Private or Public Forum?

[astral walker]

Hey there,
I have a small forum that built since 2 years ago.
Now I'm having a plan, It is I will make it as private, I'd like to ask that will make more new members join?
Also, private forum can stop from crawling web pages by search engine bots? does it affect on SEO?

 

[RDO Servers]

Hey there,
I have a small forum that built since 2 years ago.
Now I'm having a plan, It is I will make it as private, I'd like to ask that will make more new members join?
Also, private forum can stop from crawling web pages by search engine bots? does it affect on SEO?

If you mean they much register to post, it may cause more people to register.
If you mean private as in they can't even view the topics, I think most people will just leave and not bother.

If all content is Private, and search engines can't crawl the pages, yes that will have a negative effect on SEO. They can't rank what they can't see.....

 

[KatnissEverdeen]

I am currently running a forum. There are some threads/posts that are not viewable by the public and others that are. In order for say Google to crawl and your SEO to work, something's need to be seen by the public. So a completely private forum would not work well in my opinion.

Good Luck to You.

 

[R44]

Hey there,
I have a small forum that built since 2 years ago.
Now I'm having a plan, It is I will make it as private, I'd like to ask that will make more new members join?
Also, private forum can stop from crawling web pages by search engine bots? does it affect on SEO?

Googlebot is a guest. Well, in it's most simple form anyway. If a guest can't see it; nor can Googlebot. And as has been said; what Googlebot can't see it can't index. Google doesn't - as a rule - index 404 pages.

 

[alexanderzx360]

This is an interesting question for forum owners

As a forum owner myself, the best way to go is have your forum public for people to view what the threads and responses are, but have them registered for posting or commenting. This is a good way to attract curious viewers and make them a part of your website easily.

The other way you can go is have it public and let them comment on posts as guests, but not being able to create new posts. You have to be careful about this option since it could increase spam.

Having your forum totally private is not a good option

Cheers!

 

[betty3]

I do suggest make your forum public, so there will be more interaction and views, it will create a healthy topic, and every comments earns profit.

 

[Johnny666]

Of course, that will make a short end with SEO. That's pretty obvious. If you want to let more people to join in your forum you should set up a public one. Forget about crawling engine bots, it's not even a problem.

 

[SirenOnFire]

I think if your goal gaining more members and being more popular in SEO, making your forum private is a bad decision. Allowing your forum to be a public one would not only be more accessible to curious people or interested to be new members, I believe it would also be more friendly to SEOs because it'd be easier to generate traffic. If you make it private, it'd be harder to find new members and it would be far from accessible. I think if you do this, you'd lose not only profit, but also your present popularity.

I am currently running a forum. There are some threads/posts that are not viewable by the public and others that are. In order for say Google to crawl and your SEO to work, something's need to be seen by the public. So a completely private forum would not work well in my opinion.

Good Luck to You.

I really agree on this and if the goal is to earn more money and have more followers, making the forum private would be the complete opposite of what has to be done. I also believe that SEO can really help a forum become more popular and visible to users, and in order for the website to be SEO friendly, it needs to be seen in public.

Yes, but if the goal is for it to be SEO friendly and have more followers, I think putting it in private will do the complete opposite. Most people who become forum owners do it to earn money while sharing their views and opinions to other people. I don't think it's merely to just to be able to say whatever you want online, thus, it's necessary to have many visitors on the website and for the to happen, it has to be publicly seen.

 

[nins_809]

For me either public or private forums is just fine. Forums are made to speak out your point of views and I think there's nothing wrong with it if you keep it private or public. I guess it would be up to the person who will post if he or she would be careful on the things that he speaks out. As long as it is a clean opinion and no one will get offended its safe to make it public.