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Number
6: June 11, 2003
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This week in Katydid:
'Sup
with SEP
Many times, I've sat down with a client to discuss the business goals
and the role their web site plays in fulfilling them. Often (still) the
client will say something like, "How do I get my site to come up in
Yahoo?"
Usually, I want to know why that's important to their
business, but I know the real reason people ask the question. It's that
magic feeling of typing in a few keywords and seeing Your Company
Name Here come up on a list.
We talk figuratively about "hanging our shingle" up on the
web, or "opening a storefront" on the web, but there's a truth
to that language. We want to step back from the store window and see our
company name in bold letters. Beyond that, we want to know whether we're
on a good street with foot traffic or some back alley.
Typing your company name or your product description into a search
engine is the online equivalent of driving by your store to see if the
sign is visible from the street.
At least, that's the way most people think search engines work, but
they're not like that at all. Search engines companies want to be a
service more like the yellow pages. You pay for placement. If you want
to be the first listing (biggest ad) then you pay the highest price.
This model makes it even harder for local markets to stand out
against national firms because they can't afford what's essentially a
national listing. It can even pit channel partners and solution
providers against their vendors because the corporate suppliers already
dominate the top listings.
Outside of paying for placement, you can try to rig the system. There
are many
good companies dedicated to figuring out the latest trick that will
have your site stick to the web for the search engine spiders to find
you.
One method will save you money, and at the same time improves your
web site and your other marketing efforts – write good content. It
takes longer for the search engines to list you but you gain higher
placement legitimately, and permanently.
Most search engines look for key words in the body of the page and
their entire technological effort goes into making sure that they're
looking at real content (rather than spoofed). They want to see key
words in context. They want to see deep links and detailed content. In
short, the algorithms are rigged to look for great web content.
Develop a list of key words with which you'd like your company or
product to be associated. Then make sure you include these words
frequently in the body of your pages. You can also include these in your
meta-tags, but the important thing is to have them in your pages. Of
course, the art of it is in how cleverly you blend this vocabulary into
your content.
The key benefit of this technique is that it will always meet the
search engine requirements. With tricks, you have to constantly update
your techniques. You have to chase technology. With good content, you're
always fulfilling their requirements, and you can spend your time and
money on the most important job – driving people to your site with
direct marketing.
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Develop
Your Storehouse
Your web site is your brochure, your annual report, your press kit, but
it can also be your library, your lead qualifier, and your campaign
manager. As web sites evolve, they shake off their early role as simply
one weapon in your arsenal. Your web site should be a repository of
information available to your other efforts.
Loading web sites with strong content buys you the ability to make
the rest of your marketing sharper. Designers no longer have to figure
out how to shoehorn more words onto a postcard or brochure. Marketers no
longer have to see their message diluted in a haze of information. The
information goes on the site. The hook stays on the card.
With more space to play with in your direct marketing collateral, you
get to sharpen those hooks. You can wade into the shallow pools where
your customers like to play, hook 'em, and let the site reel them in.
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Fringe:
Language Removal Services
I heard an intriguing report on NPR's All
Things Considered about Language Removal Services, which is a
(project? company? technology?) that removes the words from audio
recordings and leaves the breaths, gulps, tics, and pops that litter
ordinary spoken language. The results sound extraordinary, disturbing,
captivating, and unlike
anything you've ever heard.
It's difficult to tell if this is an artistic endeavor or a business,
and it's probably both. They are very "tongue in cheek"
regarding their services:
"All of the language removal procedures that we offer to
the general public are non-invasive, fully tested and 100% safe."
I wouldn't look to the site as an example of best practices, but the
content is remarkable (despite a few broken links and images).
However, what intrigued me was the idea of how many words I throw
away on a daily basis. There's a quote on my site from Nicholas Boileau,
"Of every four words I write, I strike out three," which
pretty much sums up my writing process.
Even my more free-form passages contain hundreds of deletions,
corrected typos, and all manner of hesitations. I'm not sure how I would
capture all this, but consider how much of your own language is lost in
cyberspace as you back up, make corrections, and start over.
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Thanks for Reading
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If you have suggestions of web sites to review, writing that buzzes,
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Kind regards,
Kevin Troy Darling
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