Open vs Closed Network SEO

[Russell Rager]

Should I use an open or closed network? What are the upsides and downsides of each choice?

I run BooneDeals.com, a social network connecting people in NC & TN to local deals, events, nightlife pics, videos, blogs and eachother. Before I discovered Ning 8 months ago we were just a website with no sign-up, login, etc. Since switching to Ning 8 months ago, BooneDeals.com has always been a closed network with only the homepage visible to non-members.

We have accrued 3,700 members in 8 months, probably because we already had an established local brand and content that compelled people to sign up (pics of them at local bars).

I am pleased with those results, but my search engine hits have plummeted since the switch. Is it possible to run a closed network and still effectively drive search traffic?

Should I switch to open to capture the search traffic? What about sign ups I will miss out on?

As you can tell, I don't know much about SEO. Thank you so much for your help NC's!!

-Russell

[Russell Rager]

I really appreciate any help you guys can provide. Thanks!

[PeruCool]

site:boonedeals.com

Indexed = 309

But indexing more traffic.

[soaringeagle]

site:www.dreadlockssite.com

indexed = 3,540,000

yup more indexed means more trafic

and thousands of those are in number 1 possitions

every page the search bots see is an opurtunity for a number 1 ranking

thats why sitemaps are such a big help

[Writer Chick {Diane}]

It really is all according to your niche and what kind of members you want.

I have a Public/Main Page only site and I'm happy with that. I don't run ads so I don't care about page hits and revenue.  Therefore, SEO is irrelevant to me.  I gain my members through word of mouth and advertising all the time on Facebook.

But, I can see where a site like yours would want maximum exposure. The only drawbacks to going totally public that I can see is that you will see a drop in membership (people won't join if they don't have to), and an increase in spam (they will DEFINITELY join so they can drop their ads all over your site.) 

But, it will definitely increase your SEO.

[soaringeagle]

wrong   they will join id=rf the contents worthwhile they wont be foerced to join only to be disapointed and leave if u give them great cintent they join maybe not day 1 mat-ybe not even adfter a year of using it ..but they join  i would never join a sir-te (like dating sites) that offers a teaster page then u got to join to see more

i despise sites like that

but if u=i see4 a site with helpful info and im always learning more there..i join

by having a cklosed site you are screwing yourself

yoir paying for advertisements to get a trickle of traffic which would be a flood if u had searcg=h trafic

[soaringeagle]

i have a paywall a suggested donation..low suggested donation .. that blocks nearly 100% of spam 

i get like 1 spammer every 2-3 months

if you let ppl join u invite spammers  your not blocking spammers by forcing them to join

spammers look fl[or clues to the type od site  as soon as they know yoir a ning site they know how to h[join and spam

it dont matter if they dont see a blog  theyknow its there to spam

the paywall though makes them think they have to pay to spam wich they wont do

a suggested donation is the most effective spam dfilter there is

[Russell Rager]

Thanks guys. A friend suggested I run a test by opening my network for 30 days and measuring the drop in sign-ups alongside the increase (hopefully) in search traffic. Is 30 days enough to test the search impact though?

[soaringeagle]

barely

it will take 2 weeks ot=r so to see any increae o[-in trafic

you will see an increase not decreae in signups

but

it depends alot on your sites on and off page sei[o  just being open wongtf help if yoir highest page is on page 50

it might take effort to get a dozen pages onto page 1 but soon as u have a few yoir off and running and seo (off site) starts to build on its own

with links from other sites driving yoir whjole domain higher

[soaringeagle]

open open open

a closed site has 1 page wich if yoir lucky has a chance to rank for maybe 3 keywords

an open network has hundreds ofd thousands if not millions pf pages eacg h has achance to rank hoigh for as many as 3 or 4 keywords

an open networks most likely to get 10,000 times more trafic from searched=s  just by pure luck

[Russell Rager]

I think I'm going to give it a shot and go Open soon. Thanks soaringeagle!

[soaringeagle]

good  give it some time to show results

and do a lil seo work on important pages since just being indexed wi-ont help if your 300 pages in