XF 1.5 xenForo Google results fall behind vBulletin

ekool

ekool

Active member
We run a very large number of community sites (upwards of 200). We started moving a few sites over to the xenForo platform over the past few years and we do prefer this product over vBulletin.

However, Google prefers vBulletin. What can we do about this?

Here are a few examples to illustrate:
*) in google webmaster tools we receive notices about vBulletin patches that are available, we have not received any concerning xenForo
*) Google search results for a vBulletin forum landing page will have it's title prepended with the brand tag "Forums: ", xenForo titles are not.
*) We have started up sites in xenForo with SEO in mind, at the same time as a competitor starting up a vBulletin version. Our site shows more activity (traffic and posts), however the vBulletin competition's site still ranks higher in Google results. To be fair, in Bing we rank higher but the vast majority of our search traffic comes from Google.

The conclusion seems to be that Google is aware of vBulletin and not xenForo. Is there anything being done about this, or is there any interest in doing anything about this?

We prefer the xenForo product, but at the end of the day we are a business specializing in forum communities, so if our main source of traffic will always recognize vBulletin over xenForo then to remain competitive we will be forced to stop investing in xenForo licenses and continue with vBulletin. At this point any new sites we build are being done in vBulletin 4 for this very reason.
 
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I also noticed that,
My best guess is that only xf's default layout is recognized as a forum, and only parsed as such if you've got something like PR4+

I have yet to see a themed XF installation, recognized as a forum by google

Even macrumors' forums are not recognized as a forum since thye moved away from VB. (the results do not display the number of posts, for example)
 
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Mh microdata is there in most skins...
It's just weird, it looks like google "parser" is completely stupid and limited to the default skin.

I've got perfectly working microdata in a custom theme and google ignores it. :(
 
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There are fundamental issues with XF and google
  • the /posts/ redirect system is an insult to SEO optimisation
  • the sitemap only reporting front pages and not all pages is a problem
  • the way certain data is ordered on the screen is just wrong (google thinks your login page is your main content)
  • google "post parser" (the stuff that adds the number of posts, dates, on forum pages) seems to ignore most XF installs, except maybe the PR5+ using the default skin (I'd be glad to be proven wrong if anyone can spot an XF install, with a custom skin, which has the extended microdata showed in the SERPs)
  • I could go on for hours ; rss, etc.
The short story is ; by switching to XF you loose google but you gain customer engagement. The other way to see it, tough, is that it's probably impossible to start a new project with XF given it'll be way below a similar project running VB3/VB4 is the google SERPs.
And again, this is not XF's fault. I think they should be MUCH MORE active in trying to reach out to google about these issues. If they ever admit them, that is.
 
Last edited:
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Weppa333 said:
There are fundamental issues with XF and google
  • the /posts/ redirect system is an insult to SEO optimisation
Click to expand...

I must say i was pretty surprised when i installed XF 1.5 on my local and saw the post redirects on index page.

Weppa333 said:
  • the sitemap only reporting front pages and not all pages is a problem
  • the way certain data is ordered on the screen is just wrong (google thinks your login page is your main content)
Click to expand...

Not necessary because you don't need to submit every thread page to google for indexing these days. You do supply those data with microdata to Serps already. Your sitemap only needs to include the actual pages. Sub pages don't posses that importance.

The page layout is also not important anymore. Yes in old days moving header all the way bottom of the template and aligninig via absolute position was a good work around but not anymore. Again you are failing to see the importance of microdata and how it changed SERPs in time.

Weppa333 said:
  • google "post parser" (the stuff that adds the number of posts, dates, on forum pages) seems to ignore most XF installs, except maybe the PR5+ using the default skin (I'd be glad to be proven wrong if anyone can spot an XF install, with a custom skin, which has the extended microdata showed in the SERPs)
  • I could go on for hours ; rss, etc.
Click to expand...

That i would say is a more problem for the custom designs as clearly they are not doing things right.

Weppa333 said:
The short story is ; by switching to XF you loose google but you gain customer engagement. The other way to see it, tough, is that it's probably impossible to start a new project with XF given it'll be way below a similar project running VB3/VB4 is the google SERPs.
And again, this is not XF's fault. I think they should be MUCH MORE active in trying to reach out to google about these issues. If they ever admit them, that is.
Click to expand...

From my perspective as a long time admin , i see more XF resulted search results then vB for at least last 12-18 months. That is highly possible related to the number of websites converting.

And more importantly no software sold can be perfect for all requirements. If you want to perfect things i suggest you investing that work on your own site.

But still thanks for the post as this thread forced me to investigate the new style Audentio is building for us. if Ui/X has it's issues that cause less indexing , all needs to be fixed before our site is pushed live.
 
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Mert said:
New post block on index page , all links are displayed as showpost urls instead of actual thread url. They are 301 redirected but why display showpost url when you can directly use thread url ?
Click to expand...
Yeah, I see what you mean. That could cause issues by introducing a 301 to new url's as well as losing out on ranking signal by not including keywords.
 
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I'm trying to find out what's causing it, but I've checked several Xenforo sites and it seems that the few I found with the default skin are popping up in Google as a forum. I only found 1 with a custom skin that was seen as a forum in Google.

I also ran some micro data checks, but they seem the same.
 
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MstrfBlng said:
First I looked up some Xenforo forums.

Then i searched for the site in google for example:

site:xenforo.com

and I browsed through the results. The forums with the default skin showed up with:

Amount of authors and amount of posts.

The forums with other skins didn't have this 'rich snippet' addition.

Example:

http://linksysinfo.org/index.php

https://www.google.com/search?q=site:http://linksysinfo.org/index.php
Click to expand...

On your second example you are using wrong search parameter.

You should use site:linksysinfo.org and don't include index.php

I see all microdata correctly visible on Serp results for that website http://d.pr/i/12LX6/uhz8fPy1
 
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MstrfBlng said:
Oh yes, but it gives results I meant :) It uses the default skin and is recognized as a forum. While cyclingforuims.com uses the same theme as us (UI.X) and that one is not recognized:

https://www.google.com/search?q=site:www.cyclingforums.com

Same for this default skin:

https://www.google.com/search?q=site:www.waxworldforum.nl

But this default skin isn't recognized:

https://www.google.com/search?q=site:motoredbikes.com
Click to expand...

That is not abnormal , if you look at cycligforums , they are not using microdata correctly in the source code

Code: 
<div class="nodeText">
            <h3 class="nodeTitle"><a href="forums/bikes.106/" data-description="#nodeDescription-106">Bikes</a>
              
            </h3>

          

            <div class="nodeStats pairsInline">
                <dl><dt><i class="uix_icon uix_icon-statsDiscussions"></i></dt> <dd>484</dd></dl>
                <dl><dt><i class="uix_icon uix_icon-statsMessages"></i></dt> <dd>746</dd></dl>
              
            </div>
          
          
        </div>

Additionally i noticed another interesting observation , the ones that lack microdata is usually websites that don't run full SSL

Don't forget Google is deranking websites that don't run full SSL.
 
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MstrfBlng said:
Does anyone has a clue why some Xenforo sites are recognized as forums and other aren't? We migrated to XF last month, all has been indexed, but not recognized as a forum. While our competition, also running a XF forum is recognized as a forum and pops up in my Google Now with updates of that forum.

We had vB5 and also that was NOT recognized as a forum.
Click to expand...
What is the criteria you are using to say a forum is or isn't recognized as a forum by Google ?
 
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