At the Chicago Search Engine Strategies conference held earlier this month, two themes were repeated in various ways by different panels of speakers that I felt were strong messages to keep in mind.
The first item is understanding that search engines sincerely want your content. This is not an excuse to manipulate them. Rather, the message was simple. Clearly state on every page the topic or theme, and the search engines can take it from there. Even if your page has FLASH components, images, or JavaScript, there remain a number of options available for getting usable, descriptive content onto a web page.
The second message I came away with comes from the world of Podcasting; specifically, optimizing videos and radio shows for search engines. What the experienced panelists were hoping to get across is that there’s no reason to ignore the value of search with the new media formats. Rather, convert them to text.
For example, transcripts. Every show should be transcribed into text. Every video title should be descriptive. Instead of “December 12 Session #412″, make it “Interview with [insert name] on [insert theme] dated [insert date].” Add a descriptive meta description, on page text summary and appropriate title tag and you have a page search engines and people will understand, that links to your program.
This is basic stuff.
What if you want to persuade, sell, inform, drive traffic and otherwise lure in someone with that page they’ve found in the search engine? Could you possibly be chasing them away and not realize it? Are basic on-page optimization techniques enough nowadays? Why are so many people still not finding what they want in everyday searches? What’s wrong?
New Book Due January 2007
Search analytics tell a story about how your website is being found and perceived. Can you use this data to improve the customer experience? How can search assist with this?
There is a new book forthcoming that may help answer some of these questions. It’s called Search Analytics for your Site: Conversations with your Customers, by Louis Rosenfeld and Richard Wiggins.
The book discusses how people search and what their expectations are for search results. Anyone who optimizes web pages needs to understand this too. The authors talk about “starting points” behavior. People use one or two words more often, rather than complicated search phrases. They also naturally expect that a search engine can read their mind and know exactly what they want, despite those minimal keyword terms used.
In your on-page marketing efforts, are you confident that you know how someone wants to find your site or a landing page?
From the book description:
“Search queries are gold: they are real data that show us exactly what users are searching for in their own words. This book shows you how to use search analytics to carry on a conversation with your customers: listen to and understand their needs, and improve your content, navigation and search performance to meet those needs.”
Search engines want to do the job properly. Several have webmaster guidelines and tools that you can use to help them better deliver your web pages from their search property.
This book may help you serve your site visitors better by helping you understand what their needs are and why they came (or left). The two-fold approach of working with the engines to create a better customer experience sounds like a new goal for 2007.
The website for Search Analytics for your Site: Conversations with your Customers includes a first draft, free sample chapter, book information and an RSS feed to help you remain updated on its progress.
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Uability Consultant, Kimberly Krause Berg, is the owner of UsabilityEffect.com, Cre8pc.com, and Cre8asiteForums. Her background in organic search engine optimization, combined with web site usability consulting, offers unique insight into web site development.
