Friday, April 17, 2015

2015 PROMO: PEOPLE: SEO tips for promoting your virtual community (Not how to cheat with SEO)

SEO tips for promoting your virtual community.
(Not how to cheat with SEO)
Some suggestions on how to get more interested visitors to the website about your virtual community.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine's "natural" or un-paid ("organic") search results. In general, the earlier (or higher ranked on the search results page), and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine's users. -- Wikipedia 

This is not about kinky sex

Use SEO with attention to the reader, not to the search engines.  You don't care about just getting visitors, you care about getting visitors who will be interested in what you have to offer.    

Who is your target audience?  

Probably people much like the people in your virtual world community, but, I hope, not yet in a virtual world or or not on your grid.  Because if these people already know about your community and you haven't attracted them yet, you aren't going to get them with SEO.  You probably can't get them with anything short of changing your community to make it more attractive to them.  

Your better target is people that know nothing about your community.  Maybe they will like you community.  At least, if you bring them into virtual worlds, you get first crack at them.  That is where SEO can help.  You get your offering right up there on page one, when they are searching for something connected to your community. 

At least you get your offering up in front of them if you are using the right key terms.  How do you find key terms?

What does your community talk about?  

  • Listen--or read the chat  
  • Look for words or phrases the a specific to communities like yours.  
  • You don't want terms that lots of people use.  
  • Sure, they will get you into lots of results.  Somewhere after page 50.   
  • You want terms that are important to people in communities like yours,
  • but almost unknown anywhere else.

Think of technical names related to:

  • pieces of equipment
  • tools that are specialized for tasks done in that community
  • methods for doing something
  • ways of measuring something
  • ways of describing the environment 
  • levels of achievement
  • people who do specialized tasks
  • etc.

Think beyond your community 

  • Can you find similar communities on the web-- say in Google+?
  • Go to Google+ communities 
  • Communities of the virtual worlds on Google+
  • Search for names you apply to your community 
  • If you find communities like yours, join them.  
  • Look at the conversation.    
  • Look for terms that you understand, but that would confuse most people.  
  • Look for terms that would have to be explained to newcomers.

How do you use your key terms? 

  • At the beginning of a text section.  
  • In your blog, web pages, blurbs you write for destination guides.
  • In the search description of your blog.
  • In titles of pictures or text sections.
  • In text, bold and italics.  
  • In any text you put on the web to say something important about your community.
  • In the keywords metatag, if you want.   How To Use Keywords
  • (I doubt that Google search looks at the keywords metatag--easy to game it.)
  • Search engines don't read pictures. Put important words in text.
  • Search engines don't come inworld.  Speak to the outworld through the browser.   

More about SEO

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    3 comments:

    1. This post is really valuable that designed for the new visitors. Pleasing work, keep on writing.Tacoma SEO

      ReplyDelete
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      ReplyDelete
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