RE: AIS Website--first paragraph

["Lynn" <irislynn@willitsonline.com>]

Hi Robert,

Please understand that my comments are only one person's suggestions.

If this was the first time for me to go to the AIS website, I would be more
intrigued by the Discussion #1.  It covers a larger group of topics that I
might not have thought of, but is more likely to cause me to look further.
I would like it to have the word iris/irises used more.

Example:  in the first paragraph, if I was a novice I might not understand
"promoting research" what kind of research?  Perhaps it would be better to
say promoting iris research or promoting historical iris reseach, etc.  Also
in the same paragraph the term registering cultivars, might be confusing.  I
would like it to say registering iris cultivars.  In the next sentense "...
newest development in Iris."  Shouldn't that be "newest development in
Irises"?  In the last sentence I believe it should say iris judges, iris
shows and awards, and celebrate the best of the genus iris.

Example:  in the second paragraph I would like to see it say "The diversity
of the genus Iris offers..."  In the last sentense, ...more than 250 iris
species and thousands of exciting iris hybrids.

Repetition of the word Iris or Irises is a good thing.  Repetition is used
as a selling technique all the time, because it works.  Also it helps the
person who sees the site for the first time to really remember that this
site is all about irises.  I believe it will help distinguish it from other
websites in the person's memory as offering more, so that they return again
and again.

Is there any way to combine parts of Discussion #2 into Discussion #1?
Discussion #2 seem a bit more personal, though it lack as much info as
Discussion #1.  I especially like the opening of Discussion #2.  Maybe start
the opening paragraph like #2 and then continue with #1.

Example:  The American Iris Society (AIS) is a community of plant
enthusiasts who have found in Irises, durable and
rewarding garden plants. The enormous diversity of the genus Iris provides
marvelous and exotic iris cultivars for a
great variety of gardening situations, from the perennial border, to the
rock or water garden, to alpine collectors, and native plant enthusiasts.
There are irises for every climate and every garden. We invite you to
explore the rich
diversity of more than 250 iris species and thousands of exciting iris
hybrids.

AIS is a non-profit organization providing objective information on Irises.
AIS is the backbone of the worldwide Iris information network, promoting
iris research, registering iris cultivars, and connecting our membership. As
a member you support the organization of the Iris community and are alerted
to the newest developments in Irises. The systems of iris judges, iris shows
and awards, celebrates the best of the genus iris. Local affiliates can
provide advice for your area.

The AIS produces a bulletin 4 times a year showing the latest in
Tall-bearded Iris and all the other iris groups. Specialty iris groups with
newsletters include ten categories, from Iris species, Siberian Iris,
Japanese Iris, Dwarf Iris, Aril Iris, Louisiana Iris, Pacific Coast Natives,
Spuria Iris, Reblooming Iris, Historic Iris, and Median Iris.

Lynn Williams
R14 RVP

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-aisdiscuss@aisboard.org [mailto:owner-aisdiscuss@aisboard.org]
On Behalf Of Robt R Pries
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2008 9:17 AM
To: aisdiscuss@aisboard.org
Subject: Re: [AISdiscuss] AIS Website--first paragraph


The topic of why people reach our website and how we
sell them when they first get there has been on my
mind for some time. I would like everyone to spend the
time to read two examples I have created. Discussion
#1 emphases key words which would make search engines
display our site; and Discussion #2 emphases selling
the society. If each of you could comment on these
openings I would appreciate it.

Discussion #1
Including lots of key words that could attract
members.

Introduction to AIS

AIS is a non-profit organization providing objective information on Irises.
AIS is the backbone of the worldwide Iris information network, promoting
research, registering cultivars, and connecting our membership. As a member
you support the organization of the Iris community and are alerted to the
newest developments in Iris. The systems of judges, shows and awards,
celebrate the best of the genus. Local affiliates can provide advice for
your area.

The diversity of the genus offers something for all
types of gardens, from the perennial border, to water
gardens, to alpine collectors, and native plant
enthusiasts. There are irises for every climate and
every garden. We invite you to explore the rich
diversity of more than 250 species and thousands of
exciting hybrids.

The society produces a bulletin 4 times a year showing
the latest in Tall-bearded Iris and all the other
groups. Specialty groups with newsletters include ten categories, from Iris
species, Siberian Iris, Japanese Iris, Dwarf Iris, Aril Iris, Louisiana
Iris, Pacific Coast Natives, Spuria Iris, Reblooming Iris, Historic Iris,
and Median Iris..

Instead of presently;

Welcome to the American Iris Society (AIS) website. We
hope that you will find this website an informative
and helpful resource to all kinds of iris information.

Website updated: September 19, 2006
The American Iris Society is a nonprofit institution incorporated February
2, 1927, in the County of Philadelphia, State of Pennsylvania. By the terms
of the Charter, the Corporation has no stockholders and exists for the sole
purpose of promoting the culture and improvement of the Iris

Discussion #2
The first impression that is made when a new person
comes to our website is important.  Does anyone really
care when and where we are incorporated Iris.]
It seems more important that we say who we are and
what we do. Perhaps something like the following.

The American Iris Society is a community of plant
enthusiasts who have found in Irises,  durable and
rewarding garden plants. The enormous diversity of the
genus provides marvelous and exotic cultivars for a
great variety of gardening situations, from the
perennial border, to the rock or water garden. As a
member of this network you help further research,
guide the development of new plants and act as a
guardian of the vegetative heritage that has been
passed along from member to member. We invite you to
become a participant in our gardening community and
allow us to enrich your life with the world of iris.

I ask which of the above opening statements would
intrigue one to learn more?

--- Robt R Pries <rpries@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

> John is correct in his analysis of metatags. They
> are
> probably not as important as they once were. My
> understanding is, that Google has people that
> constantly review websites and tag keywords. Until
> recently they were not going past the first page so
> only topics that appeared on the first page were
> tagged. I understand they are trying to refine this
> by
> going somewhat further. They do count how often a
> site
> is accessed for a certain keyword that was searched.
> Since the adwords campaign AIS has moved up the list
> so we now often appear in the first or second page
> of
> a search, whereas in the past it was often many
> pages
> back. Since the reviewers creating these indexes
> probably barely read the text, it is important to
> have
> the keywords that we would want indexed for our site
> on the first page. I would junk the initial
> paragraph
> that says when we were incorporated and place it
> somewhere further back. Right now you are more
> likely
> to get AIS on a search of incorporation than a
> search
> of Iris. Words like Iris culture, shows, etc may be
> more important to have in the first paragraph. It is
> not easy to choose words that will be captured by
> the
> indexers and still have a sensible opening
> statement.
> Everything is complicated.
> --- John I Jones <jijones@usjoneses.com> wrote:
>
> > Well this is embarrassing, it appears that we
> don't
> > have any. I had
> > assumed we did. (Of course you know what that
> > means...)
> >
> > Just FYI, to see what metatag keywords are on any
> > webpage, open the
> > page in your browser then from your menu bar
> select
> > View Page Source
> > (or something similar depending on your browser)
> >
> > The line near the top that says :"<META
> > NAME="keywords" content=""
> > contains the list of keywords that are used.
> >
> > The more sophisticated web crawlers (the programs
> > used by the search
> > engines to rank and categorize you web pages) like
> > Google's actually
> > look at more of your web content and how often
> your
> > site is cross
> > listed and a bunch of other parameters that I
> don't
> > know a lot about.
> >
> > So metatag keywords are not anywhere as useful as
> > they were
> > originally. Part of the problem is that comanies
> > would put the name
> > (s) of their competitors and competing products in
> > their keyword list
> > to to get more attention (who can blame them) and
> > so, to get better
> > results for the searcher, the search engines
> started
> > using other
> > algorithms like checking the actual content of the
> > pages.
> >
> > Yes Lynn, if you have a list of metatag keywords I
> > would like to see
> > them.
> >
> > Thanks
> >
> > John
> >
> >
> > On Feb 13, 2008, at 12:55 AM, Lynn wrote:
> >
> > > Hi John,
> > >
> > > What metatags do we have for our AIS website?  I
> > know that when I
> > > had my
> > > website, my webmaster said that the larger the
> > metatags file was
> > > the more
> > > apt I was to have my website accessable to
> search
> > engines and the
> > > closer to
> > > the first 10 website listed in a search.  I
> think
> > I worked out
> > > quite a large
> > > number of searchable words and phrases for my
> > metatags file.  If
> > > you are
> > > interested, I'll try and dig around in the
> > basement for the box I
> > > still have
> > > on Harmony Iris Gardens website.
> > >
> > > Lynn Williams
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: owner-aisdiscuss@aisboard.org
> [mailto:owner-
> >
> > > aisdiscuss@aisboard.org]
> > > On Behalf Of John I Jones
> > > Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 10:17 PM
> > > To: aisdiscuss@aisboard.org
> > > Subject: Re: [AISdiscuss] AIS Website
> > >
> > >
> > > On Feb 11, 2008, at 11:56 AM, MORRISJE1@aol.com
> > wrote:
> > >
> > >> What is the cost to become a "sponsored link?"
> I
> > suspect many
> > >> people  don't
> > >> have the patience to search to Page 7 to find
> > AIS.  They are more
> > >> likely to
> > >> find AIS via the Schreiners Garden link.
> > >
> > >
> > > Bob Pries explained Google AdWords (the
> mechanism
> > that leads to being
> > > a sponsored link) at the Fall 2006 Board
> meeting.
> > >
> > > Basically you bid for the best position in the
> > list of the search
> > > results page. You pay everytime someone clicks
> on
> > your link. The cost
> > > could be anywhere from $.05 to $50.00 per
> > click-through depending on
> > > how high you want to be on the list.
> > >
> > > When I searched on "Iris" I found the American
> > Iris Society as the 3d
> > > listing on the second page.
> > >
> > > Positioning is not constant. It depends on time
> of
> > day, how many
> > > people are bidding for the best spots, and how
> > they have their
> > > keywords set up.
> > >
> > > It also depends on how well we have our metatags
> > set up on our site
> > > (metatags are one of the things that the
> > webcrawlers look at when
> > > rating your site along with some more and more
> > sophisticated
> > > algorithms)
> > >
> > > At any rate, the cost is not truly predictable
> and
> > can be expensive.
> > >
> > > Bob has been doing some experiments with it on a
> > limited basis, and
> > > had a proposal for some specific landing pages
> > within the AIS website
> > > to better manage the click-throughs.
> > >
> > > John
> > >
> > >
> >
>
---------------------------------------------------------------------
> > > To sign-off this list, send email to the AIS
> > Secretary
> > > <aissecretary@irises.org> The archives for
> > AISDiscuss are at:
> > > http://www.aisboard.org/lists/aisdiscuss/
> > >
> > >
> >
>
---------------------------------------------------------------------
> > > To sign-off this list, send email to the AIS
> > Secretary
> > > <aissecretary@irises.org>
>
=== message truncated ===

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to the AIS Secretary
<aissecretary@irises.org> The archives for AISDiscuss are at:
http://www.aisboard.org/lists/aisdiscuss/

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to the AIS Secretary
<aissecretary@irises.org>
The archives for AISDiscuss are at:
http://www.aisboard.org/lists/aisdiscuss/