Why You Should Beware of Buzzwords
One of the foundations of good content creation is the skilful use of keywords, not buzzwords. Whether it’s media content aimed at securing coverage or marketing collateral designed to attract prospects, the right keywords will make your copy more appealing.
Publications, for example, naturally aim to feature popular topics that will resonate with their audiences. From short rapid response comments to full opinion articles, media copy that contains references to relevant and current terms and topics such as machine learning, ransomware and the GDPR is much more likely to get a journalist’s attention.
Keywords are also very important for establishing a brand, and a company needs to ensure that all of its collateral uses the same words and phrases to reinforce its identify. Combining important brand words with popular talking points will also help to boost the company’s SEO results.
However, this must be organic. Google is continually refining its search algorithms to try and crack down on anyone trying to game the system with repetition, a technique sometimes called keyword stuffing. Sites which try to inorganically boost their SEO by cramming in as many keywords as possible can actually find their ranking being penalised instead.
Buzzword bingo
This practice doesn’t just put off search algorithms, as overusing keywords will also quickly see human readers turning away too. There is a thin line between keywords and buzzwords. Too many will make your copy awkward at best and downright worthless at worst.
It’s common to find companies simply threading clichés together until you end up saying nothing at all:
“ClapTrap is a real game-changer, disrupting the paradigm and generating powerful deliverables. Our market-leading strategy combines blue-sky thinking with a deep-dive approach to create a powerful synergy for our blue-chip clients.”
This is common in all businesses, but the technology sector, in particular, loves zeitgeists and paradigms. Even when they are accurate, terms like “next-gen” and “market-leading” can become clichéd when overused. Fields like cyber security also often fall prey to acronym soup due to the inherent number of technical terms. This can lead to even more impenetrable copy when mixed with too many buzzwords.
Most importantly though, attractive keywords are only useful if the company itself can live up to the expectations they create. There is no point in creating a web presence skilfully laced with popular keywords if your abilities don’t match up.
While it can be easy to overdo it and start playing buzzword bingo, a judicious combination of brand keywords and references to important industry trends used throughout a company’s content can make a huge difference in its ability to gain media coverage and attract new prospects.
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