Audience, Relevance, and Search Targeting Web Audiences with Relevant Content

by Mathewson, James; Donatone, Frank; Fishel, Cynthia

• ISBN13: 9780137004201
• ISBN10: 0137004206
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-04-26
• Publisher: IBM Press

Summary

Real solutions to the Internet search challenges that Web marketers and content professionals struggle with every day!--Take search optimization to the next level by providing the right content to the right user at the right time.-Up-to-the-minute guidance on 'writing for Google' that reflects the latest changes to Google's algorithms.-New techniques for defining keywords more effectively.-Authored by IBM web pioneers with 45+ years of content and search optimization experience. How much more effective would companies be if all the content they created for the Web reached its specific target audience? in this book, three pioneering IBM content and search experts show how to get closer to this goal than ever before. Readers will discover how to write highly relevant content containing the keywords and long-tail phrases their targeted users actually use. By doing so, they will learn how to go beyond merely 'maximizing' traffic to actually delivering the right content to the right visitors at the right time. They will even learn how to prove the relevancy of their Web content. More than any other book, Audience, Relevance, and Search is relentlessly focused on the search and content optimization problems that Web professionals face right now. Drawing on 45+ years of collective experience in Web publishing and search effectiveness, the authors share powerful insights into these and other crucial challenges:--What's the best way to optimize keywords and other content for Google's newest PageRank algorithm?-How can personally relevant content be developed for the widely diverse Web audiences that visit large sites?-How can users be steered to content that's relevant to them and away from content that isn't?-Can content be aligned to users' roles, or where they stand in the purchasing cycle?-How can analytical tools and dashboards be used to determine which content is relevant to their audiences, and how relevant it is?

Author Biography

James Mathewson has more than sixteen years of experience as a new media analyst covering Web and search content trends. Now the editor-in-chief of ibm.com, James has trained more than a thousand IBM writers, editors, and content strategists on how to write engaging Web copy with a search-first approach.
Frank Donatone has more than twenty years of IT experience that encompasses management of people and projects, Web design, usability, social media marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), and accessibility. He is responsible for using SEG to improve IBM's search rankings and brand reputation.
Cynthia Fishel is an interactive marketing and branding specialist with more than twenty-four years of agency and IBM experience and was part of the IBM team that set standards and created education modules used to improve IBM's Web content effectiveness. She is responsible for analysis, recommendations and training on Web usability, interactive marketing and branding, organic SEO, and social media marketing.

Table of Contents

Sidebars	p. xv
Foreword	p. xvii
Preface	p. xix
Acknowledgments	p. xxiii
About the Authors	p. xxv
Writing for Web Users Implies Writing for Search Engines	p. 1
How, the Web Medium Has Evolved from Its Print Origins	p. 1
Writing Relevant Content for the Web Audience	p. 3
Discovering and Using Popular Keywords	p. 4
Engaging with Web Visitors through More Targeted Search Referrals	p. 5
Developing an Optimized Site Architecture	p. 6
Gaining Credibility through PageRank	p. 9
Capturing Social- and Rich-Media Opportunities	p. 11
Measuring Web Effectiveness	p. 12
How the Web Medium Has Evolved from Its Oral and Print Origins	p. 15
On Media Determinism	p. 15
Spaces between Words	p. 17
The Limits of Print Media and the Origins of the Web	p. 22
Print Content versus Web Content	p. 23
Basic Information Retrieval on the Web	p. 24
Meaning as Use on the Web	p. 25
Writing for Skeptical Web Readers	p. 26
The Perpetually Unfinished Web Page	p. 27
Summary	p. 28
Writing Relevant Content for the Web Audience	p. 31
Who Is Your Web Audience?	p. 32
What Is Relevance on the Web?	p. 33
Defining Relevance in Terms of Search	p. 34
On Writing Relevant Content for Web Users	p. 39
Summary	p. 41
Discovering and Using Keywords to Attract Your Target Audience	p. 43
Defining the Target Audience	p. 43
Some Linguistic Considerations Related to Keywords	p. 46
Discovering Keywords Used by Your Target Audience	p. 50
Getting Started with Keyword Research	p. 61
Optimizing Web Pages with Your Keywords	p. 66
Summary	p. 71
Engaging with Your Web Visitors through More Targeted Search Referrals	p. 75
Using Page Purpose to Engage with Your Audience	p. 76
Going beyond Mere Keywords to Determine Relevance for an Audience	p. 79
Using Keyword Research to Optimize for Long Tails	p. 82
Using Social Media to Enhance Your Audience Understanding	p. 89
Summary	p. 93
Developing a Search-Optimized Site Architecture	p. 95
Developing Clear Information Architecture	p. 96
Developing Search-Optimized Information Architecture	p. 103
Developing a Search-Optimized Information Governance System	p. 106
Summary	p. 108
Gaining Credibility through PageRank	p. 109
Becoming a Hub of Authority	p. 113
How Not to Get Link Juice	p. 117
How to Leverage Existing Relationships to Get Link Juice	p. 118
Using Social Media to Develop Linking Relationships	p. 123
Using the Power of the Web to Get Link Juice	p. 125
Summary	p. 126
Capturing Social Media Opportunities	p. 127
Forums: The Original Online Communities	p. 134
Wikis: The Purest Form of Web Content	p. 135
Blogging to Grow Your Voice	p. 136
Using Twitter to Grow Your Network	p. 140
Optimizing Your Facebook and LinkedIn Presences	p. 142
Sustainable Practices for the Web as a Social Medium	p. 144
Summary	p. 145
Measuring Web Content Effectiveness	p. 147
Measuring Engagement, Inferring Relevance	p. 148
Measuring Audience Semantics and Sentiment	p. 157
Summary	p. 161
Bibliography	p. 163
Index	p. 169
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