Hi guys, I was reviewing some of the freeforums.com forums advertised here, and trying to see how I could help.
I noticed that a lot of people are using ghosted domains that redirect to their http://freeforum subdomain (i.e. http://www.example.com redirects to http://myforum.freeforums.com)
The problem I'm seeing on these forums, is that a) search engines tend not to like ghosted domains (meaning, the user sees only http://myforum.freeforums.com in the browser), and b) many of these forums share the same ips which search engines often do not like. Of course, the service is free, so it's sort of the result of "you get what you pay for".
After some careful thought, I thought of an SEO plan that might help those considering starting a new forum (using freeforums).
1) If you have a forum that you plan on keeping small, use a free account, and promote it on sites like this. Stay away from Adsense, and don't ghost your url. (For some domain registrars, you can specify a nameserver option, such that http://www.example.com/topic1.html is displayed, rather than just http://www.example.com when redirecting the url without using ht access ... normally you need access to ht access files to do this though).
2) If you have a growing community, I recommend upgrading to a premium account. Purchase your domain, and set it up accordingly (the premium accounts allow use of a top level domain, so no ghosting is required). Set up an Adsense account (discreet, like the ads here), and use the money to pay for hosting.
3) If you have a really big community, considering moving to a dedicated server, and set up a donation drive to pay for hosting (one of my communities raised $5,000 USD for a new server, and we got free hosting at OSUOSL).
4) For all boards, only use a subdomain (i.e. forum.example.com), if you also have a mainsite/wiki/etc. sitting on http://www.example.com or example.com. If your domain only hosts a forum, use http://www.example.com.
If using http://www.example.com, have example.com redirect to http://www.example.com (don't allow both) if possible (requires access to the main ht access file).
5) Register for a Yahoo Site Explorer account and Google Webmasters account, and submit an xml sitemap (see http://sitemaps.org). Also, if using http://www.example.com, tell google that http://www.example.com is your preferred domain (through your Google Webmasters account).
Hopefully, this helps. Basically, my suggestion is to use the freeforums free account for small forums since on those, you probably don't really need much search engine traffic. For larger sites, pay for hosting, and you'll see the benefits.
I noticed that a lot of people are using ghosted domains that redirect to their http://freeforum subdomain (i.e. http://www.example.com redirects to http://myforum.freeforums.com)
The problem I'm seeing on these forums, is that a) search engines tend not to like ghosted domains (meaning, the user sees only http://myforum.freeforums.com in the browser), and b) many of these forums share the same ips which search engines often do not like. Of course, the service is free, so it's sort of the result of "you get what you pay for".
After some careful thought, I thought of an SEO plan that might help those considering starting a new forum (using freeforums).
1) If you have a forum that you plan on keeping small, use a free account, and promote it on sites like this. Stay away from Adsense, and don't ghost your url. (For some domain registrars, you can specify a nameserver option, such that http://www.example.com/topic1.html is displayed, rather than just http://www.example.com when redirecting the url without using ht access ... normally you need access to ht access files to do this though).
2) If you have a growing community, I recommend upgrading to a premium account. Purchase your domain, and set it up accordingly (the premium accounts allow use of a top level domain, so no ghosting is required). Set up an Adsense account (discreet, like the ads here), and use the money to pay for hosting.
3) If you have a really big community, considering moving to a dedicated server, and set up a donation drive to pay for hosting (one of my communities raised $5,000 USD for a new server, and we got free hosting at OSUOSL).
4) For all boards, only use a subdomain (i.e. forum.example.com), if you also have a mainsite/wiki/etc. sitting on http://www.example.com or example.com. If your domain only hosts a forum, use http://www.example.com.
If using http://www.example.com, have example.com redirect to http://www.example.com (don't allow both) if possible (requires access to the main ht access file).
5) Register for a Yahoo Site Explorer account and Google Webmasters account, and submit an xml sitemap (see http://sitemaps.org). Also, if using http://www.example.com, tell google that http://www.example.com is your preferred domain (through your Google Webmasters account).
Hopefully, this helps. Basically, my suggestion is to use the freeforums free account for small forums since on those, you probably don't really need much search engine traffic. For larger sites, pay for hosting, and you'll see the benefits.
