How to enable friendly URLs

[MaXimus]

I just downgraded from vBulletin 4 to v3

I searched a lot but couldn't find a way to enable friendly URLs to increase search engine listings.

my URLS appear like this:

http://forums.pctweakers.net/showthread.php?t=6

How can I have the thread URL to be the name of the Thread title like I had it in vBulletin v4?

Thanks

[Pandemikk]

vBSEO.

[MaXimus]

vBSEO.

I googled it and it seems like it is a paid plugin...

how come it was available freely with vBulletin 4?

Is there a way for me to get it without paying for it?

Thanks

[Pandemikk]

vBSEO doesn't come with vB4.

vB4 has an option for friendly URLs, vB3 does not. So, in order to get friendly URLs on vB3, you will need a third-party add-on or make the necessary changes yourself.

The only third-party add-on I know that provides friendly URLs on vB3 is vBSEO hence my answer.

[MaXimus]

vBSEO doesn't come with vB4.

vB4 has an option for friendly URLs, vB3 does not. So, in order to get friendly URLs on vB3, you will need a third-party add-on or make the necessary changes yourself.

The only third-party add-on I know that provides friendly URLs on vB3 is vBSEO hence my answer.

Ohh ok, thanks for the fast reply.

I guess I should forget about it then since it costs an arm and a leg! Almost the same price as my vBulletin license for god's sake :mad:

[BirdOPrey5]

There is Zoints SEO for VB 3.x which is free-
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=127336

But I've never used it and it's been 6 years without an update. Looks to be a lot of user-provided fixes scattered throughout the thread.

I had started working on a project to bring some sort of "friendly" URLs to Vb 3.8 but I stopped because I couldn't find definitive proof it helps SEO at all. Plus at this point everyone has their 3.8 forums setup how they want, I wouldn't go changing my URLs and lose all the old content already indexed under the old URLs.