The Importance of the Short Context In Search Results
shooterThough keywords are very important when it comes to getting your web site found there is something related to keywords that is just as important yet hardly ever mentioned. That is context. In what context are your keywords placed on your site?
AH! You say that is automatic. When you use a sentence that has your keyword in it it is already in context. That may be, but also it may not be.
Internet readers don’t really read. That is a fact. If they can’t gleam something from a brief glance or figure it out intuitively they go on. There is simply too much information out there and Internet readers don’t want to waste time reading irrelevant stuff.
So how do they know what is relevant, at least relevant enough to slow down and read a few sentences? You can probably answer that yourself. What do you do when you are searching something on Google. You type in the keywords and get a list of page after page of results. Then what do you do? What I do is check to see if the results match what I am looking for. I do that by reading the little blurbs that Google throws up with the keywords embedded in them. If the few words before keyword or after it don’t make sense in terms of what I want, I don’t bother to go to the page at all.
That is what I call “short context”, the few words before and after your keyword.
Optimize the keyword’s short context in a thoughtful way, because that is what will get you to second base by getting them to click on your link. Once they do that you have already won a small but important battle. Google (meaning search engines in general) will note that for a given keyword your page link was clicked. This is a vote of sorts. Google will remember that. By the same token, if people don’t click your link Google will remember that as a no vote too.
Example. You make waxed flower arrangements and would like to sell them on the Internet, so obviously “waxed flowers” would be a good keyword. How you embed waxed flowers in your web site’s short context will more or less affect how many clicks you may get. If you are selling them you should say so near the keyword. If it is a local business you should also include that near the keywords so that people wanting to buy waxed flowers near you will click on your link when they see the short blurb in the search results. Your search result my look like:
“…shop in Clifton, GA sells waxed flowers. We also teach classes on…“
That will get you a click because it says what you do with waxed flowers and where you are. If you say something like
“I recently opened a shop in Clifton GA to start selling them even though I have been making waxed flowers for many years. My mother taught me as a little girl.
May result in a blurb like
“...have been making waxed flowers for many years. My mother taught me..“
and that may not get you the click even though your web page actually contained the relevant information.
Another example. Since I am providing Internet Marketing Services in the Atlanta Georgia area I would need to use the location and what I do with my keyword “Internet Marketing” as close together as possible, which I just did. The blurb would look something like
“..provide Internet Marketing Services in the Atlanta Georgia area I would need to use….”
which gives important context to the search term and may just get that all-elusive mouse click.
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We are more than just alive, we are the Universe aware of itself… so PAY ATTENTION! –note to myself
Author’s Yougler Profile is at shooter.
[...] instance of my test keyword Google chooses to list in the search results. This test ties back to a previous post where I discussed the importance of knowing which keyword instance Google chooses for its search [...]
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