June, Debbie, et al You seem to be testing Google searches with an expectation some level of consistency perhaps subject to just one or two factors applies. It might happen, but 'might' is a very flexible word. Trouble is that a) the algorithms Google uses include hundred of different factors, all with separate weightings applied and all affected by the actions of billions of web users. b) the algorithms are constantly reviewed and sometimes changed in significant ways. This, for example, is why "meta tags" are no longer 'in vogue'. c) the entire process is completely dynamic, and repeated every few milliseconds. So a ranking of 3 now could potentially be 4, 5 or even a whole page lower ten minutes later. That's not a common outcome, but it can happen. Nigel Osborne - Guild web master

Hi Nigel Thanks for your comments. I can't speak for Debbie, but my original point was that Google results do vary. Having investigated further, I was pleasantly surprised to find that anyone searching for Willing family history is likely to find my profile page and my DNA project website quite easily. This was not the case a few years ago. (I have to hope that they realise that just looking for Willing is hopeless.) I do a Google search regularly to see if I appear in the results. One thing I like to do is make sure that my profile is kept up to date and to tweak it from time to time if I had nothing particular to add. I think it's time I did that again. The old profile page used to have a date when it was last edited, if I remember correctly, though the new one does not. I do agree with Debbie's remarks about putting lots of content on your profile page, especially names. Researchers seem to look for particular people quite a lot, for example a search for "Richard Willing" Loddiswell, will find my profile page. The fact that they might actually be searching for a different individual to the one mentioned on my profile page is a happy accident. 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 28 Nov 2014, at 21:02, Nigel Osborne via wrote: > June, Debbie, et al > > You seem to be testing Google searches with an expectation some > level of consistency perhaps subject to just one or two factors > applies. It might happen, but 'might' is a very flexible word. > > Trouble is that > a) the algorithms Google uses include hundred of different factors, > all with separate weightings applied and all affected by the actions > of billions of web users. > b) the algorithms are constantly reviewed and sometimes changed in > significant ways. This, for example, is why "meta tags" are no > longer 'in vogue'. > c) the entire process is completely dynamic, and repeated every few > milliseconds. So a ranking of 3 now could potentially be 4, 5 or > even a whole page lower ten minutes later. That's not a common > outcome, but it can happen. > > Nigel Osborne - Guild web master > _____________________________________________ > > 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