Question

Why doesn't Cousin Bait work on google?

Comments

I clicked on Google.  I created a Facebook account, then downloaded the image of Charles Reuben Miller's tree.  I added pictures to the WikiTree profile, a biography, memories.  But when I put his name into Google search I get the same old stale list that was there when I did nothing.  So what's the point?  I'm so discouraged.

Answer 1

You have to give Google a chance to roam over the links.  It may take a few days.  Remember, it's indexing billions of pages a day. :)

Comments

Thank you Ros, You've given me hope that my efforts weren't in vain.

Answer 2

When I put “Charles Reuben Miller” with the quotes into google I get the wikitree page as the #1 result (followed by ancestry.com, geni.com, findagrave.com, then random personal site). Your efforts were not in vain.

Comments

Thank you, Joe.  I tried it and you are right.  But when you list him without the quote marks, it doesn't come up.  And most people would just type in the name without quote marks.  I'm not understanding this.

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Without quotes you get every page with those three words on it, which is vastly more hits than the exact phrase “Charles Reuben Miller.”  The quotes restrict the search to an exact phrase and is a good way of getting rid of thousands pages which are not what you are looking for.

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Interesting. I didn't know that.  Good to know for searches in general. Thanks for taking the time to clarify things.