Most users of the Moles website will have noticed a few subtle changes to the way the site looks, but there are much bigger changes afoot as I write. One of the biggest is the "de-framing" of the site - something that has been long overdue. It makes web search engines like Google, index the site much more effectively, as they can see all of the pages on the site. It also means that when you find a page on the site using a search engine like Google, you can navigate effectively when you go to the page. Previously you would have just seen the content - say a review of a band, but there would have been no navigation menus or other means of seeing other pages on the site.
Because it means Google can index all of the site's pages, Google ranks us as higher in importance, and this helps us to get a higher ranking on the site for any particular search query. Currently since the "de-framing" Google lists around 18,000 pages from the "Moles" site. So, for instance, if you type "uk live venues" in Google.com, then Moles comes in at a stonking number one - ie top of the first page of results! If you type "uk live music" then we are number 8 which is still pretty good, and that is out of 196,000,00 other pages! We're all pretty pleased with that, as you might imagine, but it can always be better....
We are also planning an "expert" articles & guidance area where there will be lots of useful information for musicians and the like. There will be stuff on recording techniques , gigging, publicity, and all sorts of useful stuff. It will be a members only area, but there will be no charge to join - just the usual screen name and e-mail address requirement. There will be a news item just on this once the code has been written.
However the best change to the site is the addition of ticketing on-line. In a few weeks, you will be able to buy tickets on-line right up until the doors open for the club. It will be an "e-ticket" system similar to the airlines, which will keep costs down, and enable you to buy tickets just before the gig (if there are any left by then of course!), and that way you will know you can get in before you set off from home.
The total cost of all the changes is over £10,000, which in web design terms is actually pretty good - so a big thank-you to our friends Stu & Gill at Bitenet who are hard at work doing all the coding and re-design. For once the government are actually doing something useful & beneficial, instead of bombing the hell of out the Afghanis, the Iraquis, or supporting Israel in their war crimes against Lebanon, and are paying half the cost of updating this site. So a lukewarm thanks to that bunch of crazies at no 10!
Keep your eyes peeled for the new additions.....
Philip Andrews.
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