The Blog is Back!

Our Christmas tree including
the newest addition, a
red Dalek ornament that was a
gift this year from my sister.

After a couple very busy months with the holidays, work, and family, I finally have time again to write.  For those who are following me, I am sorry that I have been unable to write more recently as there has been quite a bit of science and technology stories in the news as of late.  My hope is that I can write more about the topics that interest me while also adding my personal and professional touch to them.  Much has been happening that I want to comment on, so hopefully I will not be in the situation where I am unable to type out my thoughts to the world.  Perhaps this is time for a lesson in time management, though as many people know, everything tends to pile up during the holidays / end of the year, no matter how hard you try to avoid it.

Coincidentally, my restart of the blog also corresponds to a recovery of my standing with Google.  I have absolutely no idea what caused it, but around the same time that I became too busy to write regularly, the blog saw a sudden and drastic drop in search results, corresponding to a drop in page position from one or two for certain searches to five, six, or twenty.  For those who run a website or even just use a search engine, it is quite rare for anyone to search beyond the first page of results. Even if what you are looking for is not on the first page, most people choose to refine their search rather than look at pages two, three, or beyond.  I actually wonder why Google even bothers giving you more than five pages of results, as I would be willing to bet that over ninety-nine percent of people don't search beyond that point.

Still being fairly new and inexperienced with running a website, I asked a good friend and blogger for his thoughts, as well as requested advice on a Google forum.  Even though I received no official confirmation that Google had actually demoted my site for anything, I put in the effort to implement the changes in order to recover my good standing with Google (meanwhile Bing search results have continued to rise).  While I did not see any change immediately, the past few days saw a sharp jump in search results, not unlike the quick drop I saw a month earlier.  I am hoping that I am out of the woods.

My sudden drop and recovery of search engine visits from November through December 2013.

One of the suggested changes to the blog that I have yet to implement is a switch from more, shorter posts, to less, longer ones.  Trying to juggle the family, work, and the blog has been resulting in less than enough time to write everything I want to, so I ended up writing some abbreviated articles due to the time constraint.  To try and improve my standing with Google, I will likely be writing fewer posts, but they should be of better quality and with more useful information.  I'm sure a few quick posts will find their way in if I find something of particular interest that I want to share quickly, but those should be less frequent.

If anyone has any additional suggestions about the blog that they would like to make, please do so using the comment form.  I am always open to suggestion on ways to improve the blog, so please do not be shy.  Happy holidays to everyone, and I am sure we will be having more STEM discussions in the new year.