For Mobilizing Generation 2.0, I wrote a passage about the search engine advantages related to blogging. My editor smartly cut it out, but I think there was a ton of good information there that still may be useful. So below, you'll find the original (un-edited) passage.
In the movie, Field of Dreams, Kevin Costner
stands in the middle of a cornfield dreaming about building a baseball diamond.
A spectral presence whispers to him “If you build it, they will come.”
Costner’s character goes on to construct the field of his dreams and it
proceeds to attract thousands of players and fans from around the world. This
phrase has become both mantra and mockery across the spectrum of occupations.
Applying the principle to web software has led to rare successes but primarily
to overbuilt and underused applications. In the case of blogging, it can be
said with some certitude that ‘if you build it, there’s a much better chance
that they will come.’
A blog rich with content and well connected
to the blogosphere stands a very good chance of attracting new supporters.
Typically, organizations will recruit supporters by going out to the places
where they congregate. A blog reverses the model by seeding the Internet with
sign posts that point back to it. This process hinges on reciprocal linking
agreements with other bloggers and on a concept called “discoverability.” In
this section I’ll discuss discoverability, leaving blogger relations for the
upcoming section on the blogosphere.
Discoverability refers to the quality of
being discoverable. In Internet terms, this self-reflexive definition
translates into a high-ranking position on a search results page. Most people
navigate the web by typing keywords into a search engine such as Google. Although
a typical search generates many pages of listings, most people never go beyond
the first page. In fact, most people don’t even read all of the results on the
first page. One study has shown that the 1st result is fourteen
times more likely to be clicked than the 10th.
A top ranking can make the difference between obscurity and thousands of daily
visitors.
Although Google is the most well known search
engine, many others exist. In the world of blogging, Technorati is king. Search
engine providers like Google and Technorati protect their search algorithms
with an Area-54 like secrecy. Except for a few insiders, no one is exactly sure
how to obtain one of the top listings. Dozens of speculative books have been
written on the subject and an industry of search engine optimization
consultants attempt to help organizations navigate their way to a top listing.
Each specialist offers a combination of science and black-art, but most agree
that the following factors are critical to a high ranking:
1) Keyword density
2) Keywords in page titles
3) Inbound links
If your organization operates a blog, you’ll
address all three factors without making any special effort. Keyword density
refers to the number of times a short phrase or word appears in the text of a
web page. For example, if your blog focuses on homeless shelters, it’s likely
that the phrase “homeless shelter” will appear frequently. You’ll use the term
in your posts as will the people who leave comments. The term may appear dozens
of times on any given blog page. These pages will exhibit a high keyword
density for the phrase “homes shelter.” When a searcher types this phrase into
the search engine, your pages will score highly on the keyword density factor.
You can further improve rankings by putting
strategic thought into the keywords that are most relevant to your
organization. By developing a list of about 50 keywords and using them
frequently in blog posts, you can focus your search engine rankings around the
topics that attract your target audience. Keywords in a web page’s title carry
the most weight with search engines. By design, blogging software automatically
converts the blog post title to the web page title. Sprinkle keywords into your
blog posts titles and you’ll be well on your way to higher rankings.
[box: Since the debut of search engines,
people have tried to “game” the system – or improve rankings by fooling the
algorithm. Many gamers created pages that consisted of a single keyword
repeated thousands of times. Search engine providers grew savvy to this ploy
and have developed sophisticated methods to prevent bogus results. Pages that
have a high, but natural distribution of keywords seem to achieve best
results.]
In addition to analyzing keywords, search
engines count the number of links to a page as an indicator of its relevance.
Google describes their algorithm thusly:
“[It] relies on the uniquely democratic
nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an
individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to
page B as a vote, by page A, for page B.”
By operating a blog, you create many
additional opportunities for inbound links. If you write pithy, original,
interesting, or controversial posts, it’s likely that other bloggers will link
to them. You can grow the number of inbound links by actively pursuing
relationships with other bloggers. See the section on ‘Managing the
Blogosphere.’
The three factors discussed in this section
are not comprehensive. Search engine optimization has many facets and can
consume days of research, implementation, and analysis. Without doing any of
this work, blogging will improve your search engine rankings. You’ll achieve
even better results if you put a small amount of effort into optimization, such
as using strategic keywords.
You can improve your discoverability even
further by pursuing blog-specific optimizations. Most blogging software will
give you various options to accomplish this objective. For example, when you
post an article, your blogging software will inform search engines such as
Technorati that you’ve published new content. In blogger terms, your blog has pinged
Technorati. Informed of your recent post, Technorati will load your post into
its database so that it can be found the next time their search algorithm
decides that it’s a match for a search term.
Some search engines ask for help in
categorizing posts. They allow you to tag
your post. A tag is a word or short phrase that describes a unit of content. If
I were to tag this section of the book, I might use “blogging, young people,
recruitment, discoverability.” If a searcher typed any of these phrases, this
piece of content would have a better chance of a high ranking.
Finally, you can improve discoverability by
ensuring that your blog is available as a feed. In addition to making your blog
accessible to people with feed readers (after they’ve discovered it), feeds
convert your blog content into a format that is preferred by search engines.
They’ll do a better job of categorizing your writing.
By improving your search engine rankings,
you’ll begin to attract people who have already expressed an interest in your
organization’s issue areas (this fact has driven the extraordinary growth of
search engine advertising). Instead of casting a wide net to people who may or
may not be interested in your issues, blogging entices your target audience to
come to you. For young people who are skeptical of pitches, marketing, and
hard-sells, discovering your blog of their own accord pre-disposes them to
engage with your organization.
[box:
tips for getting discovered]
- optimize
for search engines
- ping
blog aggregators
- tag
your posts
- use
feeds
