Are you an Arthritis “Sufferer”
We recently had an email from one of our visitors asking why we use the word “sufferer” on our website. The author of the email, someone with arthritis, felt that the word was negative, depressing and indeed cringeworthy.
I have to say that I agree. The word “sufferer” simply does not reflect the ethos of Funky Arthur. Personally speaking, I also find the term unpalatable. So why do we use it?
Unfortunately it comes down to a technical issue. When I look at how people find us online, a large proportion of them include the word “sufferer” in their search terms. Common keywords include “gadgets for arthritis sufferers”, “aids for arthritis sufferers”, “products for arthritis sufferers” and so on. This means that if we were to remove the word “sufferer” from our site, then fewer people would find us and fewer people would have access to what we hope you agree are some great products.
It’s not all doom and gloom though. As Funky Arthur grows and becomes better known, I can see a day when we will be able to drop that word altogether. I for one can’t wait.
Tags: arthritis aids, arthritis terms, keyphrases, keywords
December 8th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
Fantastic explanation. The search engines can put all kinds of spam and boloney above our genuine and valuable offerings. It’s a difficult thing to navigate.
I know how you feel. I never use that word on my blog. I made up “RA’ers” because I got tired of writing “RA patient” also. When I was trying to decide how to spell it, my daughter pointed out that spelling it this way makes it a contraction of Rheumatoid Arthritis warriors, which we all are. So, I kept it. However, I know the search engines have NO clue what an RA’er is … ;D