Rewrite Rules (VBSEO) and Other Questions

Greatestmj

New member
Hi there,

I am currently running Vbulletin 3.8 with VBSEO URLs and using Nginx server. If I convert from Vbulletin to Xenforo, how will I go about adding the rewrite rules so that old URLs get 301 redirect to new URLs. It is important to rewrite properly so that I don't lose all the backlinks and traffic to 404 pages.

Example URL : - cafe/158860-presidential-election-2.html (Domain.com/ForumName/ThreadID-ThreadTitle.html)

My forum has about 3.2 million posts. How difficult would it be to import from VB to WBB for a large forum? Database is 2.6 GB actually.

I am in love with WBB(burning board) and Xenforo both, but I can purchase only one. I have a few questions please:


SEO Friendliness

How SEO friendly is Xenforo compared to WBB?

What about Sitemap feature? Does WBB create a sitemap that we can submit in google webmasters, so any new posts or threads get added to sitemap etc ? Google really needs a sitemap for better indexing.

Server Resources

This was another reason of needing to move out of Vbulletin. Vbulletin as I've seen and heard is very server resource intensive. A lighter software will save Hosting Costs.

How is your software in terms of CPU Loads, Ram use in comparison to Vbulletin and Burning Board? Which one is more light and is likely to save money in hosting costs?

The Future

What is the future outlook for Xenforo? Any big plans going forward for long term? I am hearing about Xenforo 2.0 and also heard that an active license will get free upgrade to Xenforo 2.0 or was that wrong info?
 
Last edited:
Importing a database that size shouldn't be an issue using the built in importer.

I can't comment on how XF compares to WBB as far as SEO is concerned.
Many customers however claim XF performs very well with regards to SEO.

There is a sitemap function built in to the ACP.

XenForo is, according to customers who have switched, lighter on server resources than other similar scripts.

Customers with active licenses will be able to upgrade to XF 2 at no additional cost.
 
I am currently running Vbulletin 3.8 with VBSEO URLs and using Nginx server. If I convert from Vbulletin to Xenforo, how will I go about adding the rewrite rules so that old URLs get 301 redirect to new URLs. It is important to rewrite properly so that I don't lose all the backlinks and traffic to 404 pages.

Example URL : - cafe/158860-presidential-election-2.html (Domain.com/ForumName/ThreadID-ThreadTitle.html)

Hi, this is most important question. Thanks
 
Last edited:
What Mike means is that you will have to write some htaccess url rewrites which will redirect from your vbseo'd url to default vbulletin urls. Many people have done that and there is also a tool online which does this automatically for you. --> Redirects for vBSEO URLs to native vBulletin format

XenForo then has redirect scripts which redirect the default vbulletin urls to xenforo urls. I did a conversion from vbseo'd urls for vbulletin 4 not long ago, and you can read my experience here.
 
What Mike means is that you will have to write some htaccess url rewrites which will redirect from your vbseo'd url to default vbulletin urls. Many people have done that and there is also a tool online which does this automatically for you. --> Redirects for vBSEO URLs to native vBulletin format

XenForo then has redirect scripts which redirect the default vbulletin urls to xenforo urls. I did a conversion from vbseo'd urls for vbulletin 4 not long ago, and you can read my experience here.

Okay thanks I understood now. I have the nginx rewrite rules for vbseo to vbulletin default. So it seems easy to solve this problem. Thanks.
 
Top Bottom