May-I-Help-You Business Blogging

Professor Robert Krull of Texas Tech University studies the way online help systems are designed. Overall, Krull found, the largest problem participants had in using the help systems wasn’t in the information itself, but rather in finding the correct help topic. In other words, the people needing the help and the people providing the help were using different terminology.

Since the work I do as a freelance blog writer and corporate blogging trainer has everything to do with enabling people to search for and easily find the information, products, and services they need, I liked what Krull had to say about the importance of a common vocabulary.

First, Krull pointed out, online users “became lost in the unclear structure of the system”. Because they hadn’t framed their questions in the same terms used in the help programs, those readers became frustrated as they tried to navigate the system to get answers.

Ease of navigation (as I stress when offering business blogging help) is absolutely crucial to the success of any SEO marketing blog. From the manner in which the corporate blog page is set up to the corporate blog content writing, the process must be smooth.  Frustrating potential clients is to be avoided like the plague.

Krull goes on to discuss the way users “frame the search question”. Help system users are unfamiliar with the specific vocabulary used by a computer product.  They may frame their question by using one name for a category, when the program has it under a different label. Or, users may type in an entire sentence or question.

Since search engines “match” the words and phrases typed into the search bar with web pages that continually use those same words and phrases, business blog writing has a significant advantage over static web page content. Freelance content writers must be vigilant – just how is their content getting found?

The goal, of course, is to get the people needing the help (the online searchers who are the potential clients and customers) and those providing the help (the business owners and professionals using the blog writing services) on the same page, and most important, speaking the same language!