Thanks Joyce. Dan On Nov 15, 2013 7:29 AM, "Joyce Gaston Reece" <bjreece@bellsouth.net> wrote: > > A few days ago one of our respected volunteers sent me this analysis. > Paul Puente is a Tennessee county volunteer and an html coding expert. He > has run this analysis that reveals broken links on alhn state pages. (And > just so you know the huge number on Tennessee has been fixed) This may not > be as bad as it sounds especially for those of us who’ve had ours online > for awhile because this validator will locate the re-directs that rootsweb > caused when they went from rootsweb.com to rootsweb.ancestry.com > > http://validator.w3.org/checklink is the web site. Anyone can use this > utility for their site. > > Now, here is better news. Paul has created tutorials that will help us > bring our sites into WC3 compliance...”the new coding”.... > > His tutorial’s are excellent in that they are explained in ways that even > I can understand. They are simple and easy to follow. > > Paul will be doing a series of these tutorials over the next few weeks > that will be posted on this mail list as well as having a permanent home on > his web site. I will post the first tutorial very soon along with the link > to its home. > > The Board of Directors is extremely grateful to Paul for taking time to > help out those of us who need it. > > > > Analysis of ALHN State Websites – November 12, 2013 > > > > State > Search* > Errors** > Domain and Index page > > Alabama > No > 39 > http://www.usgennet.org > > Alaska > page 2 > 57 > http://www.alaskaweb.org/ > > Arizona > - > - > no website > > Arkansas > - > - > http://www.arfamilies.info (account suspended) > > California > No > 21 > http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~caalhn/ > > Colorado > No > 24 > http://www.genealogyalongtherockies.com/colorado/colorado.htm > > Connecticut > No > 36 > http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ct/state/ > > Delaware > page 2 > 25 > http://www.delawareroots.org/ > > D. of Columbia > No > 29 > http://www.us-roots.org/washingtondc/ > > Florida > No > 3 > http://www.fl-roots.org/ > > Georgia > No > 6 > http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~gaalhn/ > > Hawaii > No > 3 > http://hometownchronicles.com/hawaii/index.htm > > Idaho > page 4 > 50 > http://www.usgennet.org/usa/id/state1/alhn/index.htm > > Illinois > No > 10 > http://www.us-roots.org/illinois/ > > Indiana > No > 26 > http://www.usgennet.org/usa/in/state1/index.htm > > Iowa > No > 10 > http://www.us-roots.org/iowa/ > > Kansas > No > 3 > http://www.pa-roots.org/data/index.php?5209 > > Kentucky > No > 0 > http://www.us-roots.org/ky/state/Welcome.html > > Louisiana > No > 69 > http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~laalhn/ > > Maine > No > 11 > http://hometownchronicles.com/mealhn/ > > Maryland > No > 28 > http://www.marylandroots.net/ > > Massachusetts > No > 14 > http://www.ma-roots.org/ > > Michigan > No > 3 > http://www.mi-roots.org/ > > Minnesota > No > 23 > http://www.usgennet.org/usa/mn/state/ > > Mississippi > No > 12 > http://www.us-roots.org/ms/state/ > > Missouri > No > 210 > http://www.us-roots.org/missouri/ > > Montana > No > 16 > http://www.us-roots.org/montana/ > > Nebraska > No > 2 > http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ne/state1/ > > Nevada > No > 11 > http://www.us-roots.org/nevada/ > > New Hampshire > No > 6 > http://www.nh-roots.org/ > > New Jersey > No > 42 > http://www.usgennet.org/usa/nj/state/ > > New Mexico > No > 4 > http://nmahgp.genealogyvillage.com/ > > New York > No > 2 > http://www.newyorkroots.org/ > > North Carolina > No > 6 > http://www.ncalhn.org/ > > North Dakota > - > - > no website > > Ohio > No > 20 > http://www.genealogybug.net/ohio_alhn/ohio.htm > > Oklahoma > page 4 > 87 > http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ok/state/ > > Oregon > - > - > no website or no link to website > > Pennsylvania > > 172 > http://www.pa-roots.com/index.php/pacounties > > Pennsylvania > page 2 > 11 > http://www.pa-roots.com/ (not linked from the States page) > > Rhode Island > No > 27 > http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ri/state/ > > South Carolina > No > 16 > http://www.us-roots.org/southcarolina/ > > South Dakota > No > 13 > http://www.us-roots.org/sd/state/ > > Tennessee > No > 259 > http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~tnalhn/ > > Texas > No > 66 > http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~txalhn/ > > Utah > No > 36 > http://utahalhn.tripod.com/ > > Vermont > No > 1 > http://www.vt-roots.org/ > > Virginia > No > 71 > http://www.usgennet.org/usa/va/state/vaalhn/index.htm > > Washington > No > 76 > http://www.usgennet.org/usa/wa/state/ > > West Virginia > No > 16 > http://www.us-roots.org/westvirginia/ > > Wisconsin > No > 17 > http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wialhn/ > > Wyoming > No > 193 > http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wyoming/ > > Wyoming > No > 16 > http://www.genealogyalongtherockies.com/wyoming/wyoming.htm > > > > > * Does the website appear on first 5 pages of results in Google using two > keywords: genealogy and the name of the State. > > ** Number of errors on index page only as measured by W3C markup > validation service. Includes errors and warnings. > > *** http://www.pa-roots.com/index.php/pacounties had 172 errors > > > > Explanation > > > > Search Results: If the website doesn’t appear in the first two pages (20 > results) people generally won’t go beyond. I checked 5 pages or 50 results > for each State website. > > > > Page Errors: If there are significant errors on a page it may not render > (display) correctly. This is especially true for older browser versions. So > if people actually find the website but they can’t clearly read what is on > it then they leave. > > > > Notes and Observations > > > > a.. It is not just keywords that are important but how many links a site > has going out and how many coming in from other sites. > b.. Most (almost all) of our sites are not optimized for search engines > (see below) > a.. Kansas has no ALHN logo and the title of the index page is PA-Roots > b.. Although Kentucky meets W3C standards, it does not have any keywords > which accounts for it not showing up in the first 5 pages of a Google > search. > c.. Some States such as Hawaii and New Mexico have too many keywords and > Google doesn’t like that. Too many keywords could indicate a spamming site. > d.. Many ALHN State sites don’t even have the name of the State as a > keyword. As many keywords as the New Mexico website has New Mexico is not > even mentioned as a keyword. Its in the title tag but that doesn’t help. > > > Link Checker > > > > http://validator.w3.org/checklink > > > > Here is a sample output from Ohio State site: > > > > Code > Occurrences > What to do > > 404 > 1 > The link is broken. Double-check that you have not made any typo, or > mistake in copy-pasting. If the link points to a resource that no longer > exists, you may want to remove or fix the link. > > 410 > 1 > The resource is gone. You should remove this link. > > > > > > > Search Engine Optimization (SEO) > > > > Google has an excellent article on this subject which every volunteer > should read: > > > > > http://www.google.com/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf > > > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > ALHN-GENERAL-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message