XenForo design & custom development, done properly.
Bespoke XenForo design, custom plugin development, maintenance and forum SEO. We’ve built and worked on communities like seoforums.uk, businessforum.uk and norwichtalk.com, with our own plugin suite engineered to make forums naturally SEO-friendly.
★★★★★ Rated on Trustpilot & Google · XenForo specialists since 2010
Communities built on our design and plugin work
Every technique we recommend is already running in production on real, trading communities.
The UK’s dedicated SEO community, 50,000 members strong, where our XenForo SEO plugin suite is proven in production.
A UK business community built on the same principles: clean structure, quality-first content and organic growth.
A community for Norwich and Norfolk, proving the same approach works for regional forums, not just national niches.
Forums rank brilliantly, or terribly. Structure decides which.
A forum generates thousands of pages on autopilot, and that’s exactly the problem. Member profiles, empty tag pages, two-word replies and duplicate routes flood Google with thin content, and the whole domain gets graded down for it. Modern algorithm updates punish nothing harder.
Our approach cuts the thin pages off at the source, so what Google crawls is your genuinely valuable discussions, and nothing else.
Thin pages removed from the crawl — profiles, filters and low-value routes noindexed or gated before they dilute the domain.
Post quality enforced — minimum message standards that stop “thanks!” replies from thinning out threads.
Titles & metadata engineered — node titles written for searchers while members see friendly names.
Clean redirects & canonicals — moved threads, merged nodes and old URLs handled without leaking authority.
Speed & markup — minified output, proper schema and analytics wired in correctly.
Plugins we built because forums needed them
Purpose-built plugins, proven in production on busy communities. The SEO pack is reserved for Rivmedia clients; the AI tooling is available to buy.
AI Forum Bot & Poster
AI members that answer questions, cite your own threads and can build whole discussions. OpenAI or your preferred provider.
Content Guard
AI compliance triage: every thread scored against your policy, quarantined and decided per your rules.
SEO Meta XF2
Search-friendly, click-enticing titles for nodes while members still see the visual names.
Minimum Message Length
Eradicates short, pointless posts, raising the content worth of every thread Google crawls.
Simple Redirects
301 and 302 redirects managed from the admin panel, no server config, no lost authority.
Guest Redirect & Profile Unlink
Keeps guests, and crawlers, out of thin member-profile pages, with clean redirection.
Webmaster Central
Tag Manager, Search Console verification and organisation schema, wired in properly.
HTML Minify XF2
Minified output for faster pages, a straight win for Core Web Vitals.
SEO Auto Linker + Language Extras
Dynamic internal linking from keywords in posts, plus per-node language attributes for international boards.
XenForo support, maintenance, design and migrations
We’ve worked with forums for over a decade, moving 95% of our clients from vBulletin to XenForo and continuing to support and host those same communities today. As early adopters of XenForo 1.x, and one of the first to road-test a vBulletin conversion on our own forums, we’ve grown with the platform.
Design work ranges from customising a pre-made style to fully custom design, including replicating a WordPress or other CMS design so the homepage and forum look and feel like one site, and vice versa. Setup, add-on installation and configuration, hosting, upgrades and routine maintenance are available on monthly retainers or an hourly rate.
120+ forums migrated over the past decade, from 10,000 posts to 10 million, from phpBB, vBulletin 3 and 4, MyBB and IPB.
Custom import and redirect scripts so current search standings are retained through the move.
BBcode mismatch correction and removal of unwanted HTML and code within posts.
Aftercare for weeks after the migration completes, until you are completely comfortable.
Your data is safe at all times, with appropriate precautions before every update or conversion.
Planned execution, not on-the-fly fixes
Our migrations start with test imports on a demo server, noting and fixing problems as we find them, then a migration plan built over a short period so your forum is ready for the final move.
Test imports first
Every migration is rehearsed on a demo server. Problems are found and fixed before anyone sees them live, unlike services that migrate on the fly and then spend weeks bug-fixing.
A plan, then the move
A short, structured migration plan leads to a final migration with minimal downtime, redirects in place and search standings protected.
We stay until you’re comfortable
Monitoring and hands-on support continue after go-live. Our long list of repeat clients who have followed us across platforms for nine years is what we’re proudest of. We may not be the cheapest, but you won’t be disappointed.
Perfect for businesses wanting to give a community a voice
Security, performance and emergency response for forums are handled the same way as for WordPress: proactively, by people who run communities themselves. XenForo-optimised hosting handles large user bases and heavy traffic with daily backups, DDoS protection and SSL.
Security: monitoring, updates, vulnerability assessment, 2FA, server-level firewalls and malware scans, with rapid clean-up if the worst happens.
Performance: caching strategies, database optimisation and compression to cut load times and server load, which helps rankings too.
Emergencies: crashes, hacks and database corruption diagnosed fast, backups restored and defences strengthened, with the least possible disruption to your community.
Custom add-ons: built for client requests and for features our own forums needed, including SEO add-ons reserved for clients.
XenForo questions we’re asked most
What do your XenForo services actually cover?
Design and theming, upgrades and add-on management, performance and hosting, SEO structure work with our plugin suite, migrations from other forum platforms, and rescues of neglected boards. One team for the lot: bespoke theming, custom add-on development and the structural SEO work forums need.
Can you migrate our forum from vBulletin, phpBB or Invision?
Yes, members, threads, attachments and URL structures, with redirect maps so years of accumulated rankings follow you to XenForo rather than dying at the old address.
Our forum’s traffic has been sliding for years. Is it saveable?
Usually, and the cause is usually structural: thin content flooding the index, slow pages and dated markup. The fixes in our SEO suite were built precisely to reverse this pattern, and have done so on busy production communities.
Are the SEO plugins for sale?
The SEO pack is restricted to Rivmedia clients, it’s part of how we deliver results rather than a product line. The AI Forum Bot and Content Guard are available to purchase. Client forums get the suite as part of the service.
Do you offer ongoing forum maintenance?
Yes, the forum equivalent of our WordPress care plans: XenForo and add-on updates tested and applied, backups, monitoring, spam defence and support, for a flat monthly amount.
What kind of support do you offer for XenForo forums?
Troubleshooting plugin conflicts, broken styles and server errors, setting up new features, installing add-ons, customising themes and improving the overall member experience, plus ongoing guidance to keep the forum running smoothly. Minor bug fixes to comprehensive redesigns.
How do you keep my XenForo forum secure?
Proactive monitoring, regular software updates and vulnerability assessments, security patches against the latest threats, and options like two-factor authentication, server-level firewalls and malware scans. If your forum is attacked we provide rapid response and clean-up.
What is included in your XenForo maintenance plans?
Ongoing updates to core, styles and add-ons, performance optimisation, database cleaning and regular backups, monitoring to catch issues before members notice, and priority technical support.
Do you offer hosting specifically for XenForo?
Yes: XenForo-optimised hosting with server configurations tuned for large user bases and heavy traffic, daily backups, DDoS protection and SSL certificates, fully managed so you never deal with server-side issues.
How do you handle emergencies like crashes or hacking?
Rapid-response support. We diagnose the issue, restore backups if needed and implement fixes to get the forum back online; for hacks we run a full security audit, remove malware and strengthen defences, minimising downtime for your community.
Bring us your forum. Design, plugins, rescue.
Tell us your forum’s address and what’s worrying you, design, decline, speed or a migration. We’ll reply within one working day with an honest read.
Mon–Fri, 9am–5pm · Kings Lynn, Norfolk · Replies within one working day.