Unscientific Survey
I'm in the process of starting a law related website. Keep reading, this isn't a sales pitch.
Even if it turns out to be a total failure, I'll be out some time and money in the "three figures." I can afford the three figures.
Those of you that read me know that I irregularly do a post about stupid Google searches. My adventures in nudism posts still result in probably more than 25 visitors a month; but, the rub is that 1) Google has not done right by my visitors as I am obviously not what they are looking for (my current favorite query from last week was "natural big bobs" from a kind soul in Ankara, Turkey) and 2) the fact that Google does this does not make me confident that search programs will drive the right traffic to the new venture. (One more example, an Answer.com search for "drop in elevation of ninety feet" gave as its number one result my post a while back about a golf outing that used the phrase. I don't know what the searcher was really looking for, but I certainly was not the goal.)
But, I regularly use Google to find things on the web. If I'm in the market for a widget, I'll narrow my search, pretty efficiently and quickly, by a search. If I need to find something out about a company or an industry, there's a wealth of information a few clicks away. What I'm looking for is almost always on the first page of results. So does this just mean that having used Boolean searching before it was cool, I'm better than the average surfer at forming a query? Or, have the sites that I find quickly done something to make them easily findable?
I'm obviously interested in the latter possibility. So as to pander to your egos, I know I have some fairly smart readers. Anyone out there aware, beyond AdSense and its competitors, of ways to make a site easily findable?
8 comments:
I have no clue. But I was born a blonde so I think that's why.
A friend of mine googled my pen name yesterday and found an article about me at RITRO. But I've been the subject of some weird ones in my stats.
I get people in there who google Peter Strauss so that's cool but I'll tell you, I'm starting to get really ticked off at google for these morons who google mom having sex with son or daughter's boyfriend and coming to my blog cause people like that belong slapped up alongside the head. I wish there was some way to call them out...freaks and morons.
Okay, there was my rant. Um...probably not what you intended, right? BTW, have you seen my cell phone? Trust me, I'm asking everyone.
Look behind and under the cushions. Even if it's not there, you'll score some extra change.
I believe some of those sites are using keywords. I vaguely remember this from when I worked for a small business - their web guy was tweaking their keywords and monitoring how the search results turned out. I am sorry I can't be any more detailed that this, but maybe it will point you in the right direction, or someone who actually knows what they are doing might leave you a more helpful comment.
You can use the "Meta" tags to give the search robots key words.
I haven't figured out how to post code- instead of posting it, Blogger executes it- but if you go to my blog and click "view source," you'll see the meta tags at the top.
I just typed up a really long explanation but when I went to sign in, it wiped it out. Sheesh. Now you get the short version:
1. Page content is king. Especially content in headers, titles, etc. Meta isn't used as heavily as so many spammers abused them. If you have a keyword in your meta and it doesn't appear in the page, you actually get demoted.
2. Who links to you using the specific key word. For more info on this, look up "Google bomb."
3. Frequency of update. The more frequent you update, the more "alive" the site is, and therefore, apparently more relevant.
Fermi, Thomas, Pos,
Thanks for the tips. I think the web part of this project is going to be more of a pain than the actual content.
Here's my suggestion - check out a blog "How to Pump Up your BLog" - I think that is the correct name
http://www.pumpupyourbookpromotion.com
-is actually the correct name of the blog, but the author of that blog, Dorothy Thompson, has a kazillion ways for people to find other people's blogs quickly. Technorati, tags, labels, etc - you name it, along with keywords and stuff. Still a little over my "pea brain" and its thinking capacity at times but I'm quite sure you'd have no problem figuring things out, picking/choosing what would probably work well for your purposes!
BTW - I came here via Debo Blue's blog. Figured anything Deb reads has to be a worthwhile site -and know what, my theory there was right! I love it when I am right, don't you?
Hey Jeni,
Welcome and thanks for the advice. The content for the site isn't that much of a problem; but, while I can pick and choose what's best to market it, the learning curve is still on the steep part.
So how do we get Debo to write more often?
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