SEO terms and rich content – can they ever be friends?

We’re creating destination guides for a major UK airline. So I’ve been looking at the content on other airline websites. Here’s a page I came across on KLM’s site. It’s the first paragraph of the country guide to The Netherlands.

Book airline tickets to The Netherlands for the laidback lifestyle of its canal-strewn capital Amsterdam or the bustle of port town Rotterdam. Countryside enthusiasts catch a flight to The Netherlands for the beauty of prime tulip-growing region Haarlem. Travel to The Netherlands to visit historic Utrecht, famous for its canals and restaurants. Airline tickets to The Netherlands open up a diverse world, from international affairs at The Hague to windmill-spotting in Kinderdijk. A ticket to The Netherlands takes travellers to Amsterdam’s Anne Frank House and Van Gogh Museum. In Rotterdam, take a flight up The Netherlands’ Euromast for far-reaching views from the city’s highest tower.

It’s not the most flowing piece of prose is it?

Of course, those of us in the know can see why the phrases I’ve highlighted are there. It’s a classic example of what’s known in the trade as SEO content. SEO (if you didn’t know!) stands for Search Engine Optimisation. By ensuring phrases like ‘airline tickets to The Netherlands’ and ‘flight to The Netherlands’ appear frequently, the writer is trying to make sure that Google and other search engines rank the page highly when people looking for flights to The Netherlands type these phrases into the search engine.

But it reads like something a 12 year old would write – stuff that if we’re honest does no good for the brand of the company using it. Does KLM want us to think it employs school kids to write its content?

Here’s another page of content. It’s a similar piece of introductory content from tour operator Sunvil.

Madeira

The lush, sub-tropical island of Madeira has much to offer the independent traveller. The sheer diversity of scenery on an island of such manageable size – only 36 miles by 14 miles (57km by 22km), makes it the ideal holiday destination both for those who wish to take a fly-drive holiday, as well as for those who just want to relax in the sophisticated hotels, country houses and inns with their ever-friendly welcome. Our holidays to this enchanting island feature the capital of Funchal and both coastal and inland locations. These can be combined in a fly-drive arrangement to make the most of your stay.

Madeira’s climate is mild, with temperatures from 61°F in winter to 72°F in summer, making it the perfect year round holiday destination. Madeira is famous for its abundant vegetation: bananas, oranges, lemons, melons, avocados, passion fruit as well as bougainvillea, jacaranda, orchids and the national flower, the Bird of Paradise. Paths by the original irrigation channels to the terraced fields, known as ‘levadas’, provide unique walking access to the inland mountain terrain.

It’s not going to win any awards, but it gives a good overview of what the island has to offer and it makes clear who Madeira would suit for a holiday. I can read it and make a few informed choices about whether I’d like to go there. I know which of these two pieces I prefer both as a reader and as a writer.

Unfortunately Google prefers the former.

An SEO analyst would recommend we amend the Madeira copy to include terms like ‘Holidays Madeira’, ‘Holidays to Madeira’ and quite probably ‘cheap holidays to Madeira’. (It’s amazing – customers search using the term ‘cheap’ but most companies run a mile from being associated with the word!)

Scattering terms like ‘Cheap holidays to Madeira’, ‘Maderia holidays’ and more through this content would change it drastically. As a Content person, I’d say it would ruin it. You could do it, but I’d challenge any creative writer to do it well. The result is often this strange Frankenstein copy that’s highly optimised for search engines. It seems to say stuff to the reader, but actually it doesn’t really offer much in the way of useful information at all.

There’s stacks of research around that people tend to only look at the first 5 or so results when they use a search engine. So it’s critically important that your website is properly optimised. (Of course, it’s not just content that determines a page’s ranking – links to it, technical elements and more go into the mix, but as a Content person it’s words I’m concerned with here.)

If you’re not ranking highly, people won’t visit your website. So no matter how flowing the prose, far less people will see it – and book a flight or a hotel night as a result, which ultimately is what the vast majority of travel sites want visitors to do.

As a business iCrossing is evolving fast. In the old days we just did Search Engine Optimisation. Now we offer User Experience, Content, Paid Search and Display Advertising too. As a Content Specialist I’m increasingly of the opinion that an SEO strategy needs a Content strategy right beside it… and probably some User Experience input too. From a content perspective, it’s no longer enough to extrapolate a bunch of hot search terms and shoe-horn them into existing content or, worse, create new pages just to support them.

The challenge is to come up with a strategy that isn’t just about SEO – but one that integrates Content and User Experience in with it too. A strategy that delivers great rankings AND a brilliant customer experience.

A strategy that makes SEO terms and rich content the very best of friends.