What's Up With Word Clouds?

[GT Bulmer]

Hello, Forum Members:

Word Clouds are springing up all over the place. What are they, what's their value and how can we, as entrepreneurs and Internet Marketers use them to our advantage?

Here is the Wikipedia definition:

"A tag cloud or word cloud (or weighted list in visual design) is a visual depiction of user-generated tags, or simply the word content of a site, used typically to describe the content of web sites. Tags are usually single words and are typically listed alphabetically, and the importance of a tag is shown with font size or color.[1] Thus both finding a tag by alphabet and by popularity is possible. The tags are usually hyperlinks that lead to a collection of items that are associated with a tag."

Hmm. Some of the tag clouds or word clouds I have seen are not arranged alphabetically or in any particular order. The more popular words in a cloud might have been represented by larger text, bold text, coloured text or positioning, but until I posted this comment, I haven't really paid attention to it.

Word clouds I have seen do typically have just one- or two-word tags. I have seen word clouds on sites that seemed to act as a directory for that site alone. And I have seen word clouds that seem to be a form of advertising where the words link to other websites or web pages.

I would be interested in more discussion about word clouds.

GT

[TannyL]

Hi GT,
Nice topic, an a little change from the usual conversation.
In your post you mentioned everything about word tags, you can see them in blogs, advertising etc. I also seen them in link directories, you can choose one word to use as your anchor text, or a long phrase, some also let you suggest your own phrase, I don't know if it's true but i read somewhere it is very expensive to link to this sites.

A tag cloud can add some color to a website, I can't see any other benefit it can have.

[Trent Brownrigg]

They were really big a few years ago but I thought they had pretty much died off. Perhaps they are making a comeback?

[MichelleJ]

They were really big a few years ago but I thought they had pretty much died off. Perhaps they are making a comeback?

That is something that seems to happen in all walks of life. Things disappear for a while and then suddenly they are back in fashion. It happens even on the internet.

MichelleJ

[GT Bulmer]

They were really big a few years ago but I thought they had pretty much died off. Perhaps they are making a comeback?

Hi, Trent:

Yes, I think that's what is happening. I'm starting to see them here and there, both on small home biz sites and on larger commercial sites. For example, check out one variation posted at SEOCentro.com.

@Tanny: I think there may be two benefits to using word clouds or tag clouds.

First, it can be like an index or a site map for a website; just something different or unique (because people like a change).

Second, it can be a way for a site owner to sell ad space that it is very easy to manage. I don't know that it is being used this way. But it sounds like a good idea to me!

GT

[Alan Mater]

Hi GT,

Interesting topic. I too have seen word clouds more and more. I often wondered the same thing as you. They look kinda cool, but I'm not sure what the point is exactly. I suppose they could be sort of a sitemap of different categories or keywords. Other than that, I don't know what benefit there might be to use one.

Wordpress blogs have a "Tag Cloud" widget. Does anyone know if it's beneficial to use it? The only useful thing I see with this is displaying all of your used tags on every page with your readers having easy access to them. I suppose that could be beneficial to both them and you.

I'd like to hear other thoughts on this.

[GT Bulmer]

Hi GT,
Wordpress blogs have a "Tag Cloud" widget. Does anyone know if it's beneficial to use it? The only useful thing I see with this is displaying all of your used tags on every page with your readers having easy access to them. I suppose that could be beneficial to both them and you.

I'd like to hear other thoughts on this.

Hi, Alan:

Yes! That's where else I have seen Tag Clouds lately. I suppose it's an interesting way to display keywords and link them to specific articles or webpages on a site.

GT

[writer-ros]

I've never really understood the benefit of wordclouds, other than that they look quite pretty.

I can't think of any practical benefit - it seems like a rather arbitrary way of looking for information to me. I do like things in alphabetical order!

Ros

[Alan Mater]

@GT, That's the only benefit I can see from it.

@Ros, I'd rather have things in some sort of order as well, but these are everywhere, so we can't just ignore them. The idea is that words used more often than another are displayed larger than the one before it. So, if you use one word or phrase A LOT, then it will be displayed very big compared to the rest of the words. A phrase used only once will be displayed very small compared to words used more frequently. In itself, this a form of order, even if it's unconventional.

[GT Bulmer]

Hey, Alan:

Here's an example that didn't ring a bell with me until what you just said.

In the Warrior Forum, when you click on the link near the top of the page that points to Blogs > Recent Entries, on the Recent Entries page you will see a Tag Cloud in the left column. These are keywords/phrases for which the font size grows larger the more that keyword is used by WF bloggers.

If you think of it, next time you visit the WF, check out the Tag Cloud and you'll see several words larger than the rest. Try clicking on Web Biz Tips, Home Based Business or Internet Marketing. You might see a familiar face!

GT

[TannyL]

Second, it can be a way for a site owner to sell ad space that it is very easy to manage. I don't know that it is being used this way. But it sounds like a good idea to me!

GT

Hi GT,
Yes I have seen some website selling ad space this way. The unsold tags are in plain text and the sold ones are in different colors and sizes, I guess here you can change the price, higher price - large font.

[Alan Mater]

Hey, Alan:

Here's an example that didn't ring a bell with me until what you just said.

In the Warrior Forum, when you click on the link near the top of the page that points to Blogs > Recent Entries, on the Recent Entries page you will see a Tag Cloud in the left column. These are keywords/phrases for which the font size grows larger the more that keyword is used by WF bloggers.

If you think of it, next time you visit the WF, check out the Tag Cloud and you'll see several words larger than the rest. Try clicking on Web Biz Tips, Home Based Business or Internet Marketing. You might see a familiar face!

GT

Hey GT,

Ahh... I didn't know this as I don't visit the blogs on there. That's very interesting to know. Maybe I should start using that blog. Would you say it has helped you get more traffic?

[Alan Mater]

Second, it can be a way for a site owner to sell ad space that it is very easy to manage. I don't know that it is being used this way. But it sounds like a good idea to me!

GT

Hi GT,
Yes I have seen some website selling ad space this way. The unsold tags are in plain text and the sold ones are in different colors and sizes, I guess here you can change the price, higher price - large font.

Now that you mention it, Tanny, I too have seen this before. There are some websites that do nothing except have a full page full of keywords chosen by the the advertiser. The more they pay, they can add colors and bigger font sizes to get noticed and stand out more. These types of websites are usually part of a large network and get A LOT of traffic driven to them. I've never advertised on them, though, so I'm not sure how effective it would be.

[GT Bulmer]

Hey GT,
Ahh... I didn't know this as I don't visit the blogs on there. That's very interesting to know. Maybe I should start using that blog. Would you say it has helped you get more traffic?

Hi, Alan:

I don't believe I've received a lot of traffic from the Warrior Forum blog. I judge it by the number of page views it shows and it is not uncommon to show less than 10 views after the first 12-24 hours. By then, new posts are bumping you off the page.

I just looked at earlier posts to see if the views keep climbing and they do, a little. A lot of them are around the 20-30 views range - so that's not a lot.

Interestingly, I had two controversial posts over the past week that attracted views somewhat above the average: one has 48 and the other has 51. They both have comments from viewers.

In one case, the viewer was a competitor to the service I promoted in the blog and he was criticizing the service provider and warning people to stay away - lol. So maybe some of the extra traffic is coming from people he is referring, telling them to watch out for me!

The other one has a comment from a fellow PIPS member who I don't recognize. Someone else, a newbie, had posted a "how to do Internet Marketing" type of question as a comment to my blog post. The PIPS member responded with a long comment to that person, filled with personal web links and affiliate links (which are not allowed in the WF). So I went in , left all the text, but neutralized all of the links.

One benefit I get from posting in thw WF blog section is that it quite often shows up on the first page of Google within an hour. Most of my Web Bizz Blog posts do, too. On occasion, only my blog or the WF blog shows up. Interesting.

GT

[David Hurley]

I forget where I saw it now, but the best word cloud I saw was one where things were changing so fast that the words grew or diminished in size as you watched.

The point is to show people which topics are hot. People like to follow crowds and be "in the know" and that's what word clouds appeal to.

If I were going to use one on my site, I'd probably give it a title like "What's hot on my site?" or something...