The Power of Keywords

Keywords form the gist of Chapter 5 of Michael Miller's The Complete Idiot's Guide to SEO, immediately following Content.

If Content is viewed as a wheel in motion, ferrying you to places, then keywords would be the spokes that radiate out from the center hub. They are essential for motion, but one can readily observe that the number of spokes is just adequate for the purpose at hand: too few and the wheel will become rickety; too many it makes a solid wheel, lacking the spatial mix that renders it attractive.

Of course coming up with a list of relevant, and hopefully highly searchable, words is just the beginning. But it's a huge beginning. You would think that coming up with the list is intuitive. After all we do this everyday, looking up stuff online.

Long before these web search keywords come into vogue, the academic community is already using the system in printed journals for the ease of indexing and sourcing relevant journal articles. Drive along an urban road, you can see giant billboards of an advertisement, feasting your eyes with countless keywords that could practically last a life time. However, this mental imprints do not stay long in the mind, or they are quickly shoved off to the deep recesses of the memory bank, being pushed into oblivion by new arrivals.

Hence, the keyword trackers or research tools that will do the memorizing, and also prompting, for you. They are supposedly based on what users actually type in the query box. They can also do the reverse by back-tracing to the original search terms if you want to know how successful articles were searched.

Once the proper list of keywords is up, the next step, which requires more planning, is their insertion into the webpage at just the right dosage: having too many leads to keyword stuffing, a definite No-No that can even disbar you from the search engine fraternity; having too few diminishes the impact and severely limiting the prospect of being taken seriously.

Hence, keyword density, a concept borrowed from the measure of the amount of material within a specified volume, in this case, applied in the two-dimensional sense represented by a surface area. Recommended densities in this respect can vary from 5% to 20%, depending on the length of the page. Obviously a longer page with a higher percentage of keywords sprinkled throughout may still be readable compared to a shorter page but strewn with the same percentage of keywords.

Then there are placement locations to consider. Michael Miller recommends at least once in the preamble/introduction and another time in the concluding paragraph. Another way is to partition the page into sections with headings, which are then legitimately colonized by the keywords.

Whatever the techniques, ultimately, it's still the human reader who will be the arbiter of whether the page is a forced concoction arranged to suit the keywords or it is a enjoyable read, regardless of whether it is ranked high or not.

That said, one can also argue that if the page is not ranked high in the first place, chances are it would not be read. Therefore, in addition to appealing to the human eye, the page also needs to be searchbot-friendly, in a way pandering to their set ways of sniffing. And this is most efficiently, and effectively as well, done through optimizing the HTML tags, the subject of Chapter 6 of Michael Miller's book.

That prospect led me down the memory lane, going back to the mid-1990s when I took some introductory courses in HTML codes, and even experimented with my own off-line personal journal, complete with photos interspersed between the HTML tags. It will be a long overdue refresher course of sort.

Writing content well first, then go for SEO worthiness

Optimizing Your Website for Search Engines. That is the Title of Part 2 of Michael Miller's The Idiot's Guide to Search Engine Optimization, and is also what I have been talking about being inline with the normal usage of English when used to describe the SEO business. It is another variation of Website Optimization for Search Engines (WOSE).

Anyway, Miller has described Part 2 as the meat of the SEO business. It is action-oriented, applying SEO principles to a live website, in a step-wise fashion. The first rung, the most important foundation of all, is Content. Aptly entitled Optimizing Your Site's Content, it is a drill section on CONTENT, CONTENT, and nothing but CONTENT.

Engaging, flowing, flawless, and pertinent. The content must be able to captivate and sustain the attention of the users/visitors, the style must be flowing like water with continuity in a natural progression, the grammar must be the envy of the language enthusiasts (meeting the expectations of the purists will be too tall an order) with judiciously placed punctuation marks to indicate change in thought, in emphasis, and in re-direction, and the coverage must be clearly delineated, shorn of extraneous materials and excessive self-peddling. So much for content quality, which is the organic part.

One can be trained to write well, but the skills need to be acquired prior to launching the website. A website that is on the public gallery is hardly a place to learn the ropes of writing engagingly as parading language weakness in a published website degrades the perception of content worthiness. Fortunately, for those who are predisposed to be better doers than writers, help is at hand: copy writers. They are a niche unto themselves for a reason.

The rest of the optimization would appear to be more mechanistic: prudent sprinkling of keywords, sprucing up the HTML tags, and creating links that serve to elevate (inspire trust) rather than downgrade (engender distrust). Remember not all links are created equal, and they do vary widely in link reputation or worthiness. Official domains such as the edu's and the gov's command much higher respect than the lowly com's, some of them anyway.

As for the requisite length, most agree that being longer is better than shorter premised on the well-regarded observation that amplification trumps precis. And a thousand words or thereabout seems to be the consensus. For comparison, the length of this blog up to this point is about 380 words. Thus, I still have some grounds to cover until that magical threshold is reached.

Whether it is a webpage, or an article in hardcopy form like in a printed magazine or newspaper, the techniques and rules for good writing differ little. There are essentially two parts: the what (the content) and the how (the writing style).

As the progenitor of the webpage prompted by an idea, an urge to fill a need, or an opportunity to start, run and own an e-business by providing services, you are the best judge of the what part, and hence, the best person to articulate these core propositions. To this end:

1) Focus on the core theme, be it to verbalize a message, to convey a piece of information, to deliver a sales pitch for a specific product or to solicit feedback. Say it out-front, say it in the middle, and say it again at the end.

2) Focus on the needs of the readers: speak to them, with respect, and humility, and be truthful about the benefits that will accrue so that they could walk away with their needs met, or a way to meet their needs identified. Always remember to cultivate a lasting impression to encourage repeat business. If you're not in for the long haul, you have no business to be in it in the first place. In and out is certain to spell doom from day one. As in an oral presentation, audience analysis is vital so as to be able to write in a tone that the targeted audience is most comfortable with. Not condescending, nor overly didactic.

3) Then support the core theme with well-thought out procedure/applications/examples/cases in a clear sequence that culminates in the realization of the core theme through a series of success stories. After all, it is no difference than telling a story at the end of which the audience, or a portion thereof, must be sold on the story. In that regard, nothing sells better than one that is rooted in authenticity.

Once we know what to write and for whom, the success of the how part hinges on our ability to achieve readability and to exude elegance of the written word. While a written work may lack the reinforcement via body language, one can still aim to blend in the non-verbal cues through the use of evocative prose and sentiment-laden words to evince passion, sincerity, eagerness, and empathy. Here's where creativity can know no bounds, transcending platitudes and rising above sloganeering.

Regardless, good writing traits revolve around simplicity, economy, writing in the active voice/first person, coherence, and avoidance of slang/jargons and repetitions of the same words. Reading widely, having a wide command of vocabulary, and knowing the nuances will go a long way in presenting the what in a highly readable and elegant manner. If this seems daunting or the learning process is too time consuming, engage professional help.

There is one more step to insure SEO worthiness though. That's where SEO skills are called for, and that is also where Michael Miller lays bare the meat of his book for everyone's picking, starting from hereon right up to the last chapter, which is 24, of his book.

One chapter at a time now. And the threshold met.

Content rules, but only the textual kind

The second chapter (How SEO works) of Michael Miller's Complete idiot's Guide to SEO is now history. That history was made while we were waiting for WT to sit for his driving test at a local DMV office this morning. Before that, we made him drive us round the carpark where the office is located and the adjacent road several times just to get him acclimatized to the route and traffic setting. And it paid off. A huge thumb-up sign from him at the end of his driving test announced another new legal driver on the road.

OK, back to the second chapter. In two words, Content Rules. Not just any content, but the textual kind, relegating the non-textual genre to irrelevance, at least for now until such time as and when some kind of image recognition capability is achieved.

The chapter is about what search engines look for and armed with that knowledge, how one can optimize the website to provide strategically, repeatedly, and refreshingly what these search engines look for, which are tuned to users' needs. That means also understanding what people in general look for.

In this respect, search engines can be viewed as a match maker, trying to consummate a marriage of sort that is only made in heaven, both parties' wishes fulfilled: the user's query is answered, and the website gets its top ranking.

Crawlers and searchbots, the unseen sniffers that prowl the cyberspace dispatched by the Search Engine Enterprise, are busy and impatient beings and do not linger long on any abodes of the internet denizens (think home page). They have got a zillion places to cover and therefore only look for what that are trained to do at selecetd places to send the content back to the Mothership. And there are three staples in this mix: keywords, HTML tags, and links.

Keywords are descriptors of items that are of interest to the users. HTML tags are codes that structure the website both for viewing and underlying it all, for providing a detailed schematic of where things are kept in a neat hierarchical arrangement. Not all HTML tags are created the same and the trick is know which are the favorite hangouts of these crawlers or spiders during their brief sojourn. Fortunately for people for do not bother with HTML coding like yours truly, structure means there is a well-defined path to follow and even the uninitiated is unlikely to go wrong in identifying these alcoves.

Links are connections or conduits that point to another webpage. Apparently, the more the merrier is the motto here suggestive of a popularity contest. To a point, since quality and relevance matter as well. Links have become a commodity that one can actually buy them, abiding by the economic model that where there is a demand, there will be a supply.

It would appear that SEO is nothing more than manipulating the keywords, the HTML tags, and the links to work in concert to improve a website's search ranking. And to that end, Michael Miller offers ten key factors to doing just that. And the associated optimization techniques are further amplified in others chapters of the book, plus a whole slew of other things that one can try.

And in the final analysis, it's all about trying. No venture no gain. Let the adventure begin. Mine started with the tinkling of this blog' visual look by experimenting with several HTML codes in the blog template, albeit at a rudimentary level. Yes, taking baby steps is good.

Whether SEO or WOSE, Text is KING

My take-away message from the introductory chapter of Michael Miller's book is that Text is King as far as searches go. It's a very text-centric world out there and the crawlers and searchbots are trained to sniff out web pages based on text only. Hence, text analysis is featured as one of the primary considerations that determine page rank. At least this is as things stand now. It does not mean that images become immaterial, but that one has to anchor it with some kind of text in order to score any point.

While quantity, or length in this case, might not be all that important, a shorter text can be deemed as less relevant, and is often accorded a lower page rank, all things being equal. Then again the page ranking algorithm reputed to be the top secret of the highest degree can sense any word padding, no matter how subtle it is, from a mile away, easily. Thus pruning a page for readability and more important, substance, is much more rewarding than playing the word game.

Another thing that struck me is pages are stored verbatim in the so-called document servers operated by these search engines for lightning-fast retrieval. Once stored, a page only gets updated, but is never totally removed from cyber storage. That would mean that a simple click of the delete key to annihilate even those files in the trash folder or Recycle Bin to oblivion is as good as out of sight but still floating in limbo somewhere in cyberspace, ready to be resurrected to inflict nightmares via another click by those who have the means and the incentive to do so. Wonder whether there is any kind of virtual shredder that makes stitching back so difficult that it becomes a futile venture for those who are so inclined.

Then it struck me, again, that SEO as Search Engine Optimization is actually a misnomer. What we try to achieve in raising the profile of our web pages as denoted by page rank through SEO is more like Website Optimization for Search Engines, rather than Optimization of the Search Engines themselves as the common usage of English would dictate. So, perhaps they should have been WOSE consultants.

I learned today too that the Google ToolBar actually includes a PageRank icon that displays the page rank of a particular webpage/site, but visually in the form of a filling horizontal bar. Readers can judge the page rank by mentally dividing the bar into ten slots (corresponding to the range of 0 to 10) and see how many slots are filled. This website of mine was adjudged by yours truly to have a page rank of 1 to 2. On the other hand, the Wikipedia website is like a 9.

This would appear to be a quick way to find out whether my SEO (or WOSE) efforts actually make any headway, or not.