Jason Unger

SEO Failure in Action: Sarah Palin, the Washington Post and a $150,000 Wardrobe

Posted by junger - 10/28/08 at 10:10:42 pm

Can you find this story for me?

It's called "After a $150,000 Makeover, Sarah Palin Has an Image Problem" and it's from the Washington Post.

What? You can't find it? That's weird.

What You Just Did (And Your Readers Will, Too)

If you're anything like the normal Web surfer, you grabbed that headline, pasted it into Google, and looked for the top result.

But the Washington Post is nowhere to be found.

In fact, the direct link to the story is nowhere to be found in the four pages of search results. (When you search with quotes around the title.)

If you're the Washington Post, you've got to be worried. Something is preventing your story — when searched for using the all-important headline — from showing up in Google results.

That's scary for a Web publisher.

What Happened Here?

Why isn't the direct link to the story coming up in Google?

Honestly, I have no idea. But I'm more inclined to blame the Washington Post for doing something funky than to say Google screwed it up. They don't mess up too much when it comes to search.

Whatever the case is, there's a problem. And you, as the person who makes your site run, needs to ensure that you're not being left out of search results when you own the content.

What good is a blog post or a research paper online if it can't easily be found using search?

In New York For Usability Week 2008

Posted by junger - 04/10/08 at 07:04:55 am

I'm gonna make it there. Well, actually I'm already here. In New York, that is.

I'm spending Thursday at the Writing for the Web seminar of Usability Week 2008.

Put on by the Nielsen Norman Group — yes, as in Jakob Nielsen, the guy who provides a ton of super-informative content in his Alertbox postings — Usability Week has four stops throughout the world. Well, it's silly for me to talk about it — find out more about it here.

While I can't credit all of my Web knowledge to the stuff Nielsen teaches, I've always found a way to improve my delivery with his research.

I'm hoping to get a little more "formal" education on content presentation and publishing, considering pretty much everything I know I've garnered through experience doing it … not formally learning about it.

Even though I only graduated from college 3+ years ago, it's not like there was a Web journalism path. The only Web publishing class I ever took consisted of people learning Microsoft FrontPage.

Yeah, exactly. The name of that program just shows how little Microsoft (and many still today) understand about how online publishing.

PS. To my friends in New York who I may not have told I was coming in to the city, I apologize — but I'm only here for the day and driving back home when I'm done tonight.

5 Reasons Bullet Points are Crucial in Writing

Posted by junger - 11/29/07 at 07:11:47 pm

You need them because:

• They make you get straight to the point.
• They make you be very specific when you use them.
• They are more attractive to the eye than large paragraphs of text.
• They designate importance.
• They are easier to digest and take in.

'Nuff said.

Great Headline Writing In Action

Posted by junger - 05/10/07 at 09:05:08 pm

Too often, writers don't understand that headlines written for the Web are totally different than those written for newspapers or magazines.

With Web headlines, you have to get straight to the point and, at the same time, draw in the reader.

Continue reading Great Headline Writing In Action…