The Power of Unintentional Data

There's a line of travel advice that travels round my family now and again. It says, when you're traveling in France, stop for lunch where you see all the trucks have stopped. That's where you'll find the best food.

The intention of the truck drivers is to get a good meal. But their trucks send an unintentional message to anyone who happens to be passing down the road: "the food's good here."

The same is true on the Internet. Anyone who has the power to look at traffic data, has the ability read that data unintentionally created by people trying to get things done. That is why people looks at their traffic in their sites. It tells them what people want on their sites. But the more data you have, the more accurate and interesting your information is going to be.

Miguel Helft wrote and article in the New York Times today looking at how Google beleives it can map the progress of a flu epidemic by analyzing searched for words associated with flu.

This raises a conundrum for Web entrepreneurs. The greatest successes on the Web seem to come from unintentional behavior. But most Web builders are trying to encourage intentional behavior. In this case companies have set up sites which encourage users to report their illnesses online. The sites get no traffic compared to the number of people who go to Google and search for relief from flu symptoms. And anyone who thinks about their own behavior knows why.

So the question is: how do companies who aren't Google or Yahoo harness the useful but unintentional actions of Web users?

The Fastest Path

David Glazer, Engineering Director, Google, was quoted in the March 2008 edition of Fast Company saying:

"When in doubt, do something. If you have two paths and you're not sure which is right, take the fastest path. What's true in physics about objects in motion is true when you're creating a product. It's easier to keep moving and change course than when when you're sitting and thinking and thinking."

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Elements of Search Engine Optimization include:

1) Page Building: a) Have keywords in your page title tag, in your headlines and h# tags, in your copy, in your alt tags and even in your url.

2) Link building: a) inbound links should have keywords in the anchor text (they probably will if your page has a keyword in the headline or title). b) You links back to your site, but it's the quality ones the matter.

3) Blog links: a) mention of your site in blogs is important.

4) Social networking puts my content in other places: a) Social news, or citizen news sites (Digg, Newsvine etc.). b) Social bookmarking (Delicious, StumbleUpon). c) Social networks (MySpace, Facebook, Flickr). All these offer opportunities to take your content where the readers are, with the aim of driving traffic back to your site, or just getting your name out there. The niche community aspect of these sites is both their advantage (pick the right niche for your story and they will love it) and it's disadvantage (seriously diminishing returns on your work).

5) Buying Adwords: Pay per click advertising at Google and Yahoo.

6) Press releases: Make sure you promote your new series with a press release. Maintain an email list that allows press interested in what your doing to sign up for your press releases.


In the news business our whole sites are linkbait. But are there areas that need better explanation? Are the areas that would make for better inbound links if we treated the editorial material a little better.

What Happened to SEO?

Search engine optimization (SEO) used to be the buzz phrase of buzz phrases. Now it's dropped a little by the wayside. But why? Isn't it as important as it ever was?

The objective of SEO is to raise your profile in the natural results of search engines. Keywords, page titles and page content all play a role in this, as they combine to form an elixir that Google can rate.

Strategies:
a) Look at your stats and see what words users have used to find you. Make sure those words are on the pages your visitors are looking for.
b) Search engine marketing. Start buying keywords at Google adwords and other engines, like Yahoo sponsored search.
c) Check searchenginewatch.com regularly.

Be a Part of the Conversation

1. Make sure search engines can find your content. (e.g. Make the titles relevant to the content.)

2. Link a lot

3. Be a part of the "Live Web"
Blogs, forum, comments, feedback

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=WBUR
http://www.flickr.com/photos/80337781@N00/
http://www.wnyc.org/photos/climate.html
http://www.flickr.com/groups/greenapple_climatechange/

4. Social Networking Spaces