I'd Rather Be Writing » visibility

Search Engine Optimizing Your Help Content for Google [Organizing Content 11]

Tom Johnson — Fri, 28 May 2010 19:20:46 +0000

In my last post, I argued that making content findable in search engines requires you to understand how your search engine algorithm ranks and sorts the content it indexes. Not all search engines work the same. Some rank content through links, others by date, others include index keywords, and so on. You have to be familiar with the search algorithm so that you can maximize your content’s visibility in the search.

I touched briefly on Google’s search engine algorithm. Since Google is such an important search engine for content, including help content, I want to dive deeper into strategies for maximizing the visibility of help content on Google.

Putting Help Content on Google

Since many users turn directly to Google to find answers to questions, rather than turning to the help file, it makes sense to put your help content on Google.

Additionally, help files are rich in keyword density. An online help file with more than 200 topics adds hundreds of keywords to your company’s site, making your product more findable.

If you have optimized your help content with synonyms and other terms that people actually use, the help file can be a wealth of highly search-engine-optimized content that increases visibility of your product and company in Google’s search engine results, right?

Let’s Try a Test

Let’s try a test. Let’s say that I’m using a software application, Madcap Flare, and I want to know how to insert concept keywords. Using Google, I search for “insert concept keywords flare.”

Google search results for insert concept keywords in Flare

Why is it that the search results didn’t find the topic in Flare’s online help file, which is on the web? It did find a Madcap KB article, but not the topic in the webhelp file.

The exact topic in Flare’s help is titled Inserting Concepts into Topics. Even if I search for this phrase, the Flare help topic doesn’t appear in Google’s results. In fact, the results for this search aren’t even related to help authoring or Flare.

When I search for inserting concepts into topics flare, one of the results points to a topic in Flare’s online help: Creating Printed Output. But still not the webhelp topic I’m looking for.

Why didn’t Inserting Concepts into Topics, the topic from Flare’s help file, appear in any of my Google searches, even when the topic is online and apparently indexed by Google? Why is it that Eddie Van Arsdall’s post, Madcap Flare Tip: Helping Users Find Related Information, appears at the top of the list for both of my Google searches?

What Is PageRank?

Eddie’s post itself has just a couple of inlinks, that is, links pointing to it from other sites. But to Eddie Van Arsdall’s domain, Simplifying Complexity, there are a lot of links pointing to it. These incoming links give Eddie something called PageRank, which helps his topic dominate the search engine results.

PageRank is a trademarked term created by Larry Page, one of the founders of Google, that describes a ranking of a website’s credibility and authority. Every time you link to a site, Google interprets that link as a vote of confidence for the site. You’re vouching for the site’s credibility when you link to it.

For Google, PageRank is a major variable that determines what sites appear in the search engine results (SERPs). Sites with a high PageRank get more visibility in SERPs. If a site has 1,000 links pointing to it, Google knows that it must be a credible and worthwhile site. Therefore the site appears higher in the results.

Each site on the web is assigned a PageRank between 0 and 10. You can check PageRank here or more powerfully with the SearchStatus Firefox extension.

The New York Times and Wikipedia have a PageRank of 9. TC.Eserver.org and my site have a PageRank of 6. Simplifying Complexity has a PageRank of 4.

In contrast, the webhelp for Flare has no page rank at all. Ouch.

Help Content and PageRank

Help content on the web will always be at a disadvantage with PageRank, because people are less inclined to link to webhelp topics than to blogs or other user-created sites. Why is that?

One reason is that it’s hard to link to a webhelp topic. Webhelp files use frames, so even if you’re looking at the Inserting Concepts into Topics topic, you can’t grab the link to it unless you click the TOC accordion tab at the bottom, find the topic in the TOC, right-click the topic, and copy the link address. It’s non-intuitive to see the link.

Additionally, it’s just not common to link to help files. We tend to link to content created by people like us, especially when the content includes unique insight and perspective from a person’s point of view. Plain procedural topics are boring. We don’t have cause to link to them.

Frames and SEO

Another reason the Flare webhelp topic doesn’t appear in the SERPs is because Flare’s webhelp uses frames. Using frames in general is a poor practice for SEO on web. Many people point out that frames aren’t good for search engine optimization. For example, Webconfs.com: SEO Tools and Webmaster Utilities says ”Frames are very, very bad for SEO. Avoid using them unless really necessary.” Almost every HAT’s webhelp output I’ve seen uses frames, unfortunately.

Index Keywords and 2% Keyword Density

Not only do webhelp files lack PageRank and use frames, they also run into problems with index keywords. Google dislikes repetition of the same keyword over and over in the topic because Google thinks the site is trying to trick it.

The optimal keyword density is about 2%, meaning that if you have 300 words in your article, about 6 of them should be the keyword phrase you’re trying to rank for. If you have a keyword density of 20%, Google sees this as trying to game the system. The excessive keyword density works against you.

If I were to include my string of sample keywords that I referenced in my last post, would Google interpret this list of keywords as an attempt to game keyword density? Here’s that list:

burn notice
deliver burn notice
drop off burn notices
burn notices sending
how to present a burn notice
cutting off undercover agents
severing ties with field agents
burn notice protocol
best way to handle burn notice
give burn notice to operatives

Assuming Google even sees this content (questionable since the index keywords are tagged using Madcap’s unique markup in the code), would Google penalize me for overusing the keyword “burn notice”? I’m not sure.

Moving Towards a Dangerous Conclusion

As the importance of visibility on Google grows, and as companies recognize and treat their help content as an SEO asset for the online visibility and ranking (not to mention marketing) of their products, shouldn’t we put our help content on web-friendly platforms that will maximize their visibility in Google’s search engine results? Are traditional help authoring tools holding us back from realizing the SEO power of our help content?

Jing, TechSmith’s quick image and video capture tool, has their help on a blog platform (Movable Type). When I search for capture video with Jing, the help appears in the top five results.

Are blog platforms the future of help authoring?

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4. Avoiding Plosives and Breathing Noises

Tom Johnson — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:32:46 +0000

Getting close to your microphone usually results in something called “the proximity effect.” As you get close, most microphones amplify your voice in a rich, deep way. The proximity effect can make you sound like a late-night DJ. Some microphones give you the best proximity effect when you’re practically kissing the mic.

Unfortunately, as you get closer to a microphone, the microphone starts to pick up more sounds from your mouth. Say the word “pick” or “pull” and you unleash a gust of wind toward the mic. Really, hold your hand up two inches from your mouth and say a few P or B words. Can you feel the gust? To your microphone, the puff is like a tsunami sound wave. This burst of air is known as a plosive.

When you get close, in addition to plosives, microphones also pick up a variety of breathing noises. When you exhale through your nose, the sound can be a low rumble in the microphone. As you finish one sentence and take a breath to start another, that sudden inhalation gets picked up by the microphone. When you open and close your mouth, the sound of your lips separating and smacking finds its way into the microphone.

Here are a few of the sounds I’m talking about. I’ve used four different mics for comparison.

Shure SM58 (no pop filter)	Shure SM58 (pop filter)
Audix (no pop filter)	Audix (pop filter)
Electro-Voice RE20 (no pop filter)	Electro-Voice RE20 (pop filter)
Radio Shack 33-3042 (no pop filter)	Radio Shack 33-3042 (pop filter)

The easiest way to prevent these plosives and breathing noises from ending up in your recording is through something called a pop filter. The pop filter is essentially pantyhose stretched across a ring and held several inches in front of your microphone. For some reason, the fabric of pantyhose seems to stop plosives. Pantyhose also helps to reduce the various breathing noises I mentioned. In part this is because the pop filter ensures you don’t get too close to the mic.

pop filter

You can make your own pop filter if you’re skilled working with wire and have a way to attach it to your microphone. I once tried this but found no way to gracefully attach the coat hanger wire to my microphone outside of gaudy-looking masking tape, which left my mic handle all sticky when I removed the tape.

I have since bought a $38 Shure Popper Stopper and have had felt it to be worthwhile. (Remember that you’re not buying a strip of pantyhose for $38. You’re buying the mic attachment clip and arm as well as the ring.)

Some pop filters are actually made of metal. I haven’t tried a metal pop filter, but I assume they work too. And metal is durable. If you get a nylon (pantyhose) pop filter, make sure you’re careful not to tear the nylon. One careless scratch and the nylon gets a run. (I know because when I originally removed my pop filter from the case, I think I scratched it against a package staple and it immediately had a run in the nylon, kind of like this. Luckily for me, the store still exchanged it.)

Here’s what the pop filter looks like positioned in front of my microphone.

My pop filter positioned in front of my microphone

What about the sacrificed sound that you give up by distancing yourself from the microphone? With a pop filter, you’re no longer kissing the mic. If you must get extremely close, you can. The pop filter won’t function as well, but you can learn to breathe stealthily, hit pause and resume to take breaths, and edit out your other mouth noises in post-production. You can also just learn to breathe quietly and discreetly. All of this, however, adds to the difficulty of producing a video and extends the post-production time.

For me, the minimization of mouth noises by adding some distance is worth it. I separate my mic from my pop filter with two sideways fingers, and my mouth from the pop filter with the same distance. The sound would be richer if I were closer, but I have to remember that I’m creating a software video tutorial to help someone learn an application, not delivering a late-night thought to sleepless radio listeners. Like your prose, your voice should also be somewhat invisible. Clear, personable, and articulate, but not necessarily a late-night DJ.

The instructions on my Shure pop filter actually say to distance the pop filter between 2 to 8 inches from the mic. I find that different mics record at different levels. When you’re 8 inches away from the mic, the sound quality decreases considerably. If you amplify the sound in post-production, static noise from the background also increases.

One downside to the pop filter is that it gets in your way visually. Some people find them so distracting that, instead of using a pop filter, they speak to the right of the mic a bit, so they aren’t coming at it head on. Rodney Saulsberry writes,

I think every voice-over actor has a comfort zone in front of the mic, a place where he tends to stand in reference to the mic most of the time. I like to turn my head to the right and work off the right side of the microphone. By working off mic I lessen my chances of popping, which occurs when you blow a burst of air into the mic. The sudden burst causes a sound that generally happens when you use “plosive” words that begin with t, b, or p. Some engineers will put a stocking type device in front of the mic to protect it from plosives. I find this device to be very distracting, which is why I developed my off-mic technique.

As I’m recording a video tutorial, the large diameter of the pop filter does get a little in the way of the computer screen I’m looking at. But I’ve traded some visibility for the benefits of the pop filter.

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Blogging, Podcasting, and Screencasting: Eight Characteristics to Attract Devoted Followers [Part 2]

Tom Johnson — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 21:52:02 +0000

Download MP3
Length: 35 min.

This is part II of the Blogging, Podcasting, and Screencasting presentation that I gave to the TransAlpine conference in Vienna in June 2009. For more details about the podcast, see the first write-up. If you haven’t listened to Part 1 yet, listen to that first (unless you prefer to arrive en media res).

Here’s the accompanying PowerPoint.

If you’re wondering why I didn’t just combine the two audio files in the same post, iTunes doesn’t read the second audio file that way. Also, most people’s attention spans tend to time out after an hour.

As always, I love to hear feedback, so if you enjoyed listening to the presentation, drop me a line or leave a comment. Thanks.

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Blogging, Podcasting, and Screencasting: Eight Characteristics to Attract Devoted Followers [Part I]

Tom Johnson — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 21:44:45 +0000

Download MP3
Length: 50 min.

This podcast is a recording of the Blogging, Podcasting, and Screencasting presentation that I gave to the TransAlpine conference in Vienna in June 2009. In the presentation, I explore what well-known bloggers, podcasters, and screencasters do to inspire readers to become devoted followers rather than just casual subscribers.

Devoted followers stay updated with each new post, podcast, or screencast, eagerly awaiting the next new one. They’re intimately familiar with your content and either comment regularly or regularly return to your site. In contrast, casual subscribers may check out the site from time to time (if they even remember the title), but they feel no loyalty to the blogger/podcaster/screencaster. Months could pass without an update and they wouldn’t notice.

Rather than explore blogs, podcasts, and screencasts as separate media with their own unique characteristics, I group them together and explore eight common characteristics that make blogs/podcasts/screencasts successful: relevance, story, appropriate revealing, voice, readability, visibility, interaction, and regularity.

If you want to follow the PowerPoint, view it here. It’s not sync’ed with the audio, so you just have to guess where I am (but the PowerPoint is mostly visual anyway, since that’s my PowerPoint style). Also, because of the length (90 minutes overall), I divided the podcast into two parts. This is part 1.

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Podcast — Blogging for Technical Communicators Webinar (Part 2)

Tom Johnson — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 07:02:45 +0000

Download MP3 (to download, right-click and select Save Target As)
Length: 40 min.

This is the second half of the Blogging for Technical Communicators webinar that I gave to the STC-Rocky Mountain chapter on February 19, 2009.

Here’s the accompanying PowerPoint visual.

Note: Make sure you listen to Part 1 first. Otherwise you’ll come into this podcast in media res.

Topics covered in this half of the podcast include the following:

How Your Audience Consumes Blog Information
Key Elements of Blog Appeal: Story, Voice, Transparency, Honesty
Making the 652 Posts Findable on Your Blog
Comments — and What to Do With Them
What Happens to You When You Blog
Questions Everyone Asks About WordPress

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Upcoming Presentations, or, Blogging and Increased Visibility

Tom Johnson — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 13:53:06 +0000

When you blog, you increase your visibility tenfold. And with increased visibility, you’re more frequently invited to speak at events. This year I have a handful of presentations I’m giving at various chapters and events. I decided to add an Upcoming Presentations button on my navigation bar to list them. If you’d like me to speak at your chapter, conference, or other event, let me know.

Here’s my 2009 schedule so far:

February 19. Blogging. Rocky Mountain STC chapter, Colorado. (webinar)
February 26. Quick Reference Guides. Intermountain-STC chapter, Utah. (co-presenting)
March 26. Podcasting. Podcamp Utah.
May 3-6. Blogging (pre-conference workshop). STC Summit, Atlanta.
May 3-6. Blogging (regular presentation). STC Summit, Atlanta.
May 3-6. Quick Reference Guides. STC Summit, Atlanta (co-presenting)
April 7. WordPress. STC Suncoast chapter in Florida. (webinar)
November 5. WordPress/Blogging. STC Suncoast chapter, Florida.

Honestly, I’ve never spoken at so many events in one year. Last year I presented at the STC Summit on podcasting and participated on a panel about marketing yourself in a web 2.0 environment. I also presented on WordPress at Doc Train West and gave a webinar to STC Phoenix about help and web 2.0. The year before that, I only presented on blogging usability at Doc Train West.

So essentially, the number of events I’ve been invited to speak at have at least doubled every year since I’ve been blogging. This points to an interesting phenomenon. Blogging = Visibility.

Visibility is essential to marketing yourself. The other day a reader sent me a long email asking how he could market himself as a technical writer. As a 29-year-old trying to break into the profession, he wanted to establish himself as a technical writer and find a job. Although you can market yourself by attending STC events, publishing in newsletters, passing out business cards, creating a portfolio, and so on, blogging actively about a specific topic probably gives you the most leverage.

The more you blog, the more visible you become. And as your visibility increases, you receive a greater number of invitations. I also serve on the STC Intercom advisory panel. With a small group of other technical communicators, we give suggestions and ideas to the Intercom editors about topics and writers for upcoming Intercom issues. I noticed that when I sit down and try to think about who would be good to write about X, bloggers come to mind first, simply because they are more visible.

So there you have it. Blogging = Visibility and Visibility leads to increased Invitations.

There is one other element at play here: Time. With all these factors (blogging, visibility, and invitations), your amount of Time always decreases, unfortunately.