Forum posts - how to make them SERP sticky

[Oman]

I'm the medical director MyFootShop - Your source for healthy feet! and forum moderator of The Foot Talk Forum, a discussion forum for foot surgery, injuries, etc. I started the forum 7 years ago with the intent to use it as our primary marketing tool for the web site (we also sell foot care products). We have over 3000 members and the forum is quite active every day.

To gain SERP recognition, we've tried an RSS feed for the forum and a Google Base submission for The Foot Talk Blog.

Although I'm posting right now on a very successful forum(WebProWorld), it seems forums for the most part have become old technology when compared to blogging. Most of my forums posts on The Foot Talk Forum are relegated to Google's supplemental index. Subsequently, the time spent as moderator isn't paying off as anticipated. I hate to do it, but I may have to shut our forum down if I can't get more recognition in the SERP's.

Any thoughts on how to optimize a forum? Is the success based simply upon traffic on the forum?

Jeff

[bj]

I don't run a forum, so don't know directly, but I asked a friend of mine. He suggested you use a widget or RSS tool to pull forum post excerpts/links into the sidebar of the blog. Blogs are LOVED by the search engines, and one will help the other. This is what he did and he's increased his forum traffic significantly, and seen his SERPs boosted as well.

[Ne0]

Few things Jeff...

What kind of software are you using for your forum?

Are posts being indexed?

Do you have the SEO friendly hacks installed for your software?

I wouldn't get rid of a forum that old... word of mouth traffic is still worth having a forum

db

[Oman]

Hi guys,

bj, I saw another site that did just that. The blog was designed to comment on a particular condition and the 'comment' button was a direct link to the forum. I reckon that could work both ways with the RSS feed in the blog.

NeO, we use UBB classic V.6.7.3. It's an older version of UBB but is quite functional. The posts are being indexed but in Google for instance, they're all in the supplemental index. Ironically, looking at our site statistics, the forum pages are one of our highest landing pages.

SEO friendly hacks? I'm not familiar with the term. Can you elaborate?

Jeff

[SemAdvance]

Originally Posted by Oman

I'm the medical director MyFootShop - Your source for healthy feet! and forum moderator of The Foot Talk Forum, a discussion forum for foot surgery, injuries, etc. I started the forum 7 years ago with the intent to use it as our primary marketing tool for the web site (we also sell foot care products). We have over 3000 members and the forum is quite active every day.

To gain SERP recognition, we've tried an RSS feed for the forum and a Google Base submission for The Foot Talk Blog.

Although I'm posting right now on a very successful forum(WebProWorld), it seems forums for the most part have become old technology when compared to blogging. Most of my forums posts on The Foot Talk Forum are relegated to Google's supplemental index. Subsequently, the time spent as moderator isn't paying off as anticipated. I hate to do it, but I may have to shut our forum down if I can't get more recognition in the SERP's.

Any thoughts on how to optimize a forum? Is the success based simply upon traffic on the forum?

Jeff

Hi Jeff

You might want to look at the offline podiatrists and see if any run a forum in their business.

One of the great misconceptions many business people make let alone medical directors is the thought that what works for say WPW will work for their business as well.

On the internet many webmasters spend a great deal of time online, so we can gather here for no good reason other than we can do so online freely for the most part and at our convenience. Offline you are not likely to find building where webmasters pop in and out and dispense advice or make comments, see clients, do exams etc.

Forums for webmasters make sense because of this unusual method of doing business.

However podiatry for many reasons is better suited for offline business building the main reason is podiatrists' typically work on live feet as opposed to virtual feet. The Internet is not the main meeting place then between doctor and patient.

Another thought is anyone who is actively on a forum about their feet has some issues to consider.

1. Why hasn't the Dr. fixed their feet?? (As a potential client I might worry)

2. Do these people who are on this niche (??) forum have a life?

I do see where in certain medical conditions an online forum is a great idea and place to help people... foot forums though is not one.

My honest two cents.....

[bj]

The blog was designed to comment on a particular condition and the 'comment' button was a direct link to the forum. I reckon that could work both ways with the RSS feed in the blog.

Yeah, I betcha you could do that. Check out Magpie at Sourceforge if your blog software doesn't have a specific plugin or mod for that. I know WP has that covered. And if your forum software doesn't have anything to pull in feeds, I betcha you can use magpie for that. It's pretty versatile.

[Oman]

Thanks bj. Your input's appreciated. I'll see what I can pull together.

Jeff