Hello vBSEO customers and friends,

Over the past few days we've had many questions about the upcoming vBulletin 4 release and updated compatibility with vBSEO. This announcement will serve to answer all of your questions and help you plan your upgrades appropriately.


vBulletin 4 + vBSEO Compatibility
We at vBSEO have committed to releasing vBSEO 3.5 as soon as possible after vB4 goes Gold. As of this writing, vB4 is currently in Alpha 5. According to a schedule released at vbulletin.com some time ago, we are expecting at least 2 beta updates to follow the end of the Alpha program. We are unsure if Alpha 5 is the last of the Alphas or not.

vBSEO.com is a vB4 Alpha tester and is working on making our upcoming release of vBSEO 3.5 fully compatible with vB4, including both the forum-only package, and the complete suite (forum, blog, cms, etc). We are expecting at least 2 beta periods of roughly 2 weeks each before vB4 goes Gold. The Alpha period of 5 releases took a little over 2 months.
Using the same time scale, that gives us about a month of anticipated development time before vB4 Gold is released (2 betas, ~ 2 weeks each). If vB continues on this schedule, we should be able to have our product close to final during beta1, re-testing in beta2, and release vBSEO 3.5 the same day vB4 goes Gold after a short QA process. This all rests on vB being predictable however, and thus our target release date may be subject to change.


vB4 has SEO URL's already. Why use vBSEO?
As many of you are aware, vB4 includes some "SEO" enhancements, specifically friendly URL's. As you may know, there are far more things that factor into SEO than just static-appearing URLs. vBSEO gives your forums true canonicalization (AKA "Link Consensus"), leading to greater crawling efficiency, optimized external links, and maximized link value assignment. vBSEO's application level canonicalization is a key strength accountable for many of our customers' success stories.

vBSEO will continue to meet these goals for your forum, offering over 100 SEO-related options and nearly limit-less configuration settings for all areas of your community, including groups, blogs, albums, all forum page types, custom pages, and other plugins/addons.


What about vB3.x?
If you are not planning to upgrade to vB4 right away, you will not be left out of new features compatible with 3.x from the vBSEO package. vBSEO 3.5 will also be fully compatible with the current vBulletin 3.x series and will continue to support installations on the current (as of this writing) platform for the foreseeable future. We may release two packages (one for vB3.x, one for vB4+) to support the branches individually.


vBulletin costs more now. What about vBSEO?
At this time, we have no plans to increase costs of vBSEO on any software licenses, branding removals, renewals, or services offered.

As in the past, vBSEO 3.5 will be a FREE upgrade to all active licenses. You may renew at anytime for support and access to the new versions in the downloads area if your license is expired. Additionally, we will not impose charges for failing to update your license before 3.5 is released. Upgrade when YOU are ready!

vBSEO is still just $149 per license which includes support and download access for 1 full year. Renewals are still just $35 per year for support ticket access and ability to upgrade to the latest versions after your first year with our software.



FAQ:
Q: What is the upgrade process to vB4 + vBSEO 3.5? I'm currently on vB3.x and have vBSEO installed.
A: To upgrade, please follow the following steps:

• chmod /includes/config_vbseo.php to 666
• visit vbseocp.php in your browser
• disable vBSEO (first option)
• upgrade to vB4 per vBulletin's instructions
• upgrade vBSEO to 3.5 by uploading vBSEO 3.5 files and importing the product (Full directions are available in the readme file in the /docs/ folder of the package)
• visit vbseocp.php in your browser
• set your password
• save your new key key
• re-enable vBSEO (first option)
• Make any setting adjustments necessary for new sections (Note: Set it and forget it!)
• chmod /includes/config_vbseo.php to 644 for security.

You will now be on vB4 with vBSEO 3.5 fully functional.


Still have questions?
If you still have any questions about the upcoming release schedules, please feel free to ask them in this thread and we will do our best to answer them. You may also launch a Livechat session (link in the header) and one of our sales support staff will be happy to answer your questions, LIVE.


We look forward to serving all your SEO needs now and in the future!

Thanks,
-The vBSEO Team


Posted on vBSEO.com