Fetch - with the google optimisation does/will it therefore aid the websites’s placing in a google search if I/we do a google search and click on the FE link everytime we come to the site then (instead of just following my bookmark)? More than happy to do this each time I visit if it does..
I just Googled "running forums" and the result was very scary. Fetch appears 18th in the list, not even on the first page. Of course, I clicked only the FE result. I realise that SEO is a complex and complicated thing, but is it partly because the other sites are more narrowly focused as forum?
I also searched "running communities" and Fetch doesn't appear at all in the first 10 pages. So then I searched "online running communities" with the same result. The Google algorithms are broken.
*However, if I Google "toast of a monkey" then bang! we're #1, baby!
Thank you very much - but I don't think that'd help. I *think* Google's algorithm is suspicious enough of sudden spikes in activity to nullify their effect.
All searches for 'fetcheveryone' bring us up at the top of the list anyway, so the people who know us WILL find us. But I think the way forward is for me to find the sorts of things that runners are searching for, and persuading google that our page-for-that-thing is the best one.
The example I mentioned in the podcast was the WAVA calculator. Without trying to do anything to make it so, it's found its way to the top when people are searching for 'wava calculator'. So yesterday, I just made some small amendments to that page to make it as friendly as possible (whilst trying not to ruin whatever it was that Google liked about it), and throwing in a fairly obvious link to join Fetch.
If I can establish several useful pages like that, each of which are providing a steady trickle of visitors, then hopefully we can get the name of the site into a few people's minds
Dio - the other thing worth noting is that if you're 'signed in' to Google when you search, it knows your history, so the results will partially reflect that. Quickest way to see how it looks as a neutral is to use your browser's private mode. But even then, there's a lot of bouncing around at the moment. Our position for some search queries can vary by about 7-8 places each time I do a test.
From what I've read, it used to be that they updated their index once every three months. So if you got a good spot, you'd hang onto it for a while. But I think it's all a lot more fluid now. I've made a few changes over the last week too, so that's probably stirred things up. It sounds like it's best to play the longer game, making smaller amendments to pick up small gains.
Or search for 'fetcheveryone' in your favourite podcast app - let us know if it's not listed.
Leave your comments and content suggestions on this thread.
Contributors We love getting contributions. Here's how:
1) find somewhere with minimal background noise 2) recording on a smartphone is fine 3) start with "Hello Fetchies, it's..." 4) a couple of minutes is a good length 5) don't worry about ums, aahs and pauses. We can edit them out. 6) email the file to podcast@fetcheveryone.com
Episode 93: The Christmas Poem
Episode 92: The Office Party - Without Further Ado
Featured Fetchies: Linds, Fleecy, Dipps and TeeBee and the mystery of what's in the bag (37:10) Two vVMLM experiences from Fizz (40:00) and Gimmemedals (44:20)
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The Masked Fetchie
Aug 2023
