When Researching Your
Family History Don’t Overlook the Minor
Search Engines.
The reason some family tree websites,
particularly those created by amateur web
designers are not found, is because they are
not optimized for search engine indexing and
ranking.
The reason
some family tree websites, particularly those
created by amateur web designers are not
found, is because they are not optimized for
search engine indexing and ranking. Some
larger engines will not index websites that
do not have Meta tags or proper title and
headings. If they are indexed, such sites
will suffer through very poor ranking in the
search results. They may even be impossible
to find.
Almost 80% of family tree websites submitted
to Genealogy Search Australia do not have
Meta tags or proper title and headings. They
also often do not have inbound links from
other genealogy web sites. These links can
improve the ranking in the search results.
This is very disappointing as the owners of
such sites will not get the visitors that
they should. Search engines also use these
links to find the web site for indexing.
The smaller genealogy search engines usually
use a human editor to include the web sites
in their index. This allows the editor to add
Meta tags to the listing to improve the sites
ranking and “findability”. Obviously the
smaller engines have less sites indexed which
means that you will have fewer pages of
search results to scan while looking for
sites with clues to your family history. This
can actually be an advantage compared to the
million page results you may get from the
major search engines.
The search words and phrases you use when
searching can also help identify sites of
interest for you. But remember, the search
engine will only identify web sites that
include your search words in the meta tags,
title, headings and possibly page content. So
by using detailed search phrases you run the
risk of not finding the web sites that have
been poorly designed.
If you are searching by surname, do not be
disappointed if your search results do not
show that name in the title or description.
By showing that web site in the search
results, the search engine is indicating that
the name appears somewhere and you should
open the page and examine the content
closely. Your name could be amongst those
being researched by the website owner.
Is it time consuming? It certainly is, as all
genealogists and family history researchers
will attest. But you could be rewarded by
finding the information you need on one of
the many obscure, poorly optimized family
history websites that are “on the web” but
not easily found.
Hopefully this article may encourage amateur
web site owners to optimize their web sites
so that they can be found, thus assisting
themselves and others in their family history
research.
Jim Hammond is a Family History Researcher
who has created the free Genealogy Search
Australia search engine and directory to
assist new and experienced genealogists and
family historians. Please visit www.hammondfamily.id.au
for an example of an optimized family tree
website.