How to get Google to crawl the forum?

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[Kersus]

http://tripleoakleaf.myfreeforum.org/index.php


Hi, I have read through the forums about the issue, but was looking for some helpful "hold my hand" direction on this.

I've had the forum open since about the start of the year but Google still has not crawled it.  I thought it might eventually do it on it's own.

Is there a place in the administration panel to put metatags?  

I'd like the forum and the posts themselves to be crawled - is this possible?

Right now, no one can find the forum that doesn't get a link from me or other forum members - which reduces the traffic and potential membership I could have.  

How can I get the forum on the search engines?
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The Furiously Eclectic Triple Oak Leaf Forums

[Nick(NR)]

you can add more meta tags to your overall_header.tpl
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[Kersus]

Thank yopu.  I didn't know where to put it.

Would something like this be sufficient?

<META Name="Keywords" Content="hackmaster,roleplaying,pbp,play by post,history,devotions,india,israel,memoirs,world war,conspiracy,philosophy,toying with destruction,twd,abstract nova,eldritch,lejendary,gygax,diplomacy,last crusade,x-com,comics,hockey,politics">
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The Furiously Eclectic Triple Oak Leaf Forums

[admin (no pm's please)]

Google has got extensive results on your forum, just go to the forum search and use the google search bit at the top to prove this.
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[Kersus]

I see that I can use the tool to search the forums, but if I just search on Google - web, even putting in the title of the forum doesn't pull up hits to the forum itself - although there is a hit about the forum on another forum (rpgnet) which is a single indirect hit IF someone was looking for the title - not any subject matter.  I can't find any topics on the forum through Google yet.  I keep trying.

I've added the metatags mentions, filled out the control panel info, and even added the url to google (the first and last thing recently and the middle since the start).
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The Furiously Eclectic Triple Oak Leaf Forums

[admin (no pm's please)]

Being ranked is different to being crawled, you need to get people to link to your site as suggested in every article on search engines there is.
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[Kersus]

No kidding, and using the google tool to search a site or forum is highly different than being available in a general search.  

There's being helpful and then just trying to make a fire where there isn't one.  

Getting web sites ranked is easy enough, so I was was looking how to apply that for forums.  Nick was helpful and I thank him for his direction.

Now to work on getting the best exposure through the tools at my disposal.  So setting aside your off-topic posts admin (no pm's please), do you have anything helpful to add to the thread?
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The Furiously Eclectic Triple Oak Leaf Forums

[Zudane]

Well, your forum seems to be a general chat site.. which will be VERY difficult to get highly ranked.

People look for specific things, and if you want to be the top for them all - then you are trying to do the impossible.  It is a challenge enough to get highly ranked for a single topic, but a general site is a whole different ballpark.

And if you just want your site listed by name... people would have to know the name to search for it.
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[Kersus]

Thank you for your response.

[Celeste]

I don't see a title tag on your forum which may help.  For example mine is:

<title>A World Of Cats - Online Community For Cat Lovers</title>

I did go through the steps of creating a Google account and including their tag for proper verification.  I really don't know if this makes a difference or not.

Also Stat Counter which is free is a great tool to track traffic, eg: new visitors, locations, etc.  I elected to keep mine invisible.  Here is the link:  http://www.statcounter.com/

I hope this helps and good luck!  I am rather new at this myself.
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[admin (no pm's please)]

A fixed title tag is probably a bad thing.

using:

<title>{PAGE_TITLE}</title>

in overall_header.tpl is better.
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[Celeste]

Thank you Admin!  I will change it.
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[mccifa]

I wouldn't even bother with keyword metatags (unless you have your own internal site search engine from say CoffeeCup) as Google et al haven't referenced them for years.  They give no weighting to keywords now whatsoever, but concentrate on quality content.

To see which pages Google has cached simply type into the Google search box: site:abcdef.myfunforum.org

HTH

[GentleD]