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This document provides initial evidence on the potential value of team (and other) hashtags in Teamfinder profiles.
The Morris Federation document on “Getting Details of Your Morris Side to the Top of Google” explained how hosting content in a Teamfinder profile on the Morris Federation website could hep people find details of the side, as content held on the Morris Federation website is more easily found (dur to the website’s ‘pagerank’ value).
During a Zoom workshop on “Getting to the Top of Google (and Other IT Issues)” the Morris Federation agreed to monitor how sides were using their profiles in order to share examples of best practices and emerging patterns of use. This document summaries the initial findings.
Teamfinder profiles were analysed on 17 April 2022. The following data on use of hashtags was found:
Details of how the hashtags can be found in a Google search are given below. Note that an ‘InPrivate’ search (also known as Icognito search) was used so that Google was not using preferred results.
| Team (link to profile) | Hashtag (link to Google search) | Google summary |
| Northgate Rapper | #northgaterapper | Top 4 results are team results for (1) Instagram; (2) Facebook; (3) Teamfinder and Twitter |
| Blackhorse and Standard Women’s North West Morris | #BlackhorseandStandardNWMorris | One result for the team’s Facebook profile |
| Misfit Molly | #misfitmolly | Top 5 results include (1) Twitter; (2) YouTube and (3) Facebook. [Instagram, Pinterest and TikTok hits aren’t relevant] |
| Rivington Morris | #rivingtonmorris | Top 5 results are for (1) Twitter; (2) Instagram; (3) team website; (4) Flickr and (5) YouTube (1 video) |
| Tatters and Tails | #tattersandtails | Top 3 results are for (1) Facebook; (2) team website and (3) Twitter |
| Haymarket Rapper | #haymarketrapper | Top result was for Twitter |
Note as described below, recent updates to Teamfinder profiles containing the hashtags have not yet been indexed by Google. A follow-up survey will monitor how team hashtags are indexed by Google.
It addition to hashtags based on a side’s name we found a number of additional hashtags used in Teamfinder profiles, as listed below.
| Team (link to profile) | Hashtag (link to Google search) | About |
| Northgate Rapper | #mindthelights | Team catchphrase |
| Misfit Molly | #mollymalarkey | Team catchphrase |
The Morris Federation recommends a number of hashtags which may help people find specific pieces of information, when used with other search terms as shown below.
| Hashtag (link to Google search) | About | Used by |
| #kit | Information about a side’s kit | [Misfit Molly] – [Rivington Morris] |
| #location | Information about a side’s location | [Misfit Molly] – [Rivington Morris] |
| #newmemberswelcome | Sides which welcome new members | None yet |
You may have updated your side’s profile with a hashtag and found that results aren’t found in a Google search. This is due to the time it takes for Google to discover pages which have been updated and then to index the contents and make them available in Google searches.
We have found that in the week from 10-16 April 2022 a total of 14 profiles were indexed, an average of 2 profiles per day. There are currently over 280 profiles which have been indexed by Google so at the current rate all profile pages should be indexed by July 2022.
Also note that in the last 28 days, over 40% of the pages which appeared in a Google search which included pages from the Morris Federation website were for a team profile.
This evidence appears to confirm the value of adding information to team profiles, including appropriate hashtags.
You can monitor details of the number of Teamfinder profiles indexed using simple Google queries as shown below.
| Query | About | Status (17 April 2022) |
| “#morrisfedprofile” | Teamfinder profiles indexed by Google | ~280 hits |
| “#morrisfedprofile” “#kit” | Teamfinder profiles containing easily findable kit information | 0 hits |
| “#morrisfedprofile” “#location” | Teamfinder profiles containing easily findable location information | 0 hits |
| “#morrisfedprofile” “#newmemberswelcome” | Teamfinder profiles with easily findable information welcoming new members | 0 hits |
Note in Table 4:
During the Zoom workshop on “Getting to the Top of Google (and Other IT Issues)” we summarised our plans for enhancing discovery of team information, as shown below.
This document fulfils some of our actions: monitoring how Google indexes pages and delivers traffic to our website.
The next step is for teams to update their profiles. Over to you!
We welcome feedback on this document. In addition we would like to hear from morris, sword and other traditional dance sides who use IT and would be willing to share their experiences. Would you like to contribute a case study?
Document published: 17 Apr 2022
This document is available with a Creative Commons Sharealike (CC-BY) licence. In brief, this means you can copy and make changes to this document provided you give acknowledgements to the author/publisher. A suggested wording for acknowledgements is:
This document is based on the "Use of Morris Team Hashtags to Support Discovery" document by Brian Kelly, Comms and IT volunteer with the Morris Federation.
#MorrisFedITResources #MFITResources
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