Val Nelson» Search Engines

Quick Web Writing Tip: Add Synonyms

Val Nelson — Fri, 15 May 2009 16:37:56 +0000

When you’re done writing that perfect blog post or webpage, go back and sprinkle in a few synonyms of your main topic. For example, if you’re writing about “volunteering,” refer to it as “community service” too. Why?

It’s People-friendly.

Not everyone uses the same words you use for your topic, so it’s more reader-friendly to offer alternate words. You say “sweet potato,” I say “yam.” (But let’s not call the whole thing off.)

It’s Google-friendly.

As an added bonus, Google loves synonyms. It helps them understand the main points of your page and potentially show your webpage in the search results for a broader set of search terms (keywords).

Be sure to add in your synonyms logically, such as the way I did for “search terms” and “keywords” in the previous paragraph.

Your Trusty Thesaurus… and More

Sometimes you need more than a thesaurus to find new words. What about idioms, phrases, and slang? Here’s some handy free references on the web:

Idioms and phrases at FreeDictionary
Slangasaurus
Merriam-Webster (dictionary and thesaurus) – my favorite standby

Search Engines Love Quality Writing

Val Nelson — Fri, 08 May 2009 16:30:07 +0000

Even though search engines are robots, their “artificial intelligence” programming is so sophisticated that they know if your web content is written well or not. The better your content reads to a human being, the more “points” you get from search engines.

If you write content that gives your visitor something meaningful to them, you will not only be more popular among search engine robots, you’ll gain human followers too.

5 SEO Tips for Video

Val Nelson — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 02:25:18 +0000

[updated May 3, 2010]

[Click to view the embedded video.]

When it comes to posting video online, there can be search engine optimization (SEO) benefits if you follow certain guidelines. Here are 5 things you should do with your video content to achieve SEO benefits.

As an example, check out this fantastic web video marketing campaign that is getting results. It’s short, simple, entertaining, and gets the point across.

Important SEO Considerations for Video Content

Post your video everywhere possible.
As long as you’re making a public video for your own website, go ahead and post it on as many other websites as possible, especially YouTube. Not only will it create buzz and make you easier to find, you will immediately gain valuable inbound links to your website — assuming you include a link in your user profile and the video description.
Optimize your video posts on other sites.
When posting your video on social media sites like YouTube, use your target keywords in your video title, tags, and description. And include your website address in the description and the video itself. Every time someone embeds your video or shares it on another social media site like Facebook, they will automatically grab your ideal title and description.
Optimize the video page on your own website.
Make sure there is relevant text content on the same webpage as the video, such as the video transcript or at least a detailed description of the video content. Search engines can’t hear or see; if you want their attention, provide text.
Make your videos interesting enough to attract attention.
Adding entertaining or informative video content is a great way to make your website more inviting and therefore attract more inbound links from other websites. Inbound links are a major part of SEO. The sample video above is a perfect example that is gaining lots of attention and inbound links. Even I’m linking to it.
You can incorporate SEO-friendly text into the video itself.
Google and some other search engines can read the text portions of SWF Flash files even if they contain video content too. FLV Flash files, as used on YouTube, don’t contain the kind of text that Google can read. Here are technical references on SWF files from Adobe Flash and Google. Update 2010: You can add captions in YouTube and those can be read by search engines!

Does Google Rank Video Content Higher?

An added bonus for adding video to your website is that Google might give a slight preference to pages with video content. Since people like video, Google probably gives it preference as well since they want to keep their users happy.

Simply adding video content to a page is not enough to get Google’s attention, but if you follow the guidelines above, your web page should do well.

Target Keywords Defined

Val Nelson — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 02:18:28 +0000

When discussing search engine optimization, or SEO, there’s one term you need to know: target keywords.

Keywords are the words people enter into a search box, such as at Google, Yahoo, or Bing.

Target keywords are the searches that you’re hoping to be found under.

For example, if you’re an Asian fusion restaurant in Northampton, Massachusetts, called Zen, your target keywords might include:

fusion restaurant Northampton
Asian restaurant Northampton
best restaurants in Northampton
restaurants Northampton MA
Zen Northampton

Umm, gettin’ hungry. Gotta go. (Can you tell Zen is my favorite restaurant in town?)

Web Lessons from Cats

Val Nelson — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 03:25:51 +0000

Source: www.icanhascheezburger.com

Couldn’t resist sharing this “Lolcats” photo in the midst of our March snowstorm.

But seriously, did you know that searching for pictures of cats is a hugely popular web search?

No wonder this interactive site (www.icanhascheezburger.com) with funny pictures of cats is so popular, and probably lucrative for the website owner.

So, what does this have to do with your website? Well, what people are searching for on the web should be of interest when it comes to deciding what to write on your website. There are many ways to tell what people are searching for on the web, such as with Google Insights for Search.

I’m not saying you should go find THE most popular search terms (keywords) and build a site around it. Otherwise, every website would be about Brad Pitt or the weather. But you can figure out what the most popular searches are in your field and use that keyword research to inform your web content.

Using Your Keyword Research

To be sure, choosing the right search phrases to target is an art and isn’t just a matter of going after the most popular searches in your field. Sometimes, going after a rare search phrase with very little competition is your best bet.

One way to use your research is to make sure you’re using words that your target audience is most often using. That way, your site is really made for them, and it might help with search engines too. For instance, you might think most people looking for cat photos would search for “cat photos,” but research shows they are more likely to search for “cat pictures.” Maybe you change your page heading as a result. Or maybe not.

Like I said, it’s an art that depends on so many factors (such as your goals and your competition). That’s exactly why many people hire a web writing or search engine optimization specialist who can provide expert advice on choosing the right target keywords and what to do with them.