Using keywords

[gristgal]

Is there a way to have key phrases, and not just keywords? I'd like very much to use peoples' entire names, as some people have last names that don't convey much alone. I've tried entering first and last names together, and with no other keywords entered at the same time, but the software jumbles them all up, no matter what I do. I tried searching the manual, but didn't find anything that helped.
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"Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance."
Confucius

[john]

Is there a way to have key phrases, and not just keywords?

It's not possible at this time to add keyphrases to your post, you can only assign assign keywords to your posts.

Keywords were originally conceived as a way to aid the builtin search engine in finding related posts, but many users are using them as a sort of category system, so we are looking at ways we might enhance this feature through the use of phrases etc.

[gristgal]

I've been using keywords for some time, as well as lots of categories. The categories were a prime consideration, when myblogsite closed, for coming here; I frankly couldn't imagine being limited to just a few.

I still don't really understand as much as I'd like about the mechanics of blogs; I used html for a while 6 or 7 years ago, but then lost interest. Coming back to actually doing something on the web, I discovered that html was sorely outdated, and I haven't yet worked up the enthusiasm needed for me to learn all the new stuff. However, I have lots of opinions, on a wide assortment of topics, and after reading other people's blogs for a while, decided that theirs weren't necessarily superior to mine.

As I said before, what frustrates me is my inability to make someone's name (e.g., George Will) or a topic (e.g., civil service) a keyword. As you can see, Mr. Will's first or last names alone don't do much, nor do civil and service, when separated from each other, provide a searcher with a means of finding my blog (http://gristandgristle.blogharbor.com/blog), even when I'm talking about something that such searchers might find interesting.

Please include me as one of those people who are intensely interested in using key phrases! I hope you'll be able to implement them soon.

And thanks; I've been really impressed with the level of support you provide.
_________________
"Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance."
Confucius

[john]

...when separated from each other, provide a searcher with a means of finding my blog...

Using Keywords or Key Phrases will not help searchers find your blog... The Keywords feature aids your own blog's builtin search engine find content inside your blog. It has no effect on people finding your blog from a Google search. So using Keywords or Key Phrases is not relevant for helping people find your blog; the feature helps people who are already at your blog to find content they might be looking for.

You don't need to worry about Google understanding phrases, they do a pretty good job at that. They know that George and Will go together, and that civil and service mean something, and will index your blog accordingly, regardless of the keywords you use on your blog (which are likely ignored by Google anyway).

I've been really impressed with the level of support you provide.

Thank you very much!

[gristgal]

So, can you tell me when you're likely to have the keywords expanded to cover compound nouns (e.g., civil rights, not just people's names) and hyphenated words? I just tried to enter self-government as a keyword, and it once again shook a virtual finger at me.
_________________
"Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance."
Confucius

[john]

As per our response to your original query just a few weeks ago, phrases are not currently supported nor are non-alphanumeric characters like dashes, plus signs etc.

Along with the many requests for feature enhancements we receive, this has been noted. We can not provide you with any estimate as to when if ever it might be implemented, in general we do not comment on the development roadmap. Please be assured that this request was added to our feature enhancement request list, and will be considered for future development.