Goog question.Quote:
Originally Posted by frebo
Goog question.Quote:
Originally Posted by frebo
I think one of the most important key words is "technical support", add to that "computer" or "pc" and that is what I, as a new user would look for on Google. Google those two, and we are no where in immediate sight.
Those words are in there. Improved ranking doesn't happen right away. Could take a month, could take a week, but it doesn't happen overnight. The spiders need to find you, and that happens when it does. Can't do much about it.
I would probably use the term "support forum", or "pc support forum". For me the term "technical support" is too broad because it would also include various software and hardware vendor's technical support sections.
Other terms that might be used are "computer tech help" or "computer help desk."
I like the way that VDR looks but I have one question. The forum boxes have a bunch of white space (empty space) on the right hand side. This is because at the top of the page, there is one HP ad? Can this be changed? It just looks like a lot of wasted space.
Cheers,
Linda
:) ;) :o
That ad will occasionally double in length, but the width won't grow larger (occasionally smaller). It's possible that we may add some more content below it to try to balance out the page.
A couple questions...
It has been said that other Jupiter sites had been upgraded (board software) prior to VDR. Is there any hard (even preliminary) data showing what the post upgrade effect has been on those sites in terms of additional traffic and users? Not that there might be perfect correlation in the data, but it would be a data point.
And... Without anyone giving away any trade secrets or such, given that we have mods and members here that are mods at other sites similar to vdr, can any of these people offer up any results data on what these other sites might have seen when they switched board software (whenever that was) or what these other sites might feel is the bounty they are reaping from the search engine related stuff? Like I say, in broad strokes.
I joined your ranks last October and have benefitted from practically instant responses which solved my problems. I have gained a tremendous amount of knowledge from reading the various sections, and have been able to help others through the latter. At every opportunity, I have passed on the message re this website. Dr.MDJ asked where were the many who used to frequent vdr - through personal reasons, I have been one of those missing, but am now back again. Good luck with this initiative.
Doc, I'd have to look into that myself to give you an answer. I can, though, and I will. I can compare membership and post totals for the past yr on a month by month basis.
Geoff, thank you for the good wishes and WELCOME BACK! I'm Joe, by the way. :)
Just a curoisity there Joe, but something that might provide some useful info. If nothing else it may be another data point to help assess what our expectations may be in terms of the effects, whether our current ones are too high or too low, and in some respects a "gauge" to be used in terms of assessing whether what we actually do see is "in line".
And Geoffrey... What ever the reasons you were gone, glad to have you back (and inputting here)!
I can tell you this though, if you search for visual basic forums, vbforums comes up 1st and that site was upgraded to 3 about 5 months ago. To see a difference in ranking does take time.
Fine, but what I am most interested in is data relating to actual benefits received by the site(s). After all, it don't matter if you are number one in the search hit list if it doesn't (or can't be expected to) generate appreciable traffic and membership for ya. It's good that the new software may raise us in the search hits standings, but we ultimately need it to do more than that.
Well that'll maximize traffic coming to the site. Whether or not we keep them is up to us. But I'll check vb's post traffic. Soon as I'm done indexing this one so the search will work.
Welcome back, Geoffrey, hope all is well now in real life :)
I think I'm about to blabber on, so ignore me if you feel inclined. Find this search stuff getting more intriguing. (Don't want to beat a dead horse, I sense we are being told by JPNYC "patience, grasshoppers". :) )
I reversed the situation and put myself in the shoes of family/friends I know who don't know/care much about computers, just want it fixed when it's broken. Used terms they use when referring to their machine. So I googled computer help and computer help forum (that second is by coincidence the singular form of Nix's, and ranked middle of page 3). Purposely left the word "tech" out because newbie/non-tech folks I've run across don't use that term. My newbie friends/family also rarely to never use the phrase "PC" when referring to their machine. It's always "computer". As in "my computer's broken... ;) One of the issues I see is that I lot of people I know who use computers for "fun" stuff don't know how to really utilize search engines using effective terms. But sounds like the new software will help fill that gap?Quote:
Originally Posted by Nix
Thanks for the Search Engine Watch link, Joe. That's worth a bookmark. What follows is offered up in ignorance and out of desire to learn. I learned about this tool last year. Hope it's not a dinosaur already. Don't know how relevant it is with the more sophisticated software being used. WordTracker. Free trial that can be used repeatedly (free limits analysis to MSN, subscription gets you all major search engine comparison/analysis). Still, it's a good way to get a feel for keyword effectiveness. WordTracker utilizes the KEI (Keyword Effectiveness Index), explanation of KEI found here, Final results (Step 4) gives KEI analysis, Count (number of times a keyword/term has appeared in their database), the predicted daily traffic searching your keyword/term, and number of competing web sites using your keyword/term. It's seems involved, but really just takes getting used to playing with words, results can be very enlightening. FWIW, both my search terms above got very poor ranking there. So I tested "computer tech support" and "free computer tech support". Both those got poor ranking as well.
Interesting, tho. A contradiction of WordTracker. When I googled "computer help forum", our friends at CTH came in as the 5th hit. Looking at their html code, their first two keywords phrases are "computer help" & "free computer help", and they're also using newer version of VBulletin. Now I'm curious and want to learn what's making this tick. If WordTracker analyzes those as poor terms, is it then 1) the indexing software that's getting our CTH friends the high rank, 2) or a combination of the updated software and keywords that bumps 'em up so high or 3) wordtracker ain't worth diddly?
So are you saying that you have seen the higher ranking produce the traffic in to the site, or just that it should have that effect? If the later then until it does...Quote:
Well that'll maximize traffic coming to the site.
KatMac,
Joe is right. We can not expect instant results. I approach this from a very basic standpoint: it (this whole stuff related to getting the search engine ratings up) can only help. In the worst case it will not hurt a thing. From there its all gravy. I maintain that it is in no way the answer to all our prayers/needs, but... It is a piece of the puzzle/equation. My one concern is that some people might be inclinded to put all there eggs in this basket simple because it is the simplest/least-effort/least-thought thing to do (except for JP of course).
The "terms" from both sides of the search engine picture are always the key. All you can do is try on this side of things to maybe anticipate some things. But no matter how good you do it, a person searching can (and will) always come up with some terms/words/phrases that may not produce vdr as a result.