well after struggling to get my forum listed in google giant, I then opted to go for a domain for the forum and yet again am not finding anything listed in google yet when I type the full web address it is listing okay.
in webmaster tools there are no issues, think this is going to be a total flop at the rate things are going at.
all I have after 3 weeks is only my family helping along with a few friends which I find very sad, any way going to battle as it is still early days but how long can family and a few friends keep posting?
have submitted to all other search engines, done back links, been on here and another pr forum and yet nothing from all of this.
lots of hard work but very little in returns, I can only feel for others out there trying.
well if it fails I am going to find a host to launch a graphics site got loads of them.
any suggestions to get our forum up or running or if you are struggling like us then would like to hear from you.
Do I understand it well - you moved to another domain name? If so, 301 redirect and it should start being indexed. Do a lot of forum posting yourself, comment on blogs, promote on social media. Keep your strength fresh and post few replies/day till you get more members, so that you don't run out of 'steam' 😉
You're not alone 🙂 My forum is almost 2 months old, over 700 posts, but google seems to keep it hidden. I'm not too concerned because I have a feeling that it takes a heck of a lot more than 700 posts, so I'll just keep working on promoting the forum.
From what I understand, SEO is not easy for a forum and the only way to get out there is to build up content over time.
You are definitely not alone. I have been struggling with my forum for a couple of years now. Changing the look, even changing the program for the forum(from myPHP to vBulletin). Been building, changing things around to give it a better look, posting, etc......
SEO and getting it ranked on google is a bear. But I keep at it..It takes time and all you can do is just keep doing..
I have read some of the articles here that talk about ways to promote the forums through social media, and ways to make your forum better, etc. These are well written articles with very helpful information in them. I thank everyone who put the time in to share their knowledge with the rest of us.
I am determined to make it work and succeed. I do my sitemaps once a week sometimes twice but not more than that. I post whenever I can on it.( I try for once a day, but with real life out there not always possible) I encourage our few members to post and reply to posts whenever possible.
I have finally seen my forum on google page 2 a few times..so I am getting there. I can't afford to have someone do it for me, so I just keep plugging away in the hopes that it will pay off...
I keep searching for ways to promote my forum, to make it better, and to always try to stay on top of the latest trends for SEO(tough one there).
I encourage you to keep going, even if your family reaches a point where they can't help. Eventually it should pay off. Determiniation, it won't happen overnight and rarely have I seen it happen quickly. I wish you luck, please keep us posting of your progress.
Do not loose your hope.obviously it will take a long time and hard work but it is like upbringing your own child.So keep doing every possible trials,you will be rewarded soon.Best of luck.
Well folks, it's a sign of the times to some degree!!
A lot of well established forums which have been strong over the last 5-10 years will still secure strong audiences, but many (including our own forum) has steadily dropped since 2009/10.
If you have ran a "modest" forum over the last number of years, you may also notice a drop in activity, where most of the people I talk to (fellow developers/site owners and forum admins) point the finger to the ever strengthening social media circles (Facebook/ Twitter/ LinkedIn/ Instagram/ Pinterest etc. etc.).
It doesn't help, with the ever changing tactics/methods which major search engines are forever changing, as we all fight to stay on top of SEO results!!
So for the foreseeable future, all we can do is "plug-away" at our forum projects, with hope in growing our audiences, making all our promotion activities worthwhile!!
managed to get listed here on page 4 of google but only managed this going off an article I saw about keywords in documents.
my forum has a main title name and then a forum description for the search engines.
I then created a forum post with the keywords of my forum description, submitted it to google url and when I searched the engine there it was listed.
still pretty sure though that like other search engines google is trying to get people to pay through add words, I have now had 3 messages asking me to pay through this method and this is a big no no esp for a new forum.
now got more serious problems why no one is registering so am trying to find ways to sort this out.
it is such a shame that when it comes to new and younger sites people avoid signing up.
yes you can get posting packages but the amount of posts you need to do just for this is staggering and taking away from your own new or young forum sites.
so far I have done FP, backlinks and search engines but not a dicky bird from anything we have done.
Also on the subject of SEO, it's said these days, that Keywords no longer carry much impact, where web developers focus on page titles, filenames and valid page content for search engine bots to get their teeth into.
I still laugh at the "honeymoon period" ... where search engines are generous with newly launched sites, only for them to plummet several pages down a matter of weeks later (unless you have a large audience grabbing campaign).
