Increase Search engine hits on Ozgolf

[markTHEblake]

Have been looking at this topic for another site and I think that some small changes and also active participation by Ozgolf members will be very helpful.

I have noticed that when searching on "australia golf forum" and variations to that the only hits are www.iseekgolf.com

Alternatively search on my username, the first hit is my user profile at www.golfwrx.com and some other forums, as well as my Yahoo profile http://profiles.yahoo.com/marktheblake


If anyone is not aware the best way to improve your google rankings is to 'exchange' links with popular web sites - this includes forums. Not suggesting that my profile page on Wrx is a popular page but the site is.

My suggestion to Ozgolf members is that if you have an account on
any popular forum, add the Ozgolf site to your signature, or profile. By using the profile no site will get cranky as users wont see that in your post's but the google bots will.

Also whenever referring to another website when posting on ozgolf, use the full website address and not abbreviations. Linking back to them helps also.

When you have completed the link on the other site, come back to this thread and post the relative site here. Pretty sure that will work well for our site.

Andyp : I think it might help to change this webpage title to something more descriptive "Ozgolf.net forums - Powered by vBulletin" - perhaps something like - Ozgolf - Australia's greatest golf forum

anyone else got some search engine tips?

[Jarro]

Blakey, i don't think we really need to worry about drumming up business.

[Webster]

Blake, if you search "golf forum" on Google and click the link to Aust sites it brings up ISG and TGF, but not Ozgolf. Why?

[AndyP]

I don't know how to get us to show up on the Australian google search, especially since it's not a '.au' address. Anyone know?

The one other forum I'm a regular on, got changed to a private forum at the start of the year, so google won't find it now.

[markTHEblake]

Jack/Andyp - I believe the actions highlighted above will improve that vastly, ie the word Australia associated with the Ozgolf.net name.

Jarro - you are right we dont need any more nobheads here, but a very small effort for a very large gain is worth it dont you think. Pissing off another site owner would be a good start and how would good would it feel to knock back someone who offered us $10,000 for our site - that is realistically possible for a popular website

[AndyP]

Global Google search on OZgolf (although it is unlikely someone would search on this): Number 1 http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...=Google+Search

Pages from Australia Google search on OZgolf: Nothing
http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=e...37;3DcountryAU

ISG doesn't have this problem. I need to find out how we can be designated as a 'page from Australia'.

[markTHEblake]

my personal website which is a nothing site on .net hosted in USA, comes up first on the AU & global search. there isnt much at all to indicate it is an australian site.

My hosting site support forum has some differing opinions on the issue, you can read the thread here http://www.dotable.com/showthread.ph...ghlight=google i think the most important point to take note of is "I thought the site's merits (incoming links etc etc), for certian keyword relevancy, was the determing factor"

and IMHO i think its more important that google ranks our site higher by using words that dont include Ozgolf

[AndyP]

Andyp : I think it might help to change this webpage title to something more descriptive "Ozgolf.net forums - Powered by vBulletin" - perhaps something like - Ozgolf - Australia's greatest golf forum

Done. I initially thought it might have been something forced unless you got premium vbulletin. It was a code change and not a straight field change, but that's fine.

and IMHO i think its more important that google ranks our site higher by using words that dont include Ozgolf

I know. I just used it to demonstrate the point that it is not showing up on the Australian search.

[markTHEblake]

Is this something you have always noticed?

Becuase a few weeks ago, I googled ' fireball matchplay ' and our thread on that topic was hit # 2. Now it doesnt come up at all (unless i add some more obvious keywords like Ozgolf)

As a sample test, if you google any fairly generic words that come up in thread titles, even not popular ones, and most times Ozgolf is predominant.

I suspect strongly that somebody has complained to Google and the Fireball Matchplay keywords have been removed from their data. Its quite possible that the same has happened with Ozgolf in respect of the AU search.

interesting, search 'fireball matchplay' on yahoo.com and it is exactly like google used to come up with

[AndyP]

My hosting site support forum has some differing opinions on the issue, you can read the thread here http://www.dotable.com/showthread.ph...ghlight=google i think the most important point to take note of is "I thought the site's merits (incoming links etc etc), for certian keyword relevancy, was the determing factor"

Here's some more info on it here, although still nothing definite.
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum32/822.htm
Three things mentioned: DMOZ regional listing, server IP of nameserver and the domain extension.

Is this something you have always noticed?

I don't check often, but yes.

I suspect strongly that somebody has complained to Google and the Fireball Matchplay keywords have been removed from their data. Its quite possible that the same has happened with Ozgolf in respect of the AU search.

WTF?!?! Complained? Does that mean we could appeal it?

[Webster]

Ok, I just googled "scorpiochick golf" and the global search brings up an ozgolf thread as the thrid hit, but then the same search under the Australian Sites doesn't register Ozgof at all?

[AndyP]

Ok, I just googled "scorpiochick golf" and the global search brings up an ozgolf thread as the thrid hit, but then the same search under the Australian Sites doesn't register Ozgof at all?

The problems is that our domain name isn't a dot au, and our server is based in the US. I'm looking into whatever this DMOZ thing is, although there is no guarantees this will fix it.

[markTHEblake]

http://www.redflymarketing.com/blog/...mission-guide/

[AndyP]

http://www.redflymarketing.com/blog/...mission-guide/

OZgolf.net has been submitted. It will be two weeks or more before there will be any search engine results.

I noticed that ISG was in there too.

[TS]

Google search engine looks at the HTML tags from the pages and assign priority to them. Having the right words in the tag is the key for the site to appear in Google.

[Courty]

This might also help.

[AndyP]

Thanks Courty.

I did start looking at the whole SEO thing a couple of years ago, but got over it and moved onto other stuff.