February 9, 2006 4:20 PM
An explanation of how we got Google to find YourHub.com
One of my frequent correspondents, Alek Komarnitsky, suggested we explain what we had to do to get Google to find YourHub.com after I wrote a column about the problem.
I know the following may not be understandable to everybody, but these changes were quick and easy and made the difference, according to Becki Dilworth, director of interactive operations at the Denver Newspaper Agency, which publishes YourHub.com for the Rocky Mountain News.
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Page information
On every page of YourHub.com, we have meta description tags and meta keyword tags that look like this:
‹meta name="description" content="Join your local community on YourHub.com and contribute stories, photos and events about things in your neighborhood." /›
‹meta name="keywords" content="citizen journalism, Denver, events, reviews, news, information, blogs, personal stories, schools, neighborhood, community" /›
It’s a simple change we made to the site – but highly effective.
Most recently, we also added dynamic title tags to our pages. That means every page has a title tag that changes based on where the user is located. This also had a big impact on Google recognizing us.
For example: ‹title›Denver YourHub.com > Arvada > Home‹/title› or ‹title›Denver YourHub.com > Arvada > My Dog Spot‹/title›
Site maps
On every page of YourHub.com we link to a site map that essentially is a one-stop shop for a spider to get access to our site. So, if a spider reaches a specific page on YourHub.com and spiders the page – it will reach the site map link. From that point, it can reach any page on our site.
No re-directs
Recently we examined the architecture of YourHub.com and removed most of the automatic redirects that were taking place throughout the site. This also played a role in making YourHub.com more Google-friendly.
Shared links
In addition to some technical changes, we’ve also made some aggressive efforts to get sites across the Web to link to YourHub.com. This has more of an impact on page ranking but certainly plays a role in Google recognizing us.
For a more thorough and technical explanation of how to make your site Google-friendly, I recommend visiting their Webmaster page: http://www.google.com/support
February 10, 2006
11:24 AM
Joe News Reader writes:
What a fascinating entry. Maybe you could follow it up by explaining how the Catholic Church got a seat on the News editorial board and story approval, and why Carroll doesn't have to disclose the fact he is a professional Catholic apologist in any of his asinine columns. Or, and explain to poor Vinnie that the church might not be the target of bills if Chaput and his fellow bishops had not committed multiple crimes in covering up rape and abuse.
February 10, 2006
1:39 PM
poopy writes:
Poopy says this is very stupid blog. Why did you waste your time?
I mean super fascinating. More on grass growing next week please.
Or maybe you could tell us all what candybar John Elway will be passing out for Halloween next year.
February 10, 2006
5:03 PM
John Zwick writes:
Unfortunately, the blog parses all HTML including meta tags in there.
This is what the tag looks like without the brackets:
meta name="description" content="Join your local community on YourHub.com and contribute stories, photos and events about things in your neighborhood."
February 11, 2006
2:11 PM
Mike Woodson writes:
The comment above attacking Vince Carroll the Editorial page Editor for having a relationship to his faith in his writing assumes there should be a faith litmus test for editors or journalists. For example, in a negative relief, the comment would suggest that the presence of Jewish men on editorial boards is a conspiracy against Palestine. For that matter, why not attack every African American editor for being de facto biased against real and suspected white biases in society, thereby excluding same from editorial boards. While we're at it, we could dispense with anglo men or feminist women from important jobs, because we know they're going to get revenge for real or imagined slights to their racial or gender identifications.
What your comment says, Joe, is that we should just go on deepening the American committment to the same class, race, religious and ethnic fractures that make other parts of the world fun to live in, such as Bosnia, where in the past 20 years, innocents were lined up on the ground and their heads run over with tanks. That's the destination of religious bashing, my friend. If we go there, we will lose what is America.
February 11, 2006
2:15 PM
Mike Woodson writes:
Now Poopy, surely you're not suggesting that only those things which excite your senses and your imagination should be discussed on a blog or reported in the news, are you?
You know, the sensationalism that educated, equips and helps no one but excites the rubbernecker impulse in everyone? Maybe you'd like to qualify your comments?
February 13, 2006
12:56 AM
Joe News Reader writes:
No, Mike, I am not suggesting any litmus test. I am suggesting Carroll is a profoundly biased individual without the courage and honesty to ever discuss his very real and pervasive bias in his writings, and that he is unfit to have editorial page control. Nice try, but your post is idiotic.,