I was driving my daughters to school recently and my oldest, who is 8, used the word "perplexed" in a sentence which I have to say, being the proud dad that I am, I was impressed with. Not only had she used the word, but she used it correctly within the sentence. When I commented on the fact that I was proud of her for using a larger word in her vocabulary, and using it correctly no less, my 6 year old piped up and said, "I know a fancy word too! Posh!"
I chuckled to myself and asked her where she had heard it before and she explained it was in a Fancy Nancy book she had been reading, and then gave me a definition that was somewhere in the vicinity of what the word meant. It was certainly pretty close for a 6 year old, so I also congratulated her.
Barely another minute passed and once again my youngest spoke out and said she knew another "fancy word" so I asked her to share it and with all sincerity she said, "Ooh-la-la!" This time I laughed out loud, because when I pressed her to give me a definition she missed the mark by a pretty wide margin. It was a "fancy word" to her, at least it SOUNDED fancy, but she did not really grasp how exactly it should be used, who would be using or why they would use it. That's the problem with fancy words sometimes, especially when it comes to Search Engine Optimization.
Let's take an example like a chiropractor who is trying to drive traffic to his site. He starts thinking about all of the jargon and terminology that are familiar to him in his industry and profession. They common words to him, but "fancy words" to most average people not involved already with a chiropractor, the potential new patient that is exactly who he is hoping will find his site. So he starts placing in his copy, and metatags and titles and alt tags things like "spinal decay", "subluxation", "vertebra" and "lumbosacral strain". To him this describes things he works with, methods he uses, areas of pain he fixes, etc. but to his target market segment they are "fancy words" with no meaning. The people that he wants to talk to would search by using phrases like "cure for back pain", "aching lower back", and "joint pain remedy". Now naturally he wants to certainly come up when some searches for the obvious "chiropractor (insert city and state here)", but he should also think about getting hits on his site by people who are looking for answers or information on topics that he has knowledge of because of his education and training. He should want to be known as the guy that relieves lower back pain, not just the Chiropractor that utilizes the Flexion-Distraction technique to rectify spinal subluxations. Those are nice fancy words, that most people don't know the definition of and don't really care to learn because they don't think in those terms.
If you are the chiropractor that can successfully brand yourself as the guy or gal that just flat out makes back pain go away like magic, and everywhere people look online and offline they see your name along with message that people in pain come to you and leave invariably feeling like new YOU WILL BE BUSY! Much more so than the guy trying to impress people by giving them a list of technical terms and proper names that describe all of the new medical equipment and techniques you are versed in. Corner the market on being the Chriopractor that people go to for relief they could not get anywhere else, and watch the business roll in!
One more real world example. I was speaking with the owner of a very successful group of retail stores that specialized in furniture, electronics, appliance and bedding. He was explaining to me that as they started out optimizing their website when they got to their TV and sound system department they used the actual term "electronics" heavily because that was how they thought of the department, but the more talked to people they realized that is not how people shopped online for TVs or sound systems. When looking online the average user was inserting either "TV", "television", a variation of "plasma", "HDTV", "LCD" or even a specific current model that they had seen advertised as the latest and greatest like "Samsung 3D LED 7000" and then a geographical tag. They changed their keywords in short order.
Getting inside the head of your prospective client/customer and understanding HOW they search will assist you greatly in using the right words in your SEO and help drive business to your online location. That means you have to make a conscious effort to avoid jargon and "fancy words" that make sense to you, but mean nothing to the average person on the street or in the conference room. What they know is they have a problem, goal or issue that they need help with and your product or service could be the answer if only they can FIND YOU! Market in that direction, think like they do, and you'll be much more effective in your Search Engine Optimization.
Sometimes we just need to leave the "fancy words" for training manuals, technical documents, text books and Fancy Nancy.
In closing, I have to admit that in writing this post I had to look up the Samsung 3D LED 7000 and all I can say after looking over the picture on that thing is "Ooh la la!"
From where you are to where you want to be,
Doug
