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jakehadlee

Listed below are comments made by jakehadlee between Sunday, 13th September 2009 and Wednesday, 25th November 2009.

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Changing headlines 1:02pm on 25 Nov 2009 As a professional SEO expert it all seems a bit unnecessary really. The general SEO for the BBC News website is so strong that the longer headlines will have minimal impact on search results to say the least. Far more important would be to ensure the body text contained as many relevant search terms as possible while maintaining a clear, user-friendly writing style, with the headlines supporting the main keywords but importantly also working as headlines.

Remember, showing up in the search results is only half the battle (possibly less than half) Getting people to click is what matters. If I'm presented with two headlines - one from the BBC and one from, say, CNN - on the same subject, I will click the most compelling one. I can't help but think that the shorter and punchier the headline, the more compelling it will be.

You're also dealing in live searching, which for a news story from a leading media source is best handled (in Google at least) by the News Results, which tend to use other criteria for deciding on placement. For instance, a search today for "bank overdraft charges" does not show the BBC's long-headlined story anywhere on the first page of news results, but in second place is "FTSE 100: Lloyds Banking Group profit taking starts".

This latter story only mentions the Supreme Court case in passing, but it is from the FT - which has more credibility with Google on banking stories than the BBC. No headline in the world will change that.

In fact, the top related search result on this subject for the BBC is for a short-headlined video story 'Bank charged me nearly £3,000 for overdraft'. Probably because it will have been linked to far more than the main story. This ably demonstrates that more text in a headline is no substitute for other, more effective, SEO techniques - and that what is lost (good headlines) far outweighs what is gained (minimal SEO).

Yes, as mentioned, the NYT tried it - no, it didn't work for them either except in increasing visibility of archived stories, which isn't really what it's about for live search.

The first and most important target for any SEO text should always be the human reader - the one who decides what to search for, and what to click.

Ultimately, even if it worked, Google aims to reward good writing on the web, and if long-winded headlines start to reap rewards over well written ones, I think we can forecast an algorithmical tweak or two that addresses this down the line.
New Zealand primed to paint Twickenham black 7:12pm on 19 Nov 2009 Graham Comfort - I think the psyche you talk about is part of the problem. The ABs are playing flat out in every game rather than trying to build a team over four years for tournament rugby. They are also so used to playing at a level of commitment higher than the other teams that when the other teams raise their game for the World Cup knock out games, not only does it take the ABs by surprise, but they can't raise their own game because they always play flat out anyway. On top of that, the pressure that comes with demanding success so fanatically can crush players.

The irony is that it was NZ's modernisation of the way rugby was played, and not least players rewarded, that ushered in the professional era and the World Cup, but of all the nations they are the ones who have most failed to realise the paradigm shift in focus away from what were essentially friendlies played for pride to professional, tournament-based competition that came with it.

The other big teams treat non-tournament games as a means to an end, but the ABs still have a rather old-fashioned, romantic idea that these games matter more than they really do.

I guess when they do catch up, that will be the time for everyone else to worry!
New Zealand primed to paint Twickenham black 5:03pm on 19 Nov 2009 riley_ives - In 40 years time, will people in Wellington be looking back to October 2009 and saying oh look, New Zealand topped the IRB rankings then - what a legendary team?

Any one of those AB players would swap 20 years of number one ranking for one world cup medal. Or maybe not, maybe that's just the Aussies - maybe that's why they have a good chuckle every four years when the AB's come to test their number one ranking in the cauldron of tournament rugby.
New Zealand primed to paint Twickenham black 4:45pm on 19 Nov 2009 te waka - I'm not claiming I'd rather have England's record than the AB's, just that winning the World Cup is better than being number 1 in the IRB rankings, by a pretty huge distance.

The question was, essentially, would you prefer to win the World Cup regularly but be poor in between times, or to regularly top the IRB rankings but never win the cup. I know what I'd prefer - and I guess you're right, I can't really talk for the Kiwis but if they'd really prefer option b maybe that explains why they've come up short every time since '87.
New Zealand primed to paint Twickenham black 4:11pm on 19 Nov 2009 Ok Wade - I'll concede not every Kiwi would agree, maybe just the ones I know!! And I'm not suggesting England have regular glorious highs, just answering the rhetorical question.

I've followed the game since the mid-70s before the World Cup and professionalism changed everything - and not always for the best. One of the changes is that, like it or not, there is now only one measure of who is the best team in the world. And at the moment that meaure is who won over 80 minutes in a match at the Stade de France on 20th October 2007.

The All Blacks could have 100% record since then, and SA could have lost every game since, but unless AB have that little gold cup in the cabinet they aren't the best team in the world and the Saffers are.

To be that, you have to play well in all three matches that decide the best, and AB haven't done that since 1987. Being the best is not about consistency, its about winning when it really, really matters.
New Zealand primed to paint Twickenham black 2:42pm on 19 Nov 2009 "Which would you rather as a fan? A glorious high once every four years, with sporadically uplifting victories amid the general mediocrity meantime? Or a shattering low followed by a conveyor belt of triumphs and titles?"

Unquestionably, the glorious high once every four years - and if you asked any Kiwi they would say the same.
Do you speak Race? 3:34pm on 23 Oct 2009 The treading on eggshells around issues of race is one of the reasons why the BNP's support is growing.

Essentially tolerant people - like Jack Straw - are constantly being told how to speak, how to behave and how to think on issues of race.

Like the protests that undermine the right to freedom of speech and in the process stop Nick Griffin's objectionable and ill-thought out political logic from being exposed to proper, reasoned demolition - these attempts to tackle racism by policing the way people think only serve to raise credibility and support for the BNP.

Instead of being exposed as a single-issue, petty-minded party run by people you wouldn't want to organise your school fete, let alone your local council - the BNP gets an air of anti-establishment glamour, fighting for the ordinary person who is afraid to air even reasonable views on race that go against the accepted position. Like saying Afro-Caribbean, for instance.
Ferguson talk must please Man City 3:59pm on 18 Sep 2009 #116 - I think that phrase is so well known as to be simply part of common usage. If I said all City fans were living in a fool's paradise, I wouldn't expect to be hauled up over not crediting Shakespeare!

I'm happy to attribute this one though: "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing", Alexander Pope.

;-)
Ferguson talk must please Man City 1:51pm on 18 Sep 2009 Not sure about a "softish start" for Man City. Is Arsenal, Pompey, Wolves
and Blackburn more "softish" than Arsenal, Wigan, Burnley and Birmingham?

In their first four games both have had Arsenal plus three likely strugglers. The only difference I can see is that Man Utd lost to Burnley (does this mean Burnley aren't soft?) and that Blackburn are probably a lot harder than Birmingham or Wigan.

Ferguson generally spouts a lot of guff - but because he is a great manager and his team wins more often than not, this guff is interpreted as brilliant "mind games". The only person he's ever bested in a "mind game" is Keegan - the equivalent of stealing pocket money off the softest boy in Year 1.
Adebayor madness mars Man City win 10:14am on 13 Sep 2009 Bit of a mountain out a molehill - Ade was given no end of stick by the Arsenal fans towards the end of his time there, and just wanted to give a bit back. Bit naughty, but hardly a footballing crime worthy of the headlines it's attracting. I suspect if it had been another, less controversial, player doing exactly the same thing there would have been a few raised eyebrows and nothing more.

The real shame is not the Ade took away from the story of a great day of football, but that the hacks (present company excepted) decided to write about a silly little incident instead of a great match.

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