Archive for November, 2004

Does Your Copy Look “Fake” to the Search Engines?

Thursday, November 18th, 2004

by Karon Thackston © 2004
http://www.copywritingcourse.com/keyword

From the early days of search engine optimization, keywords and content have always been vital to achieving your goals. Starting back in the days when we used to shove every slightly relevant keyword into our META tags, it has been obvious that search engines love text. The more complex and sophisticated the engines have gotten over the years, the more complex and sophisticated many writers have gotten with their search engine copywriting.

Supposed formulas, saturation levels, and other mysterious concoctions have been developed to help us outsmart the engines. What we should have been doing all along was writing for the visitor first and the engines second. Why? Because creating a site that’s loved by visitors has become a prime factor in linking, ranking, and marketing as a whole. And now, it has become vital to search engine copywriting–especially since the engines are making great strides with more personalized and efficient searches (such as semantic search).

Rather than just reading the copy on your site, engines are heading in the direction of being able to determine and “understand” what a page is about. Working semantic *intranets* have been in place at various types of organizations for years, and research continues to implement this type of search capability for the Internet overall.

The ironic thing is, as the search engines get more complex, the “formula” for SEO copywriting is getting simpler and simpler.

Write Naturally

Rather than working yourself into a tizzy about how many keyphrases go where, and what percentage of your net words are keyphrases, and so on… just relax. As SEO gets more advanced, your copy plan needs to get more elementary.

In the future, search engines will be looking for Web pages that reflect a natural tone with the copy. Is it obvious that keyphrases are being shoved in wherever possible? Does every headline/sub-head, image tag, and comment tag have a keyphrase included? Does the copy sound fake, unnatural, and stiff? Then spiders and bots will recognize it, and (in theory) flag it as something to be wary of.

Want an example? Take a look at this lovely piece of copy I found while surfing just the other day. (I’ve replaced the keyphrases used in the original copy with the word “wherever” so as not to embarrass the site owner.)

Wherever Holiday Rentals

Holiday rentals in Wherever for holidays in Wherever

Wherever holiday rentals directly from the owners. Rent a holiday villa in Wherever or perhaps a 2-6 bedroom apartment in Wherever. Wherever vacation rentals for holidays in Wherever are easily located by searching the Wherever Holiday website. Wherever Holiday Rentals offer holiday apartments in Wherever and holiday villas.

Find accommodation in Wherever by clicking on the Wherever map or the active links. You will then see holiday rental apartments, villas and townhouses in stunning Wherever accommodation.

Let’s suppose someone walked into your brick-and-mortar travel agency and asked for help. You would most likely ask the person what he was seeking. He would reply, “Holiday rentals in Wherever. What can you show me?” Would you honestly take off on the spiel above? Can you see yourself talking to a real client face-to-face and saying, “We offer Wherever holiday rentals in Wherever and can find you many apartments, villas, and houses in Wherever”? I don’t think so.

Who Cares?

Writing using natural language has always been important to your visitors. If your site sounds silly due to overuse of keyphrases, you lower yourself in the view of your prospective clients. You want to make sure your visitors are smiling and not rolling their eyes after they read your copy. Otherwise you greatly reduce the chance of making sales.

Now that the engines are becoming more and more sensitive to natural language when dealing with copywriting, this element is going to become very important for another reason… rankings.

Tips for Writing In Natural Language

Vary your keywords/phrases. For example, if a keyphrase you particularly want to target is “14k gold jewelry” also consider researching keyphrases like “14k gold watches” or “gold wedding bands” or others along those lines. This will give you a variety of phrases within your copy.
Read it out loud. When you read your copy out loud, you’ll get a better sense of whether it sounds unnatural. If you wouldn’t say, “We make 14k gold jewelry and have made 14k gold jewelry for 10 years. If you need 14k gold jewelry, just view our catalog” out loud then don’t put it in your copy, either.
Break up keyphrases. As searchers get more knowledgeable about finding what they want in the engines, they use longer and longer search queries–some of which just don’t make any sense. For instance, I recently had to use the phrase “real estate Pittsburg downtown.” Since this search string was not easily worked in as that exact phrase, I broke it up. One sentence I used it in read, “When looking for commercial real estate in Pittsburg, check the downtown listings first for exceptional locations and prices.” The words are still in the same order with minor breaks in between. When you can’t use a phrase “as is,” this is a very viable alternative.

Keep in mind the direction search engine optimization is taking. The closer you can get to writing in natural language, the better off you’ll be. It only makes sense to create a site now that will last through the long haul, especially when that site will have a better chance of favorably appealing to the engines and your visitors.

Karon Thackston is author of “How To Increase Keyword Saturation (Without Destroying the Flow of Your Copy).” Discover the secrets to creating SEO copy with a perfect balance between keywords and natural language. http://www.copywritingcourse.com/keyword

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Setting a Pay Per Click (PPC) Budget

Tuesday, November 16th, 2004

by Dylan Downhill

Pay Per Click (PPC) can be used to back up even a thriving organic program. Research shows that around 60% of people click on organic results, leaving 40% in potential business untouched if you don’t run a PPC campaign (percentages vary based on search engine). There is also research showing that both PPC and organic results boost a brand’s awareness which then makes it easier for a client to pick your company rather than some other company that they have never heard of before.

The nice thing about PPC is you can measure the Return On Investment (ROI) so that if it doesn’t pay for itself in conversions you can modify it or cancel it immediately.

To determine a starting budget you need to decide how much a conversion is worth in $ profit, how many sales leads you can handle, your conversion (sales) rate and how many conversions you want.

Number Conversions = sales leads per day x % conversion x 20 days in month

PPC Budget Maximum = $Profit per conversion x Number conversions

PPC Profit = Total Profit from PPC - Total Budget for PPC

Assuming $1000 net profit per conversion, you can handle three sales lead per day and 33% of your sales leads convert into sales. Assuming a 20 day month that gives a net profit of $20,000 per month that can be spent on PPC.

Number of conversions = 3 x 33% x 20 = 20

PPC Budget Maximum = $1,000 x 20 = $20,000

If you then pay $5,000 for one month’s PPC for 60 leads that result in 20 conversions (at 33% converting) you’re running at $15,000 profit on your marketing outlay - 300% ROI.

PPC Profit = $20,000 - $5,000 = $15,000

Your numbers will no doubt be different and you may only be able to get firm numbers after a month or two of running a PPC campaign, especially if your sales cycle is long. Also it takes around one - two months to weed out underperforming keywords and to start tweaking the campaign for the highest ROI.

Posted in Search Engine Marketing (SEM) | No Comments »

How To Write Little Tiny AdWords Ads That Bring Giant-Sized Profits

Wednesday, November 10th, 2004

It seems to be a phenomenon. You try Google AdWords Select, your ad gets “disapproved” by the powers that be at Google, you count your losses and give up. It doesn’t have to be that way. There are two primary factors to succeeding at Google AdWords. The first is getting the right keywords. The second is writing little tiny ads. Neither is all that easy, but they can both be done.

Mark Twain said it best. “If I would have had more time, I would have written you a shorter letter.” The point. it takes much more skill, and much more time to write short copy than long copy.

Let’s go through the process together and I’ll show you a few tricks of the trade that have brought me AdWords click through rates of 7.1%, 8.0%. even 25%.

Step One

- You would be very wise to either use a benefit or an end result in your headline. In order to do this, you’ll have to be aware of the difference between features and benefits. Start by making a list. I’ll use the example of an online shoe store.

Here are a few features:

huge inventory
wide selection of sizes
discounted prices
free shipping

And here are the benefits associated with those features:

hundreds of styles to choose from
hard-to-find sizes in stock
save money
free shipping (costs nothing extra)

Step Two

- Know what your customers are looking for. YOU may feel that one benefit outweighs another. However, your customer might feel differently. Be sure you understand what is important to your customer before writing your headline and your ad. You have no room to waste so it is vital that you find a so-called nail and hit it right on the head.

Step Three

- Work in your keywords. There tends to be a greater click through rate on search results that use the exact keyphrase the surfer types in. The same holds true for Google’s AdWords program.

While the following have by no means been researched, we’ll assume that some optimum keywords for our shoe store are: women’s shoes and sandals. We’ll want to include these in our ads.

Step Four

- Start big and narrow it down. Begin by writing a few sentences or a paragraph about what you’d like your customer to know. Perhaps:

You’ll find everything you’re looking for in one place! Hundreds of styles to choose from including hard-to-find sizes in stock.
You’ll save lots of money because our regular prices are far below that of other stores. Plus shipping is always free - regardless of the amount of your purchase. Check out our excellent selection of women’s shoes and sandals.

Now, go back and take out every word that does not absolutely need to be there. You probably came up with something like this:

Everything in one place! Hundreds of styles, hard-to-find sizes.
Prices far below other stores. Shipping free. Women’s shoes and sandals.

That’s a LOT smaller and still gets the point across. However, it is still too long for AdWords. Your headline must be less than 25 characters (including spaces). Your copy can only be 35 characters per line. (You get two lines.) Now is the time to begin rearranging words to create an ad that will match Google’s guidelines, include your keywords, and draw a crowd to your site.

Here are a couple I came up with:

100s of Styles-Low Prices
Big savings on women’s shoes. Plus
free shipping! All sizes in stock.

Discount Women’s Sandals
Latest styles at deep discounts.
All sizes in stock. Free Shipping!

Step Five

- Test, test, test! Put them up and give them a go. See what happens. Believe me, Google will notify you quickly if your ads aren’t performing. Those that get lower than a .05% click through rate are immediately “disapproved.” You are notified that your ad has been pulled and that you need to make changes.

Use the information in the AdWords campaign section to track the results. I’ve heard countless tales of those who have changed one little word and gone from a .07% CTR to a 5.0% CTR. If your ad is pulled, make simple changes to start with. Swapping out the word “savings” for “discount” or “big” for “huge” can be all it takes to catapult you to the top of the list.

When you write extremely short copy, remember to stay focused. There is not enough room to sell the customer within your copy, but there IS enough room to pique their interests. Use the limited space you have to punch up the biggest benefits or end results your customers are looking for and you’ll see bigger returns on your AdWords investment.

Most buying decisions are emotional. Your ad copy should be, too! Karon is Owner and President of Marketing Words, Inc. which offers targeted copywriting, SEO copywriting & ezine article services. Visit her site at http://www.marketingwords.com today, or learn to write your own powerful copy at http://www.copywritingcourse.com.