Ideas for making the site easier to use

[StrongCoffee]

[edit]Snipped lots of text copied from elsewhere on the site.[/edit]

A simple list of books known to be non-fradulent would be nice.  And the same for music.  Would really be nice if these were separate lists, so easily identifyable to anyone checking this site.  These lists could be separate from the forum chat, discussion and debate, and placed on a list.  I think it would help considerably especially the non-Indian checking the site.  Finding links to frauds on the recommended column is just plain frustrating.    And why the links to Witchcraft and Paganism, when this is concerned with INDIAN materials?  Good luck my friends, but focus would help sucess of this site, as well as best help the Indians themselves.  

[Barnaby_McEwan]

A simple list of books known to be non-fradulent would be nice.

We've made a start.

Finding links to frauds on the recommended column is just plain frustrating.

Which do you mean exactly? We appreciate being told about this kind of thing either on the forum or through a private message to an admin.

And why the links to Witchcraft and Paganism, when this is concerned with INDIAN materials?

I think it's concerned with fantasy materials, to put it mildly, beign sold as Indian. One of the main markets for this kind of stuff is among neo-pagans, many of whom think "Native American spirituality" is theirs to consume. Native elders tend to say that these people should look to their own indigenous traditions, as far as is possible. And neo-pagans also have their problems with fakery and abuse of power. I think you'll see stuff about neo-paganism cropping up here for both those reasons.

Good luck my friends, but focus would help sucess of this site, as well as best help the Indians themselves.

Oh dear.

[Le_Weaponnier]

I would like to see the site easier to find.
By that, doing  search for on Google or Yahoo etc, for New age topics (and you know, New Agers will search for them) will not lead to anything but "feel good" sites. For example a search on "shamanism" on Google went on for pages and pages, and I gave up looking (as most people do) after the first 5 or so pages. This site didn't appear. My point being that if no one can find this site when they search for information, a lot of people are missing out on the truth.

A central searchable list of frauds migh be a nice help, so that others can readily find out about them.

Also, a central list of what constitutes signs of a fraud.

[educatedindian]

I'm not sure if it's worthwhile to do a lot of work reorganizing, just because some people don't bother to notice the Search button up near the top.

Strongcoffee also sent me a long email going into even more detail about how to improve the site. I'd like to make the offer to anyone with these suggestions:

How about you (or for that matter, anyone else) help with them?

For the list of frauds, all that would mean is going through the Fraud section and Archives, and picking out names and books that we came to the conclusion were fraudulent or exploiting.

We could make several simple sticky topics, List of Exploiters and Frauds, also List of Books to Avoid.

As far as increasing the number of hits on this site and moving it up the list on searches, I'd be gald for any help on how to do this.

[Moma_porcupine]

One thing I have noticed and wondered about is that when a google search is done on one of the names or phrases posted in this forum , google will not bring it up . I am told some websites are shieded from a google search , so I am guessing this is what is going on .

I have been assuming that this is, how it is , for a reason . I was thinking maybe this website already gets enough people angry , and it would get even more people angry if a web search on their name showed them listed in NAFPS as a fraud , or a questionable person or organization .

While I think it is important to expose frauds , and inform people of the facts , I think it is also important to do what needs to be done to keep ourselves safe and sane . If people take on too much and burn them selves out , then they will not be able to continue being of service . ? So maintaining a balance is important .

There is always room for improvement , but this site already provides a lot of information , and what it really comes down to is , there is no substitue for basic common sense .

Still , if names of people and organizations discussed in NAFPS came up on a google search , showing they were posted here , probably a lot more people , who could be helped by the information ? , would find this .

[AlaskaGrl]

As far as increasing the number of hits on this site and moving it up the list on searches, I'd be gald for any help on how to do this.

You would need a dedicated web person or company to design Metatags for the site and look at the site its self. ? Sites provide content to visitors that visit them they also must provide the correct content and the essential **key words** that search engines pick up on and use to rank your site among other sites out there. ? This site deals with: ? Shamans, Pagan, Fraud, ? Frauds, ? Ceremony, ? New Age Plastic Shaman, New Age, Indian, Indians, Native American, ? etc... ? those are words you would incorporate into a descriptive "Metatag" describing to the search engines what the site is about. ?  ? My site deals with ? Astronomy, Education, Telescopes, SW Florida, Planets, The Moon, etc...

However Metatags don't work with Google instead Google ranks a page according to the number and quality of links leading to that page. For example, if your page has 100 quality links leading to it, it will rank higher than another page that has only 20 links pointing at it. Quality links come from pages that are themselves "important" (Google's own terminology). ? For instance having those other links on your site activated with content instead of blank. ? Those links point to and are a part of your site here.

While Goolge does not offer "Pay to get Ranking" on their seach pages they do offer "Sponsored Links" (you pay for that) ? on searches you see on the sidebars of their pages. ? Search engines that offer to place a site higher up on their pages via ranking you have to open accounts with and pay by the click for people to be driven to your site. ? It usually starts at 10c a click and goes up from there and it is all based on carefully chosen *Key Words* and a good description of them and the site they point to.

Anytime you see a *Sponsored Link* on a search engines site it is paid for by the company that has that link there and when you click on it - they get charged for your click. ? If they pay 25c a click (could be more) and say 100 people click on it a day they get debited for it from their account they set up with the company they are listed with. ? If its Yahoo it might cost them 200 a month minimum to run a basic sponsored (paid for) search based on how many people click on their link. ? They pay to get the search ranking on the search engines site (Yahoo as an example).

Thought this might be of help regarding the Google PageRank topic.

""How can I improve my site's ranking?
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=34432

Sites' positions in our search results are determined automatically based on a number of factors, which are explained in more detail at http://www.google.com/technology/index.html. We don't manually assign keywords to sites, nor do we manipulate the ranking of any site in our search results.

In general, webmasters can improve the rank of their sites by increasing the number of high-quality sites that link to their pages. For more information about improving your site's visibility in the Google search results, we recommend reviewing our webmaster guidelines. They outline core concepts for maintaining a Google-friendly website.


You may also be interested in... ?
Why is my page's location in the search results lower than before?
Why does my site have a PageRank of zero?
What can I do if I'm afraid my competitor is harming my ranking in Google? """""""""""""

When I checked Newagefraud.org ? in the Yahoo Search Rankings it came up in position 23 ?  ?  ? See:

++++++++++++++
Free online SEO tool to check the position of your
website in the search engine of Yahoo™.


Keyword: fraud indian shaman URL Pattern: newagefraud.org
Position: 23
New Age Frauds & Plastic Shamans
Full url: newagefraud.org
Check Yahoo™
Keyword(s) to list the sites for: ?

Domain or URL of your website: ?

For faster results, You may limit your search to the ? Top 100 sites Top 200 sites Top 300 sites Top 400 sites Top 500 sites Top 600 sites Top 700 sites Top 800 sites Top 900 sites Top 1000 sites
++++++++++++++++

That is keying in on the words Fraud, Shaman and Indian. ? You can go here and try it out
http://www.yahoosearchrankings.com/index.php ?  ?  ?  ?  on Googlesearchrankings.com on the top of the mast head to the above site, it does not come up.

When you go to a search engine look around on the page, many times they have a place to "submit a link" ? its usually free. ? Look for it. ? I just switched my old website I had for yrs and yrs from geocities.com/astronomy_gal ?  to a simpler ? Astronomygal.com ?  ?  ?  now i'm starting all over in establishing my search rankings. ? I was pretty high up there just based on the key words used in my metatags embedded in my html code but now, I have to start all-over. ? I can't afford to pay for my rankings so I have to design my pages so they have the content search engines will pick up on - eventually.

You do not have to pay to get search rankings alone. ? The way you structure and word a site can also increase hits to that site. ? With Newagefraud.org you would need the other page links you have on the front page that people see initially to become active by having the relative content on those pages and it must be structured so that it will be picked up by the search bots out there. For instance someone needs to write something for Links, Known Frauds, Articles (perhaps some of Trisha's too) and Known Frauds. ? The text to those pages must include words high up in the text that will be picked up by search engine bots. ? The title of the pages (Links, Frauds, Articles, Known Frauds) must point to correct content on the pages.

?  People will also find you via other pages that they run across that have a link to you within their site. ? I have this site on my front page so when people visit my site, they will also see this one. ? Reciprocal links help in rankings and visibility too.


Here are other useful links:
Check your Yahoo/ Google ranking
http://www.yahoosearchrankings.com/

Submit express
http://www.submitexpress.com/optimize.html?source=google

There is no quick fix, it's not instaneous and it's usually not free. It is alot of work. ? Maybe someone here works for a web company or knows someone who works for one or is a webmaster and the site here could get fixed and then move up on the various search rankings with the proper codes and words in place. ?  

I really doubt the site here is censored on other search engines as someone else eluded too in another post. ? If you don't see it come up on a search it's because of rankings not censorship. ? Look around, the web is not known for censorship ? LOL ? when it started out it was for education then the big companies got ahold of it and now its a free-for-all content wise full of mosly people trying to rip other people off... ?

Hope I made sense Al, everyone...

Lindaa

[180IQ]

Linda has made some excellent points. I would stress that including certain key words in the content of the site and not just in the meta-tags (many search engines ignore meta-tags now) is crucial. Having direct links to the site from as many other sites as possible will also help.

I have noticed in many searches I have done with google and yahoo that various pages of this forum come up in the results. So it is definitely not being ignored or overlooked by the spiders.

Whoever is writing the content for the site should bear in mind that the correct words that newagers would be searching for need to be included in the text of each and every page on the site but particularly the index page. Instead of just using the word "native" by itself, use "native american", also as many variations as possible on shaman including shamanism, shamanist, shamanistic, and fraud, frauds, fraudulent, and pair these words up with others that are commonly paired.

Note, the best way to get other sites to link to you is to offer a reciprocal link. Also, put the site into as many webrings as possible. There are TONS of webrings and this site would fit into many of them.

One last thing, submit the site to every major search engine out there, and do the submissions manually, but only one time and ONLY after the site is more complete. The Open Directory Project DMOZ.org is a good one to start with. And don't forget the international search engines. There are hundreds of them but the best ones to submit to will be pretty easy to determine from the google results for "search engines" and look at each one first.

Search Engine Watch is also an excellent resource for do-it-yourself SEO work. There is really no need to pay a specialist, this stuff is easy to learn if you really want to do it.

I've made this offer before and I'll make it again: If someone will send me whatever content is to be posted on the site, I will turn it into web pages and upload them. I do not have the time available to write or organize the content, but will be glad to edit it for spelling, grammar and punctuation, and ensure that it has all the necessary meta-tags, navigation buttons, etc.

[AlaskaGrl]

(many search engines ignore meta-tags now)

I was not sure how wide spread this is... The company that handles our work website had told me that metatags were all gone by the way side now...  but yet in working on my site via Yahoo's web page generation program (can't remember name now LOL) they are used - for each page you enter in your key words pertaining to that page and the tags are generated.   I am glad you can do all this for the NAFPS site  and thanks for posting the links, I will check those out.

Linda
***

[Deer_Park]

>Finding links to frauds on the recommended column is just plain frustrating.<

Which do you mean exactly? We appreciate being told about this kind of thing either on the forum or through a private message to an admin.

My frustration is that the search function only gives a maximum of 15 search 'hits'.  If I can't find what I am looking for in the first 15 hits then I am out of luck.

Worse the search box at the top of the page that is marked with the magnifying glass is a bit of a fraud ;).  I put in "wisdom" as a search word and only got back 9 hits.  That can't be right!

[180IQ]

I only got 6 hits for "wisdom" including your post!

[Barnaby_McEwan]

Thanks for pointing that out: I've changed the maximum to 100. You can get more out of those 100 hits by checking the 'Display only one result per thread?' button.

I'm going to move this thread to 'Etcetera', which I should have done before now.

[gus]

Well there ya go - youre in Wikipedia, that should knock up a few hits :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NAFPS

see first external link :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamanism

:)

It will take a while for the Wikipedia article to show up in google - maybe three weeks.
Anyone can edit the page. Wikipedia is meant to beobjective so I changed some of the wording slightly. Anything that seems like personal opinion usually gets deleted so its best to try and say things objectively - as if you were writing an article about someone else.
Liek I say anyone in the world can edit it , you dont even need to log in. A mixed blessing of course.