Thanks Linda.
The issue with Rootsweb affiliation offering higher search engine placement
is that Rootsweb is not only a huge network of interconnected sites
(including acting host of USGenWeb), it also falls under the umbrella of
ancestry.com. All of the interconnected linking (among other things) acts as
food for the search engine algorithms.
At any rate, I just realized that as a USGenWeb affiliate site, my Walton
County site qualifies for free space on Rootsweb too! You all probably knew
this already but I was thinking that because Bettie already had a Walton
County site on rootsweb then I was out of luck. Anyway, her site is not
officially listed as a USGenWeb affiliate so there should be space for me. I
contacted Rootsweb to see what they can do.
Thanks again,
Holly
On Wed, Jul 6, 2011 at 4:57 PM, Linda Blum-Barton <lblumb(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Holly,
I will get in touch with Bettie and ask her to remove the one line that has
GAGenWeb in it. She has the right to continue to maintain a site on
RootsWeb for any county in any state. There are lots of sites out there on
RootsWeb that are not a part of The USGenWeb Project. Some are stand
alone,
some are a part of AHGP, ALHN or other projects that have been started for
various reasons.
She removed the project logos from the sites when she resigned from the
project so I am sure that one reference was an accidental oversight on her
part. That is what is required by RootsWeb and The USGenWeb Project and
the state projects. From the beginning of The USGenWeb Project, the policy
was that you are free to host a county site on any server. The webspace
for counties on RootsWeb is and has always been the "property" of the
account holder, no matter whether it was still affiliated with any certain
project or not.
I don't know why the site on RootsWeb rates higher in the Google searches
than the server yours is on but I know that when I Google for a
county/state
with any keywords that would bring up a genealogy site, I visit any that
are
brought to my attention by the search engine and look for any information I
can find that is helpful to me.
Most of the Walton County Researchers that have been around awhile know
Bettie and would know she is no longer with the project. She left all
donations by others and any she had made to GAGenWeb when she resigned and
that was the basis of a site you had to work with when you began.
Linda B.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Holly Blomberg" <holly.blomberg(a)gmail.com>
To: <gagen(a)rootsweb.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2011 3:02 PM
Subject: [GAGEN] Rootsweb
> Hi all,
>
> I have been having a bit of a headache with something and hope that the
> group may offer suggestions. The former Walton County coordinator, Bettie
> Wood, still "maintains" the Walton County site at Rootsweb. Not only will
> she not pass control of that site on to me, in the banner of her Rootsweb
> site she states "this GAGenWeb site..." Because it is a site affiliated
> with
> Rootsweb it receives the benefit of better search engine placement. What
> it
> comes down to is this--despite my attempts to optimize my Walton County
> site, her Rootsweb site appears higher in the search engine results and
it
> probably appears to some that her site is the actual GAGenWeb affiliate.
>
> After discussing this with Vivian I tried to contact Rootsweb to see if
> they
> could do anything. Their response was that someone from USGenWeb would
> have
> to contact them and then they would try to sort out the problem. Seems
odd
> to me but I've not been doing this as long as a lot of you.
>
> Your thoughts are greatly appreciated!
>
> Holly Blomberg
> Walton County Coordinator, GAGenWeb
>
http://www.thegagenweb.com/gawalton
>
> --
> 'Deus, dona mihi serenitatem
> accipere res quae non possum mutare,
> fortitudinem mutare res quae possum,
> atque sapientiam differentiam cognoscere.'
> -Reinhold Niebuhr (July 1, 1943)
>
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--
'Deus, dona mihi serenitatem
accipere res quae non possum mutare,
fortitudinem mutare res quae possum,
atque sapientiam differentiam cognoscere.'
-Reinhold Niebuhr (July 1, 1943)