RRN Online Volume 454

February 12 '05

Volume 454

We’re Number One On Some Search Engines

Joe Millham was a guest in our home during the summer of 2003. He was here to fulfill a part of the Habitat Fellows program requirements of Sterling College, Sterling, KS by working as a volunteer in the office of Pontotoc’s Habitat for Humanity affiliate. Barbara and I enjoyed getting to know Joe and have maintained contact with him. We had the opportunity to see him at the Middle States Conference for Habitat for Humanity International in Hot Springs, AR, a few months ago and were excited by the possibility of his being selected a Rhodes Scholar. The fact that Joe was not selected as a Rhodes Scholar did not diminish our respect and admiration for his intellect or his abilities.

About four weeks ago, I received an email from Joe. He stated he had been helping Habitat for Humanity in Laredo, TX to get their website up and running, and he asked how one might improve a webpage’s ranking in the world of "search engines." He said he remembered a conversation he and I had on the subject when he visited with us.

A "search engine" is a tool for Internet users who want to locate information on a particular subject. A search engine is analogous to a librarian, a very smart librarian who not only knows something about every book in the library but can also provide a reference for every use of a given title or phrase, say for instance "ridge rider." Of course, no librarian can do that, but if it’s on the Internet, chances are a search engine can locate almost every instance of a given title or phrase.

Shortly after making this newsletter available on the Internet, I became interested in search engines. Naturally, I was curious as to how long it would take before a search for the phrase, Ridge Rider News, actually turned up my new website. Initially, I didn’t submit my site to the major search engines, because I wasn’t sure I wanted it to be found. Nonetheless, it wasn’t too long until the search engine I was using at that time found my site. Ridge Rider News appeared pretty far down the list, but over the years its ranking has improved.

I’m not trying to sell something on my website, so page ranking is not all that important to me except when I tell someone if they forget my website’s address, they can search for it using Google, Yahoo, or other search engines. And, it would also be nice to say that Ridge Rider News appears in the top ten, as most search engines display the ten most relevant sites on the first page of answers.

I’ve been using Google as my principle search engine for the past few years, and I seldom check my website ranking on other search engines, but when Joe Millham asked about improving a website’s ranking, I became curious about RRN’s rating on other search engines. I chose to search for "Ridge Rider" (emphasized here with quotation marks, but without the quotes on the actual search). What I discovered surprised me.

On January 16, Google, had my website ranked 22^nd among the 460,000 other instances of Ridge Rider. (This includes instances of "ridge" and "rider" independently appearing with or without the other.) A few months ago I had enjoyed a #3 ranking. However, AskJeeves rated RRN at #2, and the likes of Yahoo, MSN, Hotbot, AltaVista, and Alltheweb ranked Ridge Rider News Online as #1. All in all, that’s not bad for an unadvertised, non-profit website.

For the purpose of providing updated information for this newsletter, I revisited the above search engines on February 9, 2005, and discovered a couple of changes. MSN’s rating had dropped RRN’s ranking to eleventh place, but Google’s rating for RRN improved to twelfth.

After responding to Joe Millham’s inquiry, I did some research on his question regarding how to improve a site’s ranking, and I may be more confused than before. It seems that keywords imbedded into the HTML code, that makes a web page look like a web page, don’t influence all search engines the same way and may have no value if the keywords don’t appear on that particular page. On my main webpage, I use the following keywords: Pontotoc, Ridge, Ridge Rider, Ridge Rider News, and Wayne Carter. Fortunately, each of these can be found on my main webpage as well as within the HTML code. As best I can determine, the closer the words that one is searching for are to the beginning of a webpage, the better the odds for that page being in the top ten search results.

After further experimentation with Google’s ability to find my website, I chose to search for "ridge rider news." This combination turned up approximately 224,000 possibilities and ranked RRN as number two. I also tried "ridge rider wayne" and received a number one ranking from a list of 133,000 possibilities.

Commercial websites actually hire persons or firms to help them improve their search engine ranking, but that’s not an affordable option for Ridge Rider News. Instead, RRN and staff will enjoy (savor the moment, if you please) our number one ranking with several search engines and promise not to be overly concerned if we slip down a notch or two, tomorrow.

Back Better After Six Weeks

Readers may recall that I complained of lower back pain in the first issue of 2005. I can’t be certain that the pain was brought about by my being tense during my skin cancer surgery on December 7^th, but I’ve concluded the surgery was the primary contributor to my back pain. I’ve also concluded that I don’t have a pinched nerve or anything wrong with my backbone. I remain convinced my pain was due to a contracted muscle in my hip.

Exactly six weeks passed after the onset of my back pain until I experienced a pain free day. I’m happy to report that the pain diminished gradually after about a month and then completely vanished a couple of weeks later. Hopefully, as spring approaches and I become more active and am able to spend more and more time working in the yard, I’ll see improved muscle tone and thus lessen the likelihood of a severely contracted muscle until at least the sedentary days of next winter.

Celebration Planned Summer Fish Fry Party

If the LORD permits, the last Saturday of May 2005, will mark the completion of the ninth year of this newsletter. It has become traditional to celebrate each anniversary of RRN with a backyard party. In the early years of RRN, we fed our guests hamburgers and barbecue, but as the readership has grown, Southern fried catfish and hushpuppies has proven an economical alternative that has been well received.

In keeping with established tradition, the editor and staff of RRN are pleased to announce that Lee Gordon and Jim Hess have accepted the cooking responsibilities for the fish fry this summer. Of course, they will require the assistance of several other volunteers on the day of the fish fry, volunteers that we will be rounding up a week or so prior to the fish fry.

No backyard party held in the heat of summer is complete without homemade ice cream and plenty of cake. Wayne prefers vanilla ice cream and caramel cake but noting that sweet tooths vary almost as much as the readership of this newsletter, he declares it fully permissible to make substitutions. After all, he’ll try to sample some of everything.

We have set the date of the fish fry for Saturday, July 23^rd, 2005. So, mark your calendars, because it’ll be here before you know it.

At this time, we are not prepared to announce anything with regard to entertainment, except to say we expect to provide entertainment at the fish fry. Readers can expect updates as the date of the celebration draws nearer.

Bodock Beau Guys' Rules

As a guy, I can identify with the following "rules." However, I’d rather not reveal which ones are truly number one in my world, but I assure you I do have my favorites.

Finally, the guys' side of the story. We always hear "the rules" from the female side. Now here are the rules from the male side. These are our rules!

Please note these are all numbered "1" ONE

1. Learn to work the toilet seat. You're a big girl. If it's up, put it down. We need it up, you need it down. You don't hear us complaining about you leaving it down.

1. Sunday = Sports. It's like the full moon or the changing of the tides. Let it be.

1. Shopping is NOT a sport. And no, we are never going to think of it that way.

1. Crying is blackmail.

1. Ask for what you want. Let us be clear on this one: Subtle hints do not work! Strong hints do not work! Obvious hints do not work! Just say it!

1. Yes and No are perfectly acceptable answers to almost every question.

1. Come to us with a problem only if you want help solving it. That's what we do. Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for.

1. A headache that lasts for 17 months is a problem. See a doctor.

1. Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in an argument. In fact, all comments become null and void after 7 days.

1. If you won't dress like the Victoria's Secret girls, don't expect us to act like soap opera guys.

1. If you think you're fat, you probably are. Don't ask us.

1. If something we said can be interpreted two ways, and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the other one.

1. You can either ask us to do something or tell us how you want it done. Not both. If you already know best how to do it, do it yourself.

1. Whenever possible, please say whatever you have to say during commercials.

1. Christopher Columbus did not need directions and neither do we.

1. ALL men see in only 16 colors, like Windows default settings. Peach, for example, is a fruit, not a color. Pumpkin is also a fruit. We have no idea what mauve is.

1. If it itches, it will be scratched. We do that.

1. If we ask what is wrong and you say "nothing," we will act like nothing's wrong. We know you are lying, but it is just not worth the hassle.

1. If you ask a question you don't want us to answer, expect an answer you don't want to hear.

1. When we have to go somewhere, absolutely anything you wear is fine... Really.

1. Don't ask us what we're thinking about unless you are prepared to discuss such topics as baseball, the shotgun formation, or monster trucks.

1. You have enough clothes.

1. You have too many shoes.

1. I am in shape. Round is a shape. So is skinny.

Thank you for reading this: Yes, I know, I have to sleep on the couch tonight, but did you know men really don't mind that, it's like camping.

Anonymous by request.

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