Comments on: Search sucks the soul out of websites – and life http://www.travelblather.com/2009/02/seo-soul-content-google.html Banter between travel writers, travel PRs and travel social media people Sat, 04 Feb 2012 11:04:56 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Jeremy Head http://www.travelblather.com/2009/02/seo-soul-content-google.html/comment-page-1#comment-500 Jeremy Head Thu, 26 Feb 2009 10:35:21 +0000 http://www.travelblather.com/2009/02/search-sucks-the-soul-out-of-websites-and-life.html#comment-500 Interesting debate! @ Lis: I know what you mean about some travel magazine content. But print still kicks online off the field when it comes to great writing. Wanderlust for example is a great travel magazine. There are great features in many UK newspapers at the weekends. - re SEO terms. I don't agree completely that it's an easy balance to strike as Durant and Lis suggest. It depends how competitive the terms are. My advice from an SEO specialist at iCrossing was that I needed to mention main term 3 times, secondary term twice, third level term once in 400 words of copy for a major brand hotel chain recently for really competive terms. It's doable, but you are so focussed on getting the terms in there, the reader gets pushed into second place behind the needs of the search engine. @ David - agree totally. I hope there will be a backlash - but I can't see how. One of the frustrations is that because google is so dominant we are pretty much stuck with it as the best solution... even when for some things it's not that good. So I don't see how a backlash can happen!? I think google is getting better now with universal search. So I tried searching for 'seville hotels'. A while back I'd have got a page of booking engines. Now I get a map of Seville with specific hotels and their proprietory websites pinpointed on it as my first entry. Nice. So I guess I need to avoid flushing the google bods too hard - they are clearly working on the problem. Having said that I tried the 'Barcelona hotels' and got a page load of booking engines. Wonder why it works with some destinations but not others? Interesting debate!
@ Lis: I know what you mean about some travel magazine content. But print still kicks online off the field when it comes to great writing. Wanderlust for example is a great travel magazine. There are great features in many UK newspapers at the weekends.
- re SEO terms. I don't agree completely that it's an easy balance to strike as Durant and Lis suggest. It depends how competitive the terms are. My advice from an SEO specialist at iCrossing was that I needed to mention main term 3 times, secondary term twice, third level term once in 400 words of copy for a major brand hotel chain recently for really competive terms. It's doable, but you are so focussed on getting the terms in there, the reader gets pushed into second place behind the needs of the search engine.
@ David - agree totally. I hope there will be a backlash - but I can't see how. One of the frustrations is that because google is so dominant we are pretty much stuck with it as the best solution... even when for some things it's not that good. So I don't see how a backlash can happen!?
I think google is getting better now with universal search. So I tried searching for 'seville hotels'. A while back I'd have got a page of booking engines. Now I get a map of Seville with specific hotels and their proprietory websites pinpointed on it as my first entry. Nice. So I guess I need to avoid flushing the google bods too hard - they are clearly working on the problem. Having said that I tried the 'Barcelona hotels' and got a page load of booking engines. Wonder why it works with some destinations but not others?

]]> By: David Whitley http://www.travelblather.com/2009/02/seo-soul-content-google.html/comment-page-1#comment-499 David Whitley Thu, 26 Feb 2009 02:53:39 +0000 http://www.travelblather.com/2009/02/search-sucks-the-soul-out-of-websites-and-life.html#comment-499 Despite being somewhat old school when it comes to headlines (I'm a sucker for a great pun), I see nothing intrinsically wrong with good explanatory headlines and sub-headings. But, sooner or later, there will be a backlash against SEO-heavy web articles, and it can't come soon enough. There's nothing wrong with good, useful copy - what I hate is when I put in "horse riding" and "Queensland" and get two pages worth of booking engines. Sooner or later, people will start to cherish good, edited, discerning, independent copy. Or at least I hope so. Despite being somewhat old school when it comes to headlines (I'm a sucker for a great pun), I see nothing intrinsically wrong with good explanatory headlines and sub-headings.

But, sooner or later, there will be a backlash against SEO-heavy web articles, and it can't come soon enough. There's nothing wrong with good, useful copy - what I hate is when I put in "horse riding" and "Queensland" and get two pages worth of booking engines. Sooner or later, people will start to cherish good, edited, discerning, independent copy. Or at least I hope so.

]]> By: Durant Imboden http://www.travelblather.com/2009/02/seo-soul-content-google.html/comment-page-1#comment-498 Durant Imboden Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:54:46 +0000 http://www.travelblather.com/2009/02/search-sucks-the-soul-out-of-websites-and-life.html#comment-498 To paraphrase what Liz Sowerbutts and Nathan said, what's the big deal? Just use a descriptive page title and headline (say, "Doughnut Shops of Dallas") and save your clever phrases for throwaway subheads ("Luscious Lassos of Lard-Laden Dough for Longhorns"). That's no different from having to write a headline that fits a newspaper layout or a blurb for a magazine cover. Also, structure your content logically, just as you would if you were writing a book. If you're writing a six-page article about Widgetville, break it down into "Widgetville (introduction," "Widgetville sightseeing," "Widgetville hotels," "Widgetville restaurants," and "Widgetville transportation," and "Widgetville tourist information." That isn't sucking up to search engines; it's serving the needs of readers. To paraphrase what Liz Sowerbutts and Nathan said, what's the big deal? Just use a descriptive page title and headline (say, "Doughnut Shops of Dallas") and save your clever phrases for throwaway subheads ("Luscious Lassos of Lard-Laden Dough for Longhorns"). That's no different from having to write a headline that fits a newspaper layout or a blurb for a magazine cover. Also, structure your content logically, just as you would if you were writing a book. If you're writing a six-page article about Widgetville, break it down into "Widgetville (introduction," "Widgetville sightseeing," "Widgetville hotels," "Widgetville restaurants," and "Widgetville transportation," and "Widgetville tourist information." That isn't sucking up to search engines; it's serving the needs of readers.

]]> By: Sarah http://www.travelblather.com/2009/02/seo-soul-content-google.html/comment-page-1#comment-497 Sarah Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:21:50 +0000 http://www.travelblather.com/2009/02/search-sucks-the-soul-out-of-websites-and-life.html#comment-497 Hi Jeremy, I write Web-based travel guides and features for findingDulcinea.com. We employ a team of writers and Internet researchers to seek out the best Web sites, which are often found far beyond the first or second page of Google search results. Although we also must be aware of SEO when writing our content, we understand your frustration with Google's algorithm, and that feeling of being ruled by machines. We just launched our own search engine called www.sweetsearch.com, which is powered by Google, but only searches from Web sites that we've approved for quality and credibility - Sweet Search is still a work in progress, but we're committed to providing human-powered results for our users. Hope you'll have a look. Sarah Hi Jeremy,

I write Web-based travel guides and features for findingDulcinea.com. We employ a team of writers and Internet researchers to seek out the best Web sites, which are often found far beyond the first or second page of Google search results. Although we also must be aware of SEO when writing our content, we understand your frustration with Google's algorithm, and that feeling of being ruled by machines. We just launched our own search engine called http://www.sweetsearch.com, which is powered by Google, but only searches from Web sites that we've approved for quality and credibility - Sweet Search is still a work in progress, but we're committed to providing human-powered results for our users. Hope you'll have a look.
Sarah

]]> By: Nathan http://www.travelblather.com/2009/02/seo-soul-content-google.html/comment-page-1#comment-496 Nathan Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:09:38 +0000 http://www.travelblather.com/2009/02/search-sucks-the-soul-out-of-websites-and-life.html#comment-496 Agree with Lis - it's just another thing writers have to juggle, and it's our job to find a decent balance*. SEO 'experts' who tell you to spam keywords are snake oil salesmen - I've worked with very good SEO guys who do understand the importance writing decent copy. It's quality copy that wins you inbound links, and those are easily as important as keywords to Big G. * Though it's a hard one to strike, so I do sympathise with you blowing off steam on it ;) Agree with Lis - it's just another thing writers have to juggle, and it's our job to find a decent balance*. SEO 'experts' who tell you to spam keywords are snake oil salesmen - I've worked with very good SEO guys who do understand the importance writing decent copy. It's quality copy that wins you inbound links, and those are easily as important as keywords to Big G.

* Though it's a hard one to strike, so I do sympathise with you blowing off steam on it ;)

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