conversation Archives | Ian M Rountree

The Full-Circle Approach – SEO for Bloggers Part 7

July 25, 2010 by Ian Leave a Comment

As much as we bloggers love to focus on it, SEO is really a small consideration for us – or should be.

The heck, you say! Getting found is the paragon of publishing success!

Yes. It is. But let me explain.

Search Engine Optimization, as a process, is fairly straightforward. It’s about giving a robot, like Google, a very precise, very clear view of what your content is, how it relates to the rest of the web, and why you deserve more points for quality and relevance on certain subjects than other websites do. It’s an almost religious-scale obsession for some web workers, because we know so little about how the robot works, and what really has an effect on the rankings.

Bloggers have it fairly easy. Where some sites struggle for rankings on their own business names, we have an opportunity to work both towards our readers’ benefits, and align our sites with the robots’ required signs of quality. How? Because we know the following;

The robot loves content. New, fresh, refreshed sites draw the robot back for more. If we’d just write our darn blogs, we can already have a head start over other classes of website.

The robot loves consistency. If we make sure our content is on purpose, rather than shooting off on tangents, we’re sending signs that we’re worth authority.

The robot LOVES consistency! Schedule, will you? Keeping on top of our internal calendars gives us yet another advantage.

People love taking action, and the robot loves seeing action taken. Bookmarking, revisiting – any actions the robot can tell are available to the visitors of a site send signals that interactivity is available. It’s good for the people, thus good for the robot.

People like to share – and when sharing happens (in certain ways) the robot takes notice. Having your pieces passed on, or passing on the work of others, sends yet more signals that your site is worth paying attention to – not just to the robot, but to the people who are looking for something to pay attention to!

We all love to talk, especially to each other. Content is relevance. Updated content is increased relevance. Discussion on, around, or about your site is a huge indicator that you may be engaging with people, and the robot loves signs of interactivity. So do people, by the way. don’t we?

Back up and thing about that for a second. Content is relevance.

Bloggers have unique opportunities. Where business, individuals, and all manner of website creators have to think about information architecture, content strategy, and minutiae of all kinds, for the blogger, the content IS the strategy. We can say whatever we like, sure, but building a set of guidelines for ourselves, encouraging people to get on board with what we’re saying, and over all making our blogs useful, puts us far ahead of the game.

How can you put this into action for yourself?

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Or, read the entire SEO for Bloggers series from the start to see where we’re coming from.

Just Write
On Purpose
The Editorial Calendar
Get More of This
Let’s Share!
Join the Conversation

I’d like you to join the conversation. What have we missed so far? What needs revisiting? What kind of opportunities can we take from developing our content intentionally?

Image by Frerieke.

Join the Conversation – SEO for Bloggers Part 6

July 24, 2010 by Ian 1 Comment

I want to hear your story, just as much as you want to hear mine.

It’s not creepy. It can be – but inherently, keeping up with people is not creepy. Community is about sharing. We need things to share – they have to be worth something, and we need to give people permission to get more. But at the end of the day, there are basically three modes of communication we have access to.

Listening – where we take things in
Broadcasting – where we put ourselves out there, and
Conversing – where we do both.

Broadcasting is very mechanical. Throwing information over the wall requires effort, which is good. However, when nothing comes back in – or when we create the expectation that we’re only encouraging others to listen – we’re not engaging in community.

Listening has a similar problem. You can aggregate all the data you want, but if you don’t allow for analysis, for communication back to the data’s sources about it’s meaning, you’re still not engaging in community.

Conversation is an ongoing exchange that’s impossible to mimic by only listening or only broadcasting. Eventually, to converse, you have to switch between the modes, and play with the results of reversed flow. And, in order for the conversation to continue, the party you are engaging must reciprocate and reverse their own flow at the same time. Otherwise we’re either listening in mutual silence, or broadcasting toward each other. Not constructive.

Businesses are accustomed to broadcasting. For years, it’s dominated how they get in front of existing and potential customers. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this – except that it’s limited and limiting for both parties involved.

There’s a movement toward communication with business, instead of communications from business. From an SEO standpoint, this is good – conversation means fresh content. Fresh content means food for the Great Index. Feeding the index means higher relevance.

All business – all people – want to be relevant. Conversation directly increases relevance.

So how can businesses – really, how can any broadcast medium (bloggers included) find opportunities to reverse the flow? Simple;

Listen for answers to the questions you will ask,
Publicize the answers for questions you are asked,
Engage with people at the same pace with which they engage you, and
Look for every opportunity to reverse the flow – from whichever direction you are currently taking.

In the case of communication beyond simple listening and broadcasting, adaptation is highly desirable. We need to take action on a consistent basis. Sometimes that means halting the broadcast, and listening to criticism. Sometimes it means listening to praise. Sometimes it means speaking up, getting your word out in a new area. there are opportunities all over the place.

Bloggers can take advantage of this in a lot of ways. I’d love to know some of your tricks. How do you encourage conversation? And, what do you do with what’s being pushed your way?

Image by woodleywonderworks.

Semantics Versus Lexicography

July 7, 2010 by Ian 4 Comments

I get a little bothered when people misuse phrases. It happens all the time, the subtle shifts in language that are caused by constant improper use of words. I get that. Linguistic drift is a fact of history, it’s how languages evolve, how dialects work, and why slang is such an important factor in determining audience when you’re writing or speaking. I respect linguistic drift.

However, I get even more bothered when people use phraseology or terminology in wilful ignorance, improperly. Like misspelling words on purpose for no other reason than impact or memorability, adding a Y here or an X there to make something pop out. I know why it’s done, from an intentional marketing perspective. I just hate when people do it to look cool.

But how much effort is the average person expected to expend on understanding etymology, phraseology or lexicography?

It’s deeper than slang. How often do we hear phrases like “this is the best thing since sliced bread” and think nothing of them?

Or, “turn the other cheek” and think it means submitting to bad the behaviour of others?

So much of what comes out of our mouths does so without the consideration of original meaning.

It’s frightening to think that even semantically unimportant phrases, which have so much communal meaning, have drifted so far from their original intent or meaning.

Sliced bread didn’t sell at all when it was introduced – it was more expensive than unsliced bread. No one wanted to pay a surcharge for labour.Who would? Sliced bread was introduced in the midst of the depression. No one had money to spare. If you can slice your own bread, why expend a limited resource on convenience?

Calling something the best thing since sliced bread, in this light, might not be implying that it’s actually a key convenience, but an unwanted, ill-planned advancement. Who wants that?

Similarly;

Turning the other cheek doesn’t mean allowing yourself to be struck again. Think about the culture of the time this quote was made; insulting someone with a slap on the cheek was done with the back of the right hand, to the right cheek. Presenting the left cheek gives the aggressor two options: either use the left hand (a cultural taboo, as the left hand is unclean, which looks bad on the aggressor), or strike the left cheek with the palm of the right hand. At the time, striking someone’s left cheek, with the palm of your right hand, was a gesture of extreme respect and filial connection.

Turning the other cheek does not present an opportunity for aggression; it forces your aggressors to either look bad and break taboo, or to make you look very good by their next actions, whether they intend it or not. It’s a high-handed action, self-serving and highly calculated.

Still, look at the usage of both of these assertions; we misuse the phrases so often, without even considering an alternate meaning, that the alternate meaning might as well not even exist.

We add secondary, even tertiary definitions to dictionaries, diluting language by making these malapropisms official. Canonizing misuse because of cultural significance. It’s not always wrong – but it’s often done without any thought of where the drift happened, or more importantly why.

Like calling a person gay, implying a state of happiness rather than homosexuality.

Like saying using impact as a noun instead of a verb; “it will impact” versus “it will have an impact”.

Like so many people misusing their, there and they’re.

Business communication relies on shared meaning and clear implication. But we’re all so guilty not only of semantic disrespect, but poor lexicography, it’s a wonder we can stand conversation at all sometimes.

Buzzwords, people. Won’t somebody think about the buzzwords?

photo by aussiegal.