posted by Mike Madison at 6:43 PM /
Blog-Lebo was launched a little over four years ago, in early August 2005, so Happy Birthday to us!
The fact that we're still here is a testament to a bunch of things: stubbornness, persistence, and resilience on the part of Joe and myself in the face of occasional challenges and few threats; a reliably interested, thoughtful, and growing group of readers, some of whom are also reliable and thoughtful commenters; and a never-ending supply of things to talk about -- whether it's the schools and the School Board, the Municipality and the Commission, traffic, trees, parking, the Fourth of July, success, tragedy, First Fridays, last Saturdays, ULTRA-keggers, neighbors of distinction and occasionally neighbors who behave shamefully.
Not only is Blog-Lebo still here, but it's booming, and it's expanding. You can now find us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter -- see the links to the right. Bob Williams, formerly of The Almanac, has become a regular guest contributor, which helps offset the fact that The Almanac's surviving staff appears to be uninterested in doing much more than reporting what is supplied by official channels. Given the number of Post-Gazette reporters and editors who live here, I'm optimistic that the main editorial section of that paper will shortly start taking more notice of the town.
It's a bit more difficult to find us through Google, however. For years, Blog Lebo was in the top 10 search results on Google when you searched for "Mt. Lebanon." Now the blog is down in the 30s -- the third page in. (On Bing, we're toward the top of the second page.) Such a dramatic change makes me curious about the cause, though Google is known for tweaking its search algorithm without explaining what it has done. You can help us get back on top: Link to Blog-Lebo! (Or, if that's an outmoded strategy and you know the ins and outs of the search business, how about sharing some free advice!) And tell your friends and neighbors about the blog.
Thanks to everyone for reading and writing.
The fact that we're still here is a testament to a bunch of things: stubbornness, persistence, and resilience on the part of Joe and myself in the face of occasional challenges and few threats; a reliably interested, thoughtful, and growing group of readers, some of whom are also reliable and thoughtful commenters; and a never-ending supply of things to talk about -- whether it's the schools and the School Board, the Municipality and the Commission, traffic, trees, parking, the Fourth of July, success, tragedy, First Fridays, last Saturdays, ULTRA-keggers, neighbors of distinction and occasionally neighbors who behave shamefully.
Not only is Blog-Lebo still here, but it's booming, and it's expanding. You can now find us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter -- see the links to the right. Bob Williams, formerly of The Almanac, has become a regular guest contributor, which helps offset the fact that The Almanac's surviving staff appears to be uninterested in doing much more than reporting what is supplied by official channels. Given the number of Post-Gazette reporters and editors who live here, I'm optimistic that the main editorial section of that paper will shortly start taking more notice of the town.
It's a bit more difficult to find us through Google, however. For years, Blog Lebo was in the top 10 search results on Google when you searched for "Mt. Lebanon." Now the blog is down in the 30s -- the third page in. (On Bing, we're toward the top of the second page.) Such a dramatic change makes me curious about the cause, though Google is known for tweaking its search algorithm without explaining what it has done. You can help us get back on top: Link to Blog-Lebo! (Or, if that's an outmoded strategy and you know the ins and outs of the search business, how about sharing some free advice!) And tell your friends and neighbors about the blog.
Thanks to everyone for reading and writing.
Labels: happy birthday to us
4 Comments:
Happy Birthday, Blog-Lebo! You've come a long way in 4 short years. Blog-Lebo is now the best way to follow what's happening in Mt. Lebanon.
For that reason alone, it ought to be one of the top-ranked search results for "Mt. Lebanon". But, Google's algorithms being what they are, it may take some time for Blog-Lebo to climb the ranks. (For what it's worth, on Google I get Blog-Lebo as the 5th result, after the school district and before the library; on Bing, I get Blog-Lebo in the 2nd page of results.)
Interestingly, today's Google results for both Mt. Lebanon and "Mt. Lebanon" differ significantly from yesterday's results!
I like Blog-Lebo. It's a great service to the community. Thanks Mike and Joe!
I don't know about helping specific searches for "Mt. Lebanon", but you could probably help your rank on more specific searches somewhat by changing your page template so that the page titlebar contains the title of the article for article pages.
Right now, all pages seem to have the same uninformative title.
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