New York is one of, if not THE top sports market in the country. So although the Yankees handily beat out the Mets in fanship among New Yorkers, there are still plenty of Mets fans looking for a good read on the web.
A quick search in Google using the words “New York Mets,” did not yield me a result of Faith and Fear in Flushing. However, when “New York Mets Blog” is search in Google, Faith and Fear shows up as the sixth result, putting it in good company with other widely read blogs.
But how well can readers find Faith and Fear’s content…really?
Using search engine optimization, or SEO, a niche blog like Faith and Fear in Flushing can make its content much more visible to the average reader. This is accomplished through the use of keywords and specific headlines.
However, what makes Faith and Fear stand out among different New York Mets blogs may be what makes it strike out in terms of SEO. While It’s offbeat writing style and sometimes nondescript use of headlines are interesting and different to readers, they do not help when it comes to search engine optimization.
A quick scan of headlines shows little in terms of specifics. Some examples include, “Not In It, But Never Out Of It,” and “This Tweak In Baseball.” While the headlines may catch a reader’s attention, neither will catch that of a search engine. It’s not just the headlines. The aforementioned post, “This Tweak in Baseball,” discusses the now infamous infield fly call that went against the Braves during this year’s postseason. However, while Faith and Fear’s lede does mention the Braves, it fails to mention any other keywords that relate back to the story. In fact, I completely failed to locate the article when searching a combination of the words “braves” and “infield fly rule,” into Google. A better headline, in terms of SEO could have incorporated some key words. For example, “This Tweak In Baseball: The Braves And The Infield Fly.”
Google search for “braves infield fly rule.”
Another post entitled, “How To Come From Behind,” recapped an Oakland A’s walk- victory against the Tigers. This post ended up with different results in Google, depending on what you search. A search of “A’s walk off,” yielded no results for the blog in the first 20 pages of results. However, a tweak of the search to “A’s come from behind,” had Faith and Fear’s post as the number two result. Clearly, this headline had a little more searching power than the others, but it still did not take full advantage of keywords. A more encompassing headline may of been, “How To Walk Off In Oakland.”
Google search for “A’s come from behind.”
As a disclaimer, my headline suggestions may not come off as catchy or clever, but by including more keywords, they may garner more clicks. The question whether or not to sacrifice originality for these clicks is still up in the air.
Baseball With Bite 