I can find "Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla", but I can't find "he, him, or his."
It hit me as I was actively singing along to my kid's Schoolhouse Rock CD, that I unconsciously use pronouns for exactly the reasons that my favorite Schoolhouse Rock song describes. My favorite is called "Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla." I loved it when I was a kid and I love it now. My kids get a kick out of me belting it out at the top of my lungs.
Here's the best part of the song:
Now I could tell you Rafaella Gabriela and Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla and Albert Andreas Armadillo found an aardvark, a kangaroo, and a rhinoceros. And now that aardvark and that kangaroo and that rhinoceros belong respectively to Rafaella Gabriela Sarsaparilla and Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla and Albert Andreas Armadillo!
Whew! Because of pronouns I can say, in this way: "WE found THEM and THEY found US and now THEY are OURS and WE're so happy." Thank you, pronouns!
You see a pronoun was made to take the place of a noun, 'Cause saying all those nouns over and over Can really wear you down.
Yes, it can really wear you down. That's why we use pronouns. But if I say that's why "WE" use pronouns, then I miss out on an opportunity.
Here's the problem. Type he, him, or his into a google search and see what you find. Search results for he, him, his. The results are all over the board. Here's what you get when you search on Rufus Xavier Sarsparilla: Search results. There are 816 results and even if you go the last page of the results, they all point to Schoolhouse Rock references.
Make Jeff Turner's point, Jeff Turner! (Jeff Turner is now going to show ActiveRain members Jeff Turner's point by over exaggerating Jeff Turner's point. Because Jeff Turner really does have a point.)
If ActiveRain bloggers want to get the biggest bang from the Active Rain bloggers' ActiveRain blog posts, ActiveRain bloggers need to look the ActiveRain Bloggers' posts over carefully. When ActiveRain bloggers can replace a pronoun with a noun and not sound as ridiculous as this paragraph sounds, ActiveRain bloggers have increased the chances that the posts ActiveRain bloggers write will show up in search results.
That's obviously ridiculous. Here's how we would all normally write that paragraph:
If you want to get the biggest bang from your blog posts, you need to look your posts over carefully. When you can replace a pronoun with a noun and not sound as ridiculous as that paragraph sounds, you have increased the chances that the posts you write will show up in search results. This is subtle, but effective, and won't take much time.
Write to engage. Read to improve.
Don't even think about nouns or pronouns when you're writing. Just write. Write to engage the reader. Then save it as a draft and go get a cup of coffee, or take a nap, or kiss your loved ones, or mail me a dollar. When you're done, come back and read it to improve it's search engine attractiveness.
Example: Julie Ferenzi wants to be known for Plainfield Real Estate. So, whenever she gets the chance, those words need to be in a post. So the same rule applies to words like "here" and "there", when "here" and "there" are taking the place of nouns. Why say "here" or "there" if you can say "in Plainfield?" "I love living here" does not work for you like "I love living in Plainfield" does. The same holds true for the areas around Plainfield that she touches.
In Julie's last post, Where to buy near Plainfield, IL: River Hills, Bolingbrook, IL, she ends one paragraph like this, "...the 1st phase of the beautiful new community being built there." Where? Of course you and I can tell Julie is referring to Naperville from the context, but saying "being built in Naperville" gets "Naperville" in the copy one more time. You don't want to go crazy, but finding a few places to replace a pronoun can really add up over time.
Laurie Manny wrote a great post along these lines back in March, titled "Do You SEO?" She shares the same basic message: "Just go ahead and write your article. Go back into it and slide in your keywords where ever possible, as many times as you can without making it impossible to read." And she gives some great examples.
Remember Julie's post about Casey Fisher? It's a great example of YEO, and she used very few pronouns. Julie used Carrie, Rich and Casey as often as was appropriate, even in cases when she could easily have gotten away with she, him or her. And it works for YEO because Carrie, Rich and Casey will love seeing their names in your post. Will "they" also love the pronoun replacements of Carrie, Rich and Casey? Not so much.
You see a pronoun was made to take the place of a noun, but saying all those pronouns over and over again really brings your SEO and YEO results down. :)
70 Comments on What Rufus Xavier Sarsparilla Can Teach Us About SEO and YEO
Jeff someone recently told me (last week) that my blog has the name of my town, Los Gatos, in it too many times and that it's going to HURT me on the rankings because Google will think it's spam. So I went back in and carefully pared down the number of times I used the town's name, replacing it with "our town" or "our corner of Silicon Valley" etc.
So now I'm scratching my head. How much is too much?
Mary... too much is when it doesn't read naturally. I'd have to be able to see what they were commenting on to comment specifically. I'm going to go look at some of your posts now to see what how they read after your surgery.
Mary... I just looked through your posts and you've obviously knocked out a lot of it, because they're hard to find now. I'm assuming you were referring to your posts here on ActiveRains. So... go check out Laurie Manny's post, "Do You SEO?" She goes further than I would go, personally, in how she uses Long Beach Real Estate, but she shows up on page one of Google for that search term. Hard to argue with that.
My favorite was a lesser known one, The Tale of Mr. Morton.
I was just working on this today, thanks to George Tallabas who learned from Chris Griffith. I've spent the evening on my website, adding in "Hurricane WV real estate" and then playing with your Website Grader. Good stuff!
Tried to make one of your Wufoo forms, too. My website will not accept it. <Sniff!>
Teri Lussier thinks Jeff Turner has given Active Rain another great post. Teri is thrilled to be learning so much, and Teri would like to thank Jeff for Jeff's contributions to Active Rain.
Ines absolutely LOVED the tone of this post tool boy - tool boy ROCKS! (very appropriate song at the end) - Now.....there is heresay that overdoing those key words may hurt.....what's tool boy's take on that?
Jeff, this information is so valuable. I am going to try to implement these things in my future writings. Thanks for sharing your insights - keep singing.
Sometimes the article doesn't have good natural breaks to insert all the keywords that I would like. For example if I'm doing an article on a restaurant thats in another city, it may be difficult to naturally include some of my favorite keywords, like mortgage or Santa Clarita..
So a simple disclaimer at the bottom of the article, (even if its in fine print) can do the trick..
In this example, an article about my favorite restaurant can close with a line like, "what do I know, I'm just a mortgage broker from Santa Clarita, but the food here really is good"
Thanks for the ongoing training. Martin..
PS.. a really good blogger that I know, showed me this trick.. ;-)
Ines... yes, of course you can go too far with it. And I go by feel. If it doesn't sound natural, it's not doing you any good on SEO or YEO!
The point of my post is that most people don't go far enough. Let's use my silly example above. ActiveRain is the keyword.
This is too far:
If ActiveRain bloggers want to get the biggest bang from the Active Rain bloggers' ActiveRain blog posts, ActiveRain bloggers need to look the ActiveRain Bloggers' posts over carefully. When ActiveRain bloggers can replace a pronoun with a noun and not sound as ridiculous as this paragraph sounds, ActiveRain bloggers have increased the chances that the posts ActiveRain bloggers write will show up in search results.
This is what you normally see, and it's not enough:
If you want to get the biggest bang from your blog posts, you need to look your posts over carefully. When you can replace a pronoun with a noun and not sound as ridiculous as that paragraph sounds, you have increased the chances that the posts you write will show up in search results.
This is just about right:
If you want to get the biggest bang from your ActiveRain blog posts, you need to look your posts over carefully. When you can replace a pronoun with a noun and not sound as ridiculous as that paragraph sounds, you have increased the chances that the posts you write on ActiveRain will show up in search results.
School House Rocks.... Is the Cat's ASS..... I just bought that video collection for my 3 year old niece... great learning tool. Much like yourself..... you are the School House Rock of AR... thanks again for the great information
woo hoo conjunction junction what's your function.................... yeah yeah
well.... i wanted to be a tad more "descript"..... but then I opted out of that one... I have Colleen's blog in my brain about "standing by your words" and it reminds me that my "descript" word will be attached to ME...
I am only a bill... sitting here on capitol hill..... god i really loved that show
"Go back into it and slide in your keywords where ever possible, as many times as you can without making it impossible to read." And she gives some great examples."
I love Lauriie Manny, but when I read that I thought it was pretty hokey. In "my blogworld" people stop reading you and you lose credibility if they think you are "link baiting" or SEOing to the extreme. I can get away with some, but sliding keywords whereever possible?
But, I tried one today (before I read this) that had loads of keywords and a loaded title and stayed true to my writing, and it worked. It isn't as "loaded" as a Laurie Manny post, but I juggled the content and keywords best I could.
I hadn't read this before I wrote mine. Would you mind taking a peek at it. It's a featured post...I'll go get it to make it easier. Here it is. I used Keywords a whole lot more than I usually do, and I felt really sleazy when I was doing it....like I needed to take a shower afterward.
Ardell...that's EXACTLY how I feel when trying to slip in the keywords...."sleazy when I was doing it....like I needed to take a shower afterward." ( I love when you say things I feel - that's pretty freaky)
Ardell - yes you did....BUT....there's always a "but" in there - since it's a link rich post also, it is masked well - let me go over there and detail it.
You wrote a great post here that gave me some good ideas ... oops, I mean 'Jeff Turner wrote a great post on ActiveRain that gave John Novak some good ideas'. I think I've got it! Time to prepare for a weekend of editing.
It is nice to get some direction on the blogging process. I feel like such a novice. I don't know about you but if blogging had been around when my high school English class was in session, I might have understood writing more. Blogging, and now, working with the SEO part---WOW, this Temecula Valley girl has alot to learn!
Then I guess that "shower" feeling was appropo. I don't like the idea and I do OK in the Search engines without having to alter my writings. I'll stick to pinging often.
Ardell... for me it's about balance. You have written posts in the past with tons of detail, so it would not have seemed odd to me. Except for one thing. It wasn't the keywords that got in the way for me, it was all the links. I know that's one of those things that we're "supposed" to do as well, but, as we've heard in this comment stream, you can take anything too far.
I don't feel sleezy when I do what I'm suggesting, because I'm not about to sacrifice the feel of a post to do it. If you're starting to feel sleezy, then you've probably gone too far. In my opinion. But if I can find two or three places where doing so doesn't impact negatively on the reading of the post, I think that's a good thing.
Jeff - as always, a post full of information for us novice bloggers. Thanks for sharing all you project blogger information - I've learned so much lately.
Jeff - to borrow from TLW - "hubba hubba!!!" Love this advice, and I like the examples you gave as that's really helpful for me to see just how to sprinkle those phrases into posts. Balance is key, and you're right about too much coming across as awful. I had read some posts where it was really obvious that the person who wrote it was doing just this, but it seemed like it was just about every other word. I stopped reading and just left those posts without even commenting.
Keep sharing all this great stuff - and we'll keep soaking it up and learning and trying to put it to good use. I have tried to use balance in mine, but will go back and re-read my local posts to make sure it's not over-done, or under-done.
David... well, don't make it sound bad. I really hope people aren't coming away with that. Balance is the key. You want it to read well. I think you can do both, as long as you don't go overboard.
Jeff, love the video. I have never heard or seen it so I found it very entertaining and it certainly does an excellent job of teaching pronouns. Thanks for sharing it and the lesson of the opposite...
By the way, the number thing in the url was still not working...did you get my email with the actual link?
I did have more links than I normally would, but that was not for "link bait". Once I mentioned some people, I felt obligated to go through the whole list of people and link to something of theirs, so they didn't feel slighted. Otherwise it would have looked like three of us were more important somehow than the rest of the group.
It was also because I got lost on my own message and started "visiting" all of the players. My journey went further than intended, but I felt it better to keep going than to hurt some people's feelings. So I erred for personal reasons and not SEO reasons. I can live with that.
Ok, This was great. Good information again. I do want to be careful not to over do it though. But I see why it is so important.
Now, on a personal note, I have to say how funny it it was when I first saw the Schoolhouse Rock Logo - my son has been home for 1 1/2 weeks recovering from minor surgery and I walked in the other day and he & my wife were sitting on the couch bopping their heads together in unison watching Schoolhouse Rock. Its been years since I have heard these songs and I still remembered almost every line...
I completely agree Jeff, and it's good information but I did get a chuckle. I'm reading a book (yes, even during busy season, but just at 10 pm for about a half hour) where one of the main characters last name is Pugg. He refers to himself in third person all the time. "Pugg thinks that he should get a life..." It's quite comical. I think the operative thing here is to do it naturally and I have a great deal of difficulty in keeping it natural....
so what is nick to say? nick doesn't write for nick to be in search terms, but nick tend to write like this alot. nick deosn't know what that means anymore. little nicky had an idea, but nick made little nicky get quiet real quick!
ok, seriously, i'm guilty of overSEO'ing, but i try to keep em with pics and vids. hey! did i just say that
shut up nick!
PS. thanks Jeff. nick appreciates the eye opener to engage a little more. til now we (nick and little nicky) are just engaging the jetski onto the trailer. :)
From the mouths of Babes . . . .Joe Peffer's family in Columbus, Ohio, also has the dvd box set and really, they almost all continue to hold up very well. good point. well taken.
Jeff, This is our Schoolhouse and you Rock! How about that! Everytime you write, we learn! (and you usually make it fun and easy to grasp! ) Tell the kids they get a Gold Star for getting your creative juices flowing!
Good point Jeff. Internet english is much different then how we speak. It''s interesting because most of us don't read a whole blog or webpage anyway, so why are we so concerned that our college or high school english teacher is going to flunk us...
I have always loved School House Rock. My son like to watch the DVD a lot. It has helped in school. Thanks for the post. You have some great points in it.
Michele... what's really cool is that my kids have never SEEN the videos. So, in preparing this post, I found some of them online and they've been able to watch them. Now THEY think I'm cool! :)
Larry... very good point. I know Mrs. Herman, my high school creative writing teacher, who may actually be reading this since we stay in touch, would not be happy with even this sentence that includes her name! :)
Ronda... See my response to Michele above. i think I'm going to have to go get the DVD now.
Great post Jeff! Thanx for the video too! Took me back a bit. I remember watching those cartoons on Saturday mornings as a child. They usually came on between featured cartoons, almost like commercials. It's almost sad that they don't run them anymore. No...it is sad.
Jeff Turner
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Jeff someone recently told me (last week) that my blog has the name of my town, Los Gatos, in it too many times and that it's going to HURT me on the rankings because Google will think it's spam. So I went back in and carefully pared down the number of times I used the town's name, replacing it with "our town" or "our corner of Silicon Valley" etc.
So now I'm scratching my head. How much is too much?
Thanks!