Helping webmasters from user to user

Thursday, December 24, 2009

You have to have some kind of super-powers to keep up with all of the issues posted in our
Webmaster Help Forum
—that’s why we call our Top Contributors the
“Bionic Posters.”
They’re able to leap through tall questions in a single bound, providing helpful and solid
information all around. We’re thankful to the Bionics for tackling problems both hard and easy
(well, easy if you know how). Our current Bionic Posters are:
Webado (Christina),
Phil Payne,
Red Cardinal (Richard),
Shades1 (Louis),
Autocrat,
Tim Abracadabra,
Aaron,
Cristina,
Robbo,
John,
Becky Sharpe,
Sasch,
BbDeath,
Beussery (Brian),
Chibcha (Terry),
Luzie (Herbert),
奥宁 (Andy),
Ashley,
Kaleh
and
Redleg!

With thousands of webmasters visiting the English Help Forum every day, some questions naturally
pop up more often than others. To help catch these common issues, the Bionic Posters have also
helped to create and maintain a comprehensive list of
frequently asked questions and their answers.
These FAQs cover everything from
“Why isn’t my site indexed?”
to diagnosing difficult issues with the help of
Google Webmaster Tools,
often referring to our
Webmaster Help Center
for specific topics. Before you post in the forum, make sure you’ve read through these resources
and do a quick search in the forum; chances are high that your question has been answered there
already.

Besides the Bionic Posters, we’re lucky to have a number of very active and helpful users in the
forum, such as:
squibble,
Lysis,
yasir,
Steven Lockey,
seo101,
RickyD,
MartinJ
and many more. Thank you all for making this community so captivating and—most of the
time-friendly.

Here are just a few (well, a little more than a few) of the many comments that we’ve seen posted
in the forum:

• “Thank you for this forum… Thank you to those that take the time to answer and care!”
• “I’ve only posted one question here, but have received a wealth of knowledge by reading tons
  of posts and answers. The time you experts put into helping people with their problems is very
  inspiring and my hat’s off to each of you. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that your
  services aren’t going unnoticed and I truly appreciate the lessons.”
• “Thank you very much cristina, what you told me has done the trick. I really appriciate the
  help as this has been bugging me for a while now and I didn’t know what was wrong.”
• “thank you ssssssssssoooo much kaleh.”
• “OK, Phil Payne big thanks to You! I have made changes and maybe people are starting to
  find me in G! Thanks to Ashley, I’ve started to make exclusive and relevant content for people.
  ”
• “If anything, it has helped me reflect on the sites and projects of days gone by so as to
  see what I could have done better – so that I can deliver that much more and better results
  going forward. I’ve learned that some things I had done right, were spot on, and other issues
  could have been handled differently, as well as a host of technical information that I’ve
  stored away for future use. Bottom Line: this forum rocks and is incredibly helpful.”
• “I asked a handful of questions, got GREAT help while doing a whole lot of lurking, and now
  I’ve got a site that rocks!! (…) Huge thanks to all the Top Contributors, and a very special
  mention to WEBADO, who helped me a TON with my .htaccess file.”
• “Over the years of reading (and sometimes contributing) to this forum I think it has helped
  to remove many false assumptions and doubts over Google’s ranking systems. Contrary to what
  many have said I verily believe Google can benefit small businesses. Keep up the good
  work.”
• “The forum members are awesome and are a most impressive bunch. Their contribution is
  immeasurable as it is huge. Not only have they helped Google in their success as a profitable
  business entity, but also helped webmasters both aspiring and experienced. There is also an
  engender(ment) of “family” or “belonging” in the group that has transcended the best and worst
  of times (Current forum change still TBD 🙂). We can agree,
  disagree and agree to disagree but remain respectful and civil
  (Usually 🙂).”
• “Hi Redleg, Thank you very much for all of the information. Without your help, I don’t
  think I would ever have known how to find the problem.”
• “What an amazing board. Over the last few days I have asked 1 question and received a ton of
  advice mainly from Autocrat.”
• “A big thank you to the forum and the contributors that helped me get my site on Google.
  After some hassle with my web hosters and their naff submission service, issues over adding
  pages Google can see, issues over Sitemaps, I can now say that when I put my site name into
  the search and when i put in [custom made watch box], for instance, my site now comes up.”
• “Thank you Autocrat! You are MAGNIFICENT! (…) I am your biggest fan today.
  : ) Imagine
  Joe Cocker singing With a Little Help from My Friends…that’s my theme song today.”
• “I’ve done a lot of reading since then and I’ve learned more in the last year than I learned
  in the previous 10. When I stumbled into this forum I had no idea what I was getting into but
  finding this forum was a gift from God! Words cannot express the amount of gratitude I feel
  for the help you have given me and I wish I could repay you some how…. I don’t mean to sound
  so mushy, but I write this with tears in my eyes and I am truly, truly grateful…”

Are you new to the Webmaster Help Forum? Tell us a little bit
about yourself
and then
join us
to learn more and help others!

Posted by
John Mueller,
Webmaster Trends Analyst, Google Zürich