~~~Writing for the Search Engines~~~
From: Len Ferns
Hello:
Len Ferns here with some severe criticism of search engines and the
"content" fallacy.
Content is not and has never been king! Content and style play a role
together.
The current practice of some search engines is to ignore style or to
frown upon it.
In my opinion, for style, (not content as in intellectual content
which is not the whole story on content), the index page of a website
should have very little text and mostly be setting the mood for the
rest of the site. (That's not spam, that's setting the mood of that
site.)
I am trying to design websites for a living now, and I prefer to
design sites for non commercial places, but when I make a site I say
to the client that it will be visually rich, or they should go
somewhere else. (And I am tending to refuse listing with a few of the
major search engines because they want too much text-info overload on
the main page. I refuse to do that!) Why...because since the dawn of
time...A picture has been worth a thousand words and that is still
true today. Some search engines simply don't understand that.
If you buy a novel or any book, it has a picture on the front and a
title. If you buy a house, the front is decorated for the outside
viewer. With the exception of trashy newspapers, initial design does
not show the entire content of books or architecture or anything else.
Initial design gives you a prologue as to what you can expect or even
a sense of suspense. It's non-intrusive and non-offensive.
And why are all the sites so cluttered with text rather than some kind
of introduction the way they were 2 years ago?
Thanks for your patience, but you must know that I have had to read
lots of the other point of view over the past few years.
Take care.
Sincerely,
Len Ferns
~~~Heather's Response~~~
Hi, Len,
You've raised a few interesting points here - and thank you so much
for your insightful email. I'm always happy to hear "the other side
of the content story" - and I'm happy you made your opinions known.
To make things easy, I'm going to address these points one by one.
Ready? Let's go!
>Content is not and has never been king! Content and style play a role
together. The current practice of some search engines is to ignore
style or to frown upon it.<
Well, as far as the search engines are concerned, content IS king.
That is, if someone craves a visually compelling splash page with no
text in sight, the search engines won't read it. In fact, they can't.
Remember, the search engine *spiders* troll your site. (Directories
use human editors, so you have more leeway.) These search engine
spiders rely on visible, HTML text to check your site for relevancy
and to eventually rank your site high. Without text, they have
nothing to work with. You're basically building pretty pages at the
expense of strong rankings.
Please remember though, creating a search engine-friendly design is
crucial! Yes, you can still have style and pizzazz, but you just want
to make absolutely sure that your snappy style doesn't snafu the
search engines. For more information on how to design spider-happy
sites, check out Shirley Kaiser's Website Tips, or Shari Thurow's articles.
>I am trying to design websites for a living now, and I prefer to
design sites for non commercial places, but when I make a site I say
to the client that it will be visually rich, or they should go
somewhere else. (And I am tending to refuse listing with a few of the
major search engines because they want too much text-info overload on
the main page. I refuse to do that!)<
I appreciate your opinion on this. And, depending on your client
base, you may have clients who won't really benefit from search
engines anyway (such as personal sites). However, if your clients
want high rankings, they (and you) will have to play the search engine
game. And that means around 250 words on your home page, and strong
text on your inner pages.
Please consider though, that the Web is an informational medium.
People *want* to read text. Whether your site is commercial or
informational, the text is what tells people who you are, what you
offer, and what makes your site unique. I understand your concern
about text overrun, but having *too little text* is damaging as well -
probably more damaging than too much text. Consider
Ken Evoy's site. You may not like all the text on the home
page, but the copy sure sells.
>If you buy a novel or any book, it has a picture on the front and a
title. If you buy a house, the front is decorated for the outside
viewer.<
Hehe, ever hear the phrase, "Never buy a book by it's cover?" I used
to work for a publishing house, and you're right - publishing houses
spend thousands on book cover design. The right cover will entice
people to pick up the book and investigate further.
However, ya know what job I had? I wrote the book jacket copy (the
text you see on the back of any book). As my then boss told me, this
text was *crucial*. The cover may tempt people to investigate the
book further, but what do people do next? You're right - they flip to
the back cover to see what the darn book is about! Text provides
information that stand-alone graphics just can't provide.
>And why are all the sites so cluttered with text rather than some
kind of introduction the way they were 2 years ago?<
'Cause that's what the search engines want to see. Anything less,
and you hobble your chances for a prime ranking (and you may blow it
with your prospects as well).
Thanks! Keep those online writing and SEO writing questions coming!
Heather
~~~Jill's unsolicited 2 cents~~~
Just a quickie comment here. Like I say at the top of my site at
www.highrankings.com, if your target audience can't find you in the
search engines...how will they know you exist? You may want to create
a certain image for your site, but if your site is a beautiful
billboard on a deserted highway, what good will it do you? Yes, I know
that there are other Internet marketing methods for letting people
know about your site, but the truth of the matter is that most people
still find sites through the major search engines. End of story.
Jill
~~~Send Us Your Questions~~~
If you have questions about online copywriting or search engine optimization (or both!), just zip us an email to questions@rankwrite.com. We've had some folks ask if their question
was "too basic" to be printed - and you don't have to worry about
that! There are no "stupid" search engine optimization or copywriting
questions, so ask away!
