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The Mystery of Stamp Demon

There is a continuing vexing mystery in which the perfectly reasonable website STAMP DEMON.co.uk is apparently missing on many searches for which it should appear! The Stamp Demon website has many commendable pages of content, no broken links, a nicely interlinked structure, and yet it seems to be subject to being unfairly boycotted by Google. Why? We don't know! Has Google got a problem with it somehow? The site doesn't suffer from common mistakes in website design, and is made of real HTML, so it really should appear!

These days (2006) it is important for a website to have plenty of good content, as people like to see actual content at a site rather than just a lot of silly links. So, At STAMP DEMON you can see such intriguing pages as Ginger and Proud, Customising your Car, Does My Bum Look Big In This?, Stinky Drains, and a considerable amount of material about stamp collecting including the useful List of Old World Countries

The Stamp Demon website is very much in the spirit of the early Zyra's website, even including a site index, and good sized text that you can actually read, rather than being all too small in neat little columns.

Well, we'll not put up with it being ignored! I like to encourage new business and to give it a boost! So, even if search engines continue to fail to spot a good thing when they see it, you can visit STAMP DEMON yourself, right now, via this independent link, and make your own mind up about the quality of the site and it's deserving of being on search results! And if you like it, you can stick it in your favourites/bookmarks!

Besides being the most prominent Internet landmark in Scredington, the STAMP DEMON company is a visitable online business for you to have a browse around, regardless of where you are in the world, or your level of interest in philately. It's more than just Stamps you know!

Update 2008: It is baffling that Google still has the official Stamp Demon site missing as the Number1 in the search for the actual name of the company. Note that this is not to be confused with a small website whose name is "Stamp" (ie welcome to Stamp etc) and whose website is www.stamp.demon.co.uk as it's a subdomain of Demon Internet, and it's nothing to do with Stamp Domain, (not sure what that is). The official location of the actual Stamp Demon site is www.stampdemon.co.uk

Update 2009: The mystery of Stamp Demon continues, and shame be upon Google for failing to list the official front page of Stamp Demon as Number1 on a search for "stamp demon". How could they make such a shocking mistake in their algorithm? Anyway, there is new hope, as Stamp Demon is diversifying into a wider global encompassment, and will enable Stamp Demon .net and Stamp Demon .com soon.

Update 2009/07: At long last, Stamp Demon is Number1 on a Google search for "stamp demon"! It's taken years for this to be resolved, but at least it has now been sorted out. What a relief!

Update 2009/09: Maybe I spoke too soon. There was a brief period during which Google stopped including Stamp Demon in the first page of results, which was plainly absurd because when you do a search for "stamp demon" the fact is that Stamp Demon SHOULD be Number1. That is the official site, and there aren't any others. So, it should be Number1 when you do a search for it. That situation was restored in 2010/10.

I can now tell you the answer, the solution to the Mystery of Stamp Demon. The reason was: The site had the text in black on a white background, which was perfectly visible, but Google assumed that because the background colour was in Tables it was not the "visible" background colour and what Google assumed the background colour was, was black. Black on black = invisible. Even though the text was clearly visible, Google assumed it was invisible and therefore shouldn't be seen. This, unfortunately makes Google look like the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal, which, we are told, is a creature so mindbogglingly stupid that it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you! Anyway, having corrected the background colour to be the same colour as the table background colour, Google has stopped assuming it can't see it, and has actually started listing Stamp Demon. Oh good! At last! However, this has proved something crucial, Google is Flawed

For solving this, Well Done to Neil Taylor!