[Sigia-l] Re: Sigia-l Digest, Vol 9, Issue 29

[Louise Hewitt]

>Louise Hewitt:


>> Good content is Search Engine Optimised by default



>Ziya
>>Hmm. How so?

I'm a little nervous about responding to this. I've lurked in the list
for a couple of years now, so I'm no stranger to your postings and
this sounds too much like bait! (I have to admit, you do make the list
an intimidating place sometimes - I just wonder where you find the
time :-) .)

Here goes.

I merely wished to make a general point about valuable construction of
information.

I came to this field from a background in online writing (which is why
I still pitch as a content professional). Long before the term SEO
became fashionable I -  and all the other good online writers! -
understood the importance of making a page of words or pictures
comprehensible at a glance. This is often contrary to the way that
people have been 'trained' to write - particularly journalists. By
this I mean:

1 - name the thing, name it fast and name it often.

In terms of text content this helps the reader to catch the meaning of
the page when scanning through. If this is done then it my
understanding that spiders will boost the relevance of the page
content. If its about cricket then 'cricket' should be in the content,
lots and soon.

2 - (and this is less incidental to SEO unless you include good alt
tags I guess) the picture should show what the page is about.

A good anecdote of this is a school inspection agency I onced worked
for. Some days you could visit their and see children sitting in a
classroom, but other days would show people having their haircut. They
failed to understand why this was a problem.

3 - Keep it short

Minimise the mass of information a user has to sift through to
comprehend the page. In terms of SEO, using cricket 5 times in 100 wds
will indicate a higher relevance than using cricket 5 times in 5000 -
or am I wrong about this bit?

SEO is just one benefit of good IA, and good writing is just one tool
of good IA.

I didn't mean to open a can of worms; just defend the Client against
the experts. If they want to call it 'zabenfrufter spiegel fish' they
can. If what they want is well designed information that clearly
communicates with their desired audience in an efficient and
accessible manner, then that is what they will get, regardless of how
they asked for it.

As a non-techy in a techy domain, I have wasted too much time having
to learn the precise lingo because people couldn't meet me half way. I
hate to see this discipline - one that is routed in effective
communication - suffer the same affliction.

>> Good content is Search Engine Optimised by default

Can I ask you how it isn't? I'm sure you won't mind sharing your
expertise and I'm happy to stand corrected.

Lou.

.....


Louise Hewitt
Freelance Content Professional
louise.hewitt at gmail.com