Saturday, May 10, 2008

Rumours and Hyphens (Capital Letters in Keywords & Using Hyphens in Squidoo)

I was wondering why I was getting less visitors than I thought I would to my Squidoo Lenses.

Turns out there are two answers. At least, I think there are. I may be wrong, but part of my theory was vindicated when I noted that a few people out there in Twitter/SEO land have spotted the same thing.

Google now treats Keywords With Capitals differently than keywords without. This means that Keyword is different to keyword. Which doesn't seem to affect results in the search engine itself to any great degree, but it does change some of the lower order SERPs somewhat.

Glitch or feature? Only time will tell - if you have any research :: let us at it!

Where there does seem to be a difference is when it's combined with hyphens. Now, I never really read documentation about new Web 2.0 tools. I jumped into Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Hubpages, SlideShare, and now Squidoo without reading their guidelines beyond the basic FAQ.

So, of course, I missed something vital that was only pointed out to me the other day.

Consider the following Lens URL:
  • http://www.squidoo.com/howtostartagiftbasketbusiness
Now, you and I both read that as How To Start A Gift Basket Business, right? Google doesn't. Google sees "howtostartagiftbasketbusiness". Not very helpful if you're searching for a keyphrase like "how to start a gift basket business".

This lens has a 5 star rating, and I think it's great. However, Google doesn't even see it. Why? Hyphens!

I should have called the lens "how-to-start-a-gift-basket-business". With hyphens. That way, Google can separate out the key words. Amateurish mistake, that, and I'm embarrassed.

Ah well, live and learn, eh?

Till next time,
Guy

PS For those who want the technical insight into capital vs lowercase search keywords, the original blog post is here. It's not one of mine though, so be sure to click *back* when you're done reviewing it ;)

No comments: