What modification is this?

That seems to redirect all links though some redirect system when posted? I just noticed it on someone's profile who's topic I was viewing, and I was curious to both why it's used (I remember Sitepoint doing this, and to say it was not popular with the users was an understatement), and what modification it actually is.

Don't kill me if it's vB SEO, I've never used it, and I don't have a clue what half the feature list is.

 

It's vBSEO, and the redirect is only used when the link is inside of a forum that isn't publicly viewable. Why? So that the referrer information isn't sent to the external site; thus concealing the URL of the private forum.

Did that make any sense? I'm terrible at explaining things...

 

There are redirection mods at vb.org. Like, two step external linking.
I forgot the other one. Im going to try it out later.

 

Here's one of them (it's the only one I know of, to be honest): Two-Step External Links for Link Weight Retention - vBulletin.org Forum

 

Yeah, thats the one i mentioned, and i have it. Just not installled.
Will it affect the AME? Or anything else?

 

Not sure; I've never tried it.

 

Thanks. You've also answered my question to why you had it for a forum search engine spiders couldn't view anyway.

 

I haven't done any research on this topic of the two-step external links. Is this mod something that I should seriously consider before I get vBSEO added in the future?

 

Its just a redirector....keeps your header image. With vBSEO, i think it has its own.

 

I don't think I'd order or get vBSEO ever again. Recent announcements by Google directly has really squashed their main selling points. The only thing they have now is really oily marketing (I thought for sure when Joe Ward left, this would have died down some, but it seems to have really picked up there), and some useful information, however all that useful information is also available from other sources usually with a lot less marketing and spin thrown about it making it sound like they are the cutting edge or some how "ahead of the game" which has gotten out of hand there for quite a while now.

Their selling points:
"Link consensus" - pfft, dead. Canonical URL's (free mod available at vB.org, also wouldn't be surprised to see it included in vB4) SEO advice: url canonicalization
URL normalization - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Duplicate content penalty" - pfft its been shot down in the past and it was even shot down again recently in a video directly from Google
Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Duplicate content and multiple site issues

Meta tags don't even help SEO anymore: Google doesn’t use the keywords meta tag in web search

"Keywords in the url" - Quote Matt Cutts "Very little help" Google’s Matt Cutts On Keywords In The URL If $150 is worth "very little help" to anyone interested in vBSEO, then feel free to blow it.

So, maybe 2-3 years, heck maybe even last year, vBSEO was worth it. As it stands now and the current evolutions of the search engines, it seems they've lapped vBSEO and their features really are out of date and irrelevant now!

 

I do like pretty URLs just for the heck of it, because I'm a stickler for clean-looking addresses, but otherwise, it sounds like that vbSEO isn't worth a dime that they're asking for.

If that's all the mod does, then I'd say forget it.

 

Thanks for the info and the important links David!

Any particular vB.org mods that you feel should be added in assisting with SEO in your opinion?

 

I'd get the sitemap (great for new sites starting out, established sites it really is only useful for debugging and watching stats ), canonical URL's mod, its been a while since I've been on vB.org but I'll scour it for some more and post them

Plus vB4 will have the keywords in URL feature as well, so that'll be another moot point here soon

 

The sitemap is a must on all of my forums, agreed.

I haven't checked on the canonical URL's mod before. How does that help?

:: Arny goes off to search vb.org and read up ::

 

Okay, I've seen a couple of mods so far......

SEOvB - Link Canonicalization for vBulletin Stop Duplicate Content NOW! - vBulletin.org Forum

then theres,

C-Logic SEO - vBulletin.org Forum + Canonical URLs For CLogic SEO - vBulletin.org Forum

but, I've read that all of this can be addressed by adding one line of code to your headinclude or a rewrite line in your htaccess file.

Anyone have the true story here?

 

The SEOvB one only adds one line of code to your headinclude template. Well actually its like 4-5 lines because it handles everything with an if statement to make sure that printthread, showthread, etc etc are all pointing to one canonical URL.

The SEOvB one edits the template automatically for you with the following code at the end of headinclude:

Code:

<if condition="(THIS_SCRIPT == showthread) OR (THIS_SCRIPT == showpost) OR (THIS_SCRIPT == printthread)">
<link rel="canonical" href="$vboptions[bburl]/showthread.php?t=$threadinfo[threadid]<if condition="$pagenumber>1">&page=$pagenumber</if>" />
</if>
<if condition="THIS_SCRIPT == index">
<link rel="canonical" href="$vboptions[bburl]" />
</if>

I'm not sure a .htaccess would do it (it could probably do the www or no-www problem, but not canonical URL's)