 |
 Destination Websites: To SEO or Not To SEO?07.23.10 at 1:00 pm by Alan BeberwyckSome content transcends search optimizationAt Wanderlust, we spend a lot of time thinking about how to increase the visibility of our clients’ destinations, resorts and attractions. Search-optimized web content is an important marketing tactic to dominate organic search, build web traffic and attract visitors. But there are times when great content must stand on its own – SEO be damned. Following is a case in point. When SEO blurs into rewriting historyI was editing content for the Howe Caverns website this week: seven fascinating historical articles dating from between 1849 and 1888. These quaint editorial time capsules originally appeared in newspapers, booklets and advertisements for the Upstate New York attraction in the 19th Century, and featured all the colorful, flowery language of the age. An internal conflict ensued: Do I take license with the content to enhance its search ranking, or leave it in its purest state for the enjoyment of our site visitors? Will a 150-year old article compete for relevance with our carefully tuned content? At what point does search optimization have a negative impact on content? Meta data maintains content integrityI couldn’t do it. I couldn’t bastardize another writer’s work (even if said writer has been dead for 120 years) just for a higher search ranking. But I still had an alternative: meta data. The page title, meta description and smart URL gave me the tools I needed to leverage target keywords, without touching a word of the articles. So wonderful phrases like the following could appear again in the 21st Century: “It is not impossible to find just such a place as one may wish, for there are many; but it is sometimes hard to decide between them, and it therefore becomes necessary to call in a ‘friend,’ as we now propose to constitute ourselves in presenting the following pages for your earnest consideration.” (Lovely language which today would be abbreviated to the much more common phrase, “Click here.”)“But I imagine our worthy president, ...raising the massive brow, and with mien severe and measured tones, speaking thus: ‘Your explanation is good so far as it goes, young man, but recollect that the portion of time during which the present race of mortals have inhabited this globe, compared with the longer fragment of eternity which has elapsed since first this earth swung into space - a drop of molten matter - is as the time consumed by a cannon-shot passing over a hair’s breadth space, to its whole flight; what then does science say of the history of this cave - its complete history?’” “‘Now,’ quoth the guide in solemn tones, as if a dead man spoke, ‘Let us blow out our lights.’” Search optimization? Nay, I say. Though not a keyword or search term rests among these golden phrases, the mellifluous beauty of the language is worth its weight in Google rankings.
|
 |
Great post! Even though I'm a strong proponent of SEO, I respect your decision and would have done the same.
I would suggest that you can also make wise use of header tags (h1, h2, etc), inserting a few anchor text links if appropriate, perhaps bolding selections of the prose for better readability and certainly alt image tags if you found some images to lay into the text. This said, I do find a lot of value in approaching well written text in the manner in which you have done and wish more sites would have the courage to do so.
@Rob and Eric -- Thanks for supporting my decision to keep the content intact. As content creators/publishers, our first goal should to provide entertaining and informative material; making it accessible is important, too, but secondary. Thanks too, Eric, for the suggestions. We do have a few options to maximize content's visibility without altering it greatly. Header tags, anchors, captions and formatting can all help readership. Thanks for reading! AB