Open tmotyl opened 4 years ago
We agree, but we suck at SEO. I welcome any suggestions for concrete action that reliably improves it.
Related issue: https://github.com/ActivityWatch/activitywatch/issues/368
The website https://activitywatch.net/ basically is just a one page with very little content. So let's start from the basics:
That's very helpful, thanks.
I've started working on putting docs under the same domain. I won't have time for the copywriting stuff anytime soon, but I welcome any PRs in the website repo that improve the landing page with text that includes more of the keywords.
Edit: Updated your comment to make it a checklist.
Docs are served from https://docs.activitywatch.net/en/latest/ now.
We should probably also add a sitemap.
Personal experience: I only found this through alternativeto.net after searching for open-source time-tracking tools on google for a while.
Personal experience: I found it after searching firefox addons like "time tracker" to measure surfing time (its better to add recommended mark on this addon)
I've been searching for RescueTime alternative ;)
Idea for adding more content to the website:
Add an FAQ page
Another idea to make AW more visible online:
I'm in a battle right now with the ManicTime guys who provide horrible, horrible customer service to their clients. I've been watching this project mature for a few years now and have been wanting to switch over.
FYI, we do SEO :)
Another idea to make AW more visible online:
- A lot(most?) find the time tracker they use by searching for it on google.
- Therefore, the solution is to look up simple queries people might ask like: "open-source time-tracker", "best time-tracker", "RescueTime alternative", "free software to track time" and commenting in the top blog comment sections/quora threads/reddit threads about AW.
- I haven't seen the project mentioned in virtually any of the top 3-4 posts on google for any of those queries, and commenting there is an easy 1-time thing to do that doesn't require maintenance. A bonus point is that in a lot of the places people specifically ask for OSS projects, most comments come from closed-source alternative, so highlighting AW there would be especially targeted to the right audience
I would recommend adding a comment to the Quora Posts related to "Time Tracking Software" related keywords.
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I often read that security is a reason for alternative choices. Also, I believe a course or collection on how to build custom watchers. Anyways, Youtube is pretty empty and the ones there show barely how much detail you can pull and how to use it.
In general some courses, more templates for popular applications and rather than throwing in the regex101 link, address examples and the self learning recourses at the end of the documentation.
A bonus point is that in a lot of the places people specifically ask for OSS projects, most comments come from closed-source alternative, so highlighting AW there would be especially targeted to the right audience
Yes. I only found this because I've been recently fascinated by FOSS culture and have been trying out a lot of things and turning to github first more and more often over google searches. I think I stumbled upon this through the humane tech list or something similar. I fell in love right away because of how hands off it was and the fact that it was already able to replace Rescuetime, Toggl and work.exe (a AHK script by Neil Cicirega) combined and shared it right away to a discord.
I've always had a lot of distaste for SEO practices and found it difficult to play the game while sticking to how I truly felt and making it sound natural. But in any case-
My suggestion: I've noticed the website doesnt mention Discord at all and I'm not sure how much you've got going on for the server but it might be something to consider. I remember once searching for "productivity" discords and the best ones were centered around an app or product for productivity.
Obsidian Members Group and Forest Study Chat are huge community discord servers that I'm sure would have people very interested in the project. Obsidian is a notetaking app which I feel has similar values to this one and Forest is a time tracking gamification app.
Discord has been a wonderful avenue for me when it comes to collaboration and networking (despite the companies questionable practices). I hope this suggestion is helpful. I don't usually interact on github, this is actually the first time I've offered a suggestion, but I guess that's just how much a single day of using this project has meant to me. Haha.
Hi One more keyword to consider adding on website and github "activity tracker" - that's what I used to find the project recently again :)
Hi. The SEO was great. I found the project on the first result! I used "activity tracker windows"
Hi I'm so happy I've found the tool. I spend a day looking for a tool which can help me and my team track time, but is not focused on spying on employees.
Please consider working on SEO, so it's much easier to find this project. It was also not included in any comparisons or lists I've seen.
I will dig the exact keywords I've used but one for sure was "automatic time tracker linux"