Review request : Phorum.co.za

[reaper]

My site, Phorum.co.za (http://www.phorum.co.za) has been up and running for about 3 months now. The site seems to have been indexed by Google, but still shows low entrance rates from Google searches. Other search engines don't even feature.

I've found optimizing this site difficult because I've used phpBB software where I'd usually build a site from scratch and optimize it as it was built. I'd like to know if there are any tips or tricks that could by useful specifically on forum sites and if what I've done so far is headed in the right direction.

Link : http://www.phorum.co.za

[Koz]

hi Reaper, welcome, good to see you here!

Your forum is quite young and I feel you'd benefit from submitting your site to link directories or buying add space on other South African focused sites. There are a couple of guys here that are more experienced with the logistics of forum SEO, I'm sure they'll help with more detail.

[Blazingpie]

hey there Reaper! :)

Ok, had a quick glance at the site. Turn off putting the session id at the end of the querystring (there should be an option in the software to make it use cookies or something). That'll help with indexing. Also, put all css into a single file. that'll help the spiders get to the page content quicker (and save on bandwidth bills :) )

[Chatmaster]

I am running out of time for the day, but I will take some time 2morrow morning and give you my feedback.

[Paz]

Hi Reaper,

It takes time to build a forum, but I can see it's taking off well.

You just have to keep adding original content. Every word you write gets spidered and analyzed and eventually you will get traffic for your keywords.

Mention forum SA South Africa and South African as often as you can without spamming and make as much of your content as possible "hot" ie celebs, sport, and other big news stories and you'll see the traffic come.

You can also think about registering your forum with specialist forum directories but read this article (http://www.digital-m.co.za/articles/directory-submissions-guide.html) first though.

And here's a list of forum directories to start with;
http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/thread42327.html
http://www.theadminzone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2893

Cheers,
Paz.

[reaper]

hey there Reaper! :)
Ok, had a quick glance at the site. Turn off putting the session id at the end of the querystring...
I had done that when I originally installed the forum software, but forgot about it when I recently did an update... I've fixed it all up again :)

[Chatmaster]

Well reaper, I think your site rocks. I will personally spent some more time on it as I feel it has alot of potential. Like the topics and the community although small,it will grow soon. A forum does take a while to grow and takes so much patience.

[reaper]

Well reaper, I think your site rocks. I will personally spent some more time on it as I feel it has alot of potential. Like the topics and the community although small,it will grow soon. A forum does take a while to grow and takes so much patience.
Thanks :) Looking forward to reading your posts.