Olds64

Out of curiosity today I searched for a few different terms with Google to see if I could find a link to our website. Surprisingly, searching for "Oldsmobile" alone doesn't bring up our website in the first 10 pages of results. Likewise, searching for "Oldsmobile hot rod" doesn't bring up a link to our site in the first 3 pages of results. Luckily, our website is the first result from searching for "Oldsmobile forum" and the 4th result from searching for "classic Oldsmobile."

Is a website's hierarchy in showing up on a search engine based on advertising paid for by the website owners? Just something interesting I noted this morning.

Vintage Chief

When you say paid advertising, if you're referring to advertising contained within and on pages of the CO site - no, that is not correct. They are merely advertisers which do not increase the ranking of the CO site (or any other site) - they merely gain revenue from their advertising which in turn some of the revenue helps to provide the free service of the website (in particular website forums).
However, you can pay Google (and many other website developing organizations) to build better metadata and alt tags into the website's design features to increase the rating hierarchy of a website. Depending on which search engine you employ for searches (I know you said Google here), you will obtain varying results. In addition, it does depend on the type of device from which you are searching i.e. a hand-held mobile device or a desktop PC. In today's ever changing world of fast search engines, the need has arisen to enhance the search features for mobile devices. You may think - holy crap Batman you're kidding me - but I'm not. Websites should be as completely mobile friendly as possible and there is a large segment of knowledge available (from a developers perspective) on enhancing and optimizing searches for mobile devices. The CO site, IMO, and I've mentioned this only briefly in a couple one-off posts, is not the most enhanced and optimized mobile site. There are probably several reasons for this: (1) It takes considerable developer time to enhance a website's mobile interface (e.g. layout, alt tags, metadata, etc.); (2) that interface MUST work with the back-end of the website; and, (3) the back-end of the website must have all the available 'features' available to enhance mobile browsing and searching (indexing, EUI, etc.).

One little trick w/ Google (which Google found out some years ago when many were enhancing their hierarchy to move up the search ladder is this). Google looks and ranks one piece of their algorithm based upon 'uniqueness'. Therefore, if you demonstrate uniqueness and have the proper metadata & alt tags, you'll move up the hierarchy faster and remain there.
Example: www.beaufortbythesea.com as compared to www.beaufort-by-the-sea.com (examples only). Hyphenation is far more unique than no hyphens.

Vintage Chief

Since you were performing searches, and you may already know how to do this, I'll make mention of it for those who may be reading this post and do not know the benefits and features of employing good searches to obtain good search results. Not all search engines are created equally, but most employ simple BOOLEAN logic - you're parsing a database and looking for 'relationships'. You should (and can) define those relationships to obtain better search results.

You'll know if the database and the search procedures employed to parse the database are optimized efficiently for BOOLEAN logic by noting your search results. I felt this should be articulated and written into one of the threads of how to search the CO website.

Example (from any search engine) and in particular as it relates to the CO website.

A user wants to search for engine misfiring. If you type into the Search Forums threads search engine applet (top RH of page) those two terms in this order (exactly): engine misfiring you'll note you receive 43 pages of the items containing both engine and misfiring on the same pages but not in sequence (the search did not parse the relationship in 'sequence').
However, if you search for the two terms in this order (exactly - with the quote marks) "engine misfiring" you'll note you receive only 2 pages with the exact terms matched in 'sequence'.

Here are a couple examples you can try which really demonstrate BOOLEAN search features on the CO website. Perform the same logic I demonstrated above on these terms.

cutlass quadrajet
quadrajet cutlass
"cutlass quadrajet"
"quadrajet cutlass"

You'll quickly appreciate the logic involved in parsing (searching) a database for relationships within a search engine.
What you're doing is employing BOOLEAN logic OPERATORS.
https://www.webopedia.com/TERM/B/Boolean_search.html

Olds64

Norm, thanks for the good info. I've never thought that our site is small or difficult for potential users to find. I was just brainstorming this morning. I do know that ClassicOlds is much smaller than the Ford Trucks Enthusiast forum I frequent, but that is understandable.

Mentioning Boolean logic searching, I've had luck searching for these terms before (both on Google and Craigslist):

Oldsmobile AND diesel

Oldsmobile AND supercharger

oldcutlass

How to find CO is based on key words, apparently Oldsmobile alone is too generic to narrow the search enough for our site specifically.

RetroRanger

To be fair google has gone from a great search engine to a horrible ad generator that im starting to avoid.

In previous years a specific search term would net specific results.

Now a specific search term will net paid results, locality paid results and maybe if your lucky something related to what you wanted to find in that order

OLDSter Ralph

Actually, I discovered this site, ROP and HAMB by Googling the word "Mondello". After reading posts, this site seemed more what I wanted. Oh, and I found out about the one "Mondello" I wanted to avoid. There is someone on here that knows what I need to know. I think its the BEST all around Oldsmobile site there is.
......Just my two cents worth.

Olds64

I'm glad folks come to our website to get the guidance they need. I was a member on ROP about 20 years ago (I think they have had a server crash since then). I've never been a member of the HAMB, but they have good info. I don't remember how I came across ClassicOlds...

jaunty75

Yes. I can never find it!

LouRider

If a computer idiot like me found it here in good old Germany, it can´t be difficult

Koda

To reply a couple months late, Google is bad now. It used to be a joke that google would quit suggesting auto completes as you typed as soon as you got sexist/racist/pornographic whatever, but now you can't even search for things that are against the social justice narrative.

oldcutlass

From our cover page... Most users ever online was 1,943, June 20th, 2019 at 01:39 PM. This number has been hitting new highs regularly, apparently someones finding it.

Olds64

That's cool. I know that the number of Oldsmobiles for sale online through Craigslist, Hemmings, etc. has fallen in recent years. It's already been 15 years since GM made Oldsmobiles. You think they would have realized their mistake by now.

VI Cutty

I typed "oldsmobile forum" into Google. First two hits were CO.

If you're looking for an Oldsmobile forum, I don't think we're hard to find. If you're looking for information on a specific topic then it will all depend on your keywords and search construction. Even then I usually find CO threads on the first page of my search returns.

redoldsman

I just put in oldsmoble websites and it was the second listing. Pretty easy. I use Bing and never use Google.