Wanderingson
01-27-2008, 00:41
In a recent post by Miss Janet in the "Walk in the Woods" thread, she had mentioned about people doing a Goole search about hiking the AT.
This got my brain to thinking.
Typically when most people do a seach on any search engine (google, Yahoo, etc) they start out with a simple search and expand from there. Many people also limit their searches to the first page or two of websites unless they are obsessed with seaking specific information. Many search engines list websites in priority based on the nember of people who click on a link after a key word return.
I did a very simple search on both Yahoo and google. I typed in "Appalacian Trail". I was surprised to see that Whiteblaze was listed on page two on Google and buried way back in page 11 with this simple search.
I would be interested in doing a little test to see if we could bump Whiteblaze up to the first page on both of these just by doing this simple search and clicking on the link. Let's see if we could bump it up a little bit.
I have read numerous threads about the number of people who jump out on the trail and are completely uninformaed about being prepared. The most recent post that comes to mind is the hikers who were found with no appearant map or compass. Some folks were quick to point this out. Another thread quickly appeared asking for some guidance on how to learn map and compass skills.
I would venture to say that all of us would much rather use this forum to educate the newcomer and give them resources to have a safe and happy hike.
If Whiteblaze was on the front page of these search engines, I would also venture to say that folks would be likely to join the community and seek out immediate feedback.
We all know that Whiteblaze is a really awesome forum for folks to become educated about hiking and the AT.
What do you say? How about giving it a try.
This got my brain to thinking.
Typically when most people do a seach on any search engine (google, Yahoo, etc) they start out with a simple search and expand from there. Many people also limit their searches to the first page or two of websites unless they are obsessed with seaking specific information. Many search engines list websites in priority based on the nember of people who click on a link after a key word return.
I did a very simple search on both Yahoo and google. I typed in "Appalacian Trail". I was surprised to see that Whiteblaze was listed on page two on Google and buried way back in page 11 with this simple search.
I would be interested in doing a little test to see if we could bump Whiteblaze up to the first page on both of these just by doing this simple search and clicking on the link. Let's see if we could bump it up a little bit.
I have read numerous threads about the number of people who jump out on the trail and are completely uninformaed about being prepared. The most recent post that comes to mind is the hikers who were found with no appearant map or compass. Some folks were quick to point this out. Another thread quickly appeared asking for some guidance on how to learn map and compass skills.
I would venture to say that all of us would much rather use this forum to educate the newcomer and give them resources to have a safe and happy hike.
If Whiteblaze was on the front page of these search engines, I would also venture to say that folks would be likely to join the community and seek out immediate feedback.
We all know that Whiteblaze is a really awesome forum for folks to become educated about hiking and the AT.
What do you say? How about giving it a try.