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Thinking about a game like Team Fortress 2. On message boards about the game, it's normally referred to as TF2. We have a tag that is 'team-fortress-2' for this game.

If someone is searching for 'tf2 heavy' on Google, it's very unlikely they would find their way here. Is there any way we can seamlessly embed these abbreviations into a question/tag/post?

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For writing clarity, I always try to spell out the full name followed by the abbreviation in parenthesis the first time it appears. Then the remainder of the article can use the abbreviation. It's clear to the reader what you are talking about and that takes care of the Google-search problem.

I'm having a problem with Team Fortress 2 (TF2). Ever since I've started using TF2 on the Mac, Heavy's gun is not as responsive as it should be.

Please use the wiki features of this site to add these types of edits to any post. It makes the answer better for everyone.

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    Isn't really easy for anyone to "use the wiki features of this site" since nobody on the site currently has 2k rep. – user56 Jul 13 '10 at 19:46
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    @Arda Xi: That's a temporary situation. We're talking about how to create an effective site, even if we can't fix every single post right now. – Robert Cartaino Jul 13 '10 at 20:45
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Actually, Google is smart, as the first result when searching for TF2 is actually, the official Team Fortress 2 website.

Also, using full names, and not abbreviations will help search engines determine what you actually mean, for example, does SMG mean Submachine Gun or Super Mario Galaxy.

However, the best example can be found in the PS abbreviation, as google recognizes it as both PlayStation as well as PhotoShop, using PlayStation instead of PS will let google know we mean PlayStation and not PhotoShop, resulting in a more accurate interpretation. (meaning it is better for SEO)

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    According to Google's first result, SMG stands for Scotts Miracle-Gro. – Grace Note♦ Jul 13 '10 at 17:55
  • Isn't that because when people link to the Official site they link to it as TF2. Google bombing or something was related to that. – Noctrine Jul 13 '10 at 18:30
  • i've noticed the same thing with "ps3"--google knows that it is the same as "playstation 3" – Kip Jul 13 '10 at 19:13
  • @kip thanks for the PS3 example, added some info about the PS keyword too :D – alexanderpas Jul 13 '10 at 19:38
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    I confirm it. I have a blog on TF2 and the visits generated by Google are more less equal with the two terms. – user59 Jul 13 '10 at 20:29
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Tag synonyms are in the works. A synonym between Team Fortress 2 and TF2 might fix this, depending on how it's implemented.

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