New Welcome Banner proposal
From Conservapedia
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by DerekE (Talk | contribs) at 02:06, November 3, 2009. It may differ significantly from current revision.
I'd like to make a recommendation for Conservapedia's home page. I think it would be a benefit to add a banner of some sort, welcoming students, readers, editors, and the likes. While I am in no way an expert Wiki editor, I have created a rough sample for some ideas. See template below.
There are few reasons for suggesting this be added, one is for SEO purposes designed to increase search engine ranking. To be honest, that aspect would be more of a test on my part, but one that could turn out worthy of trying in my opinion. For example, ideally, one modification I'd recommend is the home page URL (Main Page) as well for all other default URLs in Conservapedia; the site could potentially see an increase in Web traffic with this URL: http://www.conservapedia.com/wiki/.../ versus the current one: http://www.conservapedia.com/Main_Page This is primarily due to key words used when searching for any specific data on a wide range of topics. Many "Googlers," per say, will also type "Wiki" at the end of their first and/or second search term - knowing that a wiki encyclopedia will likely show up on the first page of results.
The other reason for adding a banner is for welcoming purposes. Obviously it makes it more personal to any and all outsiders, and can bring more potential experts to the site who might be interested in ....a more trustworthy wiki encyclopedia.
I'd definitely like to hear your thoughts about this idea! DerekE 00:24, 29 October 2009 (EDT)
- I also thought of the portal/banner last week. I think it would be a good idea. However, there are a lot of people over 35 who visit Conservapedia so I would not recommend the banner focus on welcoming students, but should merely be a general welcome (see: http://www.quantcast.com/conservapedia.com#demographics ). I don't believe that many people put wiki as a second search term, but if you have compelling data to the contrary, I would like to see it. Lastly, a lot of people link to the main page. I am guessing if you change the URL of the main page, that the articles that are featured on the main page would have less boosting power from the main page in terms of helping search engine rankings. conservative 02:47, 29 October 2009 (EDT)
- I also think is a good idea. Like Conservative warns, I think that the possible gain from changing the URLs probably wouldn't offset the loss from messing up all existing links here. Anecdotally, I know I often type "wiki" after my Google searches with the hope of getting to a Wikipedia article -- Google's autocomplete for searches seems to often suggest this too, so I bet it's fairly common. If "Wiki" were on the front page somewhere it would probably help CP's rankings for such searches. --MarkGall 13:19, 29 October 2009 (EDT)
- According to Alexa.com's top keywords driving traffic to wikipedia from search engines, the #2 search term is "Wiki": http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/wikipedia.org
- If the link doesn't take you to the top search terms automatically, it's under the "Keywords" tab. Ordered by the global popularity of the search terms, "Wiki" is the #4 most common search term. Here's the site info on alexa.com regarding search terms bringing traffic to Conservapedia: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/conservapedia.com I do find the differences in website data between Alexa and Quantcast to be interesting, which probably adds fuel to the debate.
- I also realize the burden it may cause by changing the default link for Conservapedia to include "/wiki/" prior to each page, but it could pay off in the long run. Contrarily, I can see how it can cause a short term problem for those who've already linked to Conservapedia.com.
- Regarding demographics and the included references which would be placed on the upper right side of the top banner, those are more or less examples that I used but not necessarily the most beneficial links to place there. In support of quality links being placed there and in terms of SEO improvements, I like to think of it like this: whichever links are placed there (and the internal links within them), it may work as a type of sitemap and navigational tool for common readers or new readers to begin searching the site. The easier it is for people to find the most high quality articles in Conservapedia, the more likely those links will also be found by Google's "spiders" as they crawl the website. Hopefully that makes sense, but I can clarify if not. I've also updated the links below to reflect more variety (as another example) of different links that can be used, instead of keeping strictly to educational links.
- It seems like one area that we're all in agreement with thus far is the Welcome Banner. "Welcome to Conservapedia, a conservative, family-friendly wiki encyclopedia." This headline alone should help increase SEO, but I could be wrong. At the very least it might make for a good test - if it does work, great! If not, it can be changed back. But obviously changing the default link is a bit trickier. DerekE 18:44, 29 October 2009 (EDT)
- I also think is a good idea. Like Conservative warns, I think that the possible gain from changing the URLs probably wouldn't offset the loss from messing up all existing links here. Anecdotally, I know I often type "wiki" after my Google searches with the hope of getting to a Wikipedia article -- Google's autocomplete for searches seems to often suggest this too, so I bet it's fairly common. If "Wiki" were on the front page somewhere it would probably help CP's rankings for such searches. --MarkGall 13:19, 29 October 2009 (EDT)
- I also thought of the portal/banner last week. I think it would be a good idea. However, there are a lot of people over 35 who visit Conservapedia so I would not recommend the banner focus on welcoming students, but should merely be a general welcome (see: http://www.quantcast.com/conservapedia.com#demographics ). I don't believe that many people put wiki as a second search term, but if you have compelling data to the contrary, I would like to see it. Lastly, a lot of people link to the main page. I am guessing if you change the URL of the main page, that the articles that are featured on the main page would have less boosting power from the main page in terms of helping search engine rankings. conservative 02:47, 29 October 2009 (EDT)
- Here's another SEO test based strictly off of a quick google search for "Wikipedia," here: Google:Wikipedia; and for "Conservapedia," here: Google:Conservapedia. Notice how in Wikipedia's results many of the top pages are for Wikipedia? I believe this is due to their URL, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia The key word "Wikipedia" is used twice, with "wiki" as another important search term used as well. However, for Conservapedia many of the top search results do not point to Conservapedia, which I believe could be increased with the use of this URL: http://conservapedia.com/wiki/conservapedia ... and so on. And also, the tagline, "Conservapedia - Conservapedia, the conservative, family-friendly wiki encyclopedia" would also help increase the search results for Conservapedia.com. DerekE 18:56, 29 October 2009 (EDT)
- Here is another example of how I imagine potential changes in meta tags could be used for Conservapedia.com: Conservapedia - Wiki Encyclopedia - Mixx (but without using "Mixx," since that's simply a meta title used by Mixx.com.)
- For instance, currently if you Google for "Conservapedia," the website meta tag title for the site displays the search result "Conservapedia." It's simple and surely, it does work. However, if minor changes are made with (assuming behind the scenes data uses HTML???) Conservapedia's meta tag title, description, etc., to improve the search result to show, "Conservapedia - Wiki Encyclopedia," as well using a meta description that says, "conservapedia.com — Conservapedia is a conservative, family-friendly Wiki encyclopedia." This will certainly help increase SEO results for Conservapedia.com. The current meta description for "Conservapedia" in a google search result show this, "An encyclopaedia with articles written from a conservative viewpoint." So it's close to what I'm suggesting, but I'm optimistically confident that the small changes I hope can be made will help with SEO. This is a benefit to the entire community. As for the "New Welcome Banner," that may simply act as another method for google's crawlers to find pages within Conservapedia much easier. Because I can confidently say right now, Google's spiders are not finding new pages very quickly. This isn't necessarily a "problem," and I'm trying to be as polite and civil about this as possible, but it does hinder the potential search traffic that this site could be getting by not making these small changes. And none of these small changes require the much larger change to the default URL, which is what I was suggesting earlier. DerekE 21:03, 2 November 2009 (EST)
- One more question - is their a primary person whom I would talk with or message (and has the power to make these changes) so that I can direct them to this page and get their input? DerekE 21:06, 2 November 2009 (EST)
- Here's another SEO test based strictly off of a quick google search for "Wikipedia," here: Google:Wikipedia; and for "Conservapedia," here: Google:Conservapedia. Notice how in Wikipedia's results many of the top pages are for Wikipedia? I believe this is due to their URL, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia The key word "Wikipedia" is used twice, with "wiki" as another important search term used as well. However, for Conservapedia many of the top search results do not point to Conservapedia, which I believe could be increased with the use of this URL: http://conservapedia.com/wiki/conservapedia ... and so on. And also, the tagline, "Conservapedia - Conservapedia, the conservative, family-friendly wiki encyclopedia" would also help increase the search results for Conservapedia.com. DerekE 18:56, 29 October 2009 (EDT)
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