Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Battlesnake invisible in Google

(The following probably won't be that interesting to anyone who isn't in a band or doesn't care where their page shows up in Google)

So, I'm used to my band Battlesnake not showing up on the first page of Google searches for "battlesnake". But today I decided to see just how many pages away we were from the front page. I gave up after about page six or seven. We basically weren't there at all.

Part of this might be our fault: we've changed URL a few times. First we were http://www.myspace.com/battlesnakeaustralia, then Gus changed it to http://www.myspace.com/battlesnakemusic. This led to some confusion. Once we'd sorted that out, I followed the Imp Of The Perverse and changed it again, to http://www.myspace.com/battlesnake. I figured whatever confusion it caused in the short term, long term it was better to have something easy to remember.

But anyway: not showing up in Google is a bit like not really existing. I use Google to find pretty much everything. If I could Google my keys when I misplaced them I would. It's become an extension of my nervous system.

What to do? I understand why we're not near the top, but I don't understand why we're not there at all. The new URL is all over the place by now. The problem with things as they stand is that someone needs to know our URL to find us. Without that, we're invisible. But speaking personally, I probably Google a new band name once a week at least, some name I've heard on the radio and want to check out. If someone tries to do that for us, they find nothing.

What gives?