Why is this forum now hidden away ?

[gotonudecom]

No its worse. Forums like this are great for generating keyword rich content but by moving the forums further away from the index, google attaches less importance to the forum topics. Generally, the deeper the link the less importance google attaches to it.

I partially disagree.

There are far more important factors for SEO!

The page only moved ONE click according to Google.

You guys are clicking the WRONG LINK!

Adding categories is a must. Categorized content will bring more pages closer to the front page.

[gotonudecom]

Without that functionality, you really are battling with one arm tied behind your back.

Most sites now use htaccess mod_rewrite to re-write their urls in an seo friendly way. With a quick look at your structure, yours could be done with a couple of lines of code. something like this :-

RewriteEngine On

RewriteRule ^adult-business-chat/([0-9]+)-([^/]+).htm$ /forum/viewtopic.php?f=74&t=$1 [NC,L]

So that will re-write any url beginning with adult-business-chat/ followed by any number then a dash and any text to /forum/viewtopic.php?f=74&t=number

eg https://www.sponsorchat.com/adult-busin ... hidden.htm re-writes to /forum/viewtopic.php?f=74&t=5623

or

https://www.sponsorchat.com/adult-busin ... n-here.htm re-writes to /forum/viewtopic.php?f=74&t=1234

Be sure that when you rewrite all these URLS the 301s are performed correctly or you will lose all your Google indexed pages, when the URL changes.
These kind of changes while smart can have horrible consequences when performed incorrectly or incompletely.

The old URL must work. The new URL must tell Google that it is a permanent redirect from the original URL. Then Google will reindex the page with the updated URL.

[tacnet]

Your missing the point.

Im not critisizing thebutchers webmaster skills, i think hes actually done a good job with this site

Im saying that before, when the index page was the forum index page (ie this ), that meant that all your topic links were only 2 clicks away from the index (one click to select the forum and one click to the topic). This would put them resonably high in your google page ranks. Pages linked from your index would rank highest and the deeper you go, the lower importance google attaches to each page

By moving the forum 2 or 3 clicks further in, you have immediately demoted all those topic links as far as google is concerned. And the topics are where all your keywords will get posted

All I am saying is that from a purely SEO standpoint, it isnt doing this site any favours and is likely to have a negative impact

VAT is British Value Added Tax. Companies over a certain size in the UK have to register for it and pay 20% tax

Then when your company is about to reach a certain size, the company should be divided into two companies and keep that 205.

FYI, the page rank is not as important as you would think. I get orphaned pages to rank all the time.
and like I said, the link to the forum IS ON THE FRONT PAGE, you just did not click that one.
so your argument is mute!

Unfortunately last nights posts were lost and I really cant be bothered to re-create them but you really have no idea what your are talking about

1. Breaking down companies into smaller parts in order to avoid paying sales tax is totally illegal. They jump down hard on this kind of thing and the tax office has more power than the police. They can take your house, your car etc.

2. These are internal re-writes, not redirects so there is no need to worry about 301s. All the original urls will still work the same and you simply use the canonical meta tag to get google to slowly update all its ranked pages to the new urls. No loss of link juice but a massive boost in SEO

3. Moving the forum only one click in might only have a small effect in google but its having that effect on 1000s of keyword rich pages. The overall result is bad

[tacnet]

Butcher there is a way you can play with this without affecting your forums at all

create a folder (say /test/) and create an htaccess file in there with

RewriteOptions Inherit # You might need this or you might not. try it both ways

RewriteEngine On

RewriteRule ^adult-business-chat/([0-9]+)-([^/]+).htm$ /forum/viewtopic.php?f=74&t=$1 [NC,L]

now when you come to test it, just remember to prefix your urls with /test/

https://www.sponsorchat.com/test/adult-business-chat/5623-why-is-this-forum-hidden.htm

I would STRONGLY recommend reading up on htaccess mod_rewrite (just google that phrase and theres tons of tutorials).

Unfortunatly youve still got the issue of finding the right plugin to get this forum to do it.

If it were me and you cant find a plugin that works, then i would look to see if you can migrate to another forum software. What does that other webmaster forum (3 letter domain) use ? (sorry i wouldnt dream of posting a link to the competition in here lol)

[TheButcher]

tacnet I appreciate the advice, I'll do that. It is vBulletin I used it here for 14 years but was not too crazy about the newer versions so switched to phpBB.

[gotonudecom]

Your missing the point.

Im not critisizing thebutchers webmaster skills, i think hes actually done a good job with this site

Im saying that before, when the index page was the forum index page (ie this ), that meant that all your topic links were only 2 clicks away from the index (one click to select the forum and one click to the topic). This would put them resonably high in your google page ranks. Pages linked from your index would rank highest and the deeper you go, the lower importance google attaches to each page

By moving the forum 2 or 3 clicks further in, you have immediately demoted all those topic links as far as google is concerned. And the topics are where all your keywords will get posted

All I am saying is that from a purely SEO standpoint, it isnt doing this site any favours and is likely to have a negative impact

VAT is British Value Added Tax. Companies over a certain size in the UK have to register for it and pay 20% tax

Then when your company is about to reach a certain size, the company should be divided into two companies and keep that 205.

FYI, the page rank is not as important as you would think. I get orphaned pages to rank all the time.
and like I said, the link to the forum IS ON THE FRONT PAGE, you just did not click that one.
so your argument is mute!

Unfortunately last nights posts were lost and I really cant be bothered to re-create them but you really have no idea what your are talking about

1. Breaking down companies into smaller parts in order to avoid paying sales tax is totally illegal. They jump down hard on this kind of thing and the tax office has more power than the police. They can take your house, your car etc.

2. These are internal re-writes, not redirects so there is no need to worry about 301s. All the original urls will still work the same and you simply use the canonical meta tag to get google to slowly update all its ranked pages to the new urls. No loss of link juice but a massive boost in SEO

3. Moving the forum only one click in might only have a small effect in google but its having that effect on 1000s of keyword rich pages. The overall result is bad

I am just curious since thebutcher does not look at his stats, how can you be saying these things, without looking at his stats.
These 1000s of pages were always several clicks in, what is one more click?
Most of them are many clicks in due to the lack of categories.
And since activity changes them all the time, many are rarely only a few clicks in.

1. Breaking down companies into smaller parts in order to avoid paying sales tax is totally illegal.
Only if you do it WRONG and illegal, is it illegal. Avoiding taxes is not illegal, it is supposed to be done.
Get better tax advice! 20% is a lot of money that you could be spending on better tax advice. If your tax person continues to say it can not be done, find another tax person.
Lets end this part here, until you do more research!

2. These are internal re-writes, not redirects so there is no need to worry about 301s. All the original urls will still work the same and you simply use the canonical meta tag to get google to slowly update all its ranked pages to the new urls. No loss of link juice but a massive boost in SEO

Not sure how you can say any of this without looking at the stats for the site.
Without a statistical model and sample data then it is just your opinion.

This is the first time you mentioned canonical. If it is part of your great plan, do you think you should share this information with Thebutcher.
I would love to read something that supports your theory of using canonical meta tags in the way you have suggested.


This project is also more than SEO. Thebutcher shut down many sites and pointed them all to this site and all to the front page. They should redirect differently, but it is most likely too late for that. Without looking at his stats and or SearchConsole, I am just guessing from my 25 years experience.

This article is old but still relevant for this matter.
https://moz.com/blog/301-redirect-or-re ... ld-you-use
Redirecting all pages in one go to a single URL

Another common mistake I see involves site migration. An example being if your website has 500 pages which are moving somewhere else. You should really put 500 301 redirects on these pages which point to the most relevant page on the new site. However I've often see people redirect all of these 500 pages to a single URL, usually the homepage. Although the intention may not be manipulative, there have been cases of people doing this to try and consolidate all the link juice from loads of pages into one page, to make that page stronger. This can sometimes put up a flag to Google who may come and take a closer look at what's going on.

Did you ever think that maybe thebutcher want to get more link juice to these other pages and NOT the forum?
He is attempting to make more money!
Maybe he has shared something with you that he has not shared with me?
I think what he has done is perfect for what his goals are, the goals he shared with me.

I am also stuck on the fact that you had the level of the site incorrect.
I read the HTML before I comment on such things.

The forum is one click deeper than it was.
Adding categories, like I suggested somewhere (several times) will bring a lot more pages many clicks closer to the top forum page. This will be an overall improvement.

The other links, dating, sex store, webcams, etc. now have more link rank on this site AS THEY SHOULD to meet his goals.

If he wants, and you might agree, he could put category links under FORUM. This would put that link power back where it was.
These two links would be enough
SC FORUMS
BUSINESS FORUMS

but he could go as far as to add
ADULT BUSINESS CHAT
Discussion Of Everything Legal Is Good

BUSINESS RESOURCES DIRECTORY ( I see it is on the page, but without the word resources and no descriptions are making the page less friendly.)
Forum Business Listings Resources Directory
https://www.sponsorchat.com/directory/

TRAFFIC BUSINESS
Buying, Selling Or Trading TRAFFIC
(Please keep 1 thread per company and add to it)

Which ever ones he want to have more attention.

This is NOT just about SEO.

This is about driving traffic to where he can make money from the traffic.

[gotonudecom]

@tacnet

you really have no idea what your are talking about

I take great offense at your statement and it is libel.
This is defamation by definition.

This is what I do for a living, I am a Business Consultant Specializing on Internet consulting. For over 25 years I have made websites better and in the process corrected many people like YOU!

I could sit here and tell you how great I am and how many millions I make per year, and how many sites I take over and greatly increase the revenue of those site (millions).

However, when you say things like "you really have no idea what your are talking about", after you did not even check the HTML to verify the page/link rank on this site, I do not feel that you are worth much more of a reply.

Went to open https://www.sponsorchat.com for the first time in ages and see what people are talking about

But then i had to navigate through 3 pages just to get to the forum

That cant be doing this site any favours

IT IS ONE (additional) CLICK! NOT 3 !!!!

You are the one making mistakes in your statements on this thread, NOT me!
I can PROVE that "you really have no idea what your are talking about", because I do my research before I type ignorance into forums

I suggest you edit your post concerning my ideas or lack there of!

[tacnet]

I really cant be bothered to argue with you anymore. You simply have no idea of what your talking about

[TheButcher]

I have learned a lot from this thread, that is why I have been reading more than commenting. Not pretending to be any great SEO authority ( that is really putting it mildly) so thinking out loud, what if we delete the SC Forums and Business Categories, have all forums listed on the page, reducing the additional click. Yeh or nay?

[tacnet]

Yes that would help with seo but if you want my suggestion, i think your trying to sell to two different markets on the same page and and thats likely to be loosing both of them.

Think of it this way, as a webmaster when i hit your index page im only going to be interested in 2 of those links (forum and business directory) plus the top and bottom banners. All the other links would be of no interest to me cos they are aimed at users. When a user hits the same page, hes only interested in the other 6 links (dating, reviews, webcams, sex store, sex games, porn sites). The rest would be of no interest to him and neither would the site name (sponsorchat.com)

Either way, there is a whole lot of page thats going to be of no interest to the person viewing it and thats never a good thing

Also bear in mind that you can loose a massive amount of traffic for each extra click the user has to make in order to find what he wants. So for example if you have 3 pages A, B and C all linked together and the user needs to get from A to C. Lets say you get 1000 hits to page A but only 50% will click through to page B and only 50% of them will click through to page C. So by having 3 clicks, youve gone from 1000 hits to 250 (75% drop off).

You can vary the drop off rates by having bigger buttons, images, catchy text or whatever but the principle is the same. The more the user has to work, the more you loose.

The golden rule is to get the user to where he wants to be in as few clicks as possible

With that in mind, i would suggest setting up another domain ( butchersporns.com or whatever) and divert all your user traffic to that

Then i would put the sponsorchat index back the way it was (ie index.php ) but maybe add some menu links across the top to your business directory etc.

To make money with SC, i would be listing affiliate programs that will pay you a cut for affiliate referrals. Most do, we pay up to 10% for any referrals you send us. Here's a couple of sites that make their money doing exactly that https://pornaffiliate.xxx/ , https://pornwebmasters.com/ . You can see the latter lists pretty much everything an adult webmaster might be interested in

You got a great forum here with the perfect domain name. Its generating good keyword rich content and now you need to attract more webmasters (not users).

If you can sort out your SEO links then that will help webmasters find your posts and if you can give webmasters the kind of info they are looking for then even better

hope that helps

[TheButcher]

Very good points tacnet how about this then, we make the forum as it was on sponorchat.com, keep the current index page for 404 and drop off the 2 categories SC Forums and Business Categories, list all the sections on the forum reducing he extra click.

You like that idea it's pretty much what you suggested.

[tacnet]

Yeah think i understand what you mean and that would be better. Still need to split off your user traffic and keep the forum for webmaster chat (dont try and use it to create lists of affiliate programs etc as it doesnt really work for that).

If the designing and layout isnt your thing (and it isnt everybodys) then something like twitters bootstrap makes things a lot easier and quicker https://getbootstrap.com/docs/4.0/getti ... roduction/

[TheButcher]

Let me try explain it better, why prefer talking on the phone instead of texting and emails , much simpler.

sponsorchat.com the forum as it was
sponsorchat.com/index1.html the current index page and send all 404 there.
delete these two categories:

viewforum.php?f=172 SC Forums
viewforum.php?f=153 Business Forums
And have all the sections on the same page as they are now without the additional click to the categories.

[urbanlegend]

Plan B for you. stop messing with the layout since it hurts your seo,just put a space between the webmaster and surfer links on the index page you have now.

[TheButcher]

Plan B for you. stop messing with the layout since it hurts your seo,just put a space between the webmaster and surfer links on the index page you have now.

I like that idea boss because it is the least amount of work for me