I'm sitting in the airport in Las Vegas, reflecting on reBlogWorld and BlogWorld Expo and thought I'd share one of the thoughts that occurred to me during a session yesterday.

Dave Taylor gave a presentation entitled "10 Things You Need To Know About Search Engines And Findability." I didn't learn anything during the presentation that I didn't already know, but I still enjoyed it immensely. And it reminded me how lazy I can sometimes be with the basics. Dave presented the 10 tips in a way that is easy to understand and implement. I used Qik.com to stream the entire 52 minute presentation and you can watch it below. I'll be sending it to anyone who asks me about the basics from this moment forward.

During the presentation, he gave some advice on key word density and it reminded me of "What Rufus Xavier Sarsparilla Can Teach You About SEO and YEO", a post I wrote during last year's Project Blogger competition.

Here was the main thought behind that post.

I can  find "Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla", but I can't find "he, him, or his."

It hit me as I was actively singing along to my kid's Schoolhouse Rock CD, that I unconsciously use pronouns for exactly the reasons that my favorite Schoolhouse Rock song describes. My favorite is called "Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla." I loved it when I was a kid and I love it now. My kids get a kick out of me belting it out at the top of my lungs.

Here's the best part of the song:

Now I could tell you Rafaella Gabriela and Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla
and Albert Andreas Armadillo found an aardvark, a kangaroo, and a rhinoceros. 
And now that aardvark and that kangaroo and that rhinoceros belong respectively to
Rafaella Gabriela Sarsaparilla and Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla and Albert Andreas Armadillo!

Whew! Because of pronouns I can say, in this way:
"WE found THEM and THEY found US and now THEY are OURS
and WE're so happy."

Thank you, pronouns!

You see a pronoun was made to take the place of a noun,
'Cause saying all those nouns over and over
Can really wear you down.

Yes, it can really wear you down. That's why we use pronouns. But if I say that's why "WE" use pronouns, then I miss out on an opportunity.

Here's the problem. Type he, him, or his into a google search and see what you find. Search results for he, him, his. The results are all over the board. Here's what you get when you search on Rufus Xavier Sarsparilla: Search results. There are 816 results and even if you go the last page of the results, they all point to Schoolhouse Rock references. 

Make Jeff Turner's point, Jeff Turner! (Jeff Turner is now going to show ActiveRain members Jeff Turner's point by over exaggerating Jeff Turner's point. Because Jeff Turner really does have a point.)

If ActiveRain bloggers want to get the biggest bang from the Active Rain bloggers' ActiveRain blog posts, ActiveRain bloggers need to look the ActiveRain Bloggers' posts over carefully. When ActiveRain bloggers can replace a pronoun with a noun and not sound as ridiculous as this paragraph sounds, ActiveRain bloggers have increased the chances that the posts ActiveRain bloggers write will show up in search results.  

That's obviously ridiculous. Here's how we would all normally write that paragraph:

If you want to get the biggest bang from your blog posts, you need to look your posts over carefully. When you can replace a pronoun with a noun and not sound as ridiculous as that paragraph sounds, you have increased the chances that the posts you write will show up in search results. This is subtle, but effective, and won't take much time.

Write to engage. Read to improve.

Don't even think about nouns or pronouns when you're writing. Just write. Write to engage the reader. Then save it as a draft and go get a cup of coffee, or take a nap, or kiss your loved ones, or mail me a dollar. When you're done, come back and read it to improve it's search engine attractiveness.