[OSM-talk] SEO

[Hugh Barnes]

On Saturday 25 October 2008, 06:37:03, SteveC did write:
> CloudMade have some people experienced in Search Engine Optimisation  
> and we'd like to offer their time to look at making OSM push higher up  
> search results. Basically we think it would be nice that if you search  
> for 'free maps' and things like that then OSM comes up to the top.
> 
> What do you think?

If you think people searching on phrases like that mean Free as in speech, 
then yes, but I suspect they want free as in beer. These people would probably 
be more satisfied with free beer map services for the moment. I guess I'm just 
saying I wouldn't aim for "free maps". It probably won't harm either.

> 
> If positive I'd suggest that we build a list of terms we want to push  
> the ranking up for, throw these at someone with SEO knowledge, review  
> the changes they suggest and then see who would like to implement  
> them. I imagine it will be a few things like making the <meta> tags  
> better, maybe streamlining the text on OSM and such.
> 

I've mentioned this, but not on the list: start by canonicalising the main 
site hostname. Have www.openstreetmap.org redirect to, not mirror, 
openstreetmap.org. I'm told there are several more mirrored domains. Then your 
incoming links will be unambiguously (for a search engine) pointing to the 
same pages. There are also usability and other benefits.

I'll expand if you like, but it sounds like you already have access to 
expertise.

Cheers