Just a couple of comments from me. There may be some truth in the sense of the Guild web site providing better search engine rankings recently. When I first took over, a few weeks after the site went live, I discovered the basics necessary to get search engines actively indexing the site had been left out. That has been rectified with immediate improvements. Regarding comments such as Jennie's, the answers are complex. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a bit of a dark art, and one that is a constantly moving target. Current thinking is that three words are key: content, freshness, and activity. Content is not about just the words. They might be brilliant, but it's first impressions that count. That intangible something that gets visitors to stay more than two seconds on your page. But, as Jennie has guessed, some sites just inherently have limited appeal. But even so if you Google "Edenburgh surname" Jennie's profile page gets a pretty high result. Freshness is about not uploading something and expecting it to be visited regularly for evermore. If it isn't constantly being reviewed and made fresher people AND search engines will stop bothering to come. Activity is closely linked to freshness, but also importantly includes all those links from other sites back to yours. The web site equivalent of Facebook 'likes', so never miss an opportunity to tell other sites how to find yours. Nigel Osborne - Guild webmaster

I recently shared at the Surnames Community on Google+ https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/115248071390369725970 a link to a Surnames site (www.behindthename.com). You can register free of charge to the site and make submissions etc. When I explored my two ONS I found Orlando listed with some snippets that I had been unaware of, my second ONS for the surname of Worship was not listed. I submitted it to the site and it is now on there. Have a look at http://surnames.behindthename.com/submit/names/adder/148479 I commented that the surname is registered with the Guild and directed the link to my Guild profile. We can use our profiles in a variety of ways. As our website facility to share some details of our registered surnames, or we can use the profile page like the central hub on a wheel by giving some information and providing the links to our other pages - website, blog, Facebook Group, DNA project. Like a shop window they need to be updated and "tweaked" so they are enticing to people to visit often and I always add the date to the bottom of my profile so people can see it is actively being worked on. We can hardly complain we get no interests in our studies if we do not share that we have a study. I shall be sending out a newsletter to my region within the next couple of weeks and will be mentioning the profiles there. Regards, Julie Goucher Guild Member 3925 Orlando & Worship ONS Regional Rep - South Devon

As Nigel says, search engine optimisation is a dark art but there are many things that we can do to improve the visibility of our profile pages, our blogs and our websites. Google do seem to take note of the number of links pointing to your website, blog or profile page but fortunately there are lots of places where you can post the link to your study. It doesn't cost you anything to add your links to these sites and it's well worth doing. There is a page in the Wiki in the Members' Room which will give you some ideas: http://www.one-name.org/members/wiki/index.php?page=Publicising+Your+Study+o n+the+Web There's also a page in the Wiki on improving your search engine rankings: http://www.one-name.org/members/wiki/index.php?page=Improving%20Your%20Searc h%20Engine%20Rankings Both of these links are very long and will no doubt get mangled by Rootsweb. Here are shortened versions: http://tinyurl.com/publicisingONS http://tinyurl.com/ONSSEO Google+ is also increasingly important for search engine optimisation. Links that are shared on Google+ seem to be given preferential treatment in personalised searches though the processes remain mysterious: http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/how-to/2307518/google-seo-how-google-impact s-search-results Or http://tinyurl.com/l4h9aw9 The Sillifant Guild profile page is currently number three in the Google rankings, but the Sillifant website doesn't yet appear to be indexed or, if it is, it not appearing very highly. On the profile pages it also helps to include clickable links to your other sites. This means including the http:// part of the address in the link. There are tips on managing your profile page here: http://one-name.org/help/website-how-to-pages/managing-your-one-name-study-p rofile-page/ I have made an effort to get my profile page and my blog widely linked. When I search for Cruwys on Google (with the private results hidden) my Guild profile is number one on the list and my blog is number two. Cruse and Cruise are more difficult for obvious reasons! Debbie Kennett Member no 4554 Cruwys/Cruse/Cruise one-name study

Sorry Debbie, my website shows up long before the Guild Profile page. I get first place on google search and second on yahoo with the website Marie (GOONS 5318) Bringing the world together one surname at a time. 'A Pepler Name' http://pepler.tribalpages.com 'Hedgerow - the Ancestors' http://cranberry.tribalpages.com Pepler DNA Study http://www.familytreedna.com/public/pepler-ow/ 'Scroops, Scropes and Scroopes' http://dentonlk.tribalpages.com ________________________________ From: Debbie Kennett via <goons@rootsweb.com> To: goons@rootsweb.com Sent: Thursday, November 27, 2014 7:28 AM Subject: Re: [G] Subject: RE: Thank You & No More Excuses As Nigel says, search engine optimisation is a dark art but there are many things that we can do to improve the visibility of our profile pages, our blogs and our websites. Google do seem to take note of the number of links pointing to your website, blog or profile page but fortunately there are lots of places where you can post the link to your study. It doesn't cost you anything to add your links to these sites and it's well worth doing. There is a page in the Wiki in the Members' Room which will give you some ideas: http://www.one-name.org/members/wiki/index.php?page=Publicising+Your+Study+o n+the+Web There's also a page in the Wiki on improving your search engine rankings: http://www.one-name.org/members/wiki/index.php?page=Improving%20Your%20Searc h%20Engine%20Rankings Both of these links are very long and will no doubt get mangled by Rootsweb. Here are shortened versions: http://tinyurl.com/publicisingONS http://tinyurl.com/ONSSEO Google+ is also increasingly important for search engine optimisation. Links that are shared on Google+ seem to be given preferential treatment in personalised searches though the processes remain mysterious: http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/how-to/2307518/google-seo-how-google-impact s-search-results Or http://tinyurl.com/l4h9aw9 The Sillifant Guild profile page is currently number three in the Google rankings, but the Sillifant website doesn't yet appear to be indexed or, if it is, it not appearing very highly. On the profile pages it also helps to include clickable links to your other sites. This means including the http:// part of the address in the link. There are tips on managing your profile page here: http://one-name.org/help/website-how-to-pages/managing-your-one-name-study-p rofile-page/ I have made an effort to get my profile page and my blog widely linked. When I search for Cruwys on Google (with the private results hidden) my Guild profile is number one on the list and my blog is number two. Cruse and Cruise are more difficult for obvious reasons! Debbie Kennett Member no 4554 Cruwys/Cruse/Cruise one-name study _____________________________________________ RootsWeb lists - surnames, regions, software, etc http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to GOONS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Hi Debbie It is my understanding that the order of Google results depends on who is doing the searching. I think that Google orders your results based on what it knows about you, in the same way that you get personalised advertising on many websites, but I stand to be corrected on that. I have just done a Google search for Sillifant family history and the Sillifant Guild profile is result no 6. Of course, I do not know if you used the same search terms. June Willing Guild of One-Name Studies member no 2117 Willing/Willings One-Name Study http://one-name.org/name_profile/Willing/ Willing/Willings DNA Project http://www.familytreedna.com/public/Willing/ Dominicus One-Name Study http://one-name.org/name_profile/dominicus-2/ On 27 Nov 2014, at 12:28, Debbie Kennett via wrote: > The Sillifant Guild profile page is currently number three in the > Google > rankings, but the Sillifant website doesn't yet appear to be indexed > or, if > it is, it not appearing very highly. > > > Debbie Kennett > Member no 4554 > Cruwys/Cruse/Cruise one-name study >