Website

[sheilab]

Does anyone know of a free website for Scouts when you search say Google, it will find the Troop? I did find one from scoutlander and started creating our new troop a website, but if I do a google search it will not find us. Scoutlander told me it is the way google lists them. Since we are a new troop we do not have money to pay for this at the moment. I am not someone who builds website or know exactly how they work so if anyone can give some guidance in the area I would appreciate it. Thank you

[drmbear]

Isn't that the whole point of BeAScout.org? Another option is to purchase a domain for $5 from GoDaddy or another and have it point to your Scoutlander site. I'm still not sure whether Google will do much to help you though.

[The Blancmange]

We use Scouter.com hosting (this site), which is free. Our site shows up near the top of any searches using "Boy Scout Troop" and the name of our town, or other similar terms. Also, I'm sure if you used Google Sites (also free) it would be indexed by Google. Not sure about other search engines.(This message has been edited by the blancmange)

[fred8033]

Google sites (https://sites.google.com) is a good solution. When you eventually have a budget, I strongly recommend http://www.soarol.com.(This message has been edited by fred8033)

[sailingpj]

Google sites gets indexed by both google and Yahoo. It just takes a few days for them to catch on to you. Also, if you don't have any links to or from other sites you won't show up in the search engines. That is just the way their algorithms work.

[KC9DDI]

Others are right - It will likely take a few days to a few weeks for Google to get your site indexed. The more links you have pointing to your site, the more quickly Google will "find" it, and the higher it will rank in it's search results.

 

You can try to help Google find it a little bit faster by going to www.google.com/addurl/ and typing in the URL of your site.

[sheilab]

 

Blancmange,

Where on Scouter.com do you sign up for a website. I've looked but have had no luck. I'll also check out google sites. Thank you

[RichK]

For $10 per year, you can register a domain name with Google (https://www.google.com/a/cpanel/domain/new). This allows you to set up a website with Google sites - or you can point the url to a website hosted elsewhere. It also allows you to create email accounts (I think up to 100) which uses the same interface as gmail, but with your domain name. You get access to all their cloud apps as well.

 

I managed to create a pretty good site with their templates. I like it MUCH better than godaddy, which I've found painful to navigate through the advertisements. I find godaddy very obnoxious - they seem to want to sell me multiple domain names constantly (as 'investments')

 

Rich

[Eagle732]

We use SOAR, not free but good service. We recently got hacked and had all content related to our recruiting efforts deleted or altered. SOAR provided the IP address of the individual who made the changes. Do you know it's a Class 3 Felony to delete or change information on a website without authorization? Our IH (a retired county magistrate!), COR and CC didn't think it was a very nice thing to do.

[The Blancmange]

Here is the page to get started with Scouter.com: http://www.scouter.com/hosting/

 

You do need some basic web design knowledge to use it, as it is just bare-bones hosting. You can use a free WYSIWYG program to design a site, like Kompozer. Google is much simpler for a beginner, as it has many templates to choose from.

[Reasonable Rascal]

I used Scoutlander to build ours, and have had no problem whatsoever with people finding it. Since creating it back in February this year we have had over 1,300 unique hits. I average about 2 email inquiries per month from parents seeking a home for their boys. Usually - not always - they are Cub age, but I also hand out business cards with the web site addy and direct people there for recruiting purposes. It works. I gave one out on Saturday to a mom, she looked over the site with her son, they came the following Thursday, and returned with a completed app, etc on Friday.

 

We publish the web address on flyers placed in the church where we meet and at local schools. I can attribute 5 registrations to the site since we have had it up and communication has greatly improved even though we have several families without web access at home. But they can receive the regular email updates (automatic) on their smart phones.

 

I am not web design-literate and I was able to figure out the set up over a few hours only. Since then it had been a matter of updating and adding features as the need arises.

 

http://troop56bhc.ScoutLander.com

 

BTW, I just tried "Troop 56 Bullhead" as a search title on Google and found several links to our site, though they show up under other troop or pack numerals.

 

RR

[gcnphkr]

Make sure you register your unit with Google Places http://www.google.com/places/

Get your contact information current on BeAScout.org

 

Registration is free and puts you on Google Maps. That will often put you near the top of searches in your area.

 

If you want even better placements then be willing to pay for adds. Bidding for placement is not that expensive on a low volume search term like "boy scouts City, ST" I suspect that a couple of bucks a month would give you all the traffic you want.

 

We use Scoutlander. Overall it works but it is slow.