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Post by Admin Pete on Jul 5, 2017 9:44:09 GMT -5
I don't know what kind of results anyone else gets on Google, but when I search for just "OD&D" this forum is not in the top 100 results; however, my blog is (at least for me) the 10th result. Now if I search for "OD&D forum" then we are number two right behind ODD74 which is now 10 years old.
Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions on boosting our rank under the search for just "OD&D"? Or for other search terms?
New request, would as many of you that want to search with Google for the search term "OD&D" by itself and tell me where, if at all the forum and/or blog shows up. There has been a lot of activity the past two and a half months and I am curious if it has had any effect on the site ranking.
Thanks to anyone who participates and assuages my curiosity.
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Post by captaincrumbcake on Jul 5, 2017 9:52:25 GMT -5
When I google *OD&D forums* its usually ODD74, then this forum right behind it. But sometimes it gets dropped from the history for reasons I don't know. It usually comes back. I find that extensively googling Ruins of Murkhill, will get it back, then I have to go to the Home-connect to reestablish the search history.
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Post by Admin Pete on Jul 5, 2017 11:52:13 GMT -5
When I google *OD&D forums* its usually ODD74, then this forum right behind it. But sometimes it gets dropped from the history for reasons I don't know. It usually comes back. I find that extensively googling Ruins of Murkhill, will get it back, then I have to go to the Home-connect to reestablish the search history. Yeah, I would like to get to where it comes up when you just Google "OD&D" instead of "OD&D Forums", which I think would up our visibility. |
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Post by captaincrumbcake on Jul 5, 2017 11:57:57 GMT -5
I don't use CAPS when googling. Wonder if that has anything to do with anything?
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Post by Admin Pete on Jul 5, 2017 12:45:57 GMT -5
I don't use CAPS when googling. Wonder if that has anything to do with anything? CAPS or not caps does not seem to have any effect either way. |
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Post by Traveroark on Jul 5, 2017 13:34:10 GMT -5
I would be interested in the answer to this myself.
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Post by magremore on Jul 6, 2017 5:00:02 GMT -5
No idea, but I think more discussions that mention OD&D will only help. And maybe more mentions of OD&D in signatures. Maybe I’ll update to a more OD&D avatar, with an OD&D kind of mission statement under it. I think if we all spent time googling “OD&D” and then scrolling through the results to find this particular OD&D forum that would also help. But who wants to do that when we could be playing OD&D?
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Post by xizallian on Jul 6, 2017 11:52:02 GMT -5
No idea, but I think more discussions that mention OD&D will only help. And maybe more mentions of OD&D in signatures. Maybe I’ll update to a more OD&D avatar, with an OD&D kind of mission statement under it. I think if we all spent time googling “OD&D” and then scrolling through the results to find this particular OD&D forum that would also help. But who wants to do that when we could be playing OD&D? Would those things really help? |
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Post by sixdemonbag on Jul 6, 2017 14:54:33 GMT -5
No idea, but I think more discussions that mention OD&D will only help. And maybe more mentions of OD&D in signatures. Maybe I’ll update to a more OD&D avatar, with an OD&D kind of mission statement under it. I think if we all spent time googling “OD&D” and then scrolling through the results to find this particular OD&D forum that would also help. But who wants to do that when we could be playing OD&D? Would those things really help? Yes. The banner you see at the top of the page is an image. So, even though it says "OD&D", google will not OCR it for results. If PD is genuinely wanting to increase this forum's google presence, he will need to have a textual mention of OD&D (or whatever terms he wishes) somewhere on each page. I'm not a web developer, so I don't know how much control PD has over the site template. EDIT: Being #2 behind odd74, despite this, is still nothing to sneeze at. Also, I don't how metadata for each image is handled by google's algorithm. I'm guessing it's a low priority. |
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Post by sixdemonbag on Jul 6, 2017 15:05:30 GMT -5
I don't know what kind of results anyone else gets on Google, but when I search for just "OD&D" this forum is not in the top 100 results; however, my blog is (at least for me) the 10th result. Now if I search for "OD&D forum" then we are number two right behind ODD74 which is now 10 years old. Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions on boosting our rank under the search for just "OD&D"? Or for other search terms? Your blog is 7th for me  |
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Post by Jame Rowe on Jul 6, 2017 15:32:15 GMT -5
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Post by Jame Rowe on Jul 6, 2017 15:33:08 GMT -5
I also get this map when I web-search for this forum, from here:
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Post by ripx187 on Jul 6, 2017 17:45:52 GMT -5
We are lucky that we get anything, the & is a search command. The GOOGLE engine is a lot smarter than GOPHER was, but it still has the basic commands in place. It reads it as "OD with D only" which technically should be searching for the word "odd" which is why odd74 is the first result. GOOGLE tailors itself to the user based on all of the information that it steals from us. It is actually quite terrifying! The Gestapo wasn't this effecient. Impressive, but, none the less; what this means is that each and every one of us is going to get different results based on previous searches done on our computers, what other Google services we use, as well as the info hidden in our IP addresses.
Using an anonymous interface to hide my identity from GOOGLE and give me clean results, The Murkhill blog is still on the top page, which is amazingly good! However, this message board isn't listed at all which isn't surprising as there are only 6 pages of results associated with that specific command. One has to add "Murkhill" into the search before it is found. Under the OD&D search, only one of the results are commercial, but the results are all clean. Typing in "Original Dungeons Dragons" gives you commercial links, but it's a big mess full of unrelated garbage as well. This means that your blog currently has a better piece of real-estate than those that are selling the game.
AD&D search results are horrible, it assumes that you are looking for Accidental Death and Dismemberment insurance.
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Post by Admin Pete on Jul 6, 2017 21:00:27 GMT -5
We are lucky that we get anything, the & is a search command. The GOOGLE engine is a lot smarter than GOPHER was, but it still has the basic commands in place. It reads it as "OD with D only" which technically should be searching for the word "odd" which is why odd74 is the first result. GOOGLE tailors itself to the user based on all of the information that it steals from us. It is actually quite terrifying! The Gestapo wasn't this effecient. Impressive, but, none the less; what this means is that each and every one of us is going to get different results based on previous searches done on our computers, what other Google services we use, as well as the info hidden in our IP addresses. Using an anonymous interface to hide my identity from GOOGLE and give me clean results, The Murkhill blog is still on the top page, which is amazingly good! However, this message board isn't listed at all which isn't surprising as there are only 6 pages of results associated with that specific command. One has to add "Murkhill" into the search before it is found. Under the OD&D search, only one of the results are commercial, but the results are all clean. Typing in "Original Dungeons Dragons" gives you commercial links, but it's a big mess full of unrelated garbage as well. This means that your blog currently has a better piece of real-estate than those that are selling the game. AD&D search results are horrible, it assumes that you are looking for Accidental Death and Dismemberment insurance. I was not aware that the & was a command or that it had that effect on search results. OK if I search for OD&D the blog comes up in the 7th spot. If I got to the last page and select search against and include the duplicates that Google thinks it is omitting the forum comes up in the number five spot ahead of the blog at spot number 10. So the forum is there in the results but Google thinks it is a duplicate, interesting. Searching for "OD&D" instead of OD&D makes a very slight difference. Searching for Original Dungeons and Dragons, Wikipedia comes up first, followed by Amazon, eBay and WotC and the The Acaeum in that order. ODD74 is result number 19. My blog is result number 94 and the forum does not show up. If you search for Original Dungeons & Dragons, Wikipedia is still first, and WotC moves up to 3rd. ODD74 moves down to number 23 and my blog moves up to number 64. All quite interesting. |
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Post by Admin Pete on Jul 6, 2017 21:03:30 GMT -5
Would those things really help? Yes. The banner you see at the top of the page is an image. So, even though it says "OD&D", google will not OCR it for results. If PD is genuinely wanting to increase this forum's google presence, he will need to have a textual mention of OD&D (or whatever terms he wishes) somewhere on each page. I'm not a web developer, so I don't know how much control PD has over the site template. EDIT: Being #2 behind odd74, despite this, is still nothing to sneeze at. Also, I don't how metadata for each image is handled by google's algorithm. I'm guessing it's a low priority. Not sure what I can do with the site template, the access is limited and it is easy to mess things up. Things to ponder. At least if I could post more consistently to the blog, it links here. But I would like both of them to be consistently as high as possible in the results. Anyone has any other advice please let me know. |
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Post by sixdemonbag on Jul 6, 2017 21:59:36 GMT -5
Yes. The banner you see at the top of the page is an image. So, even though it says "OD&D", google will not OCR it for results. If PD is genuinely wanting to increase this forum's google presence, he will need to have a textual mention of OD&D (or whatever terms he wishes) somewhere on each page. I'm not a web developer, so I don't know how much control PD has over the site template. EDIT: Being #2 behind odd74, despite this, is still nothing to sneeze at. Also, I don't how metadata for each image is handled by google's algorithm. I'm guessing it's a low priority. Not sure what I can do with the site template, the access is limited and it is easy to mess things up. Things to ponder. At least if I could post more consistently to the blog, it links here. But I would like both of them to be consistently as high as possible in the results. Anyone has any other advice please let me know. : See the link which is straight from the horse's mouth. Looks pretty informative and would double as a sleep aid! Google Search Engine Optimization Starter GuideI tried to attach the PDF but this forum has a 1 MB limit for attachments. |
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Post by sixdemonbag on Jul 6, 2017 22:08:23 GMT -5
One more thing:
Both odd74 and this site share the proboards.com domain. Fin's board has "odd" in the actual subdomain. This, along with more traffic (I assume), will give it a huge advantage and may even cause google to consider this site related or a duplicate.
Short version: Unique domains are BIG money and large companies spend a lot of resources on domain rights and SEO (search engine optimization). At the very least, it's nontrivial.
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Post by Admin Pete on Jul 6, 2017 22:18:20 GMT -5
Hmm, I can kinda sorta see how that might be applied to my own website that I would pay for, but I am lost when it comes to knowing what could be done with that here on the forum or even on the blog. Well I will see what I can do.
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Post by sixdemonbag on Jul 6, 2017 22:51:01 GMT -5
Hmm, I can kinda sorta see how that might be applied to my own website that I would pay for, but I am lost when it comes to knowing what could be done with that here on the forum or even on the blog. Well I will see what I can do. I would peruse that PDF I linked, and see if you have access to any of those html fields mentioned. Worth a look, perhaps. |
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Post by Admin Pete on Jul 7, 2017 7:00:30 GMT -5
Hmm, I can kinda sorta see how that might be applied to my own website that I would pay for, but I am lost when it comes to knowing what could be done with that here on the forum or even on the blog. Well I will see what I can do. I would peruse that PDF I linked, and see if you have access to any of those html fields mentioned. Worth a look, perhaps. I made those comments after reading the document. I do not understand html and so far the things in html I have tried have not turned out so well and I have had to reset things back to the start condition again. I will keep looking at it though. It also looks like getting linked a lot more places would help too. I will have to look into the option to add pages to the forum that are separate from what everyone currently sees. I think one of the options is more like just a static web page and if that is the case I can put stuff there and link back to the forum from there. At least I think that is an option. |
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Post by sixdemonbag on Jul 7, 2017 9:24:35 GMT -5
I feel your pain PD. I only made it a few pages in before I threw in the towel. You are a better man than I!!
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Post by Admin Pete on Jul 7, 2017 9:57:29 GMT -5
I feel your pain PD. I only made it a few pages in before I threw in the towel. You are a better man than I!! Stubborn, not better!  |
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Post by sixdemonbag on Aug 15, 2017 15:37:32 GMT -5
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Post by Admin Pete on Aug 15, 2017 16:23:50 GMT -5
I read the whole thing and it appears the part that applies most here is this: So content - Check - constantly working on that Links to other sites - Check working on that and if anyone has a blog or website I will be happy to link to it here. Other sites linking back to us - I have no control over that - just hope that members that have blogs or sites will link to us, but I am not going to check to see that anyone is and it won't affect my linking your site here if you don't. |
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Post by Admin Pete on Sept 12, 2017 20:30:27 GMT -5
See new OP edit request.
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Post by magremore on Sept 13, 2017 5:37:53 GMT -5
New request, would as many of you that want to search with Google for the search term "OD&D" by itself and tell me where, if at all the forum and/or blog shows up. There has been a lot of activity the past two and a half months and I am curious if it has had any effect on the site ranking. Thanks to anyone who participates and assuages my curiosity. Second hit. Top three: 1. odd74.proboards.com2. ruinsofmurkhill.proboards.com3. www.acaeum.com/ddindexes/setpages/original.html |
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Post by Admin Pete on Sept 13, 2017 5:53:49 GMT -5
New request, would as many of you that want to search with Google for the search term "OD&D" by itself and tell me where, if at all the forum and/or blog shows up. There has been a lot of activity the past two and a half months and I am curious if it has had any effect on the site ranking. Thanks to anyone who participates and assuages my curiosity. Second hit. Top three: 1. odd74.proboards.com2. ruinsofmurkhill.proboards.com3. www.acaeum.com/ddindexes/setpages/original.htmlI wondered if it would come up that way for anyone else. It came up second for me and my blog came up tenth. |
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Post by magremore on Sept 13, 2017 6:31:33 GMT -5
I wondered if it would come up that way for anyone else. It came up second for me and my blog came up tenth. For me your blog shows up on the second page, so 11th or 12th hit. |
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Post by Admin Pete on Sept 13, 2017 7:09:14 GMT -5
I wondered if it would come up that way for anyone else. It came up second for me and my blog came up tenth. For me your blog shows up on the second page, so 11th or 12th hit. I thought it might be lower simply because I have been pretty inactive there. If I ever am able to retire, I would be making 3-4 posts a week on the blog, right now it is pretty hit or miss. |
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Post by magremore on Sept 13, 2017 7:14:48 GMT -5
The only blog I check regularly these days is Delta’s. That’s not a knock on other blogs, just a time limitation issue. My standard check-ins are this forum, odd74 forum, and Delta's blog, and I keep an eye on the Holmes G+ group.
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