Google

Black Bart
Recruit

Posts: 26

Google

« on: February 16, 2008, 11:33:01 PM »

Hi guys, I haven't played SC in some time (since the old website) but I've been itching to find a new group being that the one I'm in now only wants to play DnD. I decided to come by and check out the website but I noticed an issue. When I Googled Spycraft this website wasn't on the first page. I clicked on the Wiki link and remembered, "Oh yeah, Crafty Games." I got to the web site but then went back to Google to play around. Crafty Games and Crafty-Games doesn't come up with results for this website either. In fact www.Crafty-Games.com doesn't come up in the first 10 pages when I searched Crafty-Games.

I thought I'd just let you know, love the game and I want more people to find it so they can love it too.


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Crafty_Alex
Crafty Staff
Control

Posts: 3032

Damned if I do, damned if I don't.

Re: Google

« Reply #1 on: February 17, 2008, 01:11:27 PM »

Thanks for the mention, Walken. We have had a very hard time getting Google to index our site for some reason. I have a few ideas for fixing this, which we will be promoting in the near future!


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Alex Flagg
Crafty Games

Forcegypsy
Handler

Posts: 689

Re: Google

« Reply #2 on: February 17, 2008, 07:04:07 PM »

Searching for living spycraft (before it closed down) got you directly to that site. This is something that regular users don't really notice, but searching for Spycraft or Crafty casually feels like back in the days before google.

eta: OTOH, Yahoo! performs admirably in this matter. Time for Crafty to make nice with a Crafty google nerd to fix this issue. Good luck Alex.


« Last Edit: February 17, 2008, 07:09:18 PM by Forcegypsy »	Logged

TheAuldGrump
Control

Posts: 3180

Because The Cat Told Me To...

Re: Google

« Reply #3 on: February 17, 2008, 08:12:36 PM »

Getting people to link to the site is always a good start. A few good fan sites would also help,, MNSAGA is a good example to follow.

The Auld Grump


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Crafty_Alex
Crafty Staff
Control

Posts: 3032

Damned if I do, damned if I don't.

Re: Google

« Reply #4 on: February 17, 2008, 09:18:35 PM »

Quote from: TheAuldGrump on February 17, 2008, 08:12:36 PM

Getting people to link to the site is always a good start. A few good fan sites would also help,, MNSAGA is a good example to follow.

The Auld Grump

This is my plan - all of you who have a blog, website, or anthing else on the web, we'd like do a "get the link out" campaign pointing back. You don't have to put the link anywhere prominent...just somewhere on your page. And we'll do the same for you. For some reason, Google just gives us no love...


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Alex Flagg
Crafty Games

TheAuldGrump
Control

Posts: 3180

Because The Cat Told Me To...

Re: Google

« Reply #5 on: February 17, 2008, 09:35:59 PM »

Maybe you shouldn't have maxed your ability to Blend....

The Auld Grump


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dpmcalister
Agent

Posts: 215

Think on your sins

Re: Google

« Reply #6 on: February 18, 2008, 04:47:27 AM »

The link needs to be in "plain text" as well for it to work. For example, if you're using a package that hasn't been optimised for search engines then you link may end up looking something like: www.domain.com/index.php?linkid=1

While that will get the person who clicks on it to the place you want them to visit, it doesn't help their search engine ranking. So the link needs to be www.crafty-games.com

Sorry if I'm teaching anyone to suck eggs


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Psion
Control

Posts: 1518

Re: Google

« Reply #7 on: February 18, 2008, 07:46:18 AM »

Quote from: Alex on February 17, 2008, 09:18:35 PM

This is my plan - all of you who have a blog, website, or anthing else on the web,

Or more broadly, how about a signature on any forum you visit.


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meadicus
Operative

Posts: 494

Frog King makes everything better

Re: Google

« Reply #8 on: February 18, 2008, 08:45:25 AM »

There's another factor. The google indexer puts more importance on page headings and the like. That is text actually in the <h?> tags, it ignores styling.

But is there anywhere on this site where the words 'Crafty Games' or 'Spycraft' appear in a header? No. It's always an image, thus not indexed.

My immediate recommendations would be to put besice the crafty-games logo

Code:

<h1 style="display: none;">Crafty-Games</h1>

This will also help the page make sense with styling turned off and for anyone using a text-only web browser.

I don't know if this will actually help, I don't know a great deal about how the google bot works but this may help.

Also you may want to add some keywords meta information into the page

Code:

<head>

e.g.

Code:

these perhaps may in a magical world of pixies help.


« Last Edit: February 18, 2008, 09:47:18 AM by meadicus »	Logged

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Desertpuma
Control

Posts: 4156

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Re: Google

« Reply #9 on: February 18, 2008, 09:22:23 AM »

I usually go through the Wikipedia reference link under Crafty Games


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Crusader Citadel

Living Spycraft Mastermind Council Member

Crafty For Life!

Krensky
Control

Posts: 6431

WWTWD?

Re: Google

« Reply #10 on: February 18, 2008, 09:48:35 AM »

I'm sure this has been checked, but is everything kosher with Crafty's robots.txt?


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dpmcalister
Agent

Posts: 215

Think on your sins

Re: Google

« Reply #11 on: February 18, 2008, 10:41:36 AM »

Quote from: meadicus on February 18, 2008, 08:45:25 AM

My immediate recommendations would be to put besice the crafty-games logo

Code:

<h1 style="display: none;">Crafty-Games</h1>

While I agree with the use of the <h1> tag, I'd actually code it as follows:

Code:

<h1 style="position: absolute;top: -1000px;left: -1000px;">Crafty Games</h1>

It works better for all browsers (including screen readers) than "display: none;"

It might also be worthwhile including the following (or something similar):

Code:

<span style="position: absolute;top: -1000px;left: -1000px;">
Crafty Games is a roleplaying games company publishing the acclaimed Spycraft
espionage RPG. It supports both Spycraft v1 (published under the d20 System licence)
and Spycraft v2 (published under the Open Gaming Licence - OGL)</span>

Basically, that's extra text (that may well already be used in your description meta-tag) that search engines can show on their results page (there are a few search engines (such as Google) that don't use the meta-tag information (or, at least, don't place as much relevance on it as they once did).

And, yes, this is what I do for a living - that'll be £25 please Tongue

Edited to wrap code text around so I didn't break the page Wink

Follow-up edit...

Although I've said the meta-tags aren't used by all search engines, I would have them in place. There isn't any on the main website and the forum meta-tags are the default ones for the forum software.


« Last Edit: February 18, 2008, 10:49:27 AM by dpmcalister »	Logged

Crafty_Alex
Crafty Staff
Control

Posts: 3032

Damned if I do, damned if I don't.

Re: Google

« Reply #12 on: February 18, 2008, 01:23:11 PM »

Thanks guys. I'm not much of a PHP tweaker and have only now begun to understand the use of metatagging software in Drupal, our site software. I think I may have some now...maybe it's looking better?

As always, your continued help is appreciated. Let's get the word out, lads


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Alex Flagg
Crafty Games

Crafty_Alex
Crafty Staff
Control

Posts: 3032

Damned if I do, damned if I don't.

Re: Google

« Reply #13 on: February 18, 2008, 01:29:54 PM »

Quote from: dpmcalister on February 18, 2008, 10:41:36 AM

Quote from: meadicus on February 18, 2008, 08:45:25 AM

My immediate recommendations would be to put besice the crafty-games logo

Code:

<h1 style="display: none;">Crafty-Games</h1>

While I agree with the use of the <h1> tag, I'd actually code it as follows:

Code:

<h1 style="position: absolute;top: -1000px;left: -1000px;">Crafty Games</h1>

It works better for all browsers (including screen readers) than "display: none;"

It might also be worthwhile including the following (or something similar):

Code:

Edited to wrap code text around so I didn't break the page Wink

I'm aware of Google's reluctance to use anything out of the meta tag region. Where would you recommned placing this code, Dave? In the HEAD area, or elsewhere?


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"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication" - Leonardo da Vinci

Alex Flagg
Crafty Games

dpmcalister
Agent

Posts: 215

Think on your sins

Re: Google

« Reply #14 on: February 18, 2008, 02:21:53 PM »

The higher up on your page the better really, so I'd place it just after the opening body tag:

Code:

<body>
<h1 style="position: absolute;top: -1000px;left: -1000px;">Crafty Games</h1>
<span style="position: absolute;top: -1000px;left: -1000px;">
Crafty Games is a roleplaying games company publishing the acclaimed Spycraft
espionage RPG. It supports both Spycraft v1 (published under the d20 System licence)
and Spycraft v2 (published under the Open Gaming Licence - OGL)</span>


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