Guests must register to view post...

[dezinerite]

Due to a certain posts in my forum, I've decided to make it a members only forum for now. So if guests try to visit a page directed via Google, they will get the "register to view post" error.

Will this setting affect the SEO of the site?

I'm on vB.

 

[angilina]

In such case, I think the SE bots will not be able to view the content in your private forum thus you will not get any SEO benefits in your forum. SE bot will only see the same error while accessing different threads in your forums.

 

[vanesaJac]

You better make your forum as a
moderated one to minimize unnecessary post.
I am not really sure if it affects the SEO of your site.

 

[Keral_Patel]

You can still allow Google bot to see those posts by creating a bot user and assigning a password to it. You can specify the stuff in your google webmaster account.

 

[snowbird]

I would suggest not requiring registration to VIEW posts. However, I do not know your reasoning. So I cannot say much. But I would think that new users would signup for your forum because of a post or thread they saw that interests them. But anyways Nick is correct. I also thought that there was a feature in vbulletin where you could let google and other search engines see the forum as a registered user. I no longer have vbulletin so I cannot confirm this. But I do believe such feature may exist.

 

[Hafsoh]

I cannot see the point of not allowing guests to view the posts unless for some reason you do not wish new members to join
Certainly, I would never join a board unless I could see some of the threads
Only then can I decide if I like it or not.
I think that you should not set forced registration, and just limit access to any members-only boards like Advertising and GOAYBs.