Don’t know how most of you guys bring up this site; I usually just type something like ‘MS support’ or ‘MS support forum’ in Google. However just lately, neither of these, or close derivatives seem to bring it up in my browser, unless well down the list. This seems odd to me to be happening all of a sudden, and I wonder if the society should take note as it could be detrimental to its ‘standing’ if it is being “pushed” down the list or out of the ‘limelight’ (which I think can be arranged by the competition) and so unlikely to be found by the casual enquirer. Anybody else noticed this?
I don’t come on very often but i still bookmark the site which is the easiest way to get in here
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I haven’t noticed it.
I have it bookmarked on my laptop, but occasionally Google if I’m on my iPad.
At the moment it’s coming up as the top hit.
Lately there have been a few adverts (paid-for, I believe) ahead of it, but it has made quite clear they’re ads. A couple have been quite controversial.
Tina
I’ve got it bookmarked too, so I wouldn’t have noticed this.
I’ve just tested with your phrase of “MS support” though, and the society’s the top two searches. The normal searches, not the sponsored ones right at the top of the page. The top one of those 3 being for Marks & Spencer xD
It certainly should come out top of the list if you searched for the actual society 
What the OP’s talking about is when he searches for MS support in general, the MS Society’s getting a prominent result for him.
I have it bookmarked, but have just googled MS Society out of curiosity. It came top of the list, with my local branch named in a large box to the right of the screen, including address, map, directions and 'phone number of the community centre where they meet.
not getting, grr! Hate it when I do that
I’m not searching for the actual society. I usually just type: “mul” and it auto-suggests “multiple sclerosis”. If I accept that, the Society is usually - but not always - first hit.
Even if there are a couple of obvious “sponsored” ads at the top, it’s never very far down the list.
Tina
Tina, what are the controversial ads that have shown up at the top of the page for you? People flogging dodgy meds and so on?
Yeah, one of them in particular is a notorious dentist - yeah, that’s right, a dentist - who reckons we’ve all been misdiagnosed, and he can fix it because it’s “just” a jaw misalignment issue.
Not gonna publish his name and have excited newbies running off there, but you get the idea of the type of crackpot thing that comes up. It was a paid-for placement.
sighs Ain’t humans great? There’s a lot of good out there in the world, but there’s also a whole lot of bottom-feeders, and you can’t get much lower than people who falsely profit from other people’s disease.
And WTF is Google doing allowing people like that to advertise on their pages : /
Making money, of course.
Geoff
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And I suppose he (the advertiser) can get away with it, because if he is denying either that MS actually exists, or that most diagnosed people really have it, he is not technically claiming to be able to cure it. A fine distinction, but probably keeps him (just) the right side of the law, because it can’t be proved he’s claimed anything unsubstantiated (that he’s successfully cured anyone of MS).
Tina
Gosh, don’t tell me that “Dr XXXX” is still pushing his wonder treatment.
I remember when one of his shills (believed to be XXXX himself) started a thread, had it closed by the mods,started another, had that one closed, repeated the process about 5 times in all…
Then he switched to the US TiMS website and was thrown off very quickly.
I see that he still has his forum running - but there are very few recent posts on it. Maybe, being reported to the Dental Council had something to do with it.
I guess that this points up one of the big problems with MS:
It is not a fashionable disease (compared to -say- Cancer, or Coronary Artery Disease. This is something that the MS Society should be doing something about.
Because there is no agreement as to the cause, and no treatments (only for the symptoms) the door is wide open for any quack to offer his/her “guaranteed” treatment to anyone who will pay for it. Moreover, folk are inclined to believe the quack after a qualified neurologist has told them that there is no cure. This is even more likely to happen with SPMS sufferers who have been told “Sorry, there is nothing that we can do for you”.
Geoff
Re: dentistry & dr. **** ? Just, no.
Re: Google ranking…
Unfortunately, as you are probably aware, our current website isn’t entirely mobile-friendly.
Websites that aren’t mobile-friendly are suffering from the latest Google development. The search giant has updated its algorithms (April 21) to favour websites that look and perform better on mobile devices, making them appear higher on search results.
Previous changes to Google’s algorithm simply required websites to make sure their pages were mobile-optimised for better viewing on smart phones and tablets.
Factors such as readability, responsive design and not using non-mobile friendly software (like Flash) will also be taken into consideration in a website’s search.
We are currently in the first phase of redeveloping the website- and are doing UX (user experience) testing now.
In particular we are trying to understand how people use the MS Society website and other resources relating to MS, what information you want and need online, and how we could improve to better meet your needs in future.
A company called Code Computerlove will be doing this work for us and will be holding phone conversations, face-to-face sessions and workshops over the next couple of weeks to help us answer these questions. We can’t do this without your help though, so please let us know if you are interested in taking part. Some of the question areas are included below – we would love to hear from you!
- Understanding your relationship with MS and the MS Society
- Understanding how you currently use digital channels & websites
- Where & how you gather information about MS
- Thoughts and opinions about MS Society & services
- Current experience of the MS Society platforms and digital channels
If you’re interested, please let us know.
Many thanks Stewart (admin)
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HA! Yes, of course : /
Profit before EVERYTHING, that’s the mantra these days -_-
Tried Googling ‘ms support’ on a networked pc at work today using IE browser and it was at the top (after ads). Tried just now Googling at home with Mozilla and it was half way down page three, so people must get different list orders.
That’s really random, because I use firefox and it’s the top 2 results for me. Does your browser need updating? Though I’m not sure what kind of difference using an older version would make, I should probably just shut up xD
Just tried again and it was in place 1 and 2. Maybe because it responds to my recent history.
Who knows? I’d hope Firefox was better behaved than that, but you never know! I’m always snide about IE’s laziness with showing old cached info instead of up-to-date stuff, so one in the eye for me if Firefox’s been doing that too!