Homepage re-direct question, and some SEO questions

[Trix]

On my website i have my forums set to /forums/ . At my root (domain.com) i have a redirect html file ( i believe ) or something there that is redirecting people to the forums.

Is this a really bad way to have things setup? I'm starting to take a bit more interest in google search results, and seo things and was wondering if this is hurting me at all.

I also have a tab at the top that says HOME, and if you click it, it just takes you to the forums. I really want to set up a home page, and have it so when people visit my domain name, that's my homepage. Which brings me onto another question, I really love the Xenforo.com homepage layout. Is there anyway to get a copy of this to use on our own site? Or a guide somewhere to setting up our own homepage.

Lastly each of my forum sections are labelled with the same name. Is this also a bad idea? I couldn't think of a name for each section so i named them all the same, after my websites title. So the forums are kind of like:

Mywebsite.com
-- Welcome section
-- Announcement section

Mywebsite.com
-- Another section
-- You get the point

Thanks for any help, i'm just starting to try and really get my site sorted out properly for once.

 

[Paul B]

If you don't have anything installed in the root, why have you installed XenForo in /forums?

Unless you have a reason to keep the root free, I would always advocate doing that.

There are portal add-ons which can be used to create a home page, if that's what you wish.

 

[Trix]

I used to have vBulletin, then IPB, and it was always easier having them installed into /forum/ or /forums/ so that i could download a html design, or install wordpress for the homepage. But Xenforo seems too 'complete' to need to do either of those and i am assuming i can just make a 'page' as my homepage in xenforo?

I really don't want to use any add ons for it so that i don't need to rely on them being updated to work when i update Xenforo.

Hope this makes sense.

 

[Paul B]

Yes, you can use a Page node as your home page - I used to do that myself.

Then I created an add-on as I got sick of manually updating it

 

[Trix]

If i had your knowledge i am sure i would create an add-on myself for it, alas i do not!

I really need to look into pages and nodes more to understand them better too.

So i can create a page, that when people click on Home, it will take them too it. Will the url just show as my domain.com or will it have some other bits after it? I would really like it to just be my domain.com

Also wondering about using a layout similar to Xenforo's homepage, but i'm going to assume you can't because of copyright?

And lastly, still hoping someone has some information regarding the SEO questions.

Phew!

 

[Paul B]

There are add-ons available for portal/home pages.

If you use a Page node, the URL will show as the page node URL, e.g. http://www.cliptheapex.com/community/pages/home/

You can copy the XenForo home page - layout and design can't really be copyrighted.

As far as SEO is concerned, I wouldn't bother trying to second-guess Google.
Just build your site and let Google do what it does.