Is it a good or bad idea (in Google's eyes) to add a forum to my website?
-
I have an active website with many users adding dozens of comments on the many pages of the site daily. I'm am wondering if it would be good for the overall ranking strength of the site if I were to add a forum to it (in a subdirectory, like forum.mysite.com).
On one hand, I can see the forum posts as thin content, which Google wouldn't care for. On the other hand, I see the additional user engagement on the site, which I think Google would like.
I know the benefits it can have to the users, but for this question, all I want to know is if this would be seen by Google as a plus or a minus for my site, assuming the forum succeeded in becoming popular. I don't want to do anything that will diminish the value of my site in Google's eyes.
Thank you.
-
Thanks for the opinions. I hate how the Fear of Google makes me have to potentially do or not do things that I think are to the benefit of users.
By the way, since forums are such a pain to manage, the forum I'm thinking of using is the new Discourse that a lot of large companies (like Dropbox, for example) are using. Because it runs on an complex environment I don't want to host personally, I'd host it at somewhere like DiscourseHosting.com (too expensive at Discourse' own hosting since they are just going after big sites). for something like eighty bucks a month.
Technical question: Because it's going to be hosted elsewhere from my own server, I need to map it to a subdirectory, forum.mysite.com, rather than mysite.com/forum (live example: http://bbs.boingboing.net/). There's not disadvantage to this is there? I have not heard of one.
Also, I'd be interested in any options in this choice of forum platform, in case anyone has ever used it, or is interested in checking it out. It works differently than the usual forums.
-
I agree with Cole on this one. If the forum has a legitimate purpose on your site and will benefit the user, then go for it. Google definitely shouldn't punish you for creating the forum, again assuming that the forum isn't just built to act as a home to link spam, and I would expect it to have a positive SEO impact on the site as a whole.
The URL structure of site.com/forum/topic should be beneficially as well. Hope that helps!
-
Would the user benefit from the forum? If yes, then I would proceed with the forum (create no follows for all comments).
Google cares about the user. Thus, if the forum benefits the user, then yes.
It appears you're keeping in mind the user and I applaud you. It could be example.com/forum (with sub categories following forum to clearly indicate this is a FORUM). We aren't trying to manipulate (create no follows as mentioned above).
I think this would be good for your site, assuming you have good engagement.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How good is Google at reading geo-targeted dynamic content -- Javascript?
We are using a single page application for a section of our website where it generates content based on the user's geographical location. Because Google's Search Console is searching from Virginia (where we don't have any content), we are not able to see anything render in Google Search Console. How good is Google at reading geo-targeted dynamic content? Do we have anything to worry about in terms of indexing the content because it's being served through JS?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | imjonny1230 -
Getting into Google News, URL's & Sitemaps
Hello, I know that one of the 'technical requirements' to get into google news is that the URL's have unique numbers at the end, BUT, that requirement can be circumvented if you have a Google News Sitemap. I've purchased the Yoast Google News Sitemap (https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/news-seo/) BUT just found out that you cannot submit a google news Sitemap until you are accepted into google news. Thus, my question is that do you need to add the digits to the URL's temporarily until you get in and can submit a google news sitemap, OR, is it ok to apply without them and take care of the sitemap after you get in. If anyone has any other tips about getting into Google News that would be great! Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | stacksnew0 -
SEO before Replatforming - Good Idea?
Hello, We are in the midst of a major replatforming of our current website, the process will take roughly six to nine more months to complete. We are completing revamping our site - the new site will be on the same domain, but almost everything is changing - from the category structure, hierarchy, architecture, different regions on separate URLs will not be on the same with a currency converter, URLs - you name it, we're changing it. There has been internal discussions for some time on whether we should hire an outside firm to help us with our SEO. I have a lot of experience in SEO but my role has changed recently and we have had trouble filling my previous role. We are not looking for help with the replatforming project, we have a great plan in place to preserve link equity, tags, etc. We are looking for general SEO help as if replatforming wasn't on the table. My question is, is this smart to do before replatforming? In my opinion, it's not. Our new site will have completely different URLs and will be so dramatically different. We could have someone do some keyword research, but we have already done the bulk of it. We have thought about and researched keywords for every new page we are creating. But from a technical SEO perspective, I don't see the point in getting someone. In addition, we just had a major SEO audit done last year and we completed the tasks from that audit on the current site; however, most of the changes were technical, not content based. Thoughts?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Colbys0 -
Investigating Google's treatment of different pages on our site - canonicals, addresses, and more.
Hey all - I hesitate to ask this question, but have spent weeks trying to figure it out to no avail. We are a real estate company and many of our building pages do not show up for a given address. I first thought maybe google did not like us, but we show up well for certain keywords 3rd for Houston office space and dallas office space, etc. We have decent DA and inbound links, but for some reason we do not show up for addresses. An example, 44 Wall St or 44 Wall St office space, we are no where to be found. Our title and description should allow us to easily picked up, but after scrolling through 15 pages (with a ton of non relevant results), we do not show up. This happens quite a bit. I have checked we are being crawled by looking at 44 Wall St TheSquareFoot and checking the cause. We have individual listing pages (with the same titles and descriptions) inside the buildings, but use canonical tags to let google know that these are related and want the building pages to be dominant. I have worked though quite a few tests and can not come up with a reason. If we were just page 7 and never moved it would be one thing, but since we do not show up at all, it almost seems like google is punishing us. My hope is there is one thing that we are doing wrong that is easily fixed. I realize in an ideal world we would have shorter URLs and other nits and nats, but this feels like something that would help us go from page 3 to page 1, not prevent us from ranking at all. Any thoughts or helpful comments would be greatly appreciated. http://www.thesquarefoot.com/buildings/ny/new-york/10005/lower-manhattan/44-wall-st/44-wall-street We do show up one page 1 for this building - http://www.thesquarefoot.com/buildings/ny/new-york/10036/midtown/1501-broadway, but is the exception. I have tried investigating any differences, but am quite baffled.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AtticusBerg10 -
External resources page (AKA a satellite site) - is it a good idea?
So the general view on satellite sites is that they're not worth it because of their low authority and the amount of link juice they provide. However, I have an idea that is slightly different to the standard satellite site model. A client's website is in a particular niche, but a lot of websites that I have identified for potential links are not interested because they are a private commercial company. Many are only interested in linking to charities or simple resource pages. I created a resource section on the website, but many are still unwilling to link to it as it is still part of a commercial website. The website is performing well and is banging on the door of page one for some really competitive keywords. A few more links would make a massive difference. One idea I have is to create a standalone resource website that links to our client's website. This would be easy to get links from sites that would flat out refuse to link to the main website. This would increase the authority of the resource and result in more link juice to the primary website. Now I know that the link juice from this website will not be as good as getting links directly to the primary website, but would it still be a good idea? Or would my time be better spent trying to get a handful of links directly to the client's website? Alternatively, I could set up a sub-domain to set up the resource, but I'm not sure that this would be as successful.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | maxweb0 -
If it's not in Webmaster Tools, is it Duplicate Title
I am showing a lot of errors in my SEOmoz reports for duplicate content and duplicate titles, many of which appear to be related to capitalization vs non-capitalization in the URL. Case in point, if a URL contains a lower character, such as: http://www.gallerydirect.com/art/product/allyson-krowitz/distinct-microstructure-i as opposed to the same URL having an upper character in the structure: http://www.gallerydirect.com/art/product/allyson-krowitz/distinct-microstructure-I I am finding that some of the internal links on the site use the former structure and other links use the latter structure. These show as duplicate title/content in the SEOmoz reports, but they don't appear as duplicate titles in Webmaster Tools. My question is, should I try to work with our developers to create a script to change all of the content with cap letters in the destination links internally on the site, or is this a non-issue since it doesn't appear in Webmaster Tools?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | sbaylor0 -
How can I tell if a website is a 'NoFollow'?
I've been link building for a long time but have recently discovered that most of my links are from NoFollow links, such as twitter and Youtube. How can I tell if a website is a 'NoFollow'?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Paul_Tovey0 -
Penguin update... is this a good idea?
I have one site that got hit by the latest google updates. Penguin and EMD. The site was making me nice income but now with the traffic drop its not. I was going to 301 to a new domain but was reading that if it works to bring it back in the serps it would only last 3-4 weeks... then i though just get a domain and add the content over time and get rid of the old domain. + take care and build better links. I bought website that already ranks and been around since about 2003 online. Not hit by the updates and has few goood links. Would it be a better idea to move content to this site and make it grow? Not sure what to do..
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | samerk0