| Did you know that we have left the Age of the | | | | to your site are always just a click away |
| Information Economy behind and are now well | | | | from moving on to some other site they find |
| into the Age of the Attention Economy? What | | | | more interesting, so you have to try and keep |
| does this mean? It means that if you rely | | | | them with you until you accomplish your |
| upon the Internet to conduct your business, | | | | rhetorical goal! Wow, there's a term of |
| the age of putting up a web site and getting | | | | academic gobbledy gook. Seriously, if you go |
| instant results are long gone. Now you must | | | | back to our definition of rhetoric, it is to |
| clamor for the attention of web surfers, your | | | | persuade or convince someone to accept your |
| prospective visitors and customers, who are | | | | argument. Well, your argument is whatever the |
| lured by the frantic actions of the billions | | | | objectives are for your site. Are you |
| of pages currently indexed on the web. To | | | | attempting to sell something? Get leads? Pass |
| give you some perspective, Google alone | | | | on information? Deflect telephone calls away |
| indexes over 7 billion pages. Therefore, to | | | | from your customer service department? The |
| survive means to grab people's attention and | | | | first step in creating good web site rhetoric |
| you do that by using good digital rhetorical | | | | is to define your purpose as specifically as |
| skills.Now there's a scary word - rhetoric. | | | | possible.Now the question becomes, who is |
| In my case, rhetoric was a terms the nuns | | | | your user? Do you have demographic data: age, |
| used to throw around in regards to the essays | | | | schooling level, location, job, hair color? |
| we wrote in English class. You know, the | | | | Find out as much as you can about who your |
| reading, writing, and rhetoric thing? Go back | | | | web site is geared to: if you sell men's work |
| now to first year high school English; | | | | pants, then your audience is going to be |
| remember the purpose of an essay? It is to | | | | mostly male, over age 18, blue collar, |
| grab your reader's attention and persuade her | | | | located in anywhere, USA, middle class, etc. |
| to adopt your point of view, to agree with | | | | So, with these two pieces of data: your |
| your argument. And that is what rhetoric is | | | | purpose (to sell workpants) and a description |
| all about: rhetoric can be defined as the | | | | of your target audience, you're ready to rock |
| art of persuasion: of using words, either | | | | and roll in crafting your web site text.Let's |
| verbal or written, to catch attention and | | | | look at some general rules for web text that |
| persuade readers to think, do, or believe | | | | apply to all readers. First, the screen |
| what you want them to think, do or | | | | carries approximately 1/3 the amount of |
| believe.Mechanical RhetoricNow let's apply | | | | information and text that an 8 ½ x 11 inch |
| this concept to search engine optimization. | | | | piece of paper holds. Second, people don't |
| The first challenge is to grab your readers' | | | | like to read text in long paragraphs on the |
| attention. How do you do that? One big way | | | | screen; they prefer short paragraphs and |
| you do that is by ranking high in the search | | | | sentences, bullets, headers, and graphics |
| engines, because then, when a user enters a | | | | (but don't put text in the graphics because |
| relevant keyword term, your site will come up | | | | the search engines can't read it). Also, |
| as one of the (hopefully) top 10 web | | | | reading speed is decreased by 30 %. Third, |
| sites!Okay, so working backward, how do you | | | | avoid scrolling: a good rule of thumb is 250 |
| rank high? First, you fill your site with | | | | - 300 words per screen. Fourth, write in a |
| good, solid, well-written content. You offer | | | | style that is clear, concise, and easily |
| value to visitors. The search engines measure | | | | scanned. Fifth, use your keywords, but use |
| your content and score it according to its | | | | them accurately and with relevance.Okay, so |
| value to users. In other words, you use the | | | | now back to your purpose: make it obvious and |
| skills of good rhetoric, which includes the | | | | clear what you want your readers to do - your |
| skillful, artful, and meaningful use of | | | | rhetorical point! Here are some possibilities |
| words.Second, you select keywords that your | | | | of what you might want them to do: |
| users are most likely to use to search for | | | | |
| what you offer on your site. The trick here | | | | Call |
| is to select keywords that are likely to be | | | | |
| used, but that won't draw a big number of web | | | | Check order status |
| sites in a keyword search. Here's where you | | | | |
| need to work with an SEO expert, or employ | | | | Download free software |
| the use of special keyword software.Third, | | | | |
| you have a lot of quality sites that link to | | | | Find information |
| your site. These links are viewed as "votes" | | | | |
| for your web site, and the "better" the site | | | | Give feedback |
| in the search engines' eyes, the higher the | | | | |
| value assigned to your site. The search | | | | Join |
| engines look at the quality of the content on | | | | |
| sites linking to yours, as well as their | | | | Purchase a product or service |
| relevance to your site.Fourth, you need to | | | | |
| design your site in a search-engine friendly | | | | Request something |
| way. How do you do that? First, don't use | | | | |
| Flash. You know those sites that have that | | | | Then, make it easy for them to get to: |
| introductory page where it says "Click to | | | | |
| skip?" Well, the search engine crawler may | | | | How they purchase by credit card |
| not get beyond that page and therefore may | | | | |
| not index your web site. Also, avoid using | | | | Any forms they need |
| JavaScript. Same thing there, the search | | | | |
| engines get lost in the complex code it | | | | Your contact information: email, phone, |
| generates and that's the end of their crawl | | | | address, etc. |
| on your site. Second, make sure all your | | | | |
| internal links are working, and make them | | | | So, there you have it, some stuff you can |
| text links that contain your keywords. Third, | | | | put in your arsenal to get started. Remember: |
| if you use image maps or pull down menus for | | | | having a successful web site means doing some |
| navigation, make sure you also have textual | | | | advance planning and following guidelines |
| navigation on the same page. Fourth, pay | | | | that have been proven to work. So, get out |
| careful attention to the content of your | | | | there, work hard, and go get 'em!!Mary Anne |
| Title tag, Description tag, Header tags, and | | | | Donovan is both a scholar and a practitioner, |
| body text. As for your Keyword tag, Google | | | | a balance that "gives me the best of both |
| doesn't even look at it, but make sure you | | | | worlds: the theory behind digital |
| still have it contain all your site's | | | | communications and the hands-on experience to |
| important keywords. Also, make sure you use | | | | know what really works and what doesn't." She |
| your keywords in each of these in a relevant, | | | | is in her tenth year as a professor of |
| normal way. Some webmasters make the mistake | | | | technical writing and business communications |
| of loading these tags with keywords in a | | | | while at the same time serves as Vice |
| manipulative, phony way: the search engines | | | | President and Director of U.S. Operations for |
| can see right through this tactic and will | | | | SEO Literacy Consultants, Inc., a search |
| penalize your site accordingly. Also, in your | | | | engine optimization consulting and training |
| body text, bullets, italics, and bold are | | | | company. Mary Anne has worked with computers |
| weighted more heavily, and if possible, use | | | | since they first came out of the closet and |
| your keywords here as well.The items we've | | | | into more general application, starting with |
| discussed above comprise the mechanical | | | | computerized quality control systems for |
| aspects of SEO rhetoric for your site. Now | | | | Kodak photographic and printing processes and |
| let's talk about textual rhetoric.Textual | | | | now with the fine points of SEO theory and |
| RhetoricThe all-important, coveted visitors | | | | application. |