Where should we install to? /forums/ or /community/ ?

[Stuart Wright]

So we are AVForums.com and our vB3.8.2 is in AVForums.com/forums/
Do we install Xenforo to /forums or /community ?
The latter has advantages because it means for a cleaner install (there is loads of crap in the /forums folder which is legacy of many years and does I don't know what).
But what is best SEO wise?
Are there any other considerations to take into account?

 

[Paul B]

Why not in the root?

More posts here about it: http://xenforo.com/community/threads/forum-in-root-or-forum.23308/#post-288894

 

[Stuart Wright]

Thanks Brogan. Hadn't considered putting it in root. We are having a CMS and have /competitions /videos /reviews /movies /gaming and other sub folders alongside /forums. Will have to have a long, hard think about this.

 

[Paul B]

I originally installed in /community but that was because I was planning to have some sort of portal/home page.
However, that didn't work out so I moved to the root earlier this year.

Usually you only need to install in a directory if you have a home or splash page, CMS/wordpress, etc., otherwise the root should work in most cases.

 

[Stuart Wright]

We will definitely be having a CMS driven home page which will be editorial based rather than community based. Somewhat like IGN, I suppose.

 

[AndyB]

So we are AVForums.com and our vB3.8.2 is in AVForums.com/forums/
Do we install Xenforo to /forums or /community ?
The latter has advantages because it means for a cleaner install (there is loads of crap in the /forums folder which is legacy of many years and does I don't know what).
But what is best SEO wise?
Are there any other considerations to take into account?

I suggest /forums so that you will be changing your folder structure as little as possible. The old legacy stuff which no longer works will eventually be removed anyway.

 

[Paul B]

The choice of /forums would be last on my list, simply to avoid situations where there would be a double /forums/forums in the URL.

Although the /forums route can be changed in 1.2 to something else.

 

[xf_phantom]

The choice of /forums would be last on my list, simply to avoid situations where there would be a double /forums/forums in the URL.

Although the /forums route can be changed in 1.2 to something else.

WORD

never thought about this till i saw it the first time with vB5

 

[JVCode]

The choice of /forums would be last on my list, simply to avoid situations where there would be a double /forums/forums in the URL.

Although the /forums route can be changed in 1.2 to something else.

I've been looking at my forums url lately also and thought the same, so I just decided to move it to /community

 

[Paul B]

For those who are wondering when that happens, it's for forum specific URLs.
For example: http://xenforo.com/community/forums/xenforo-pre-sales-questions.5/

If it was installed in /forums here, it would look like this: http://xenforo.com/forums/forums/xenforo-pre-sales-questions.5/

 

[FredC]

I originally installed in /community but that was because I was planning to have some sort of portal/home page.
However, that didn't work out so I moved to the root earlier this year.

Usually you only need to install in a directory if you have a home or splash page, CMS/wordpress, etc., otherwise the root should work in most cases.

Brogan im curious as to why you didnt just put a redirect in your htaccess file to accomplish this on the off chance a portal of your liking becomes available???

 

[Paul B]

If one does ever become available then I'll just change it again.
Or there's always the possibility that the portal can also work with the installation in the root.

As it stands, it's a lot cleaner just having the installation in the root.

 

[DBA]

I suggest /forums so that you will be changing your folder structure as little as possible.

From a SEO (or any matter really except for looks) standpoint this will have no bearing as the url after the /forums/ will have changed.

The choice of /forums would be last on my list, simply to avoid situations where there would be a double /forums/forums in the URL.

Although the /forums route can be changed in 1.2 to something else.

For example the forums route could be changed to "section", so it becomes /forum/section/xenforo-pre-sales-questions.5/

 

[xf_phantom]

If i use xenforo (and the framework) for everything, i tend to install it in the root because of the urls
It looks strange if you have everything in a own community directory.

www.my-url.com
www.my-url.com/mypage1
www.my-url.com/mypage2
www.my-url.com/community/help
www.my-url.com/community/members
www.my-url.com/community/media
www.my-url.com/community/linklist
www.my-url.com/community/projects


If i use wordpress/joomla for the pages and xenforo ONLY for the forum, i would put it into the community directory