As you know, some time ago we changed our name from ‘LifeSIGNS’ to FirstSigns and changed our web address to match.

Obviously this has an impact on how people find us, link to us and how many people visit our site. Google has to re-find our FirstSigns website and re-index us and decide where to put us on its search results page. People have to change their browser bookmarks / favourites, and may well be frustrated and confused if they go to our old web address and find there’s nothing there (we don’t own the old address, so it doesn’t point anywhere useful anymore.)

Websites that link to us, well, they may well be linking to nothing if they’re still using the old address…

So you see, changing our web address and name over night may well have destroyed us, might have made people think that we’ve disappeared, just slouched off like some people have.

It’s not surprising to acknowledge that fewer people are visiting our website. It wouldn’t surprise me if no one visited, what with all the changes…

So it is surprising to learn that hits are less than 20% down on this time last year!

It’s brilliant to find that, even with how busy last year was, we’re still getting loads of visitors to our website at www.FirstSigns.org.uk

And of course memberships rates are still climbing on our Facebook, Bebo and Myspace groups and pages.

I knew changing our web address and letting go of the old name and address would affect our members and visitors, but I’m thrilled to discover that most people can find us and continue to visit FirstSigns!

Help other people find us again by linking from your profile pages, blogs and websites to FirstSogns at www.FirstSigns.org.uk