David Amerland's Blog: David Amerland on Writing - Posts Tagged "semantic-seo"

Creative choices are usually associated with fiction writing. It is traditionally thought that fiction writers are the ones with all the genre-defining creative choices to make. They are the ones, after all, who work in made-up universes where all the rules are in a state of flux and where the characters’ fate is not decided until the author says so. Right?

Perhaps. Or rather yes, but not only. In truth writers make creative choices all the time, even when we are not writing fiction. You’d think of course that non-fiction writing is pretty much cut-and-dried. After all, if we are not making up anything and we are really relating what is (or what will be) extrapolating from cold, hard facts, then what is there to decide?

The truth is that a writer whether of fiction or non-fiction is not just a creator, they are also a metafilter, straining through their own conscious awareness a perception of what the reader wants to know and expects to gain. Take my latest book as an example. In writing “Google Semantic Search: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Techniques That Get Your Company More Traffic, Increase Brand Impact, and Amplify Your Online Presence” a book on semantic search that details the best practical ways to operate on the semantic web I had not only to put in everything a reader would need to help them create greater visibility for their online business and make better use of the semantic web but I also had to actively think what the reader might already know (and how to guide them from there) and what they’d expect to find when they picked up the book.

These two points of reference created a roadmap for the creation of the content that had me make compromises in some chapters, create an entirely new one, add a lot more depth to others and make some others, still, a lot less technical and academic than I might otherwise had been inclined to make them.

Although the writing of the book was squarely on my shoulders at no point did I go for what I wanted to write as the only guide. For a start when it comes to search and the development of the web I am versed with the latest research and I am truly excited by academic flights of fancy that try to take search concepts into a new sphere. There is an elegance to the mathematics behind it all that I find attractive. They express concepts in a clinical, real-world ambiguity-free way that helps concentrate the mind and reveal what is possible. And it is addictive. Yet to the reader this is of scant practical use.

What the reader wants to know is: When is something happening, how will it impact their online work life and what should they do about it, in that order. This forces a different set of choices to be made. So what I included in the book and what I left out was guided by the precise need of the reader rather than the desire of the author.

To my mind authors and readers are mutually involved in an unwritten contract. Readers who pick up a book and pay money for it place their trust and a not insignificant amount of faith on the author. An author then needs, in turn, to respect that and create the kind of book the reader is most likely to find works for them. Authors who ignore that contract and just write the books they want to write, end up pleasing themselves more than their audience and that ends up being disappointing, ultimately, for both.

Google Semantic Search: Search Engine Optimization (Seo) Techniques That Get Your Company More Traffic, Increase Brand Impact, and Amplify Your Online Presence

Writing is the least ‘social’ of any business or creative activity you can imagine. Traditionally, a writer is sequestered (in a manner of speaking) from the world, his book the product of his mind, his writing a struggle with himself to help get his ideas from his head onto the page. The last thing he traditionally needs or wants in that setting are the concerns of possible readers, the contributing thoughts of well-wishers and the odd do-gooder telling him how to write.

I say ‘traditionally’ here, because all of this is changing and I am living proof of that. Before I explain how, or why, let’s examine what a social business is and what it does. The salient point of any business model is a sense of realignment of purpose. From producing a product (and a book, once written, is just that) that is intended to address a particular need in its audience to listening to its potential customers first, understanding what they need and working to produce something they really want.

It sounds simple. It ain’t. It requires steely resolve and the willingness to take a risk. It needs focus to take the professional part of the business that has depth and expertise and blend it carefully with the needs of its target audience without using the latter as a shortcut for all the critical choices only the professional can make.

When I conceived "Google Semantic Search" I knew I was ahead of the wave, my corporate speaking engagements had exposed me to a real need for businesses, entrepreneurs and individuals. My research told me this was coming much faster than anticipated. In the process of writing it, however, I experimented with something new.

I used my extensive following in Google+ to create a real conversation. As I was writing the book, I used snippets from research, data and ideas to seed the stream, to question, entice, guide and even surprise. I was doing two things through this activity: first I was sharing my own sense of enthusiasm for semantic search and a semantic web that will have an impact that goes way beyond the normal search vertical. Second, I was listening, really listening to concerns, ideas and needs. The things my potential audience needed to know, the concerns they had, the issues they were facing.

My conversation flowed naturally. I did not, at that stage, say that I was writing a book, though, at the very last stage of the conversation it became inevitable and had to be mentioned. My intent was to create, as much as I could, a fully participatory experience.

Here’s what happened:

My book writing style changed. Search is a largely technical subject with vast non-technical ramifications. Writing about it has to be a little detached, largely academic, tech-driven approach. I took a different path. I chose to write conversationally, the way, as a matter of fact I was interacting in the Google+ stream.

My book content broadened. I made a few judgement calls. Every book is defined not just by what it includes but also by what it excludes. Frequently, what’s left unsaid is every bit as important as what is being written about. The scope broadened to include the impact of semantic search in marketing and, even, everyday living. I would not have done that without the conversation that had taken place.

My audience and I arrived at the same set of goals. This is a critical step. By closely understanding what their needs were I was able to identify with them. Those who buy my book want to know what’s happening to their digital world, how changes in search affect it and what they can then do to best prepare for it.

Of the three changes the last one, arguably, had the most impact on my writing. By empathising so closely with my readers I was able to write the book they wanted rather than the book I thought they needed. The end results speak for themselves. Riding high on the Amazon best-seller lists across three countries and two continents, Google Semantic Search, got there before publication, even. The emails, reviews and Google+ comments I receive from total strangers who buy it have convinced me that, for me at least, this is now the preferred way to write.

The most striking impact however has been on the process of writing itself. By integrating myself and my journey so closely with my social network contacts the process of writing has been transformed. I am, now, no longer “alone” and writing is no longer “lonely”. It has become social in every meaning of the word.

Google Semantic Search: Search Engine Optimization (Seo) Techniques That Get Your Company More Traffic, Increase Brand Impact, and Amplify Your Online Presence