Top Carolina Web Sites List History
The Top North and South Carolina Web Sites List was originally launched from TopSiteLists.com on March 2, 2003. Designed to duplicate the tremendous success of both The Top 50 Award Winning Web Sites List and The Top 25 Lighthouse Web Sites List, which have had over 30 Million visitors between them, it grew steadily. Early on, there were more South Carolina web sites participating than web sites from North Carolina. After a year, the number of sites from each state became about the same in number. But, with twice the population of South Carolina, North Carolina sites eventually began to dominate in both the number of web sites and voters.
As the total number of Carolina web sites participating approached 200, it was decided that any sites without at least ONE voting link going back to the list would be removed. Why? It was not fair that sites not sending ANY traffic TO the list should be able to keep on getting traffic FROM the list. Every site without at least one voting link going back to the list was contacted by email (or by phone call if possible) and warned their site was in danger of being deleted. Some site owners said they did not realize a voting link going back to the list was needed. Most of those web sites did add voting links, but those that did not lost traffic after being pulled.
After 2 years, 200+ web sites in the Carolinas had joined and dozens of sites were removed because they never did add any voting link. Some site owners just didn't understand that the more votes a web site gets, the higher up on the list it goes and, as a result, the more traffic it gets from the list. Unfortunately, technical problems on TopSiteLists.com web server developed and instead of vote counts updating once an hour, the list owner/manager could only force ONE update per day. Finally, the problem worsened with NO votes being counted, new sites unable to be approved and the TopSiteLists.com site going offline completely.
When his 3 Top Site Lists suddenly disappeared, the list owner/manager was simply FLOODED with emails and calls from webmasters of over 700 different web sites asking when (or if) the lists would be back. Despite much uncertainty, site owners were PROMISED all 3 Top Site Lists would indeed come back online and, when they did, they would work better than EVER BEFORE! Research to find the Best of Breed top site list software was begun and Aardvark Topsites PHP v5.01 software was selected as the ideal choice. This new plan required the considerable expense of all lists being hosted on their own web server to have full control of the source code, prevent potential free web host problems and making the list MUCH more professional.
In January 2006, the NEW Top North and South Carolina Web Sites List came back online using the already established domain name CarolinaSites.com with MANY new features, MUCH improved XHTML coding and everything working properly. Two pages showing the FINAL results from the original list were included. Many Carolina web site owners were thrilled to hear the news it was back and quickly rejoined because the list was a vital source of free targeted regional traffic. A few site owners were skeptical it could grow as fast as it had. In fact, the new list has grown even faster and it is MORE FUN to participate now than it ever was before!
The new site opened with special Top 10 ranking buttons which can be automatically displayed by the Top 10 highest-ranked web sites in North or South Carolina. In May 2006, 15 more ranking buttons were added, bringing the total to 25, so ALL Carolina web sites earning enough votes to be on the first page are so recognized. In July 2006, a new RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed was added to allow people all over the world to subscribe to the ever-changing results of the Top 10 overall ranked sites in the Carolinas. Another RSS feed allows people to follow only current ranks for either North Carolina OR South Carolina sites. For August 2006, new Google and ROR (Resources of a Resource) sitemaps were added and server cache delay time for Top 25 ranking buttons (showing #1-25 ranks on member sites) was reduced by half. The result? A new ALL-TIME traffic record - 370 total visitors in ONE day! Thanks to ALL 100 sites participating on 8/1/2006!
From the very beginning, the Top Carolina Web Sites List used the power of community to earn numerous high rankings at all major search engines. Joining the list helps member sites increase their own search rankings with high-quality incoming links, which also helps to strengthen the list. Many business web site owners don't know this yet, but in addition to the subject theme of a web site's product or service, every web site also has a regional theme with city, state and nation. The Top North and South Carolina Web Sites List, with its unique Google-friendly links site structure, helps to develop every member site's regional theme quite significantly.
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