Boosting membership.

First topic message reminder :

Hi guys as we struggle around the 40 mark for members is it about time to go on a membership drive to open up the Forum to new members?
I have just Tweeted details of our new Forum to my followers, why not do the same with yours or can you use any other means to wake up the Italian Loving Community to the Best Italy Forum yet (Probably)

ghiro wrote:

Geotherm wrote:Have done the same as you Steve. Checked the Google page rank checker and there is no ranking ( this is for italy.forumotion.com). If you put in "The Italy Forum" on a normal search there is nothing shown.

As of today, if you Google 'Italy Forum', we are there..............on page 4

Still that's a whole heap better than not appearing at all!  What do we need to do to advance to page 1?

(Ah quotes work now...well done)

I suspect we need to keep posting good relevant information. Don't know how they do it (what algorithms), but it seems sites with a lot of activity of varying interest get high ranking...

Well, as it happens... A few days ago I got an email from someone who shall remain anonymous, but those in the know will know he was probably once known as somat like "Billy the Fish".

Here's what he said on this very subject a few days ago.


"I see you've been having a bit of discussion how to improve your forum's SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) rank - how to fix so that if someone googles, say, Italy + forum, your site will come on the first page of google results. As I understand it here's how it works:

Think of the internet as a real net, like a fishing net, made up of nodes (where cords cross and join) and the cords joining them.

In the internet equivalent, the nodes are websites, and they're joined to each other by links.

Google's job is to rank the nodes, approximately, according to the likelihood that that's the site the person doing the search wants, or that that site has the information the person doing the search wants. So the most likely should come first in the list of results, then the second most likely, etc.

Exactly how google ranks the results varies over time (they may change, for example, to foil search engine optimiser fixers), but there are some basic principles that stay.

There should be a good number of mentions of the key words the user will be looking for on the opening page. (The old Italy mag front page at one time had 42 instances of "Italy" and "Italian" - I counted them - I don't know how many of "property" "holiday" etc.) But you mustn't overdo it or search engine bots (= robots) and spiders start discounting them. The key words should be concentrated above all in the title, then in sub-titles, like the name of the magazine and chapters, or the name of the forum and sections.

(With a forum, you can rely on the members to provide plenty of mentions of the keywords, although there can be snags. For example a webmaster with an English-language forum about Italy, aimed at an anglo-saxon readership, might ask members to use the English names for Italian places (Rome, Milan, etc) because those are the words the person searching will probably use, but forum members might ignore him and keep on writing Roma, Milano, etc.

The search engine bots and spiders will privilege sites with new content, as opposed to sites that haven't changed for years, which is another advantage of having a forum. The same goes for all user-generated content sites, of course - yahoo! comments, tripadvisor, youtube, amazon reviews ... Users are constantly injecting new content. And what's more you don't need to write it yourself, or pay for it to be written.

They'll also privilege sites that have lots of links to other sites, especially to highly active sites. So a webmaster might even say Grazie to some member who posted a list of links to other forums, like here (the grazies have disappeared), or want to get a justgiving site for donations for an earthquake under the aegis of his magazine rather than the person who set it up, so that the link will stay there even when the donations have tailed off. The appeal site still gets a lot of hits (from searches for Abruzzo + earthquake, for example), so it's worth keeping. (I've seen doubts expressed about the ethics of linking to an old donations site for SEO purposes, but I can't find the discussion again now. This looks relevant.) And of course there's a lot of mileage in linking your site to an old, dead forum, which still gets plenty of hits. Like this.

Or like THIS ! Just noticed it. The silly bastards.

The details of the system (how the calculations work, what weight is given to what link, etc - the google algorithms) are beyond me, but I'm fairly sure that what I've written is broadly right."

I've always thought he was a bit of a clever sod and therefore, I often can not make sense of his drivel - this latest missive is no different, so I'll leave it for those far more clever than I to ponder over and glean any relevant information. 
I've left the links in the quote for those who fancy a chuckle. 

Can't sat that I understand the technicalities but the logic makes sense.

Ps. thanks for the early morning giggle, I LOL'd.

Gala Placidia wrote:And now we are 59! A warm welcome, Idraulico 

The Original Relaxed wrote:Oh good - always handy to have a plumber on board 

Thanks for the welcome.

Gala Placidia wrote:And he will answer in plain English. Our local "idraulico" has a very thick Tuscan accent and always talks with a cigar in his mouth... we have to guess what he is saying...

Plain English with a Northern twang:D

You're very welcome Idraulico.

I always find a man with a Northern twang, who knows what to do with his plunger, irresistible!

Welcome Idraulico.
What area are you in, as sure many on here may be interested in your services.

In an attempt to increase our rating I google 'Italy Forum' 2-3 times a day and click on our link.  I don't know whether it helps but it may be worthwhile other members also doing it.

Incidentally we have now advanced from page 4 to page 3 on Google

Good idea! I will also try...

Still growing... we are 64 now! Welcome masterphoto! And please tell us about your travels.

Ghiro is right. it is a great idea. it will help. thanks for thinking of it

Beware, from what I have read Google track attempts to manipulate rankings and actually reduce them...

We keep on growing! A very warm welcome to Hilary and Casa del Campanile. Great to see you here 

Benvenuti tute due Hilary e Casa.

We are 69 now! Welcome BLC and tiziana! 

Gone up to 70! Welcome charlitaly! 

Welcome indeed charlitaly.  Hours of fun, and very useful information, to be had here

And now we are 71!!! Welcome mammamia!!!

Hello and welcome mammamia.  

Are you Swedish by any chance? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unfzfe8f9NI

No, but I wish I could sing like that! No just mother to five, grandma to six!

I'll tell you one thing - if we don't all get outta this thread and start posting in other ones, we may as well not bother.

It's sad to see the longest thread on this forum is the one trying to 'boost membership'.

Build it - and they will come. 

Miss Demeanor wrote:I'll tell you one thing - if we don't all get outta this thread and start posting in other ones, we may as well not bother.It's sad to see the longest thread on this forum is the one trying to 'boost membership'.Build it - and they will come. 

 I think that some of the problem may lie in the fact that the weather is nice and people are out and about more or on vacation.  I know that I spend a lot more time on the forum during the winter months.

Miss Demeanor wrote:I'll tell you one thing - if we don't all get outta this thread and start posting in other ones, we may as well not bother.It's sad to see the longest thread on this forum is the one trying to 'boost membership'.Build it - and they will come. 

 I agree with the old witch...   To some extent I also agree with Lax that forums are dead, but people like us "oldies" like to hang on as things like FassBook don't agree (apart from their appalling security record). To me forums like this are great for information, but that information would be far better presented (as someone, somewhere said) as a form of wiki where everyone could put together something on a subject like say residency and an admin maintain it when things change... Don't know if it would be possible for Penny to have a closed sticky on certain subjects that could only be changed by her,even after agreement/argument on the forum. That way people coming to look at the forum would find a host of fixed up to date subjects without having to trawl through 100s/1000s of posts... It would also make this forum very different from many, many others...    

The old witch is often right and sometimes she even agrees with others Steve - for example, you mention a Wiki style presentation...

Believe me, this idea has been hashed about for years and it always boils down to the same problems..

Who would check content to ensure 100% accuracy on a DAILY basis and more importantly - who would take responsibility for the content?

From another witch... I have to agree with the old witch... although I think that I am the oldest 

Miss Demeanor wrote:The old witch is often right and sometimes she even agrees with others Steve - for example, you mention a Wiki style presentation...Believe me, this idea has been hashed about for years and it always boils down to the same problems..Who would check content to ensure 100% accuracy on a DAILY basis and more importantly - who would take responsibility for the content?

 ... we would check the content and as always the reader take responsibility for what THEY read... Wiki is often quoted as gospel, it's not. It does not have to be on a daily basis and maintenance of it depends on how much can be done or hived off to others. It's only a suggestion to make this forum just a little different from the others as people seem to think the numbers of people here is important.... ???