Does anyone else not care about SEO, or is completely passive about it?

Paul B

XenForo moderator
Staff member
I read all these posts about SEO and note how some people get themselves all worked up about it; worrying about their google ranking, where they appear in searches, how to improve it, even paying for advice, etc.

I can quite honestly say I've never given it a second thought.
Yes it might be pleasing if my site appears at or near the top of a search, but I couldn't care less if it doesn't.

I did a few experiments when we switched to XenForo earlier this year, to see just how good the built in SEO is, and just by adding a single word to a Page title, it pushed us from page 8 to the top of page 1.
Great!

Other than that I have done nothing.

For the 3 years prior when I was using phpBB software, again I did nothing at all to do with SEO, and really wasn't bothered at all about it.

In fact, our most valuable content is hidden from guests, so it doesn't even appear in search engine listings.

My opinion is if there is content on your site which is useful to others, they will find it.
Mostly this will be from members posting links elsewhere, which others will then click on and likewise, if they find the content useful they will also pass it on.

I used to be the same about my AV/Home Cinema equipment; constantly tweaking, adjusting, testing, reading articles on how to improve it, tweaking again, retesting, etc.
Then it dawned on me that I wasn't actually using it for what it was intended.

Now I just use it and enjoy it.

(This is of course my personal opinion and not a reflection on XenForo or its built in SEO capability.)
 
Now I just use it and enjoy it.
You summed it up for me. I create/use forums for enjoyment and I very rarely find forums via search. If I do find them via search, it's even less likely that I'll revisit it.

If I'm searching, I find the information and leave. I've never found a forum via search in all my time on the internet, because it's not its SERP ranking that interests me.
 
Theres a few things I'll spend time on, but for the most part much of SEO is just hype and really is just best practices.

On vBulletin I'd have spent more time fine tuning things, but on XenForo there isn't all that much more that can be done to optimize it.
 
Two years ago I would have thought SEO was a title for the guy under the CEO in some company. I know what it is now but really do not make a fuss so much about it either. I don't really have any logic behind it other than I have other things to stress about. I must admit it tickled me a bit to have the first result searching xxsu @google point to a post of mine here. I really don't know enough about SEO in general to waste my time fooling with it though so I don't think my opinion on his subject ends up weighing much lol.
 
Fact: If you have quality content and follow a few basic rules (i.e. valid HTML code, good document structure), you can ignore all the so-called wannabe SEO experts. Your blog/forum/whatever will still be doing fine.

If your site is competing with thousands of others and basically provides the same content as these competitors - then *maybe* some SEO rules could help.

For all those addicted to numbers, page ranks and general ranking of things, here is an excellent article with some food for thoughts.
 
I don't care about SEO, though my websites are for hobby purposes, and not business related. I'm sure if I wanted to make an income off of my site, I would be all over the SEO stuff. But for now, I could care less about where I am in google searches. I do prefer the very top, but Im not going to mess around with keywords to get there. I have better stuff to do with my time, like take over the world.
 
I have never taken much notice TBH.. but here is my experience..

My first IPB skinning site had a Google page ranking of 6 and a search for anything related to IPB skins or styles would result in my site being #1 or 2

My second IPB skinning site had a Google page ranking of 4 and solid first page results in searches.

My Xenforo skinning site is no where in results.. which I attribute to poor SEO on my WordPress front page.. as a result i am going to kill it, and try for web pages with an RSS dynamic feed that have always worked for me in the past.
 
Agree ive never done anything tbh "sitemap" that's about it

Don't agree with this tho :P
I used to be the same about my AV/Home Cinema equipment; constantly tweaking, adjusting, testing, reading articles on how to improve it, tweaking again, retesting, etc.
Always playing with my AMP after the "kids" move them around (All the dam time lol) :C /cry
 
I honestly couldn't care less about SEO. I have a sitemap, and it's interesting to see the spiders chomping on my content.
But really, as long as my site gets indexed on Google and yahoo so that people can find it, that's all I really care about.
My sites are there for enjoyment, not to make me any money.
 
If you have quality content, google will find you ;)

Only thing i have is a sitemap. thats all.

Not true in all cases...depends on niche, on luck...if you have quality content but you are not popular your site is not search engine friendly...:-(

In most of cases good seo depends on 2 factors: quantity of "good" content and quality of external links. With quality of external links i assume that good and often updated websites of your niche should link you. This can be easy in some niches, very difficult in others. Because if your forum is about a "rich niche" is difficult that a competitor link you...
 
I was happy when my site hit #1 on google for my chosen term. It's something which most of my sites do for my chosen search terms, but I don't do anything special for it, and it doesn't bug me too much either. I simply set meta tags up and away it goes..
 
SEO is the holy grail to running a successful web site. I can't believe you people are saying it's not important. Ludicrous! o_O

If you have a little forum with a little user activity, IMHO is very very difficult to have a good seo. You need first to create a good community and AFTER the creation of a good community...you can jump to seo competition. :-)
 
For me it's true that the SEO is the Holy Grail if you want to run a succesful website...it's the most important source of traffic today. :)

But if you run a forum just forum fun, you can ignore it.
 
For me it's true that the SEO is the Holy Grail if you want to run a succesful website...it's the most important source of traffic today. :)

But if you run a forum just forum fun, you can ignore it.
Where exactly does SEO end and the hype begin however?

At the end of the day, if you've followed the best practices, and made sure you have quality content exactly what else can you do? After a certain point all you're doing is wasting more and more time which could have been spent posting more quality content.
 
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