UBB.threads PHP Forum Software Community Forums UBB.threads 7 Version 7 Support Landing Page?

Here is a bit of advice that i got. How would i best go about this? Set up a new forum on top? A sticky page?

"Landing page.

When Google arrive to the boards site they scan the page to see what it's purpose is. Currently if I go to website.ie/boards I see the last few posts but nothing to say what the page is all about. So maybe you could make a short "About Us" or "Who we are" section on that front page and write a couple of paragraphs of explanation. Make sure to repeat some of the keywords you have chosen. It will take some time for these to be picked up on but Google will certainly add a ranking bonus to the website for this. I would also add a couple of images and place hyperlinks back to website.ie and also have your keywords in the hidden text description of the image (the ALT tag). This one is pretty important."

thanks in advance for your advice

Well I am not sure what you really am looking for nor who gave the advice.

but you have a couple of methods.
1. Turn on forum introductions.
Control Panel » Forum Settings
Select the Custom inserts tab
The top three fields is what you are interested in.

2. Add Meta tags
Control Panel » Display Options
Select the HTML Includes Tab
Add what you want to:
Header Insert:
Use for meta tags, etc.

not
Default Header:

Hi Ruben,

Sorry for not thanking you sooner.

Your advice is wonderful as i'm discovering that there is a lot about my own forum that i have been unaware of. Hence there's a lot that i've neglected.

thanks

You need to have a content and keyword rich front page to your site, and when I say front the very root of your site it http://yoursite.com/index.html

If you can't accomplish this using UBB then install workpress, use some of the good SEO plugins, find a good free theme (woothemes is great). Only do this though if you are competent enough to keep it maintained.

Thanks for the advice.

i'm sending a PM

Hello Everyone,

It's been suggested that i put up my site on an open thread. But with all due repect, considering all the trouble we've had with internet wackos i'm really hesitant to do this. He/they follow us to different sites. Things happened offline, outside in the real world. We've had police get involved. It's really nuts. It really is bizarre and dare i say much worse than your normal troll problem.

So my alias has an alias

Sorry to be so secretive. And thanks for your patience on this matter.

EDIT to add: I'm not embarrassed about my site (i'm not a techie person by trade). To the contrary, i'm actually pretty excited because i feel that with the help of others I've made tremendous progress over the past few days. Major obstacles have been overcome, IMO.

Okay then I am confused.
If you are trying to increase traffic using SEO then why be so worried about it?
I though the purpose of this post was to try and increase traffic.

You can't have both options.

Hi Ruben,

Sorry for not being clear.

For years several of us believe that most all of the nonsense is coming from one single neurotic individual.

So yes we do want more web traffic so that we can gain more legitimate users. But no, i'd rather this wackjob NOT trace me, the administrator, here by posting my site to here. As he is truly obsessed with us, as he does try to follow us around as much as possible -- I'm really not really exagerating.

Make sense?

(not trying to be a wise*ss)

Understood. But again I will state.
If you want to solicit more traffic. Meaning that your site is more visible.
Then how do you propose to limit one person from visiting your site?
Your current options are limited.
If you have a ip,you can ban that. But then what?
Or ban the user. But they can just register as another user.
Banning by email is the same story.
I have three email addresses I use every day. And I could add more.

So I guess the real question is what do you really need . More visitors, or Not!
Your question is a little ambiguous.

Ruben,

I'm fairly confident this particular knucklehead would continue bothering us regardless of how much traffic we get. (in fact it really is disproportional the large amount of trolling we get while getting nill in the way of web traffic.) But i'd rather he NOT follow me to this UBB.threads Community site -- as he's followed me and several others to other sites.

I appreciate your comments about banning IP addies, users, etc. But we've already been through that.

So yes i do want more web traffic.

And yes i'm aware we'll likely get more spam and trolls along with it. And we'll live with it.

That is a tough decision to make.
To make a public board or just make it private.
So you need to make a business case on the subject and weigh the pros and con's.

First on the list is:
Do I want more traffic.
If yes then you need to open up permissions for guests.
To allow spiders and casual visitors to see your content.

Con:
By doing so you encourage spammers ,trolls and problem members.

Like I said before you can't have both.
You can take steps to mitigate some issues but not all.
Things such as a guest can only access certain forums.
Can't post till registered.
ETC.

There are some members here that want the opposite.
They want their board completely closed to visitors.

I for one don't care about visibility for one forum I take care of. Because it is dedicated to members of a organization only.
But I leave it somewhat open so guests can see something and participate as guests using captcha.