Moderators please note

[Paul Caswell]

My 2c,

If RootsChat really wants to gain search hits, consider some of these ideas.

When I use google to see if someone else has anything on the person I am looking for I might search for something like Henderson Genealogy Berwick Upon Tweed. For google to decide that a RootsChat page would be a good suggestion for that search it would need to find as many of these words as possible on the page.

Suggestion 1: Make sure that the word Genealogy appears at least once on every page.

It does not need to be big. Just something like RootsChat Genealogy Forum.

Search engines rate the popularity of the pages they crawl by counting outgoing, incoming and internal links. The more the better. Obviously we can't do a lot about the incoming side but internal is certainly easy and outgoing should be moderately easy.

Suggestion 2: Put a link to Bob's brilliant Lexicon on every page.

Better still, name it RootsChat Genealogy Lexicon and put it at the bottom of every page and kill two birds with one stone.

Suggestion 3: Try to think of a way of naming the parishes in each county board. Ideally, name all towns in each parish.

Hmm ... isn't that how Genuki does it? Probably not a good idea to start a competition.

One of the most annoying effects of using google is that they deliver far too many misses. This is because if you are looking for, say Deborah Henderson b1790, google will give you all pages with all the words on it. Not quite what you are looking for in this case.

Suggestion 4: Build an index of people's names and dates mentioned throughout RootsSpace.

This would require some programming. I'd consider volunteering.

A word of caution. Would RootsChat really benefit from a lot more hits/visitors/members? To me, RootsChat is a comfortable, relaxed place where I can discuss my hobby with like-minded polite people. Would it really be the same place if membership doubled or went up tenfold?

Paul

[MarieC]

Paul

You seem to have made a number of good points here and I hope admin takes note of them!

I do think Google already recognises Rootschat quite well.  If I Google a name, it often takes me to posts on here.  But I do agree with you that Bob's Lexicon should be featured more prominently on pages!

Rootschat has grown pretty massively since I joined, but it is still a friendly place.  I think members make it what it is, and hopefully we will always have these friendly helpful members!  The mods do a great job overseeing the site to make sure there is none of the nastiness that sometimes creeps into other sites.  Of course, their jobs are growing as Rootschat grows, and perhaps Admin will have to appoint more mods in due course to keep in touch with it all!

MarieC

[Berlin-Bob]

Suggestion 1: Make sure that the word Genealogy appears at least once on every page.

What you don't see, but every search engine does, are the so called meta-tags which are a part of the "innards" of every HTML-page:

Code: [Select]

<meta content="Chat about your British and Irish Genealogy UK Family History around England Wales Scotland
Ireland. 1881 1901 Census lookups of your ancestors. Fun and easy to use. recommended" name="description" />
 <meta content="Census, 1901, 1881, Genealogy, British, Britain, Irish, Family, History, Messaging, Forum,
UK, United, Kingdom, RootsChat, Scotland, Wales, England, Ireland, Isle,
Cymru, Cymraeg, Gwreiddiau, Teulu, Ancestry, Ancestor, BMD, Birth, Marriage,
Death" name="keywords" />All search engines look at these meta tags as well as the contents of the pages. Right click on any internet page and click on "View page source" (or "show source text " or whatever it's called in your browser).

Suggestion 2: Put a link to Bob's brilliant Lexicon on every page.

"Coming attractions ...."    we are already working on it, and it will be called the RootsChat Reference Library, as the Lexicon is only one aspect of it.

Suggestion 4: Build an index of people's names and dates mentioned throughout RootsSpace.

If everybody would enter ALL their names in the Surname Interests Table, then we already have it   

 
Bob

[MarkyP]

Wow, I've just found Bob's Lexicon, a fantastic resource, it must of taken ages to do! I see it's in The RootsChat Reference Library, which I didn't even know existed!   Can we only get to it through a link within a post in Useful Links? I can't find any link to it on the main page, or am I missing something?

Just seen Bob's previous reply, obviously it's not finished yet!

[Ruskie]

There is a mention for RootsChat in issue 8 of an Australian Magazine called "Ultimate Guides".

Odd little magazine ... looks like it appears monthly and each month covers a different computer based topic aimed at the general family market.

This month it is Family History and Rootschat gets a mention (under the topic "Where to get help") and a picture on page 26. The site arewerelated.co.uk (very few members  ) gets the first mention, also rootsweb and british-genealogy.com .....