A recent article I read mentioned that the big wigs in the COB were worried because anyone could google something about mormons and usually come up with Wikipedia as the top search result, and how they're trying to fix it so that lds.org or mormon.org, etc. come up as the top 5 search results.

I'm not web-savvy enough to know, but how do they play with google's pageranking system, and is it possible for us to undo it?

Just think how cool it would be if RFM and Mormonthink were always in the top 5 results.

Any thoughts?

What article was this? Do you mind linking to it? I would be interested to see proof of them google-bombing.

With enough money they could bribe google into doing it.

I'm not sure about that. Google basically takes their search/ranking algorithm on a blood oath. If people want to pay to have their site featured they have to buy one of the sponsored links.

Sorry I couldn't post the link until I got home.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/mormons-using-the-web-to-control-their-own-image/2011/08/11/gIQA1J6BMJ_story.html

This is the article I referenced in the original post.

I just googled, "Mormon" and exmormon.org came up at number four. I think it used to come in regularly at number five. Good luck to the LDS church at trying to hide the truth. I originally found my way here be simply typing in, "Mormon." I looked at the name of the website and was intrigued. What's an exmormon? Thus began my journey.

To quote the glorious Mormon temple movie:

"You can get anything in this world for money."

Including Internet white-washing.

welcome to Orwell's future.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/15/2013 08:07PM by wine country girl.

+1

There are more of us than them, but we cant touch their organizational strength or money.

Their SEO army is also mustered at http://www.moregoodfoundation.org/

They're buying up domains around the world that relate to all things Mormon and enlisting volunteers to add church-sanctioned content. It's working. They'll likely have much greater success internationally than they will in the US.

Tall Man, Short Hair Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Their SEO army is also mustered at
> http://www.moregoodfoundation.org/
>
> They're buying up domains around the world that
> relate to all things Mormon and enlisting
> volunteers to add church-sanctioned content. It's
> working. They'll likely have much greater success
> internationally than they will in the US.


Hey, they left one off of their list: ProtectMarriage.org. And we all know that they own and run that site. More whitewashing, even on their own whitewashing page.

Click onto exmormon as often as possible. That's just one small thing we can do.

It's like a thorn in TSCC ass.

Agreed. If we all search for "mormon" then click on the exmormon.org and/or mormonthink links, then don't go back and click on other links, I believe that will increase their search rank. Probably even better from different computers and/or browsers and/or gmail accounts and/or ip addresses.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/16/2013 12:34AM by jackjoseph.

Isn't it also calculated by how many pages link back to that site? If that's the case, those of us who have webpages need to put links to RFM.

Basically, yes. But the weight a link counts for is based on that page's own popularity. So linking to exmormon.org is not going to do *tons* unless you're a popular blogger/whathaveyou already. That said, every little bit helps.

we should get exmormon.org on lds.org somehow

One thing to keep in mind, if you click on their ads they have to pay. So click often!

This is why I always click on LDS and Scientology ads. :)

Well, not always. But whenever it isn't much of a bother.

But wouldn't that also gain ranking for the church's sites?

I think it might just because you visited the page, but it probably costs a good 2 or 3 dollars per click for a keyword like mormon, so the cost outweighs the benefit