Monday, October 22, 2007

What Am I Missing? .....

Here's a question for Eric, Justin and others who are more-than-just-a-little involved in web design ..... "As I seek to learn more about the candidates in next month's mayoral election, what am I doing wrong when I search for their campaign websites?"

They both have websites .....
Here is Wes Perry's and here is Stephanie Sparkman's.

But I get different results when I try 'googling' them ..... one gives me a strong guzzle, while the other manages barely a gurgle.

When I type in the words 'Wes' 'Perry' and 'Mayor' into Google, then click on 'Search,' his campaign website is #1 on that list, at the top of the first page that comes up. When I type in the words 'Wes' and 'Perry' into Google, then click on 'Search,' his campaign website is #2 on that longer list, near the top of the first page that comes up.

When I type in the words 'Stephanie' 'Sparkman' and 'Mayor' into Google, then click on 'Search,' her campaign website is #I-Don't-Know on that list, not showing up in the first fifty results, on the first five pages that come up. When I type in the words 'Stephanie' and 'Sparkman' into Google, then click on 'Search,' her campaign website is #I-Don't-Know on that longer list, not showing up in the first fifty results, on the first five pages that come up.

So, what's going on here? ..... I get to ask this, in return, because Eric's over at his e-place, asking questions about MY profession.

4 comments:

That Janie Girl said...

I did the same google search as you described it and they both came up number one.

Jeff said...

Janie, just tried it again - a day after this post, and five days after another post that first led to my observation - and you're absolutely right ..... it IS there, and at #1. I think some adjustments have been made, some steps taken to increase the site's profile for search engines ..... I doubt I was the only one having the initial problem.

Anonymous said...

Sorry about the delay in responding.

There are many things that could cause the good results for Perry and non-existent results for Sparkman.

Perhaps Google had not yet indexed Sparkman's site. Perhaps there had not yet been many other sites that linked to Sparkman's yet. Or perhaps it was just a hiccup in Google's system.

Good example of why it is impossible for anyone to "guarantee" results in the search engines. Only the search engines have complete control over what they do. You can try your best to play by the rules they provide, and you will normally see good results. But unless you work at Google you can't guarantee anything.

Jeff said...

Justin, great input ..... thanks for sharing!