SEO for the OLPC wiki

   This page is part of the Wiki Cleanup Project.   [[ Wiki SEO | Cleanup | Wiki tasks ]]

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It typically is used to increase traffic to a given website, but it can also be used to direct specific types of traffic in specific ways and to specific content on a site. We are working to 'optimize' how searching works so people show up at the most appropriate places.

Immediate Open Tasks

Increase inbound links to key pages. Some of these key pages include Pootle, Support gang, and the FAQ? Clearly these need to be defined.

• Convert wiki.laptop.org links on WikiMedia projects to OLPC: Pagename. (This could be done most easily by someone who runs a bot on these projects.)
  • Standard links are not indexed by google, but interwiki links are
  • Don't add new links unless super appropriate, we're not spammers.

• Categorize, categorize, categorize

Suggestions on SEO

Search engine optimization strategies for the OLPC wiki:

• Improve linking between pages. This helps the most suitable page to rank most highly for a given search.
  • The work that Appropedia is doing on a wikilink bot<ref> The wikilink bot page, describing the use of replace.py, is under development, and is working to an extent - see bot, or contact Chriswaterguy for info or to help out. </ref> will be of relevance here.
  • Categorization
• Page names and category names should be separate words if they are regular phrases, not CamelCase - unless they are more commonly written in CamelCase (e.g. BarCamp) or run together. If not sure, mention both ways of writing within the page.
• Synonyms, including alternate spellings should be included on pages where relevant. This also helps searching within the site.
• Good landing pages, especially for key topics.
  • One model of landing page which doesn't require constant updating is that used at http://www.appropedia.org/Portal:Appropriate_technology.
  • A given topic should have one good landing page - if there are separate pages (subpages, alternative approaches...) they can be linked from there.
• Relevant links from sites that carry a lot of weight for search engine ranking:
  • Especially .gov and .edu sites.
  • Wikipedia - but only if in the form [[OLPC:Pagename]], as interwiki links don't suffer from the "rel=nofollow" tag. Important: Only add to Wikipedia articles when it's of value and relevance to the Wikipedia article.
  • Other relevant sites, especially those that rank highly, and that don't use nofollow. This includes other wikis that allow an interwiki link to OLPC wiki pages. (Consider adding an interwiki map here - to give as well as take.)
• More active pages are ranked more highly by search engines, so ranking is one extra benefit to greater activity.

Footnotes

<references/>

Also see

• Wiki analytics for feedback and data to base work on.
• /sitemapgen a script for creating a sitemap

External links

• Spider test - see your page the way a search engine spider sees it.
• Appropedia's equivalent page
• WebdeW SEO tools (is this a valuable collection of web tools for the OLPC wiki? Some are free.)
• SEO Analysis (Fail A 275-Point Website and SEO Inspection)
• SEO Wiki (more information on SEO)