[Jaspersharpe]

Completely correct. Search engine optimisation innit.

[SA Chris]

I'm sure someone with some basic web skills could whip you up something for the web page in a jiffy. Sadly that person isn't me. I haven't got a clue where to start

[psychomansam]

Pete really is a lost cause. Someone help him please! He manages to spend a whole post plugging thesend and doesn't even give the link to his own fecking guidebook! Christ.

http://thesend.co.uk/apps/northwaleslimestone.php

[petejh]

I'm rubbish.

Ok can someone contact me if they can sort out a good-looking webpage for me, willing to pay the going rate plus a free guidebook. Needs to be quick.

[SteG]

Pete, thanks for the plug, much appreciated.
I have just registered (on behalf of the bolt fund):
northwaleslimestone.com
northwaleslimestone.co.uk
northwaleslimestone.info

I'll set up a website for you tomorrow - can you email me 2-3 nice photos a couple of sample pages and some intro text for the either the guide or a chapter. We can add more later.

domain names that match content are high SEO markers, you can't get much closer than that  just let me know which one you want as the primary (.info I'm guessing) and I'll point the rest to the one you choose.

[petejh]

Legend.

Lets go for northwaleslimestone.com

[James Malloch]

Looks like the wheels are well in motion!

I say try to get it out by September as I have a month free and want to head over to Wales ;-)

[Jaspersharpe]

Pete really is a lost cause. Someone help him please! He manages to spend a whole post plugging thesend and doesn't even give the link to his own fecking guidebook! Christ.

http://thesend.co.uk/apps/northwaleslimestone.php

And neglects to mention that there's already a taster app for Android and iPhone (which actually puts his guide ahead of the game).

FFS Pete!

[SA Chris]

Legend.

Lets go for northwaleslimestone.com

Anything us masses can do to get this coming up high in the search engines?

[tomtom]

Anything us masses can do to get this coming up high in the search engines?

Make sure you link it from all the pRon sites you frequent?

[SteG]

Anything us masses can do to get this coming up high in the search engines?

Yes, once the site is up and running, search for it using north wales limestone climbing related keywords and follow the results that lead to the site, then stay on the site for a while browsing the pages, this makes it look like you've found the site you wanted and it was 'relevant' to your search term. Also as mentioned above get inbound links from established sites with keywords in the link. If the site you're linking from also contains content related to the site linked to, it will rank as a decent inbound link.

[tomtom]

Anything us masses can do to get this coming up high in the search engines?

Yes, once the site is up and running, search for it using north wales limestone climbing related keywords and follow the results that lead to the site, then stay on the site for a while browsing the pages, this makes it look like you've found the site you wanted and it was 'relevant' to your search term. Also as mentioned above get inbound links from established sites with keywords in the link. If the site you're linking from also contains content related to the site linked to, it will rank as a decent inbound link.

Lots of links from here would work well then!

Get the FB page up too Pete.. I don't like FB, but it seems to be the way things have gone.. its eroded quite a bit of traffic from this place over the last couple of years...

[Nick S]

Anything us masses can do to get this coming up high in the search engines?

When the site goes live, give it a plug on your blog if you have one. It certainly used to be important that you write original content about it (ie. not just a copy paste job and not just a bare link) and use 'north wales limestone' somewhere in the title of the link text. I have been out of the industry for ~4 years now so i don't know what weight the ranking algorithm gives to links from facebook and twitter but I'm sure it can't hurt.

These days though, search algorithms are quite hard to fool especially long term, and you can get blacklisted for the more obvious tricks, and any sort of inbound link clicking campaign is going to flag sooner or later. Long term the site needs to have some sort of continually generated content on it that will keep people coming back and organically linking to. A routes wiki perhaps? Videos, blogs, etc. ie. the reason Rockfax keeps coming up top of search listings is because the route databases attract inbound links like flies around shit.

Just downloaded the trial version of the app, by the way, it looks great! Currently #1 for 'north wales limestone app'

[Jaspersharpe]

its eroded quite a bit of traffic from this place over the last couple of years...

Don't mention the lime call disaster.

[slackline]

A routes wiki perhaps?

Already exists...North Wales Limestone Wiki

[ksjs]

I just hate them - just had a look at the Yellow Page sample Chris mentions above. This is like one of the easiest, most obvious and best known (non-LPT) walls around yet:

- Cornhollio gets a trad grade despite being a sport route (it's even 7b on their own website!)
- there is no mention of wires (useful on both Pirates and String of Pearls for example)
- the description for String of Pearls utterly fails to capture any of the essence of what is the classic of that wall; from what they say you'd think it was a wall climb and while it sort of is, its nature is more that of a slab with a steeper finish.

This is one small section, a section they choose to release as a sample yet there is so much wrong with it. This says everything you need to know about the level of effort Rockfax make, virtually none.

Genuinely, what about the boycott thing: get V12, Joe Brown, Cotswold not to list the Rockfax book? Ask Cordee (distributors) what their view on the situation is, make sure Richard knows what the score is. Get people like Rab Carrington, Dave Turnbull involved. When people are out and about with the great and the good make them aware - who knows maybe Steve McClure might write about it.

Pete has done such a huge amount of work, I'm wetting my pants about the new guide (it looks so good), it would be such a shame if Rockfax piggy-backed this in their lazy and totally lacking in art / passion / soul way.

[Nick S]

Already exists...North Wales Limestone Wiki

So there is. It's probably obvious but whacking it all together on the same site and keeping it up to date and easy to navigate would be the thing to do from a search engine optimisation perspective - ie. the wiki doesn't seem to have been updated for years and in search listings terms is precisely nowhere.

[ianv]

Genuinely, what about the boycott thing: get V12, Joe Brown, Cotswold not to list the Rockfax book? Ask Cordee (distributors) what their view on the situation is, make sure Richard knows what the score is. Get people like Rab Carrington, Dave Turnbull involved. When people are out and about with the great and the good make them aware - who knows maybe Steve McClure might write about it.

 

But, I suspect Pete has a lot on his plate at the moment and I suggest that anyone who has the ear of anyone potentially useful, get on to them and do a bit of lobbying. There must be loads of people with connections on here that could be put to use.

Another thing to think about would be a twitter campaign. I dont know how twitter works but when my BMX club had their loan bikes nicked, they managed to raise about £10k in a week through a twitter campaign. It must have some benefit in all this.

[SA Chris]

Who owns the wiki? Surely having that embedded for starters would be a good thing.

[slackline]

Who owns the wiki? Surely having that embedded for starters would be a good thing.

We all do, although four people, including Doylo, registered on the 16th May 2007 (the earliest registrations, so one of them probably started it).

Migrating the content to a fresh wiki hosted on the new domain would be no small task and as noted there are likely a lot of updates required in light of all the work.  The data is probably in an electronic format for the guide/TheSend application anyway and would serve as a better basis for the wiki (although obviously there has to be some value retained in the guide/application over having it all available online in a Wiki).

[SA Chris]

OK I understand (I think).

[Jaspersharpe]

I just had a quick look at the UKC thread. Interesting that Alan seems to be swimming against the tide on his own forum and for once he can't get out of it by deleting/banning people as he set a precedent near the start of the discussion.

 

Oh and good old Chris Craggs is at it again!

Good will, that is an interesting concept. The UKB thread is full of bitter vitriol, unpleasant comments and a general air of malice?


Chris

You have to laugh.  Can we have a new t-shirt "UKB: Bitter vitriol, unpleasant comments and a general air of malice".

[andy_e]

Classic. Keep'em coming Chris!

[shark]

Good will, that is an interesting concept. The UKB thread is full of bitter vitriol, unpleasant comments and a general air of malice?


Chris

You have to laugh.  Can we have a new t-shirt "UKB: Bitter vitriol, unpleasant comments and a general air of malice".

Awesome

What do we want? Bitter vitriol, unpleasant comments and a general air of malice
When do we want it? NOW

[SA Chris]

There's 3 excellent names for new NW limestone routes or probs.

Bitter Vitriol

Unpleasant Comments

General Air of Mailice