SMF to vBulletin

[goranbaxy]

Hello,
I have a SMF forum and I'm thinking of migrating to vBulletin but I need some info.
I did some stuff for SEO on my forum, like SEO link, nofollow links... so if I convert my forum to VB. will I lose google 'reputation', I hope you understand what do I mean.
Does VB have it's own system (mods?) for SEO links and stuff like that, is it free?
Thanks.

[Andy Huang]

Re: losing google 'reputation', you might be able to use 404.php to redirect your old smf links depending on how they're setup. If your links change, however, then you might leak some PR or alike on those links. Shouldn't be hard to gain them back as soon as search engines notices your forum's content, however.

There is no such thing as SEO links, they're human friendly at most. But that's a whole different debate. If you want fancy looking URL that explains what the page is, there are a few free plugins available on vbulletin.org; and commercial ones available else where. Luckily, with vBulletin's plugin system, you will be able to install them fairly quickly, and usually without having to edit any files But, please note that we can't provide support for custom addons as they're, well, not coded by us. As such, if you encounter problems with them, you will need to contact their developers for support.

[goranbaxy]

Is there any easy way to use 404.php to redirect my old smf links? I have lot of topics and manually is not an option

[Andy Huang]

404.php is suppose to automatically direct old links to new links; but I don't know how well it will work with rewritten links.

[goranbaxy]

Is there any way to find that out?

[Andy Huang]

I don't have an imported forum that were rewritten before; so I really can't tell you. Sorry. Maybe another community member can tell you more about it.

[goranbaxy]

I guess I can just wait now, this step is important to me. Anyway Andy thanks for the help.

[Tigurius]

if your site is popular enough it should reindex quickly if you have vBSEO it is an SEO add-on that has helped some sites become extremly large.

[double_d]

i also am looking at going from smf
i understand that i should use impex is it ?
but will it stuff up with all the mods i have in smf
i know they wont work in vb
but will it be confusing for the switch

daniel d

[Andy Huang]

It will NOT bring over your modifications. It will only carry these from the default SMF installation over:
Usergroups
By name, no permissions.

Users
username, email, usergroup, aim, icq, joindate, homepage, yahoo, msn, ip address, birthday

Forums and Categories
Basic title and description information, with layout and parent ids.

Threads
All are currently imported as visible though with open settings.

Posts
All are currently imported as visable with IP addresses.

Polls
Attached to threads and without current vote values.

Private Messages
Imports pm text with sent and to pm for each user.

Moderators
Imported and attached to forums, though permissions will need to be reset.

Smilies
Imported to import smilie group.

Attachments
Imported to posts.

[double_d]

thanks for that
is it really easy
im just worried that i will stuff it
get annoyed
and waist my $160 us even

daniel d

[Jason2]

I converted from phpBB a while back, and to be honest, I've never looked back. The support here is truly fantastic!

Don't worry about your current mods, chances are there is the same one for vB over at www.vBulletin.org. Mods/hacks are really easy to install, sometimes you just import a product through your ACP, or you sometimes may have to edit some coding in the template which is also really easy.

vBSEO is good for SEO, but don't expect wonders. Many people get vBSEO, and don't see changes straight away and blame it on vBSEO. The reason it gets a lot of hate is because people think it will make them a lot of money and their forum a raging success.

To get what vBSEO is all about, you have to know SEO well.

I've seen sometimes where users have blamed vBSEO for not increasing their page rank haha, idiots.

vBSEO is basically a piece of the puzzle to your forums success.

Sorry for going off topic hehe.

Regards Jason

[double_d]

if i install a skin ( template )
do i have to modify any mods to work on the new skin ??

daniel d

[goranbaxy]

Is there a free convertor SMF => VB?
And where can it be found, I need also instructions how to convert from SMF to VB, I have decided to buy VB.
Please give me some info about how to convert my forum, thanks!

[goranbaxy]

One other thing, I'm currently using utf-8 and Croatian language, will there be any problem? Is there a language pack for Croatian language?