“Getting to the Top of Google (and Other IT Issues)” – a talk by Brian Kelly“

Review of the talk given by Brian Kelly on 3rd April 2022 via Zoom.

Geoff Gowers of Plum Jerkum Border Morris of Warwick writes:

Hello, I am a member of Plum Jerkum, The Mixed Border Morris side from the town of Warwick in the heart of the midlands.  We do have a web site, http://www.plumjerkum.co.uk/, but it was no easy thing to spot when I was looking for a Morris side in the town, especially having not much idea about Morris, or who or what is Plum Jerkum (see our recipe page) . Now we appear within simple searches, but after today we can do a lot more, especially as we do need a bit more youth (less aged) and inexperience (to make me look better)!!

Pagerank-for-Morris-Federation-Team-WebsitesGoogling Morris – is that a dance??  By my count we had 22 on Zoom, owning up to 15 sides.  I’m sure there are more than 15 sides in the Morris Federation (MF) – in fact I think I heard more like 500, (but could not find totals on MF site) – so this session, ably led by Brian Kelly, gave us merry band of 15 the advantage in learning how to increase our sides coverage online.

Whilst there are several platforms we use (Google, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube for example), this session concentrated on Google (really?? Why?? No Teamfinder hits – let’s try Google).

The information in the session grows in complexity, so my recommendation is to find the MF IT pages and look at the help material https://www.morrisfed.org.uk/resources/it/.  Here you can see expanded details such as hit rates, profiles, tags, and rankings, but you’ll also find the easy steps we can take now to just make ourselves more presentable.

Rivington-Morris-profileBut to consider the session’s prime objectives:

– Raising our sides’ online visibility
– Helping with our recruitment
– Collectively promoting Morris and MF

Then we have some work to do – I found 3 simple tasks to take away:

  1. Check and update our profile on the MF Teamfinder
  2. Create a Google Business Profile
  3. Review and update our website

All help is available via the MF IT pages if you need it.

Mixed morris side near meDoing this (following the tips and using enthusiastic keywords, video, pictures and adding links) will give more information to anyone searching online for Morris and give us a presence on Google Maps (I often wondered how that happened).

And just maybe, we’ll find that keen family just around the corner looking for a different pastime.

The target is to have this done by the MF AGM in September.  Get cracking!  Thanks to Brian & the team.

by Geoff Gowers of Plum Jerkum Border Morris, of Warwick, Warwickshire

Donations from participants raised money for the DEC Ukraine – Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal 

Resources

You can see a recording of Brian Kelly’s talk on YouTube (1hr 23 mins).

See all the IT Resources at https://www.morrisfed.org.uk/resources/it/ – scroll down to see the 3 segments of this IT talk:

About Brian Kelly

Brian Kelly is probably best known in the Morris and Rapper world for his performances as a comic character with the Newcastle Kingsmen, having won many DERT prizes with Chris Pitt and the Kingsmen over 30 years of performing together, not only at DERT events and festivals including Broadstairs, Whitby and Sidmouth. Brian has also taken part in overseas trips to folk festivals in places including Holland, Switzerland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Syria. 

In addition to dancing with the Newcastle Kingsmen, Brian has also danced with a number of other rapper and sword teams including Sallyport Sword, Black Cap, Northgate Rapper and Haymarket Rapper, whom he currently dances with (they’re the experienced and mature dancers and musicians from the Newcastle Kingsmen who are difficult to find, restricting their performances normally to three weekends a year in towns and cities will good pubs with wooden floors!)  Brian has also danced Cotswold for Green Ginger Morris and, more recently, with Wyld Morris – although he is happy to confess that he dances Cotswold like an aging rapper dancer (although his hocklebacks may be embarrassing to watch, he did publish a total of 40 weekly YouTube shows for Wyld Morris during Wyld Morris’ 10th anniversary year)!  

During his working life, Brian worked in IT and became known for setting up probably the first university website in the UK (in 1992, when fewer than 100 companies have published details of their website!). In 1996 he was employed at UKOLN, University of Bath as UK Web Focus, a national adviser about the web for UK universities. Brian gave over 400 talks during his time at UKOLN throughout the UK and at conferences around the world.  He particularly remembers attending a conference in Brisbane, Australia when the technical infrastructure (the ‘page ranking) for a new search engine developed at Stanford University – yes, it was Google! 

Brian is now enjoying using his IT and web skills and experiences to support the Morris Federation, Morris Federation team members and, through his participation in JMO events, the wider Morris community.  

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