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Hi,
I wonder if anyone can offer any advice? I currently have a forum using vBulletin, and I'm about to convert to IPB.
At present, our forum is at url/forum/ and we have IPB installed (for testing etc) at url/invision. We're going to pay for conversion, and support have said that whilst doing it, they can move the new forum into any directory.
So my question is, when it comes down to SEO, which will do the least harm.. over-writing the existing forum, so it remains at url/forum/ or keeping it in a different directory, such as url/invision?
I'd appreciate any pointers. http://www.admincommunity.com/forum/...IR#>/smile.gif
Michelle
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Of course overwrite it. If you place the new forum in a different folder then search engines will have to crawl a completely different URL, and it will take some time for your forum to get earn back its reputation in search engines.
Also as you haven't yet converted, let me tell you, vBulletin's SEO is better than IPB's so far as I know.
Another thing, many a times owners lose data while converting forum softwares, like often user passwords are lost and everyone has to reset their passwords, so its certainly a drawback.
Anyways, Good Luck with your forum http://www.admincommunity.com/forum/...IR#>/smile.gif
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Thanks for your help. The conversion is definitely going ahead - we've looked at the pros and cons, and want to go ahead. I'm just trying to find the best way to do it. http://www.admincommunity.com/forum/...IR#>/smile.gif
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It wouldn't matter that much. IPB's conversion service provides resources to 301-redirect vBulletin (or vBSEO) URLs to the IPB counterparts, and thus does not harm anything search engine-wise. You should be fine either way.
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But still continuing with the current directory is the better option . . .
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Actually, a couple guys from The Admin Zone after conversion experienced an increase in search engine activity after converting to IPB 3.0 (and that is with only FURL, IPB 3.1 has built-in SEO). So yes, IPB 3.0 actually is very search-engine friendly, and you don't actually have to pay an extra $150 for SEO over the cost of getting the license. Also, passwords actually do get converted every time when converting to IPB, regardless of which software you're converting from.
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Of course. IPB's support though offers better advice than I do, so you should ask them over me if you want any more help.
