Search and Social Media Weekly News (30th April)
April 30, 2010 Author: Adam Lee
Take a break from all that wall-to-wall coverage of the election with our second round-up of weekly SEO news.
The positive ways to use negative headlines
Sherice Jacob of Search Engine Journal has just posted a blog which made me think twice about which headline I would use for this piece.
Under the headline ‘Do Negative Headlines Work’ she highlighted how a negative headline can attract readers’ attention or be so downbeat as to deter further investigation.
Ms Jacob believes that a headline such as Stop Marketing like a Spammer: How to Get More Email Subscribers the Right Way is an example of a ‘bad’ negative headline.
This is because the reader, reading the first half of the headline, might resent the implied suggestion that they are a spammer, and click away from the page without reading the second half of the headline.
But according to the Search Engine Journal writer there are positive ways of accentuating the negative for canny headline writers.
She is all in favour of headlines such as 7 Things Your Doctor Will NEVER Tell You (Unless You Know How to Ask!).
Presumably she likes the eye-catching nature of this writing, the promise that you can outwit crafty medical staff if you read the article and the exclamation mark at the end of the headline which gives the information a pleasingly light-hearted feel.
This is why I’m going to end this post with an exclamation mark of my own!
Nestle, Orangutans and SEO
Also on Search Engine Journal this week; an article examining how best to respond to online criticism of your company on social media sites such as Facebook and YouTube.
This is particularly topical in the light of Greenpeace launching an online campaign to highlight how Nestle using an ‘unethical’ supplier called Sinar Mas, which allegedly endangers the existence of orangutan populations by harvesting palm oil in an area of rainforest.
Last month, Greenpeace uploaded a video of a man ‘taking a break’ by biting into an orangutan’s finger – a reference to the ‘Have a break, have a Kit Kat’ slogan of one of Nestlé’s most famous products.
Nestlé’s publicity team and lawyers didn’t ‘take a break’ when they saw the footage and promptly had it removed from YouTube.
Search Engine Journal asked a marketing expert if this was the right course of action and seemed to conclude that it is only best to remove negative online material if they are truly “defamatory or obscene”.
The marketing expert also advised that it is good practice to leave negative comments on social media sites as having them removed can look like censorship – especially on sites which aim to promote free discussion.
Sounds like good common sense, though it’s best to remember that anyone posting negative comment about this post will be tarred, feathered, horse-whipped and sued.
New iPhone app proves a number one hit with nostalgic music lovers
Want to know what the top 100 songs were in the year that you were born?
Perhaps you should get out more or, alternatively, perhaps you should buy a new iPhone app which can identify what the top 100 songs were in any year that you choose.
Enough people have bought Top 100s by year by Bing to propel the new app to the top of the sales chart in Apple’s flagship store in New York.
Bing also promises that you can find out more information about the songs listed in any given year by using its search engine service on your iPhone.
Currently retailing at $1.99 in the U S of A it’s sure to be a big hit with many English pop pickers. But will a generation too young to remember Top of the Pops really be concerned about chart positions in years gone by? Bing seems to think so but I’m not convinced.
Rich Snippets could offer rich pickings for SEO
The Official Google Webmaster Central Blog has announced a new service called Rich Snippets which lets search engine users to see more detailed facts and data about a site in the search results’ page.
Rich Snippets for Recipes has recently been rolled out internationally and promises to give search engine browsers more of a flavour, if you excuse the pun, of the format of a recipe before a site is accessed.
There are already Rich Snippets available for sites listing people profiles, gig reviews and events.
Seems like this service could provide a recipe for success for sites willing to pay out a little extra to put a bit more info on their search result blurb.
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