What does PoA look like to internet searchers?

gismo

gismo

Touchdown! Greaser!
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iGismo
In the recent debate over hiding some of the forums from internet searches a point was made about the potential for this to limit the potential for interested folks from finding this site. That got me to wondering about what someone like that is likely to find. So far I have learned these things:

1) Searching for "pilot forums" (without the quotes) didn't turn up PoA in the first 50 results but "pilots forum" pops PoA up as #3. I wonder if there are ways to improve on this without paying money to the search engine folks. We might also want to have a few folks trying various searches to try and learn what doesn't work to find PoA that should.

2) Some results provide useful information in the teaser, PoA returns:

"Pilots of America
If you are relatively new to Pilots of America and can not post, please go to the Registration Problems forum and post a request for access. ..."

I don't know if this could be improved but if that's possible I think it would be a big improvement if the teaser provided something that would make a searcher more likely to select the PoA entry. Certainly the current state isn't very inviting.

3) Once you reach PoA's home page you're greeted with a page that's visually unattractive (other than the cute PoA logo in the upper left corner) and a bunch of stuff about the MC, rules, etc. I think this could stand considerable improvement.
 
When I do a Goggle search on just my last name, my POA profile comes up on the first page. It doesn't bother me, since I never put anything personally-sensitive online, nor anything that might lead to an FAA "interview." I've been sued for things I've posted, but that's different...

Ron Wanttaja
 
I'm amazed at how often PoA comes up when I'm searching aviation topics. I was doing a search last night with terms like "faa regulation afs-800 lynch" and PoA was on the third result. And I've got a standing Google Alert that emails me the results on "clow airport bolingbrook" and every once in a while I'll get a post from here.
 
gprellwitz said:
I'm amazed at how often PoA comes up when I'm searching aviation topics. I was doing a search last night with terms like "faa regulation afs-800 lynch" and PoA was on the third result. And I've got a standing Google Alert that emails me the results on "clow airport bolingbrook" and every once in a while I'll get a post from here.
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I have a similar experience as you. It is not the title page of PoA that comes up either, it is the page with the thread on that topic on it. To me that shows what a great resouce PoA is for the public.
 
smigaldi said:
I have a similar experience as you. It is not the title page of PoA that comes up either, it is the page with the thread on that topic on it. To me that shows what a great resouce PoA is for the public.
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Which is why I want a single members-only forum, so that we can leave ALL of the existing aviation-related forums facing the public. :P
 
smigaldi said:
flyingcheesehead said:
Which is why I want a single members-only forum, so that we can leave ALL of the existing aviation-related forums facing the public. :P
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So the new forum that you are proposing would be for non-aviation discussion only?
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Note the word existing (which I highlighted). I believe that his intention is that the only thing the threads in the new forum have in common is that the thread starter wanted to be in the bus as opposed to on the networks, borrowing an analogy from the other thread.
 
gprellwitz said:
Note the word existing (which I highlighted). I believe that his intention is that the only thing the threads in the new forum have in common is that the thread starter wanted to be in the bus as opposed to on the networks, borrowing an analogy from the other thread.
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Thanks Grant - You're exactly right.

Somehow, I *knew* Scott was going to skip right over "existing." ;) :rofl:
 
gprellwitz said:
Note the word existing (which I highlighted). I believe that his intention is that the only thing the threads in the new forum have in common is that the thread starter wanted to be in the bus as opposed to on the networks, borrowing an analogy from the other thread.
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Ah the 'purple forum' concept. It would be a duplicate of everything else but in pseudo-private areas. :rolleyes:
 
gprellwitz said:
I'm amazed at how often PoA comes up when I'm searching aviation topics. I was doing a search last night with terms like "faa regulation afs-800 lynch" and PoA was on the third result. And I've got a standing Google Alert that emails me the results on "clow airport bolingbrook" and every once in a while I'll get a post from here.
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It was truly funny that this post showed up in my Google Alert this morning!:rofl:
 
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