When Is Each State’s Primary? Or Caucus?
Sometimes search marketing is about optimizing your pages for phrases you want your site to be found for. But other times, it’s about paying attention to the latest trends and making sure that your site is answering the questions that are relevant to your content.
Super Buffy Tuesday?
Take for instance the current U.S. political season. I’m planning Buffy night this week, like I do most every week, and when I sent out an email suggesting Tuesday, Natala wrote back and asked if we’d be following primary results in addition to Buffy goodness. Huh. That’s not this week in Washington is it? I think maybe Tuesday is the day in California though. Surely a quick search will tell me.
Where’s the Primary Schedule?
I did a search for [when are the primaries for each state?] to woeful results. I mostly get pages describing the primary process and some stuff about Ron Paul (he has two listings on the front page; all other candidates have none). Should search engines be more sophisticated and understand that a “when” query is less about general explanations and more about dates? Maybe. But in the meantime, this is the type of situation that a smart marketer can make good use of. I get a great result at number 12: Boston.com’s coverage, which includes a handy map listing the dates for all primaries and caucuses (wow, that’s a weird word). The page also includes a text version of the information in a table. They also have a fairly good title tag (although I might add “dates” or “schedule” to it). I might also suggest an H1 tag and alt text for the “campaign08″ image that matches the image text, rather than uses the word “home”.
Apparently, lots of states(22!) hold primaries on February 5th, so I suppose it’s no wonder they call is Super Tuesday. Washington comes later (February 9th, and there’s some whole deal about how the state has both a caucus and a primary, which makes no sense, but in any case, nothing happens here this week other than the Buffy watching).
What’s the difference between a primary and a caucus anyway?
The primary process is a crazy one.
The boston.com page says “*Florida, Michigan, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Wyoming had half their delegates taken away by the Republican National Convention because they violated rules by moving up their primary/caucus date. Florida and Michigan had all their delegates taken away by the Democratic National Convention for the same reason.” How is that possible? How could people in charge of whole states not know the rules? How could the national conventions not notice the schedules had changed and warned them in advance? And speaking of primary schedules, how is it that New Hampshire state law requires it to have the first primary? Do they just have to keep moving it up if other states schedule earlier?
What is a caucus anyway? (Ask Yahoo! gets the first result for that and WikiAnswers gets the second, which is just more proof that content sites in this niche have opportunities to make sure comprehensive, useful answers available. Particularly as the Ask Yahoo! Answer is more about doing a search for the answer than it is about the answer itself; the article referenced by the answer ranks third for the query, ironically enough). And why is “caucus” spelled so crazy? Republicans in Maine have a caucus that lasts February 1st through 3rd. Why do they get two more days than anyone else?
More patriotic through search
I can’t be the only person feeling a little inadequate in my Americanness for not knowing the answers to these questions and the search results tell me that now’s the time to get some good content out there to help us all.
You can’t always see trends coming, but many times, you can look ahead be prepared with just the right answer. I’ll help you get started on some others that I might be needing soon:
- How can I dye the perfect Easter egg and beat the design of any kid on my block?
- How did that crazy tradition of selling ugly stuffed ducks trapped in suffocating plastic balloons on the side of road for Valentine’s day start? Does anyone actually like those ducks? Or is it just a ploy that guys use to get their girlfriends to break up with them?
- Green beer? Really?
Consider these my search engine optimization gift to you, for this super Tuesday. Known more fondly to my apparently unamerican self as Buffy night.
Thanks Vanessa, this post’s URL is going to all my clients asking ‘why do we need glossary of industry terms on our site, can’t people go to Wikipedia to read about it?’
Thanks for pointing out that boston.com page — not because I didn’t know I’d be voting on Tuesday, but because that graphic was designed by an old friend of mine. I thought he’d left the Globe years ago.
I thought my parents were the last people on earth that still typed grammatically correct questions into a search engine
Thought process:
1. Open IE
2. Type “ask” into address bar
3. Get redirected to Ask.com
4. Type “where is my email?”
5. Get advert for Dell MS Exchange Servers
Every four years I try to figure out the US’s baroque electoral system, and every four years I fail a little less.
the whole system of registering with some one which party your supporting is just a little creepy.
it also seems very inefficient why doesn’t one party switch to one member one vote in each state party - and have the states send delegates pro rata as they do now have one big convention and save a vast amount of money that could be used in the general election.
On a buffy note have you seen James Maters (Spike)in s2 Torch wood yet
I may very well be entering the online media industry. If I do, I’ll be sure to bust my ass to make sure the news sites I am optimizing keep these great points in mind.
It amazes me that with all the brand equity news sites have, that they don’t rank well in the search engine for searches that are highly relevant to them. How did they miss the boat when news went from print to screen?
In a way, it is proof that SEO/SEM is vital for success. Which is good for all of us in the industry.
Payne
Super Tuesday, Internet Style: How We’re Using the Web In the 2008 Elections…
Today is Super Tuesday, which means that voters in 24 states are carefully reviewing their candidate research and doing last minute thoughtful analysis in preparation for voting in the primaries. Well, maybe that’s hopeful optimism, but in any case, …
[...] so simple that I think it can sometimes be overlooked. I noted that I did a search to find out the primary schedule for each state and I didn’t find a good result until #13. I suggested that political sites (candidates, [...]
[...] Wikipedia, most delegates are selected through party primaries and caucuses (Vanessa explains these here). However, a minority of delegates are ‘unpledged’ and are known as superdelegeates. [...]
A recent study here in Europe showed almost the same like evilgreenmonkey tells us. Impressive percentage of traffic still goes this way.
Vanessa,
I was following you through the entirety of this post until:
“How did that crazy tradition of selling ugly stuffed ducks trapped in suffocating plastic balloons on the side of road for Valentine’s day start? Does anyone actually like those ducks? Or is it just a ploy that guys use to get their girlfriends to break up with them?”
What are you talking about? Is this some Washington tradition that I have never seen or heard of? I would be appalled to receive what you describe as a Valentine’s gift. Have you ever received one? Maybe this is some kind of joke that everyone got but me and there is no such thing as ugly Valentine’s Day ducks. But of course I wouldn’t know, I couldn’t find any information in my search.
As for primaries, all I know is that usually by the time they get to Oregon things have already been decided. I think that they should switch up the state order in each presidential election. Give the rest of us a turn to bask in the glory of what Ohio and New Hampshire get election after election.
By the by, you are now ranking number 1 and 2 for “When are the primaries for each state”
I so need to find a picture. But basically, visualize a stuffed animal at least this big:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000LYNX9K?smid=A3N4T551JXZP1M&tag=dealtime-toys-20&linkCode=asn
In a easter-style basket covered in cellophane or inside a big balloon. Seriously. They’re like 3 feet tall. I wish I were kidding.
They have them in the gas station parking lot. Maybe they’ll have them again at Easter. I’ll take a picture.
Vanessa,
I am glad to know that I wasn’t duped by you. If you ever get a picture, I want to see it!
Thanks for the response,
Megan