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Better search engine traffic advice use keywords that match users search queries
Web design that works |
Summary:
Familiar words spring to mind when users create their
search queries. If your writing favors made-up terms
over legacy words, users won't find your site.
"Speak the user's language" has been a primary usability
guideline for more than 20 years. The fact that the Web
is a linguistic environment further increases the
importance of using the right vocabulary. |
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In addition, as my new book documents, Web users are
growing ever-more search dominant. Search is how people
discover new websites and find individual pages within
websites and intranets. Unless you're listed on the
first search engine results page (SERP), you might as
well not exist. So, the first duty of writing for the
Web is to write to be found.
There are many elements to search engine optimization,
but SEO guideline #1 is our old friend, "speak the
user's language." Or, more precisely, when you write,
use keywords that match users' search queries.
Winston Churchill said that "short words are best and
the old words when short are best of all." Churchill was
talking about how to write punchy prose, not about SEO.
To be found, precise words are often better than short
words, which can be too broad to accurately describe the
user's problem. For example, people are more likely to
search for "usability" than for "easy" -- at least those
people who are in the market for my research reports and
seminars.
But Churchill was right that old words are best.
Old words rule because people know them intimately.
Familiar words spring to mind unbidden. Thus, users are
likely to employ old words when they boil down their
problem to a search query, which is typically only 2-3
words long.
How New Words Ruin Your Search Rankings
Many forces pressure Web writers to diminish a website's
value by filling it with words that are unlikely to
appear in search queries. Here are some guidelines for
writing to ensure that users will find your site:
Supplement made-up words with known words. It's
tempting to coin new terms because you can own the
positioning if the term catches on. But, more likely,
people will continue to use their old terminology. It's
long been a usability guideline to avoid made-up words
in navigation menus, because users scan them for words
they know. In full-text content, you can include new
words for effect, but make sure to supplement them with
legacy words -- that is, words that your customers know
and use in everyday business practice.
Play down marketese and internal vocabulary. Call
a spade a spade, not a digging implement. Certainly not
an excavation solution. Many marketers like to embellish
products to make them seem grander than traditional
fare. But customers define their needs in known terms,
so be sure to use them, even if you don't think they're
exciting. The very fact that a word is unexciting
indicates that it's frequently used. People search for
terms like "cheap airline tickets," not "value-priced
travel experience." Often, a boring keyword is a known
keyword.
Supplement brand names with generic terms. If
people know and already like your brand enough to search
for it, wonderful: you're halfway home. This is
particularly true if you're a B2B site, where a main
goal is to simply survive the sales funnel's initial
discovery and research stages and make it to the
shortlist. You should of course include your brand name
when describing your products so that fans can find you.
But don't abandon the other 95% of prospects who are
searching for their problem and don't know the name of
your solution. In the funnel's early stages, people tend
to use non-branded search terms, because they haven't
yet decided which companies to put on the shortlist.
This is exactly the time when you have the potential to
influence them.
Avoid "politically correct" terminology. When
writing about accessibility, for example, talk about
blind users or low-vision users, not visually challenged
users. First, nobody searches for a made-up phrase like
"visually challenged." Second, "blind" and "low-vision"
are more precise: they refer to two separate groups of
people. Each group uses different assistive technologies
and has a different experience of your website. They
therefore have distinct usability needs.
If you fill your pages with fancy new words, you'll lose
the most powerful tool in Internet marketing: the
ability for users to find you in search. Making the
search listings is a crucial first step, but it's not
the only step: users must also click your entry, and
your site must have a good conversion rate.
We know from studies that users often scan right past
high-ranking listings when the headlines don't make
sense. And we know from hundreds of usability studies
that users abandon websites with product pages that are
confusing or fail to answer their questions. These two
problems definitely also deserve the attention of your
writers and your usability studies.
There's more to website success than simply being found,
but it is the first step. Use old words and you'll be
that step ahead of the competition and their useless new
words. |
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