO-minded, right? No that will only make them fear being active on your forum and do more harm than good, for it.
So we need to focus on the search engine optimization tactics that actually work for forums.
Keywords…great content that sticks…link love in anchor-text form…relevant backlinks…social media optimization…
Forum SEO and Keywords
Keywords are still important in terms of proper search engine optimization. I use them every day on my blog and I watch the successful results of using them. So with a forum, you as the main content contributor (or at least that is how it should be) should focus on keywords in your topics. Start with the title of your new topic, think of a good keyword or string of keywords and put them at the beginning of the topic title as much as you can. Then use headers in your topic and stick the keywords in with them as well. Finally, make sure you put the keywords here and there in the content of your topic, too. Remember not to stuff the topic with keywords, you should still be writing more for humans than you would for search bots.
Forum SEO and Content
Content is king…How many times had we heard that get beaten our brains? If I had a nickel for every time someone said that phrase to me, I’d retire from forums because I’d be rich. Not really though, I love forums!!! So content being king is a reality… But, you can’t just post any kind of content and give it a crown. The best content ruler around is content that sticks, sticks in your brain! If your forum members are not taking anything away (knowledge, education, a good laugh, etc.) after reading your topics, then you content isn’t royalty material, peasant! So you need to focus on the kind of content that people dream of seeing and then you will have your throne in the niche world.
Forum SEO and Links
Google doesn’t visit your forum just to see what you have to say! Google is quite social and after a couple of drinks, well that’s another story… Google wants to see more of the content that you are talking about in the form of statements from other people and websites. So feel free to add some external links here and there in your topics. Just use anchor text! That is where you make the link into a clickable set of words. And you should make it a string of words rather than just one word. For example, I may write on my admin forum something like, dang I went to this promotion forum and I am still just the forum admin, I expected a raise and a new title (know what I mean, Vern?). The great thing about these links is that you can add as many as you want!
Forum SEO and Backlinks
Backlinks are also important in terms of Forum SEO tactics that actually work. Now you want to focus on relevant backlinks. Google and other search engines are not looking to find your forum about fish cloning on a website about homemade Kentucky Fried Chicken. Your link should be linked on another forum or website about fish cloning or even fish in general (not chicken!!!). So work on getting relevant back links. It also helps if the site owner is plugging your forum link rather than just adding it to a Blogroll or what have you. Google wants to see others gossiping about your forum in a good way!
Forum SEO and Forum SMO
Too many something something O’s! But it’s true; this is a social age we live in. And as a forum owner, we know this to be true. Social media will either make you or break you. You have to decide on it! If you decide to use social media optimization (i.e. the new SEO, you just wait and see!), then you and your forum will be better off. The trick is treating your social assets like you would your forum. So it’s going to be like running two websites…your forum…and your social page or pages pending on what networks you choose to explore. You social networking will demand as much attention as your forum will and that is where many forum owners fail, the just create a page and hope for the best while their competition does the opposite and succeeds over them.
Thanks for reading my article about forum SEO! If you have enjoyed it, share it and comment on it. If you check out my blog links below (in my signature), you will find that I have plenty more to say about forum administration, promotion and so on. Feel free! 🙂
So we need to focus on the search engine optimization tactics that actually work for forums.
Keywords…great content that sticks…link love in anchor-text form…relevant backlinks…social media optimization…
Forum SEO and Keywords
Keywords are still important in terms of proper search engine optimization. I use them every day on my blog and I watch the successful results of using them. So with a forum, you as the main content contributor (or at least that is how it should be) should focus on keywords in your topics. Start with the title of your new topic, think of a good keyword or string of keywords and put them at the beginning of the topic title as much as you can. Then use headers in your topic and stick the keywords in with them as well. Finally, make sure you put the keywords here and there in the content of your topic, too. Remember not to stuff the topic with keywords, you should still be writing more for humans than you would for search bots.
Forum SEO and Content
Content is king…How many times had we heard that get beaten our brains? If I had a nickel for every time someone said that phrase to me, I’d retire from forums because I’d be rich. Not really though, I love forums!!! So content being king is a reality… But, you can’t just post any kind of content and give it a crown. The best content ruler around is content that sticks, sticks in your brain! If your forum members are not taking anything away (knowledge, education, a good laugh, etc.) after reading your topics, then you content isn’t royalty material, peasant! So you need to focus on the kind of content that people dream of seeing and then you will have your throne in the niche world.
Forum SEO and Links
Google doesn’t visit your forum just to see what you have to say! Google is quite social and after a couple of drinks, well that’s another story… Google wants to see more of the content that you are talking about in the form of statements from other people and websites. So feel free to add some external links here and there in your topics. Just use anchor text! That is where you make the link into a clickable set of words. And you should make it a string of words rather than just one word. For example, I may write on my admin forum something like, dang I went to this promotion forum and I am still just the forum admin, I expected a raise and a new title (know what I mean, Vern?). The great thing about these links is that you can add as many as you want!
Forum SEO and Backlinks
Backlinks are also important in terms of Forum SEO tactics that actually work. Now you want to focus on relevant backlinks. Google and other search engines are not looking to find your forum about fish cloning on a website about homemade Kentucky Fried Chicken. Your link should be linked on another forum or website about fish cloning or even fish in general (not chicken!!!). So work on getting relevant back links. It also helps if the site owner is plugging your forum link rather than just adding it to a Blogroll or what have you. Google wants to see others gossiping about your forum in a good way!
Forum SEO and Forum SMO
Too many something something O’s! But it’s true; this is a social age we live in. And as a forum owner, we know this to be true. Social media will either make you or break you. You have to decide on it! If you decide to use social media optimization (i.e. the new SEO, you just wait and see!), then you and your forum will be better off. The trick is treating your social assets like you would your forum. So it’s going to be like running two websites…your forum…and your social page or pages pending on what networks you choose to explore. You social networking will demand as much attention as your forum will and that is where many forum owners fail, the just create a page and hope for the best while their competition does the opposite and succeeds over them.
Thanks for reading my article about forum SEO! If you have enjoyed it, share it and comment on it. If you check out my blog links below (in my signature), you will find that I have plenty more to say about forum administration, promotion and so on. Feel free! 🙂
