Q and A: Should I set up a forum on my site for SEO purposes?

Dear Kalena...

Great blog! I wish mine was so successful. Anyway, the question I'd like to ask you is about forums. I'm setting us a new web site bestonlinedating.eu where I'd like to include a forum.

Having little experience in the broad SEO field, I cannot justify if setting up a forum for my web site would be beneficial in terms of search engine optimisation. Does Google & others love forums? Any suggestion from you would be most appreciated.

Regards,
Danka

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Danka

Thanks for the blog feedback, I appreciate it.

Regarding setting up a forum, you've got your priorities all wrong. When making changes to your site, you can't let search engines rule your decisions! You should always grow your site development strategy based on the needs of your site visitors, NOT because of some supposed search engine advantage.

Forums can be a good way to add fresh content and new pages (threads) to your site on a regular basis, but as far as any search engine benefits go, it's the same as everything else. It's the quality of the content you add and it's popularity with your site visitors that will benefit you, not the fact it is a forum.

Do you have time to run and monitor a forum on a regular basis? Can you locate, implement and update reliable forum software? Do you have the traffic that is required to keep a forum active and interesting? Will a forum *really* add value to your site from a visitor perspective? These are the questions that should rule your decision.

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