Hi everyone, I’ve just looked at the SCID Blog statistics and since this site was created nearly 4,000 people have looked at it and the site has had almost 10,000 views. Thank you all for your posts and comments over the last couple of years – clearly the site is of interest to people beyond those involved in the SCID course.
Please do continue to upload posts and comment on a subject related to security, conflict and international development – it’s great to read your posts and it can help bring attention to some very important issues.
Any ideas on increasing readership are very welcome – the more lateral the better! Let me know if you want discussion threads on the Blog (remembering it’s public) as well as on Blackboard – on any current development, thematic issue or novel approach to understanding and responding to the challenges of conflict and peacebuilding.
For example, this Blog is a good platform for discussing issues tangentially related to but not fully addressed in the SCID course e.g. social media, conflict and peacebuilding; interdisciplinary approaches to conflict resolution and peacebuilding; bridging macro and micro approaches to conflict resolution and peacebuilding; religion, conflict and peacebuilding; art/music, conflict and peacebuilding; science, technology and conflict/peacebuilding; and geospatial relations and conflict. These would be great topics to discuss so please don’t hesitate – any problems uploading (you need to join wordpress – click on ‘Discover’ if you don’t already have an account) send me your post (eg132@le.ac.uk).
Don’t forget we also have the SCID twitter for you to post any tweets, get in touch and share info/updates – Thanks lately to Nalini Maharaj and Richard Burne for tweets and RTs!
Image: Israeli data scientist Gilad Lotan who has mapped interactions across Twitter during the Israeli-Gaza conflict – BBC (2014) ‘Twitter’s Map of Mid-East Conflict’, London: BBC, available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p025lg7h, accessed on 15/02/16.
Security, Conflict and International Development (SCID) 
RE Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
First, I would like to thank you for creating and maintaining the blog. I have enjoyed it thoroughly and furthered my learning in the process.
Second, I would like to suggest we can increase the blog’s traffic and presence by reminding people to please include key words in the “key words” section offered during the editing and uploading process of new posts. This will foster Search Engine Optimisation.
This single act will assist search engines (like Google. Bing, Firefox, etc) in finding the SCID Blog. The search engine’s algorithm is built over time, and key words are both essential to, and inseparable from, the process.
The act of filling in the key word section will also assist those of us searching through the blog to find particular posts we wish to re-find and reference in the future.
Finally, I would like to suggest we include the name of the content’s author in the key word section (not the poster, but the actual author). Here is why…someone researching corruption in Mozambique will likely search for ‘Joseph Hanlon’ using Google (due to Dr Hanlon’s general awesomeness on the subject). If a SCID blogger posted a piece by Joseph Hanlon on the blog, and included his name in the key word area, the search engine would respond to the third party researcher’s request for links related to Dr Hanlon by finding and suggesting the blog post based on key word information. Then, once the search engine’s suggestion is actually selected (clicked on) by the researcher, the link will subsequently be re-indexed and elevated in status within the search engine. This will facilitate the blog’s rising through the ranks of google search suggestions. This, of course, is wholly dependent on time and frequency, and any competition against websites who pay actual advertisement monies to Google. Nevertheless, it is the single and best means of driving presence.
With this in mind, the SCID Programme will be that much closer to broadening the messages which are so crucial to positive change. And, just as importantly, having it’s profile raised.
I hope this helps.
PS From the Google site:
“Your SEO keywords are the key words and phrases in your web content that make it possible for people to find your site via search engines. A website that is well optimized for search engines “speaks the same language” as its potential visitor base with keywords for SEO that help connect searchers to your site.”
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Thank you very much, Maren – this is excellent advice and very helpful – I realise I should have been adding key words all along. Thanks again and I hope you’re keeping very well.
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