Comments on: It Might Help the Search Rankings

By: Pentimento

Pentimento — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 13:28:39 +0000

That won’t work but try these tips from a fellow Atheist whose site is always number one during a search for “atheism blogs”.

http://www.atheistrev.com/search/label/Blogging

Here is an article about Google bombing, as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_bomb

By: Saint Gasoline

Saint Gasoline — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 00:17:37 +0000

I noticed this, as well, but I didn’t realize there was a way to help correct Google’s incompetence. I’ll make a hasty journey over to Google to try to boost your rating.

A simpler way to accomplish a high rating would be to call yourself “The Amish Computerized Android Who Wears Underwear Atheist”. I’m pretty sure there aren’t too many of those.

By: Lindsey

Lindsey — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 20:09:45 +0000

I don’t know if this has been mentioned before, but one thing I noticed is your load time. I did a quick load time test on submitplus.com and for someone with dial-up, it takes almost 2 minutes for your page to load. Decreasing your load time might help you move up the list a little anyway!

By: eric perkins

eric perkins — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:31:52 +0000

done.

By: Dan C.

Dan C. — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:06:37 +0000

Trying to game or rig the Google ranking system (as you’re trying to do here) usually backfires, often in the form of them docking your rating or removing you from search results entirely.

Google has extensive documentation and hints for webmasters, but the Wikipedia page might be more helpful: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PageRank

Hope this helps.

By: The Man Version

The Man Version — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:59:39 +0000

Hemant, take a look at skeptools.com. It’s run by a friend of mine, and there is information in there about Google rankings.

We’ve been going through something similar, with StopSylviaBrowne being taken over by a woo when Robert Lancaster let it lapse because he had a stroke. We’ve been working to get http://www.stopsylvia.com (the new URL) back up in the Google ranks so people have the right site for anything about Sylvia Browne.

(Seems to be working, too. The new site is up to #6.)

By: Adrian Hayter

Adrian Hayter — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 10:37:39 +0000

As far as I am aware, the up arrow only helps your own personalized results. Google haven’t got any plans to use the system overall because it would override their PageRank system, and it would be easily abused (as this post demonstrates ).

By: Clare

Clare — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 10:16:51 +0000

Done! I’d always wondered whether it was just me who had problems searching for your website using google.

By: Lionel L.

Lionel L. — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 07:40:31 +0000

The first site in the listing has a title “Friendly Atheists?” but the URL is Infidels dot com

So… Just know what you are clicking on when you click it is all I have to say about this.

By: Stephen P

Stephen P — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 07:05:37 +0000

One other thing you could do is tidy up the syntax of the site. A validator, e.g. validator.w3.org can show you the errors. For example, you seem to have a couple of weird characters before your meta elements.

While Google will try to cope with invalid syntax (it has to, given the appalling mess that many sites are in), that involves quite a bit of guesswork, and you never know what it might choke on.