Using
SEO with Nostalgia - Attract and Activate Your Visitor's Memories
By John Alexander
We've talked a lot about the
richness and value of useful content that hold high-interest
for your audience of visitors.
By using nostalgia, you can
often connect with your readers to activate good memories and
experiences. After all, regardless of what your online
business is about, the Web is really all about connecting with
other people in some fashion. The smartest use of the Web today using Search Engine
Marketing, is to create an experience that fosters a
relationship with your reader. But to do that, sometimes we
have to put a little more of ourselves into our work.
Behavioral
Research Tip: Watch for opportunities to "relate" to
people.
When working
with Web content, it is good to remember the power of
old memories and relationships and when researching search
behaviors to keep the element of "nostalgia" in
mind.
1. Watch for opportunities to relate to other people with
similar interests.
2. Try combining your Web content with
interesting historical or background information that shares a
common nostalgic moment.
3. Remember
to offer a non-threatening reason to respond or a solid
"call to action."
Remember: What your Web visitors care about, are
your thoughts and your opinions that reveal a little bit of your
life or your stance on issues. Give your readers a way to
connect to you. The use of nostalgia is just one way to
connect but I think the best way for me to relate this is to share a
few examples of my own.
Where does
nostalgia come from?
When I was young, I can recall my
favorite movies, music and experiences growing, as many of us
do. With the popularity of the Internet and communications
these days, you realize from time to time that perhaps your
favorite memories and experiences as a child, may often not
all that different from others. For example
there are Web sites devoted to all types of information out
there. As a person searches the Internet for information
related to their interests, it becomes apparent that
there are actually huge trends for certain topic interests.
Example
of Using Nostalgia:
Let's pick a subject for the sake of an example, like
"music."
If you are knowledgeable about music, then perhaps you want to
talk about your background or interesting experiences from the
past. Were you involved in a band or in the music industry?
What types of music do you relate to or can you shed some
light or your views on a specific genre.
Can you see how
writing good content on music might attract others who have
similar interests. Writing about some experience you had
as a musician or for that matter as someone attending a
certain concert event, may hold some appeal.
Would you be interested in hearing what it was like to share
New Years Eve with Elvis Presley at one of his final concerts. If you
were an Elvis fan, perhaps you were one of the 82,000 people in
Pontiac Michigan on New Years Eve (like I was) in one of his
later performances. I can describe every detail of what it was
like at only 22 rows from the stage and the events of that
night which as an Elvis fan, I'll always remember.
But okay, so maybe some of you don't relate or perhaps you are not an Elvis fan.
Another
Example of using Nostalgia - but with a twist:
Let me reach
back a little further yet, to years before I was born.But how could I
create Web content and talk about the memories of something
that happened back in the 1930s or 1940s when my childhood was
really in the 1960's?
In this instance I'll refer to a few
memories of movies and film that I relate to.
Personally, I enjoyed watching certain musical
performances and rare talent that were captured in the old
classic movies that I watched growing up. I have a great
appreciation for a number of classic genres including science
fiction, mysteries, dramas, fantasy, comedy and of course, the
great musicals.
When I
mention the name "The Marx Brothers," for
those of you old enough, your mind instantly probably jumps to
the genre of "comedy." As a child I certainly
remember watching the zany antics of the Marx Brothers on TV
from their old movies and they entertained me and made me
laugh as much as someone can in an 90 minute or 2 hour
movie.
But suppose, if for example I was creating a promotion for to
sell some of their old films or videos online, I would want a
unique angle or a completely different approach.
Checking the
Members area of Wordtracker,
I'm going to see if I can find a few phrases that might relate
to a specific topic that I could use to create nostalgic
memories and relate to any others who enjoy old classic
movies."
Adding in a new twist:
Here would
be my twist, that would be different (and I hope
interesting.)
From my experience as a child, I remember two of the four Marx
Brothers in particular, as having rare musical talent. You ask
yourself.....what???
Which of these comedians were musicians?
Harpo
Marx - was a self taught musician could play the most
celestial and captivating music on the harp.
To me as a youngster, he was an amazing performer who
wore a funny wig and never spoke a single word onscreen. He
never did speak while on the screen. Some people actually
thought Harpo could not speak. But he could. Harpo became a
"mime" after a theater critic apparently once noted
that Harpo was brilliant in performance, until his character
spoke. From that moment on, Harpo never spoke while in
character again (for the rest of his career.)
While most of the time, his performance involved in slapstick
sight gags, there was always one point in which Harpo would
become amazingly serious. That was always when he sat down at
his instrument the harp, to play. As a youngster I could
not believe the heavenly music I would hear when Harpo Marx
sat down to play. It may sound crazy, but his music would hold
me in complete astonishment when I watched early films like (A
Night At The Opera.)
Then there was Chico Marx - who played the piano with a highly
unusual style and talent.
Chico always amazed me in his piano playing routines and I
don't think there has ever been anyone quite as original as
him since. It was amazing to watch and listen to him play as
he employed humor into his keyboard playing style.
Nostalgic moment - Video clip with Chico Marx and Harpo
Marx from A Night at the Opera:
Please watch
them both in this short film clip below where Chico is
surrounded by children watching him play. Then watch as Harpo
does a little comedy routine with the children just before he
plays that awesome harp. Keep in mind that it is a fact that
Harpo never had a music lesson in his life. He was completely
self taught, but then later he learned that he had learned
"wrong." But that did not stop other musicians from
coming to him in later years asking Harpo to teach them to
play the harp in his style.
If you can
catch the expression on the children's faces as Harpo plays,
that would represent how I probably sat looking at my TV set.
The clip below is only 6 minutes. Be sure to watch it all and
enjoy some nostalgia from years gone by.
Now at this
point, I am breaking away from talking about SEO technique,
but focusing on telling you some examples of my own nostalgic
interests to see how I could possibly relate to the memories
of others.
In Conclusion: Back
to Wordtracker and here are some keyword phrases I found
first:
For the name
"Chico Marx" as a keyword phrase, there were 171,000
competing pages in Google.
For the name "Harpo Marx" as a phrase, there are
295,000 competing pages.
Other
possible phrases that I could choose with much less
competition include:
"Biography of Marx
Brothers" which for this exact phrase has only 3
competing pages (at the time I wrote this.)
"Names of the Marx
Brothers" which only has 6 competing pages (at the
moment)
"Marx Brothers Comedy
Sketches" only has 10 competing pages.
Can you see how easy it would
be to optimize content if I wanted to research and write a
biography of the Marx brothers lives? I could focus on one of
these themes but develop a twist to my content and maybe focus
on how much I enjoyed some of their musical talents as
much as I enjoyed laughing at their comedy routines.
Here from Utube, is a clip of
Harpo Marx playing the Harp like only he could do. Take note
of the peoples faces who were present whenever he played his
harp in these old films. It must of been inspiring to sit in
on one of his performances considering the man apparently
never learned to play the harp "the correct way" and
the fact that he was self taught. By the end of Harpos career
he had musicians approaching him to learn the harp "his
way."
From the film "At the Circus."
Consider using nostalgia from
time to time and don't forget to put a little twist on things
so you present your content with its own unique story angle.
Ideally an angle that relates your thoughts, opinions and
something of value from your self. Something that your
visitors and others may also relate to and appreciate.
