[Dresdan]

I am setting up a couple of forums these are simply as a hobby, for my hobbies, but I want to know if it is critical that I set up a web/home page for each of the forums? Also If i do set up web/home pages what do I submit to the search engines the forum or the web page? What is the best software to use to create the web/home pages? Any input here would be helpful. Thank you.

[mholt]

For a mostly-forum website (e.g. NamePros), the board index of each board is usually the best.

Skin & Mod it yourself for even better results. SMF and vB are already SEO'd.

[Jack]

i think that the homepage/index is the key part of ure website, its got to say 'this forum/website is really good, join it and come inside'
the colours/skins are important aswel!
if ure going to put in ure website into search, its depends, if ure forum is: http://www.namepros.com then thats what u submit, if ure forum is: http://namepros.com/forum then dont submit it.
i find that dreamweaver is the best web design software, i use it, and ive never had a problem hope this comes in helpful

[Dresdan]

compuXP
I was going to try out an SMF forum as it is one of the scripts on my cpanel, but I had a problem, I could never log into their forums for support. I registered and recieved the email but could never log in. I tried every thing I finally got frustrated and deleted the forum from my server. I now have a IPB, and a phpbb I'm playing around with. I don't really want to spend the money on a vb untill I'm sure of what I'm going to do with this.
But thanks for the info.

jackheskett
I'll look at Dreamweaver for designing the webpage. I guess I'll put one togther and see which PRs better and that's what I'll submit. Thanks guys.

[mholt]

Your host may have email limitations, or else you installed it wrong... SMF works fine when installed properly.

phpBB = Bad, don't go near it. IPB is pretty good.

vB = ultimate though if you can afford it.

[DropLister]

submit your homepage, make sure its linked to your forum, the spider will follow and database both.

[AlexK]

I wouldn't make a homepage, decide on which of them you should have Imo

[Troubled1]

For a site that is simply going to have forums there is no need for a homepage The forum index page is enough, especially if it is well skinned.

As for SMF forums I have installed well over 100 of them and never had a problem. I personally prefer them to any other forum I've tried. Mainly due to the ease of updates.

[Dresdan]

The problem wasn't with the forum I installed it was with SMFs support forum. I wanted to download some different scripts, and a couple of skins from thier site. It would let me log in but everytime I tried to post or download it gave me some kind of error, cant remember exactly what it said now. But it frustrated me to no end. I tried everything to make it work even tried deleting my account and re-registering. Nothing worked, it wouldn't even let me PM anyone about it, I got sick of the aggrivation and deleted the forum and have moved on. I was interested in using the SMF because I've heard it was a good forum program, but not worth my aggrivation.

[LeetPCUser]

I would say no, not even close. Look at Name Pros for a good example. You just need to get your forum out on other sites, and make it unique enough that people will want to come back.

[Momo]

No, in fact a lot of people even skip the homepage and just go straight to the forums anyway. A supplemental site might be okay, but one with a lot of content, not just like say an index page with announcements of the admin or last 5 posts.

[dongan]

forum groups and sub-forum titles and the professional looking of the site will be definifely adding some benefit to you.