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]

Originally Posted by Pandemikk

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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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

[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.