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Date   : Thu, 13 Sep 2007 11:34:57 +0100
From   : tom@... (Tom Kranz)
Subject: 3.5' Drives (Again..)

On 13 Sep 2007, at 01:03, Jonathan Graham Harston wrote:
>
> http://mdfs.net/Docs/Comp/BBC/Disk
>
> What I am doing with my website that results in people not finding
> this information? What search terms did you use? What search
> engine did you use?

Jumping in here - I don't know why your site performs so poorly in  
search results, as it's full of useful information, but seldom ranks  
highly on Google.

Using the following search terms:
3.5 bbc floppy
3.5 bbc disk
3.5 bbc drive
connect 3.5" bbc drive

And your page isn't in the first 5 pages of Google results - most  
people tend to give up after 5 pages and try a new search term.  
Sprow's HowTo page, which does have information on how to connect up  
a 3.5" drive, tends to appear fairly high up on the first pages of  
results, at least for the last two search terms.

I think that the problem is:
a) not enough sites linking in to yours - therefore search engines  
don't treat it as authoritative
b) the way the text is written on the page doesn't give enough  
keyword density to flag these common search terms in the engines

Unless I specifically add 'mdfs' to any search terms it's very hard  
to find any of your relevant pages in the engine indexes. You can  
check the keyword density here: http://oyoy.eu/page/keywords/?url=http 
%3a%2f%2fmdfs.net%2fDocs%2fComp%2fBBC%2fDisk

(that site has many very useful tools to work out how your site is  
viewed by search engines, and thus how to improve search ranking)

If you go to Google and do a "link: http://mdfs.net" it will tell you  
which sites have incoming links - there aren't very many, and none of  
them link in to your above listed page. This all means that Google  
assigns your page a page rank of 0 - it's not rating as being  
authoritative or relevant in the index.

Maybe the list needs a monthly "FAQs and Read These Sites First" sort  
of posting to remind people of the good resources that are out there.

Cheers,
TOM

--
"Tell them we are not Gods, but Sysadmins, which is the next best  
thing."
"What is the use of living, if it be not to strive for noble causes  
and to make this muddled world a better place for those who will live  
in it after we are gone?" Sir Winston Churchill
http://www.linkedin.com/in/tomkranz


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