Lounge move

[stooz]

Sorry but I'm just going to move this category down one.
Just wanted to see what it does to Google search results..
And help more people find help.

[stooz]

Opinions welcome.
I doubt it will please everyone, but nothing is set in stone either

[UncleEbenezer]

Since you solicit opinions ...

It pleaseth not your uncle Ebenezer. But it's a minor matter, not something to make an issue of.

On a slightly more serious note, the stuff that's moved above it is the most generic-financial part of the board. If that improves search results at all, it'll be the kind of search terms that take people to well-known mainstream sites. That could be counterproductive: if people looking for the likes of Martin Lewis land here and see a phpbb site, they'll be straight back to google and trying another link, and google's algorithm will conclude that lemonfool is a site its users dismiss. Better to feature the investor boards, which are more the core purpose of the site, and are more likely to attract searches for which lemonfool really is a good result.

On the subject of search and of first impressions for new visitors, the site might be much improved by an introductory paragraph or two explaining what it is, and its origins as a refuge for the TMF community.

[stooz]

A valid point. Investors going up...

[stooz]

I like it. Much more of a flow of subjects from top to bottom.

And the bar has a nice view from here.

[melonfool]

I think all the finance boards should be above the 'hobby/general' boards really. Lemon Aid should be above the Lounge.

Is there any scope to do the board groups as tabs, rather than just a really long page to scroll down? Or both?

Mel

[BrummieDave]

In my view, finance first, off topic to follow.

And whilst I'm at it, here's a paragraph I previously posted, and offered as encouragement and thanks to those who spend their time and money maintaining this most useful facility:

I do feel very strongly that having the opportunity to pose a question and have the informed views of others by reply, and for them to interact and further communicate relevant guidance and ideas, is a truly wonderful thing. Within a financial planning context, in pre-Internet days you could only seek such guidance on a one to one basis either from someone whose 'guidance' would be limited to the products they sell, or from someone who would expect a fee. And you only did it once, or possibly twice. Boards like this allow you to do it as many times as you wish, and get the collective views of many and I think that is truly marvellous and a valuable resource for all.

Keep up the good work, mods, posters, responders and lurkers.

[mc2fool]

Sorry but I'm just going to move this category down one.
Just wanted to see what it does to Google search results..
And help more people find help.

Shuffling the order of the board index will do little to nothing for either.

What's needed to improve both is text explaining what the site is about and where to find what, including a broad summary of the kind of things that are in each board group. That should be on the home page "above the fold", i.e. on screen and immediately visible on landing on the home page, without scrolling, on all of the most common screen sizes your website analytics are telling you visitors are using. A home page that is just a board index is pretty unfriendly both for newer visitors and for search engines; both need content for best utility.

The board index should be either below that or on another page, in either case with the summary above linking to each board group described. In truth the board index is of vital but limited utility, being useful really only when one is discovering what's there in order to decide which forums to subscribe to or when looking for a board you'd missed previously -- and as an index, it's in pretty random order. Is it not possible to have boards within a group appear alphabetically?

Further on getting found, if you're not already you should sign up to and use Google Search Console to find out how Google is seeing the site, what search queries are finding the site, crawl errors, etc, etc. Ditto for Bing Webmaster Tools

[Tigger]

It's probably worth updating the <title> tag for the home page so it says something more explanatory about what the site does than "The Lemon Fool -Index Page". This is what most people will see first when the site pops up in a Google search. "The Lemon Fool - Talk Finance" might be better, for example.

And you may also want to add <meta name="description" content="A short paragraph expanding a little on what the site does" /> This normally appears below the title info, and can help drive more click throughs. It might be worth adding a description for each forum.

In addition to Google Search Console, which has already been mentioned, basic SEO audit tools like https://zadroweb.com/seo-auditor/ are also worth checking out.

[robbelg]

What's needed to improve both is text explaining what the site is about and where to find what, including a broad summary of the kind of things that are in each board group. That should be on the home page "above the fold", i.e. on screen and immediately visible on landing on the home page, without scrolling, on all of the most common screen sizes your website analytics are telling you visitors are using. A home page that is just a board index is pretty unfriendly both for newer visitors and for search engines; both need content for best utility.

Seconded

[mc2fool]

And you may also want to add <meta name="description" content="A short paragraph expanding a little on what the site does" /> This normally appears below the title info, and can help drive more click throughs.

Less "normally" than used to be. The "snippet" Google shows depends on the search terms used, and it may use the meta description or it might construct something out of the content of the page -- or, indeed, a mix of the two, as happens if you Google The Motley Fool, where only the bit before the ... is from the meta description.

That's not to say adding meta descriptions isn't a good idea, it most definitely is, but just as an FYI for stooz in case he adds them but is puzzled when they don't always get used.

[stooz]

The index page is an oddity - as an aside i'm an ex SEO expert, but the software for this site, doesnt even have things like an index page, it has templates and imported sections so one stick won't work for all.

However for me at least, google have been pretty good. I get on a search for "lemonfool" a full block by block breakdown listing 6 sub forums

[Instep]

I was a bit puzzled by the Financial Software heading that is stil in Investors' Roundtable which turned out to be a redirect to the Software Repository site without any warning or explanation.

I was expecting it to be a link to the new location. viewforum.php?f=27 in Managing Finances.

You will see that I have added a suggested sticky link there.
Regards
Instep

[mc2fool]

as an aside i'm an ex SEO expert

Ahh...sorry for the egg sucking lesson, gran

However for me at least, google have been pretty good. I get on a search for "lemonfool" a full block by block breakdown listing 6 sub forums

Ummm....well, firstly, folks googling "lemonfool" isn't who you're after. While I know some people seem to prefer to stick a site name into a search engine and click on the result, rather than just entering www.site.co.uk into the address bar, anyone searching for "lemonfool" already knows about the site.

The folks you are after are those who don't already know about TLF and are searching for things like discussion forums or boards for uk shares. Get TLF on that list and you'll be doing well

Secondly, "pretty good"?!? When I Google lemonfool the snippet says "Technical Analysis Reading price charts to give you direction in the markets using established TA methodology. 10 Topics: 130 Posts: Last post Re: Weather ...". So the site's about TA, right?

And in the sub-listing of 6 forums, pretty much all have uninformative snippets. E.g. the first one I got is Taxes by stooz » Sun Dec 04, 2016 3:57 pm » in Biscuit Bar, although the 6 shown does seem to be different at different times.

[stooz]

Good as in its registered the various categories at least. Im easily pleased.

[stooz]

googled : "investors roundtable fool"

TMF: Investors' Roundtable - The Motley Fool Discussion Boards
boards.fool.co.uk/investors-roundtable-5007.aspx
The Motley Fool Discussion Boards: The Best Financial Community on the Web. ... The Motley Fool: To Educate, Amuse & Enrich ... Investors' Roundtable ...
The Lemon Fool - Investors' Roundtable
www.lemonfool.co.uk › Board index
2 days ago - 15 posts - ‎14 authors
The Lemon Fool. Talk finance ... Investors' Roundtable. Forum. Topics: Posts: Last post ... Investment Strategies Subforum: Investing for Income.
Retirement Investing - The Lemon Fool 10 posts 19 Dec 2016
International & Expat Investors - The Lemon Fool 2 posts 17 Dec 2016
Passive Investing - The Lemon Fool 14 posts 16 Dec 2016
Investing for Income - The Lemon Fool 3 posts 16 Dec 2016
More results from www.lemonfool.co.uk

I can live with 2nd place to a closed website.

[mc2fool]

googled : "investors roundtable fool"

Why?

Who do you think is going to do that?

[UncleEbenezer]

googled : "investors roundtable fool"

Why?

Who do you think is going to do that?

The association of investors and roundtable is already going to be specific to Fools and ex-Fools.

Top of the page now is "Trading my way to a million". If I saw that in my Google results, I'd instantly dismiss it.

However, I note that the phpbb structure supports having a separate front page. The breadcrumbs at the top currently read

Home	Board index Lemon Lounge Biscuit Bar

"Home" and "Board index" are currently identical, and "Lemon Lounge" is merely a subset of it. First thing should be to create a real Home page, separate from the boards index.

That then leads to another question: should the site host anything more than boards? Not something to rush into willy-nilly, but maybe one thing to consider would be per-board intro/faq pages, at least for those that have "traditions"?

[Alaric]

That then leads to another question: should the site host anything more than boards? Not something to rush into willy-nilly, but maybe one thing to consider would be per-board intro/faq pages, at least for those that have "traditions"?

It's necessary to be cautious about how to interpret Google results. What Google does is personalise search results depending on previous searches. In order to draw any conclusions as to what the casual user would see, I think you have to ensure your machine is clean of past searches or use a browser that is unbiased.

[Clariman]

Yes you are correct, that we could do with having some kind of introduction and welcome - and also correct that we won't be easily found unless folk include "fool" in the search terms. So there is work we could do there, for sure.

However, the site is less than 2 months old and we have nearly 2000 users who have posted over 17,000 posts, so we are not in a rush to get new blood in. No harm in doing so.

Our first aim was to provide a forum to allow former Fools to discuss what the did for the future. In the end, LemonFool became the future - which is great. Our secondary aims were to maintain the site, ensure it was manageable and sustainable (hence the moderators) and then to tweak it to meet the needs of its users.

Everything is possible. All in good time.

Cheers
Clariman