SEO of the Nerves project

[mnishiguchi]

Has anyone thought about renaming the name of the Nerves Project?

I really like Nerves and I want it to be more popular.
I think one issue is its name and SEO. The term nerve is so widely used for real nerves that our “Nerves” can never beat it in the search engines.

Ideally we want to see the project by searching with its name.

• https://www.google.com/search?q=nerves

I hate to say but I think the project name needs some twist, like for example Raspberry Pi. Compare these:

• https://www.google.com/search?q=Raspberry+Pie
• https://www.google.com/search?q=Raspberry+Pi

A little twist makes a huge difference.

What do you all think?

[kokolegorille]

Naming is difficult.

Elixir, Phoenix, Broadway, Nerves etc

They have all potential SEO issue

[mnishiguchi]

That is right
Maybe I thought too much.

[AndyL]

The terms “Nerves Elixir”, “Nerves Project”, “Nerves Framework” all show pretty good results.

[mnishiguchi]

That is a good sign

[takasehideki]

I can’t agree your opinion.
What I wanna say at first is we need to respect the project and its name. Of course this is an important and difficult discussable point, but I guess no one in Nerves core team would like to change their name.

And also, there are many difficulties to rename the existing project. All packages need to be renamed, and existing projects may continue to be unable to resolve dependencies. The same thing will happen if we change the name to something unique to SEO, and Google will suggest notational fluctuations.
# BTW, “Elixir” has the same issue in Japan. This is a famous cosmetic brand name,,,

One alternative solution for us is adding some terms to search, e.g., “IoT”, “Elixir”, and so on. And we should focus our efforts on dissemination so that “Nerves” becomes a more commonly accepted term in the technology field.

What I wanna say at last is,,, I love “Nerves”, and you! =D

[mnishiguchi]

Actually I put it wrong. It is not my opinion. I was just curious what people are thinking about SEO of the project because I thought it is important

There must be ways to increase attention to the Nerves without changing its name, which is an extreme solution we all want to avoid, of course!

So we Nerves users could address the Nerves consistently using certain format so that we can increase the specificity of the name and help “non-Nerves” people discover Neves easily.

Or maybe it is nothing to talk about. I don’t know. I love Nerves so much I do Nerves every day after work. That is why I was thinking about it.

[fhunleth]

@mnishiguchi Thanks for bringing up SEO and Nerves. I feel like most of what I’d say has been said on this thread already. I did want to thank you for your Nerves blog posts. I have to believe that they will help. Since you asked, I try to refer to Nerves as the “the Nerves Project” at the beginning and then just as Nerves when it’s unambiguous. I feel like the suggestion to add terms like “Elixir”, “embedded”, and “IoT” was good and I do that when searching for Nerves posts that I want to share.

[mnishiguchi]

Yeah, I am planning to continue writing up blog posts about whatever I do with the Nerves project as a IoT noob. Hope it will help other noobs.

[l00ker]

I’ve been subscribed to the Raspberry Pi newsletter for years now, since buying my first Pi, an A+ I believe, years ago. I may have missed something as I don’t follow all of the magazines that have cropped up in that space, but I don’t recall ever seeing anything about Elixir or Nerves (other than in a few forum posts) on the Raspberry Pi website etc.

Since Nerves works great on the Pi, I think that if someone could manage to build a project or two, like maybe a sprinkler controller, a simple alarm system, or a remote MP3 music player (maybe toss a little love to the Phoenix Framework & The Membrane Framework) etc., that could highlight what Elixir and “the Nerves Project” are capable of on the Pi, Nerves, as well as, the whole Elixir ecosystem could possibly gain a lot of attention there. Especially if those projects managed to get posted on their blog and in the newsletter.

[mnishiguchi]

On second thought, maybe we do not worry about SEO so much.

Googling “Elixir” shows info about our Elixir. https://www.google.com/search?q=elixir

Maybe the same will happen to our Nerves as it gets more attention. It would be awesome if our Nerves beats generic nerves in the search results.

[tommy]

I don’t think https://www.nerves-project.org/ should rank well for nerves as that isn’t what most people are looking for.

It ranks number one for nerves elixir and nerves project. So that’s all good can probable be forgotten about as it will probable always rake well for those terms.

I think the focus for SEO needs on ranking for iot solutions and related terms.

[mnishiguchi]

That totally makes sense, but to me it would be even better if Nerves I like were on the top of the list. I do not care those who search for real nerves

[jjcarstens]

My 2¢ is that I’m more interested in community engagement than broad marketing reach. I have a total lack of knowledge around SEO, but my opinion there is that it seems like it may increase who may happen upon it, but not that they would be immediately able to engage with it having no knowledge prior. And I would rather the default of someone looking for “Nerves” to actually get the medical equivalent as there is probably a reason they are searching that.

That said, I believe word of mouth and experimental content (like blog posts) promote community engagement more, albeit slower.

I don’t think I’m entirely opposed to a rename should that be best for the community, but I would rank SEO as a much lower reason.