The History Project - Research Aids and Reports

Research Aids and Reports

Search Engine Optimization

These and other search engines automatically and repeatedly index your content with proper use of the built-in tools. Logos are the property of the various services.

Internet based research is facilitated by use of The History Project.

Our publishing system communicates with many search engines via standard coding. Indexing of the sites is automatic, repetitive and frequent, and our experience indicates that new pages and revised content appear promptly in search results.

This is accomplished by providing "metadata" fields in the publishing database. These include various keyword and descriptive fields. The system managers and programmers also monitor the development of searching techniques and adapt the system to respond to new search tools and algorithms.

If a site's editor uses the metadata fields, the indexing robots or "spiders" that regularly visit our system will use it to accelerate searching, and your site will become more prominent in search results. If not, then the dreaded "ten million pages found" will result from searching the Web for your topic, and fame and fortune will continue to elude the authors.

Articles (research reports) are automatically grouped by topic, or they can simply be chronological by date of creation.

On an actual THP site the editor would organize reports into categories, chapters, etc. For this overview we've grouped some articles on how to use the system and related themes.

Writing Tips and THP Support

Regular Writing Tips Feature Planned: 24-Sep-2003; From time to time we'll publish hints on making your history site more readable and on taking advantage of our built-in editing tools. Here's one example.
THP Directors Outline Plans for Fall 2002: 10-Sep-2003; Outreach to schools and community organizations will be the principal theme for the Fall.
Longevity Planned into The History Project: 06-Sep-2003; Our goal is to create a funding mechanism to perpetuate the system. A portion of revenue goes toward our plan to create a permanent endowment that will preserve sites after the original creators are gone.

Article Lists

Although we're using this article list for technical support information, most users will employ an article list to write the stories or "chapters" that comprise their own history site.

Articles in an article list are presented in reverse chronological order (last in first listed). In the list, the editor can optionally display the date of the article, a synopsis, and use several other formatting options.

Editors build each article with the full flexibility of layout and content (text, graphics, links...) available in the site's general-purpose pages. The maximum number of articles in standard sites is 125; these may be allocated into multiple article lists.

The editor can use the news log to point readers to recent content or to promote dialog between authors and readers.

Your site is a full-featured history magazine, part of a local and global family of similar sites that let you preserve your personal, regional and organizational history and distribute it broadly in time and space.