Jargon and Complicated Language Screw Up SEO (But They’re Still Super Important)

An Argument in Favor of Stepping Up the Ante When Writing for a General Audience

Edit 6/4: A reader pointed out to me that, countering my own argument, I didn’t provide definitions for SEO or SMO. SEO is Search Engine Optimization, while SMO is Social Media Optimization. And this is why all writers need editors!

I had a question as I was doing research for a client that I know many of you have had before, too:

“How can I drive organic traffic to this blog through social media?”

I performed a simple Google search and got the following results:

I mean, yeah, my keywords were all in there, but they weren’t in the right order, and none of the results really answered my question. I already know a bunch of general techniques that have been working for a while, but I want to try some new stuff. All of these articles, written for a general audience, were useful in some way, but didn’t help me at all.

Only later, when I got deep into the search results, did I see the letters “SMO”. I’d seen and heard it before but was still pretty clueless. So I clicked, and sure enough, it was exactly what I needed.

But then I had more questions. Why did it take me so long to find what I was looking for? Was I poorly communicating my desire, or was was the search engine having difficulty matching my query to its database—or both?

Probably both.

Though I manage social media accounts and direct content strategy for some clients, I’m less a member of the marketing community than I am the writing community. So it makes sense that I’m not always familiar with the terms used to describe what I do. I didn’t know to search for “SMO” because I don’t know enough about it—and that’s exactly why I was looking it up in the first place!

That being said, it wasn’t all my fault. Google still took a while to deliver me what I wanted. First, there’s this fun issue that everyone is already aware of: plenty of websites syndicate the same exact content, other websites are “inspired” by that content and semi-plagiarize it, and the chain continues ad infinitum.

So there’s a lot of clutter out there that makes it hard to put together the right combination of search terms.

But there’s another challenge for the internet: those authors that do write well thought-out, specialized content (I actually don’t have an issue with the word content, but content marketing is a whole ‘nother thing) often write with a very specific audience in mind. Which is totally fine, because that’s what writers do. But in a world where many of our ideas are filtered through a picky-yet-evolving search engine, it may be better to generalize a bit.

When subject matter experts, or SMEs (thanks, Sue Stoney, for introducing me to the term!), write about the topics they know most about, they use the terms that they use most frequently—NOT the terms that a beginner would use! Which is why I heard a botanist rave about a relative of Avena sativa, not “common oats,” this weekend.

So if you’re writing for an online audience and you want to appeal to people who will support your cause, or become a member, or make a purchase, consider including terms that beginners would search with. This isn’t an easy thing to do. Long-tail keywords are long indeed and because of this, they’re pretty hard to pin down.

You don’t have to drive yourself insane by spending years on Google Analytics testing keyword combinations. All you really have to do for your writing to be SEO-friendly is pack as much meaning into each word as possible, provide definitions, expand on key ideas, and reduce clutter.

By writing concisely, you’re eliminating any “extra” keywords the search engines might pick up and improving the chance of your main ideas getting noticed. Expanding on ideas and providing definitions will help introduce new readers to the topic, which is important if you want to increase visibility, grow a brand, or reach a new market. Doing this will also balance out your jargon—which is still necessary, because as more people become familiar with terminology, they’ll know what to search for!

Writing for an online audience requires a certain thoughtfulness that takes practice and a second set of skills that needs constant updating. Fortunately, search engines are continually adapting to adjust to nuances in language, and businesses are coming up with more creative ways to communicate than by copying each other. We’ve got our work cut out for us, but we already knew that, right?

To be clear: I’m totally not saying that I don’t need to read up on SMO because the secret to SEO is being a good writer. Buuuuut being a good writer probably helps a bit if you’re trying to keep wearing that white hat. (I learned that new jargon term today, too! It means if you’re trying to be ethical.)

I’ll definitely read up on my SMO, because that’s what I came online to do. And if I write about it, I promise I’ll do it for a general audience.