So I went to vBulletin to "order" it just to see how much it was and get some information on it, and it asks if I want to pay $170 dollars to get the Branding Free option so I dont have the

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on it like this forum has, does that really matter?

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Lellieis1

Well, vbSeo won't be included when you order the forum so you can't control that.
I personally think the branding free option is useless because everybody can recognize a forum powered by vBulletin. Removing it will only make visitors think you're running an illegal copy because very few people pay for the copyright removal.

Good point, Nora. It is an under appreciated skill being able to see the difference between where real value is and where it isn't.

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Good Success!
James
Douglas County Master Gardeners
"We don't always get what we want, but we always get what we expect."

I know, the vBSEO thing wouldn't disappear, when I would delete it, and save the post, it would appear again.. so I left it alone.

But thanks, now I know that is doesnt matter, and isnt really worth $170

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Lellieis1

Yeah I agree with everyone else. Most people know it's powered by vbulletin just by the look and I didn't feel it was really worth it. I don't have a problem giving vbulletin credit.

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I have read (on some internet marketing guy's blog) that leaving the branding reduces your SEO. Has anyone else heard of this?

No.. you will be giving "juice" to vBulletin by having their link in your footer but that doesn't influence your rankings or SEO in any way. You could ask over at the vBulletin forum if you can nofollow the link because I'm not sure if it's allowed, but that way your website won't pass on any PR or anything else that could fall under SEO.

Why no follow anyway. If we leave the branding people see it on our site. OK. It saves money and is a reasonable choice for reasons already mentioned.

Blocking them getting credit for a link cannot help us in any way. If we like them enough to use them, I think we should want to give them our support.

What do we want? For them to go out of business and be unable to offer us the support we need so we have to go to second best?

My thought is that we should willing choose to encourage and help those whose products and services we appreciate. After all we would like them to do the same for us.

__________________
Good Success!
James
Douglas County Master Gardeners
"We don't always get what we want, but we always get what we expect."