Search engine promotion aspects of putting a forum on my site?

A couple questions.

[Birdman]

1.
Would it benefit my site to have a forum on it, Search engine wise?
2.
How many daily users would you typically require to have a decent forum?

Thanx WW :)

[Brad]

I'm not sure there is a search engine benefit to having a forum. There is a benefit in building a community in regards to gaining repeat visitors with ever changing interactive content. Plus word of mouth recommendations.

[Ove]

I think it would be very hard to get users to write in it there is a few very good ones out there.

On my own experience with forum its not easy folks will lurk as i did long time before i get a member, it will take alot of time to get that content people will have.

But if it works it will be greate i have one forum in swedish i get alot of visitors but there is very few of them who became a members.

If you want a forum go get it and try!!!!! Good luck
/Ove

[vitaplease]

there is definately an advantage in having a forum for being found with search engines, if it is set up well.

Does Brett sell a version of his?

Search in Google for: "google ranking pr"
and many other related search terms to this forum. Webmasterworld is often in the top two.

[Grumpus]

Forums are good for search engines *if* people are talking about things that are on topic.

Getting a forum rolling is no easy task. People won't post if there's no activity, and for some reason, there always seems to be no activity because no one posts.

Step#1 - Don't do what I did on my last site - create just ONE general topic and as conversations grow and evolve, create topics to house them. If you have a lot of topics (like say this place) and there's nothing in there, it's a real waste of time for people to click on every topic to see what's there.

Step#2 Talk to yourself (something I haven't had time to do on my site, yet). Create several ID's and start carrying on conversations. If you post 2-3 notes from 4-5 "people" a day, in a week or so, the board will slowly come to life. (Obviously, there needs to be some traffic at the site, but you know what I mean).

It'd be nice to find a dozen or so folks (say in a community like this) who have their own forums that need a kick-start and get together with everyone. Each person visits each of the other people's boards several times a week for a month or two and helps seed the conversations. Or something. (That idea just came to me and the 7am hour on a holiday - read, morning after a drinking spree - seems to be shinging through). Hopefully you get the drift.

Let me know if you start a forum and I'll be glad to pop in and help you get things rolling a bit.

G.

[Birdman]

Thanks alot everyone! :)
I just got back.(man I hate dial-up :( ) I think I'd like to go for it. The only thing that sucks is that the it's a bridal site I built for my mother and I don't have much interest in that topic. I am , however, interested in the success of her site! I guess she'll have to do all the editing and stuff. Besides, that would take away from my WW time.
Birdman

[brotherhood of LAN]

Hi Bird, you also might want to check out a few of the older discussions......I remember 2 detailed ones ...just need to find em with site search :)

[Birdman]

Brotherhood, I tried search before posting. No results for "forum". I couldn't believe it! If you read this and reply, what is your take on the my questions.

2.
How many daily users would you typically require to have a decent forum?

I did very well on this past Google update, so I think traffic will be good.