[thesite] request for google blocking meta tag in archive post

aardvark roselli at earthlink.net
Sat Feb 8 12:12:05 CST 2003


richard, you've really gotta find a better method to quote replies... 
i had a hella time telling your comments from mine...

> From: "Richard Bennett" <richard.bennett at skynet.be>
[...]
> <i requested a site critique on thelist... nowhere does the result of
> <that critique appear in my google results... <somehow my rankings
> aren't impacted...
> 
> I'm wondering how that offers a solution to all the authors whose
> sites *have* been impacted... I could have made that list of example
> searches 10 times as long as I did, I thought it was long enough to
> get the point over... I grant you, there are some sites where the site
> critique doesn't show on the first page, like yours. I think that's
> great for them, it doesn't help the issue though.

granted, a request with a URL may result in google rankings that are 
higher than your own site... yeah, that can be a bitch, but all along 
evolt.org has had a public archive and everyone knows that anything 
they publish can and will appear in that archive... page ranking as a 
result of this really *is* the author's problem, and their 
responsibility to address with good SE practice on their own site...

> <if i were a jerk, i'd even
> <argue that the evolt.org critiques should easily be overcome in page
> <ranks by any well-built site that is SE-friendly... The reason the
> critique request for your site didn't show-up in the test searches,
> was not because it was such a well-built and SE-friendly site, (which
> it is) but because you didn't put your URL in the title of your
> "design feedback" request (as it has been advised to do on thelist
> several times). If you try:
> http://google.com/search?q=algonquinstudios+design You see it half-way
> down the page. Also, it was also just 2 posts - if that had run into a
> 50 post flame-war, with your URL in the title, it would be you posting
> this.

i know there were more than two posts on the subject... and i don't 
mind it appearing there... it tells me, however, that my ranking for 
the keyword 'design' needs to be improved... granted, that's a search 
term (algonquinstudios design) that i don't ever recall seeing in my 
logs... and that's a factor -- is t really something someone would 
search on?

> Ok, so why does
> evolt list above your site here then:
> http://google.com/search?q=%22Liquid+Design+for+the+Web%22 I'm sure
> you don't mind evolt listing higher there, but it does show that evolt
> will list very high in the rankings, when it's wanted, and when it's
> not.

actually, it's funny you mention that... a while ago i commented on 
the admin list that the evolt.org article should come up above my 
version -- that it bothered me that the algonquin version came up 
first...  clearly that has changed, and i'd bet it's because of the 
comments on the article making it slightly more relevant...

> Especially the
> word "easily" seems to imply that you find the list of 13 sites I
> posted, have the evolt.org critiques listed so close to their own
> sites, because they have not taken a few easy steps, and it's
> basically their own fault. That's not correct. The second site had
> PR4/10 and looked quite SE friendly. The third site has PR6/10 (like
> yours) The fifth one has 5/10 in fact, most had a PR of 4 or up.

then they need to look at finding ways to increase it... yes, it's 
not ideal, but it's big list -- it's gonna happen...

> <[...]
> <granted... all the better for users to see the site is different, and
> <perhaps know the author cared enough to ask...?
> 
> I am pretty sure that if these webmasters knew that the site-checks
> would stay with their site for years, on the first page of google,
> they wouldn't have requested them in the first place. thelist should
> be a help to webauthors, not a poisoned gift!

granted, but then we simply update that in thelist guidelines and 
sign-up page... we've got a savvy group of users, hopefully they will 
read that and consider the impact...

> Please consider setting-up a way of adding the nocache tags, or
> deleting archived posts, or adding spaces between the letters of URLs
> in the title, or at least officially warn thelist users of this
> issue...

i'd rather see a warning on sign-up... munging list posts always 
bothers me, and creating 'tags' to programmatically handle it is a 
lot of work for our all-volunteer team to do...

now to search on more interesting combinations of my domain...

-- 
my latest book project:
  Web Graphics for Non-Designers
  http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1904151159/evoltorg02-20
  ISBN: 1904151159






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