East Ottawa Star
Published: Friday, October 30, 2009 Increasing our community's web hits Have you ever narci-surfed on the Internet? Admit it; you’ve Googled your own name to see who else shares it and what they have accomplished. Okay, since you’re shy, I’ll go first. Not only am I your favourite columnist (hopefully), but … Walter Robinson Court in Blackpool, England, sadly is home to many crimes like assault and murder, yikes! I’m also a dead English composer or a live art critic in New York City. As well, my namesake is an orthopedic surgeon from Louisiana, an award-winning Massachusetts journalist, and a leading medical physics outsourcing firm serving Pennsylvania and Delaware for over 27 years. But what about our community? What happens when we narci-surf on Google for Orleans, Ontario or Orléans, Ontario. Sadly, savvy entrepreneurs are not optimizing their sites for prime search engine placement. Ditto for Bing as a search engine when it comes to learning this area. According to Wikipedia – listing numero uno – we are a suburban area within the city of Ottawa, Ontario. Then we have a few sites listing homes for sale and apartments for rent. As well there is a link to the yellow pages for our area along with the 4th Scouts troop, something called Orléans freecycle, and restaurant reviews. The only business to crack the top 10 results is Darcy McGee’s on St. Joseph, so let’s raise a pint to them. If we include the accent aigu on the “e” in Orléans, only two links change. One for a travel site at number four while the big shopping mall that starts will Place d’ sneaks in at number 10. Over at Bing.com, we find listings for some local news sites, weather, tutoring and mortgages compete with several real estate links, whether one searches with English or French spelling. What is surprising is that a local business, politician or community group has not staked out this domain to better profile their services, accomplishments or impact in the community. Note to self: Take this idea back to the recently re-launched Team Ottawa-Orléans Équipe. It would be reasonably inexpensive – think zero $$$ – to get noticed when it comes to web searches. A dynamic and active community such as ours could and should rise to this unique challenge. Imagine searching Orléans online and getting a link to the Shenkman Arts Centre, the Y, program listings at Ray Friel, local tourist attractions, innovative artists and celebrated amateur sports teams, etc. Now that would be another marker along the way in our growth as a community in which we can live, work and play. But alas, we are a community of houses for sale, a shopping mall, one pub, a scout troop and an online publication, if one goes by Google or Bing. Let’s see if local business owners and community groups will step up to change their profiles to elevate the online visibility of their establishments and organizations, and Orleans/Orléans. We’ll check back after Christmas. = = = = = Comments can be sent to Walter at orleansouttakes@transcontinental.ca. |