Forum Moderators: not2easy
The purely technically correct terminology and the "street language" of the niche.
Using the street language helps with the serps, but offends at least some viewers. Offending visitors needlessly isn't in the best interest of any website.
But using the terminolgy a bit more loosely results in more visitors. I'm not talking about using terminolgy that is not generally accurate, just not using it as specifically as some would like.
What to do?
So far I've been pretty casual about this. But as the site traffic grows, so do the comments about the use of the niche specific terminology.
No emails suggesting that I loosen up my usage even more. :)
A few folks have commented that I'm not using the terminology in the strictest manner though. These comments almost always come from those folks who could have some level of influence among their peers when it comes to whether my site is worth visiting or not.
These folks generally could be expected to be on the higher end of things as far as the niche interest goes. That basically means they spent a bundle to get their piece of the rock and don't want it refered to as a stone.
I want to show the appropriate respect for the niche as well as the enthusiast who shares the interest at any level.
On the other hand, I want to speak to all my visitors in a manner that at least most will find courteous, informative, fairly accurately descriptive and familiar enough so as not to be confusing. I also want the traffic that a loose usage can help generate.
I'm struggling with this. A strict usage can come off as "speaking down" to the average enthusiast if not done absolutely correctly. I really don't want to get that reputation. (I already have enough trouble living up to my rep as an arrogant jerk)
Let me try for an example here....
Assume the technically correct term is "fisslebomb" according to the manufacture of this particular widget. The problem is the fisslebomb can also accurately be described as a zippydoo.
On top of that, only the more serious enthusiast, or the guy who owns one, is even going to know the term fisslebomb. And my referers show that only a small number of folks search for fisslebomb, while the vast majority search for zippydoo.
To complicate matters even more manufacturers use the same words to mean different things, or different words to describe the same thing, this just adds to the fun. One makers fisslebomb is another makers zippydoo.
Up to know I have been using the terminolgy like thus...
"Check out this fisslebomb", then later on the page saying, "...this zippydoo came only in the color...."
Would it be better to say something like...
"(manufacturere name) called this zippdoo style widget a fisslebomb."
and then only use the "fisslebomb" term on the rest of the page? In general, how do you all deal with this confusion?
It doesn't help that I can barely structure an understandable sentence. Or that I might have to rewrite a few hundred pages to clean up this mess.
I try to strike a balance.
Are the complainers (the ones who tell you you're using less than correct terminology) not buying? Are you driving them away? If not, I wouldn't worry too much. If you're not hurting the site and losing traffic, then you're doing ok.
Now, to make things better - get more traffic, convert more visitors to buyers ... hmm.
One idea might be to have a loosely-translated version of the content, with a link to more jargony content - "Already familiar with fisslebombs? Find a more detailed discussion here."
Then you're providing more content for the SEs to find, more relevant keywords for your savvy users to find, and you're catering to both crowds at the same time.
We had a discussion on jargon in July. Some good ideas were brought up - you can read the thread here: [webmasterworld.com...]
