content optimization - three dimensions to creating content that works
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© 2012 Acrolinx
Content OptimizationThree Dimensions to Creating Content That Works - #tcworld12
Andrew Bredenkamp@abredenkamp
Acrolinx
© 2012 Acrolinx
Overview
IntroductionWhy do we develop content?
15 minutes(8:45-9:00)
People-Ready ContentIntroduction, Exercises, Examples
25 minutes(9:00-9:25)
Global-Ready ContentIntroduction, Exercises, Examples
25 minutes(9:25-9:50)
Search-Ready ContentIntroduction, Exercises, Examples
25 minutes(9:50-10:15)
Wrap-upTake-aways, Feedback, Discussion
15 minutes(10:15-10:30)
© 2012 Acrolinx
Quick Survey
Technical writers? Editors? Translators? Documentation managers? Engineers: software or otherwise? ESL Writer (writing in English but not a native speaker)? Experience with simplified English? Experience with structured authoring? “Pre-Sales” content writers?
© 2012 Acrolinx
Why are you here?
Solve a specific problem Help those around me write better
– I am in charge of our style guide Write better Write better for translation Translate better Write better for search
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What products do you make?
Software Products with embedded software IP products Components in larger products Products only touched by people with appropriate training
90% of user interface is … content Customers interact with your products through … content
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Words are everywhere
(source: idratherbewriting.com)
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Text-free user interface
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Content’s often (almost) all you’ve got!
How to make it happen?
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“90% of customers never touch the product before they buy”
HP “Global Content Management: Hewlett-Packard Talks the Talk of Worldwide Business”
The Gilbane Report, January 2005
Content is your only chance!
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“70% of the buying process is already complete before prospects engage with a salesperson”
(SiriusDecisions)
Content is your only chance!
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The roles that content plays
Your content is influencing sales
All your company content is influencing customer satisfaction
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What I promised
Increasingly organizations have realized that [if they do it right] their content represents a critical competitive advantage. But your content has to work for you. This session will show how asking the right questions can help you create content that works.
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Help is at hand
You are the content professionals!
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Three Dimensions
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Content That Works
People-Ready Global-Ready Search-Ready
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People-ready
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Understandable by target audience
Tone-of-voice
Non-native speaker friendly
Task and solution-oriented
People-ready?
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Cisco Catalyst 4900
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Cisco Catalyst 4900
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Cisco Linksys E900
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Cisco Linksys E900
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Cisco Linksys E900
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Content Strategy @ Cisco
“The 4900 Series is ideal for space-constrained deployments.”
“Simplified Management: Edge switch auto-provisioning”
Zero uses of “you”
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Content Strategy @ Cisco
Not “space-constrained” but “smaller”
No sentence over 18 words
Eight uses of “you”
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Cisco Linksys E900
US EU
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Tone of voice
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Writing for mobile
Space constraints Short sentences Telegraphic style Abbreviations Allowing for expansion
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Don’t just guess!
Don’t publish standards and hope they are applied Benchmark and measure over time (“are we getting better?”)
Look for leading indicators– Quality metrics which give you an indication of content
effectiveness
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Summary
Carefully identify who you are writing for– And how they will be reading it (space-constraints?)
Choose words, phrases and a tone of voice which this audience can easily understand
Don’t just guess!
© 2012 Acrolinx
Not People-Ready
“Travels of persons, for whom you are defined as their superior with the status Entry complete, Requested and travels, which are to be approved by persons, for whom you are their approval deputy.”
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Global-ready
© 2012 Acrolinx
Write for a global audience• Not everyone reads English
(as well as they claim to)Write for translation• MT not TM
• On-Demand MT (you’re not in charge)
Global-ready?
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Read this!
Writer, Editor, Linguistic Engineer at SAS Institute
Guidelines based on extensive (on-going) empirical analysis
Acrolinx customer since 2004– Not just thinking, but doing!
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What is Global English?
Global English is English that has been optimized for a global audience.
The four guiding principles are:1. Eliminate ambiguities that impede translation.
2. Eliminate uncommon technical terms and grammatical constructions.
3. Make sentence structure more explicit.
4. Eliminate unnecessary inconsistencies.
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The benefits of using Global English
Clearer and more consistent technical documents result in faster, clearer, and more accurate translations.
Documents that are not translated are more easily understood by non-native speakers of English.
Documents are also clearer and more readable for native speakers of English.
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Key Guidelines
1. Conform to Standard English
2. Simplify your writing style
3. Use modifiers clearly and carefully
4. Make pronouns clear and easy to translate
5. Use syntactic cues
6. Clarify –ING words
7. Fine-tune punctuation and capitalization
8. Eliminate undesirable terms and phrases
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But first:
The Cardinal Rule of Global English
“Do not make any change that will sound unnatural to native speakers of English”
Corollary
“There is almost always a natural-sounding alternative if you are creative enough (and if you have enough time) to find it!”
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Global-ready
Know your audience! Precise Concise Simple Jargon-free Translation-ready
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Precise (unambiguous) language
Pronouns– “Once you define the basic structure of your table, enhancing it is
easy.”– “Once you define the basic structure of your table, enhancing the
table is easy.” Prepositional phrases
– “I saw the girl with the telescope” vs. “I saw the girl with the ice-cream”– “Attach panel with paint” (attach it with paint? Or does it have paint on it?)
“Only”– “Only use arrows to indicate stress points”– “Use arrows only to indicate stress points”
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“Use modifiers clearly and carefully” (Kohl)
3.1 OnlyOnly I hit him in the eye yesterday.(No one else did any hitting.)
I only hit him in the eye yesterday.(I didn’t shoot him in the eye.)
I hit only him in the eye yesterday.(I didn’t hit anyone else.)
I hit him only in the eye yesterday.(I didn’t touch any other part of him.)
I hit him in the only eye yesterday.(He had just one eye.)
I hit him in the eye only yesterday.(Not long ago—recently.)
I hit him in the eye yesterday only.(Not any day other than yesterday.)
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Simple
Short sentences Simple structures Verb (action) oriented Standard/Mainstream language
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Short simple sentences
How short?– It depends (15-30 words)
• Procedural (for example, <step> content in DITA) =< 15• Descriptive (introductory, marketing) => 30
– Flesch-Kincaid will not help!• It sets the wrong goals – especially for technical content
– Use words you know your audience will know– Use sentence structure
• Simple• Direct• Natural
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Simple expressions
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Simple expressions
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Simple structures
nose landing gear uplock attachment bolt
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Simple structures
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Standard/Mainstream language
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Jargon
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Writing for translation I
All of the above
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Translation-ready II
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Global-ready - summary
Know your audience! Buy John Kohl’s book Be precise, concise and simple Avoid jargon Remember translation (and remind everyone else)
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Search-ready
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SEO – Search Engine Optimization
More content delivered via Google (you’re not in charge)
Search performance is a challenge for Support
After-Sales Content is relevant for Sales!
Search-ready?
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What’s it called again?
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Circulator pump
Circulation pump
Recirculating pumpCirculating pump
Pump, circulator
Pump
Water pump
Recirculation pump
What’s it called again?
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circulation pump
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circulating pump
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water pump
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recirculating pump
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Heizungspumpe
Heizkreispumpe
HeizkreisumwälzpumpeHeizkreis-Umwälzpumpe
Kesselthermenpumpe
Umwälzpumpe
Gerätepumpe
Heizungsumwälzpumpe
What’s it called again?
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循环水泵
再循环水泵
再循环泵
循环泵泵
水泵
冷水循环泵热水循环泵
What’s it called again?
© 2012 Acrolinx
Ask Bing
Develop great, original content (including well-implemented keywords) directed toward your intended audience
© 2012 Acrolinx
Ask Google (hint: search for “Google SEO”)
© 2012 Acrolinx
Ask Google
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Other search engines
In Russia, China, South Korea and Japan, Google has less than 40% of the search market.
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SEO Goal: Visibility
Organic search results
Google Adwords (Paid advertisements)
SERPs = Search Engine Result Pages
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HP
Fujitsu
IBM
IBM
HP
The Battle for Search Rankings
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HP
Fujitsu
IBM
IBM
HP
CTR
Higher Rank = Higher Click-Through Rate
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IBMCTR 40% (= 3240 qualified visits)
FujitsuCTR 5% (= 405 qualified visits)
Conversion rate on website 1% 32 transactions, new customers 4 transactions, new customers
Avg. Transaction $8000 Revenue+ $256,000 / month Revenue+ $32,000 / month
8100 searches / month
HP
Fujitsu
IBM
IBM
HP
“unix servers”:
What’s the Value of a Higher Ranking?
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Bad SEO
Los Angeles SEO is important if you own a website in Los Angeles. When you own a website, you need Los Angeles SEO
to achieve a high page rank. Without Los Angeles SEO, your website will not perform. Contact our Los Angeles SEO
Company to learn more about Los Angeles SEO!
[from: http://www.starcontentwriters.com/article/seo-copywriting]
© 2012 Acrolinx
Good SEO
If you own a business in Los Angeles, California, chances are that you have a company website and that you rely heavily upon
search engine optimization (SEO) to market your services online. Like most business owners, you probably know that
achieving a high page rank is essential to the success of your business as most people rely upon search to find local
companies. What you may not know is what SEO strategies can improve your overall page rank. Thankfully, there are Los
Angeles SEO companies out there like Star Content that can help. To learn more, contact us today!
[from: http://www.starcontentwriters.com/article/seo-copywriting]
© 2012 Acrolinx
Text optimization example: Before
Title and first 100 words only contain 1 useful keyword, “Active Directory”
Topic title too generic– Rich key words and
important solution content hidden in second half of topic
Recommended action– Break out second half
into separate topic to increase visibility of content
– Optimize intro to contentFrom: Metrics-based Publishing at Symantec, Bob Lee, Shared Engineering
Services
© 2012 Acrolinx
Text optimization example: After
Title and first 100 words contain additional new keywords
– Domain controller– DCInterface– NTLM
First 100 words also contain important updated technical information that address customer issue from Symantec Connect forum
From: Metrics-based Publishing at Symantec, Bob Lee, Shared Engineering Services
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How can Acrolinx help with SEO?
Acrolinx can help with on-page optimization– Discover keywords– Which keywords to use– Where to use them
Help with conversion– Create compelling snippets
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Search-ready content: summary
Make your content relevant Use appropriate words and phrases in prominent positions Don’t ruin your content for humans! Keywords are just part of the story, other key factors:
– Linking strategy– URL naming– Website performance and hosting location
© 2012 Acrolinx
Other notes
© 2012 Acrolinx
Redundant contentPlease enter an actual start date earlier than the actual end date.
The Start Date cannot exceed the End Date.
The End Date cannot precede the Start Date.
End Date must be Later than Start Date.
End date must be equal to or later than the start date.
The end date must be later than or the same as the start date.
End Time must be later than the Start Time.
The valid grade's end date must be Later than or equal to its start date.
Please enter an End Date that is later than or the same as the Start Date.
Competence end date has to be later than or equal to the start date.
The start date cannot be later than the end date.
The appraisal end date must be later than or equal to appraisal start date.
The Effective start date cannot be Later than the Effective end date.
Date from cannot be later than date to.
The start date must be on or before the end date.
The Start Date cannot be after the End Date.
Your end date must be after your start date.
The end date cannot be after the start date.
Start date must be before end date.
Your start date must be before your end date.
The Status End Date is either earlier than the Start Date of the Assignment or later than its End Date.
Enter a Start date that is before the End date.
Please enter an end date that is later than the start date.
Date To must be later than or equal to Date From.
The Date To must be later than the Date Received.
The actual end date must be on or after the actual start date.
End date should be greater than start date.
End Date cannot be before Start Date.
The start date must be prior to the end date.
You entered a start date later than tile end date.
Ending range must be later or the same as starting range
Please enter a new start date later than the original end date.
The ending date must be later than or the same as the beginning date.
The date to has to be later than or equal to date from.
End Date must be gr eater than Start Date.
You cannot enter an .. End Date" that is before your ,.Start Date."
End Date must be greater than or equal to Start Date.
Please enter a start date that is before the end date.
The end date you enter must be between the grade's start and end dates.
The start date you enter must be between the grade's start and end dates.
The projected end date must be on or after the projected start date.
The Period start date cannot be later than the Period end date
© 2012 Acrolinx
Writing for structured authoring
DITA rules
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Further reading
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Be more concrete…
Set standards. How? Make sure they are followed Why is it so hard? Take the automation slides from Webinar #1
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How to make it happen…
Governance
OptimizationAnalytics
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Governance
1. Choose your audience
2. Choose the right language for them
3. Choose the right tone-of-voice and words and phrases
4. Setting standards
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Appropriate choice of words
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Creation / Optimization
1. Work as a team2. Create and Optimize
in one step where possible
3. Know when you’re done
4. Connect content with consistent language
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Checking
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Analytics
1. Assess your content against standards
2. Understand your audience
3. Capture your language4. Find the best content5. Find the worst content6. Find the redundant
content
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Metrics, metrics, metrics
Test your content Measure your content Nurture your content Make your content work for a living
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Content Quality Reporting
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What are the benefits of doing this?
Write Edit Translate SEO
Time off!!
© 2012 Acrolinx
Takeaways
Content needs to be– People-ready– Global-ready– Search-ready
Strategy is good– success comes through execution
Governance – Analytics – Optimization
© 2012 Acrolinx
Thank You!andrew.bredenkamp@acrolinx.com
@abredenkamp
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