All About Content

Wednesday, August 31st, 2005

Content is one of the biggest influences on the success of your search marketing program. There is a saying that ‘content is king’ and this is true whether it is for your optimized web pages, your paid advertising message, or your optimized news releases.

Remember that writing and optimizing your content is an ongoing process and requires constant refinement and re-evaluation. If at first you do not succeed try again! This is a cliché that will make sense as you develop your written content.

Explore and discuss content and the effects on your search marketing success on the Elixir System’s Blog ‘Insights into Search for Business’.

Writing Page Content for your Website

Writing content for your websites pages is different that writing for any other medium. There are some simple facts you should be aware of before you put pen to paper. It can take some time to get the balance right so be aware that you are going to be fine tuning your content for some time.

Write for your visitors and not for the search engines. Search engines are a consideration but you want to communicate with the people who arrive on your site. You want to inform them and motivate them to take action. Fortunately text written specifically for your visitors will also be search engine friendly.

Inject your personality into your writing and try to connect with your visitors. This connection will make your visitors feel at home on your site. Informal, friendly, conversational language works best. You want your visitors to feel like they belong.

Another important thing to remember about writing for the web is that people scan what you write; they don’t read it from start to finish. This is a very important fact. Therefore what your write should be easily read and easily scanned.

To help make your site easy to scan:

• Employ a easy to understand, attention grabbing heading
• Start with the conclusion or summary (inverted pyramid writing style)
• Do not bury your message
• Include sub-headings that if scanned tell a story
• Incorporate only one idea per paragraph – make them self contained
• Highlight important words and phrases
• Use bullet-point lists
• Keep your language simple

Your writing should help to build credibility for your business. To do this you should build trust for your visitor.

Establish credibility by:

• Customer Lists
• Testimonials
• Case Studies
• Articles and White Papers
• About Us Page

Use language that informs your visitors. Make sure the language does not exaggerate or over sell your offering. Any type of hype tends to make visitors suspicious. Avoid marketing language and focus more on an editorial style.

Even on a highly technical site it is best to keep your language simple. Remember that all visitors to your site will not be as knowledgeable as you are! Try to put yourself in your visitor’s shoes. Be empathetic towards your visitors and address their needs. What information are they looking for? How con I describe things to really make them understand?

The goal of your writing is to inform and also persuade people. The key is to know and understand the people to whom you are writing. Once you understand them then it is a process of writing in a clear and understandable manner directly to them. As this is not an overnight process it is essential that you monitor your results. You need to know what is and what is not working. This way you can continue to refine your message over time.

Content – Some Definitions

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Copyright © James Peggie

James Peggie is the Marketing Manager for Elixir Systems - a search marketing company located in Scottsdale, Arizona. www.elixirsystems.com

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

Common Mistakes That Can Kill Your Web Copy

Thursday, August 25th, 2005

by Karon Thackston © 2005
http://www.copywritingcourse.com

Sometimes learning what not to do is as important as learning what to do. Copywriting is no exception. I oftentimes see copy that is well written, but obviously created by an amateur. How do I know? One or more of the following five mistakes was made and that killed the copy. dead.

Once you understand why these mistakes are, in fact, mistakes, you can easily avoid them. It isn’t like they are complicated concepts. It just takes someone to bring them to your attention so you can guard against them.

Pull up your site in a browser and follow along. See if you’ve made any of these mistakes on your site.

#1 - Writing Without Knowing Your Target Audience

This is, without a doubt, the biggest mistake of copywriting and the #1 killer of conversions. Why? I’ll answer with a question.

When you write a letter (or email), do you just start writing and decide afterwards who you’re going to send the letter to? Of course not! So why, then, do so many people just jump in and start writing website copy without having a clue about who they are writing to? It makes no sense to me.

How can people possibly communicate with their site visitors if they have no idea who they are, what they are looking for, their preferred communication style, what problems they face, how they hope to use the product/service to solve those problems and countless other information? Truth is, you can’t.

Take knowing your target customers to the extreme. Find out everything you can about them. Then combine all that info to create an imaginary person (or imaginary people) who fit the profile of your target audience members. You can even name them if you want to. Then - with every sentence - write to that person (or persons).

#2 - Writing Without Knowing the Product/Service

Like it or not, you’re a salesperson. That means you have to know all the details of the product or service you’re writing about. How else can you convincingly convey the information to prospects who visit the site?

Ask your client for samples of products, use of the services or access to member areas of a site. Using or taking part in what your client is offering to his/her visitors will make a huge difference in the quality and persuasiveness of your copy. Nothing comes across as well as copywriting that has been created from experience.

#3 - Writing About the Company Instead of To the Site Visitor

They don’t care. Who? Your site visitors. They don’t care about your company. Rather than hear about how long you’ve been in business and that you’re the specialists in this, that or the other thing, they’d rather find out how your product/service can benefit them.

If your home page starts with something like this, you’re in trouble: “ABC Company is the specialist in [insert industry here] with over 20 years experience. We provide [fill in the blank] with our extensive knowledge and helpful service. Dedicated to providing the highest quality, we guarantee our work with a 100% money-back promise.”

You’re we-ing all over yourself! The customer has the money. Don’t you think the copy should at least acknowledge him/her at some point? Rather than using we, us and our so much, turn it around.

Talk to your site visitors instead of about the company. Let them know you understand their needs and have answers to their problems. Don’t ignore them by talking only about yourself.

#4 - Outlining Features Instead of Benefits or End Results

Features are nice, but benefits and end results make the sale because they clearly explain why the customer will be better off after buying your product or using your service. One of the biggest selling factors in copywriting is the ability to tell the customer what he/she can do with a product or service.

Take a tip from the infomercials. They don’t simply tell you that a rotisserie cooker rotates as it cooks a chicken. No! They tell you that this rotisserie cooker can bake a whole, marinated, Italian herb chicken that’s juicy, moist and succulent. That the seasonings slowly seep into the meat so you get bite after tender bite of flavorful chicken so good you’ll beg for more. Who cares that the thing has a pointed, metal prong that rotates a chicken while it cooks? You’re buying it because it can deliver that wonderful whole, marinated, Italian herb chicken!

#5 - Neglecting the Medium

Does it make a difference as to where your copy appears online? Isn’t all Web copy the same? The answers are “Yes” and “No.” Landing pages are not the same as home pages, which are not the same as catalog pages, which are not the same as sales letters, and so on and so on. Don’t neglect to find out the differences between these and the other types of Web copy. They all have special considerations that should be studied before you begin writing.

Now you can add these five “don’ts” to your favorite copywriting checklist. Avoiding these mistakes will give you a better shot at reaching your visitors on their level and converting them into repeat customers.

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Copy not getting results? Learn to write SEO copy that impresses the engines and your visitors at http://www.copywritingcourse.com. Be sure to also check out Karon’s latest e-report on search engine copywriting: “How To Increase Keyword Saturation (Without Destroying the Flow of Your Copy)” at http://www.copywritingcourse.com/keyword.

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All About Links

Wednesday, August 24th, 2005

Today we are going to take a look at links and how they relate to the success of your web site. Links are very important for natural, organic search engine optimization. Often the amount of sites linking to your site determines your placement within the search engine result pages - especially for competitive keywords.

Links are also a means to drive qualified visitors to your site from other sites. This is the type of traffic that will result in conversions for your site.

Think about links as you would any business connection. You network in business to make connections that will benefit your company. Links will benefit your web site and your business. You can ask questions or discuss links on the ‘Insights into Search for Business’ Blog.

Links - Some Definitions

There are many phrases and terms bandied about relating to links. This can be confusing so I thought I would give you some definitions to help you understand them.

A ‘link’ is a group of words, a picture or type of hotspot on a web page that when clicked takes you to another web page. Outbound links are used by search engines while crawling through sites. Inbound links are a reflection of your sites popularity and relevancy for search terms.

‘Anchor text’ are the words used within the link. Search engines use this text to determine the subject of your page and the targeted page.

A ‘reciprocal link’ is a two-way link involving a link to your site from an external source and a link from your site back to the external source.

A ‘one-way link’ or ‘non-reciprocal link’ is a link to your site from an external source with no link back to the source.

‘Link popularity’ is a technique used by search engines to determine the relevancy of site pages. It involves examining the network of connections between pages. This is used to rank sites as pages with many inbound links from authority pages get a boost in the rankings.

A ‘link building campaign’ is used to attract new links to your site by making requests to other sites.

A ‘link audit’ analyzes the links to your site pages. You can then identify pages with low levels of links and look at strategies to improve them.

A ‘link auction’ is the purchasing of high value links through a bidding process at auction sites.

A ‘link farm’ is a a spam method which involes setting up sites for the purpose of adding links to boost sites. Avoid involvement in link farms as search engines will penalize sites involved in this practice.

Links are necessary if you want your site to be ranked in the search engines. The highest value links are from sites that are related to the content of your site. Currently one-way links appear to offer the most benefits in terms of results. The best way to go about building links involves steady natural process as opposed to a sudden attempt to increase the number of links to your site.

Link Building for a New Web Site

Link building is such an important area of owning a business website. It’s a great way to promote your site and your business. And it is also critical for search engine rankings. Think of link building as networking for your site. The more people that know about your site and can find it the better.

Like networking, link building is fairly simple. It’s all about communication. The drawback - you have to invest a lot of time. Here is the basic process of link building. You need to find websites that you would like to link with. You have to make a request to get a link from theses sites. Then you have to wait for an answer to your request. You have to manage the links on your site. Finally you have to make sure that the link is actually in place. As you can see from this process it relies to a great deal on other people’s participation. This is where it gets tricky as there are no guarantees that people will work with you or help you.

The easiest way to build links for a new site is through a directory submission program. The best links for your site are one way non-reciprocated links; in other words a vote for your site from another site that you haven’t paid for through a reciprocated link. Directories are ideal for this as they are authority sites that will hand non-reciprocated links to websites. Not only this, but directories are still used extensively by searchers due to the way the data is presented.

Unscrupulous people have come up with ways to artificially build links without all this work. These link packages or link ‘farms’ can get you a lot of links quickly, but they can also get your site banned by the search engines. It is suspected that Google also have a link filter in operation as part of their current algorithm. It looks like this penalizes any sites that build links too quickly or if these links seems unnatural. This type of link building campaign is to be avoided.

As you have probably observed in life there are not many ‘get rich quick’ systems that really work. The same holds for link building. The truth of the matter is that you get out of it what you put into it. There is no getting around putting in hard work and time to link building. The good news is that this effort pays real dividends for your business as the links you build will be natural, long lasting and of value to you.

A Few Final Words about Links

• Quality content on your site will make quality sites owners want to link to you!
• Do not be afraid to ask other site owners for links
• What is written as anchor text is very important
• It’s your choice who you link to and you have some say in who links to you
• Do not try to cheat with links, it’s a dangerous game

Posted in Linking and Publicity, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) | No Comments »

Limited Time Only (Shh! It’s A Secret)

Friday, August 12th, 2005

by Karon Thackston © 2005, All Rights Reserved
http://www.copywritingcourse.com/keyword

Under normal circumstances, you’d shout it from the rooftops.

After all, when you have something urgent to say, you want others to know about it, right? But when it comes to “limited time only” offers, lately I’ve noticed a disturbing trend.

Copywriters seem to actually be hiding the phrase! Let me give you some examples.

I received a fabulous email from a ladies clothing site at which I like to shop. It was for 50% off my entire purchase of anything on their site (clearance items or regular price).

Wahoo! What woman wouldn’t love that? Trouble is, I almost missed the deal due to procrastination.

Like most busy women, I was going to go to the site and shop. later. However, I happened to notice, way down at the bottom of the email in tiny, little type, that the sale ended in two days.

Why would they think the phrase “Limited time only - sale ends Friday, July 15, 2005 at midnight” was insignificant?

When I saw that phrase, I immediately zipped over to the site and began bargain hunting. (Found some fantastic deals, too!)

Here’s another example.

As I was sitting at a fast food restaurant eating lunch, I was fiddling with the paper “tent” ads on the table. One was for a new salad (nope, not in a healthy mood) and one was for strawberry cheesecake. That sounded good, but I was almost finished with my sandwich and fries so I really didn’t have room.

I wasn’t going home so I couldn’t take it to go. I thought I’d just pick up a slice the next time I ate at this place until I saw - at the very bottom of the ad in teeny, tiny type - the “limited time only” phrase.

I know this restaurant. They bring new, test items in and out all the time. If they said, “Limited time only,” I knew they meant it. Chances are (since I didn’t get to eat at this restaurant often) I wouldn’t get to try their cheesecake. If I had known it was a limited time offer, I would have ordered a slice before I got full.

Don’t Play Games With Limited Time Offers

Make a point to let customers know they have to act fast, or they’ll miss out. The fear of being left out or left behind is a basic human motivator that can be triggered pretty easily. The trick is to actually let your customers know an offer is limited in some way. Here’s how to create a powerful limited time offer.

Things go on sale all the time, so if you’re selling clothing or food or office supplies, you might have limited time offers that end simply because the sale date has past. However, if there is a reason your offer is limited (limited supply of items, testing a new item, etc.), tell the customer. This can actually increase the sense of urgency.

Make your offer credible. How do you do that? By sticking to your word. If you say an offer will end on a certain date, end it or give a darn good reason for extending the offer. If customers see that you continually tout “limited time offer,” but keep the discount running past the deadline, you’ll lose credibility and sales.

Give a reasonable deadline. Customers need time to act. Car manufacturers run incentive offers for a month or longer in part because of the high cost of vehicles and the need for arranging financing. The online clothing site I mentioned earlier set its deadline at two days (customers could easily click over to their site and shop immediately). Depending on the item, the purchasing medium and whether there is a need for financing or such, you can adjust your deadline to whatever works best for you.

When your customers understand you’re making an offer that will expire shortly, they are motivated to act now, rather than later.

If you give them a good enough reason not to procrastinate, you can see a major surge in sales. Urgency is never something you want to hide in your copy.

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Copy not getting results? Learn to write SEO copy that impresses the engines and your visitors at http://www.copywritingcourse.com. Be sure to also check out Karon’s latest e-report on search engine copywriting: “How To Increase Keyword Saturation (Without Destroying the Flow of Your Copy)” at http://www.copywritingcourse.com/keyword.

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Choosing a Newswire Service to Distribute Optimized Press Releases

Thursday, August 4th, 2005

Press releases have traditionally been associated with public relations. Over the past ten years there have been major changes in the field brought about by the development of the web. This has led to the online distributions of releases and so the function is now being increasingly associated with the technical skills belonging to search engine marketers. For many people in the search marketing field who are not experienced in public relations and have been approached to optimize press releases the field can be confusing. The basics of press release optimization are similar to keyword optimization for web sites; however there are some areas that demand specialized knowledge.

Firstly an overview of the basics of press releases. Generally speaking the goal of a press release is to generate favorable media coverage that is aimed at your target audience. Therefore you need to know your target audience and where they go for their information. From this you can build a media list of journalists and publications you want to contact. Once you have your media list you need to determine your distribution method.

What makes up a successful press release?

There are many ingredients to a good press release. It has to be well written, preferably by a subject expert, it has to be a good read, and it has to be newsworthy so that journalists and your target audience will be interested in your news. A good press release always has well written content offering unique information presented in a story type of format.

When you have prepared your press release how do you deliver it to your media contacts? You have a few options. You can correspond directly with individual media contacts. You can distribute it via a media database service which enables you to pay for and build a media list from their database of editors, reporters, producers, etc. Your other option is to deliver your release via a newswire service.

A newswire service distributes news and information. It may also offer additional services related to targeting, evaluation and measurement of results. Your distribution may be targeted towards a more specialized distribution list or on a more broad, national or international level.

There are many newswire services to choose from and for someone new it may be confusing. If you do a search for ‘newswire service’ you will come across many services including PRNewswire, BusinessWire, PR Web, MarketWire, PR Leap, US Newswire, and many others.

Choosing a newswire service depends on your approach. Press releases can be approached from a public relations viewpoint or a search marketing viewpoint or some combination of both. Before the growth of the web it was primarily used as a public relations tool to get news published. With the growth of the web it developed into a way to target prospects, not just the media. It also developed into a way to get additional search engine traffic through almost immediate indexing and placement, incoming links, brand development, and keyword targeting. Press releases can also be used to control and dominate a search engine space by focusing on a particular brand name.

Traditional Newswire Slow to Adapt

I have observed that some of the older, more traditional, newswire services such as PRNewswire (est. 1954) and BusinessWire (est. 1961) were slow to adapt to the needs of the digital environment. However they have rapidly caught up. Unfortunately their services are relatively expensive ($500-$700 per 400 word release and can include an annual membership fee of $100+). These are the newswire services that tend to be used by traditional PR agencies for their corporate clients.

Some of the newer newswire agencies such as PR-Web (est. 1997) and PR Leap (est. 2003) were at forefront of adapting to the digital age. They promote their services by stating that they offer free press release distribution but do accept contributions for an increasingly expanded range of services. These contributions for expanded services range from $20 to $200+. These newswire services are generally used by small to medium sized online businesses, search engine marketing and new media agencies.

Favorite Newswire Is…

From my experience, and trial and error with the various services I tend to favor PR-Web for optimized press releases. PR Web is on the leading edge of online news releases and is geared towards optimized press releases. Not only do they release instantaneously to online media sources and journalists but they also offer a database of older press releases for media research. Then there is the cost advantage. I find that the $80 contribution works well and gets you listed in Google News and Yahoo News on the day of release. I also use the $200 contribution which enables you to include hotlinks in the text and also attach images. (In my experience the free service does not offer the range of services that you will need to maximize exposure for your release.) These news listings also filter through the web search engine results pages (SERPs) within a few days where they can stay active for around a month. When they are picked up by other media sources and added to their site’s content they can say in the SERPs for an indefinite time.

If you are involved in a online reputation management campaign or if you are trying to control a particular search engine space you may want to use more than one newswire service and use multiple releases for the keyword. I have found that this is a useful way to increase your total presence within the SERPs for a brand or corporate name. This enables you to have your unique content located on different sites to show up for your keyword.

More and more search engine marketers are making use of the possibilities that press release optimization offers for their clients. And more and more public relations professionals are coming to these marketers to optimize their press releases. To take full advantage of these possibilities my advice is to experiment with different newswire services to find out what service works best for you and your clients. Also be aware that the field is very dynamic so try to stay on top of new developments and stay on the lookout for any new newswire services that enter the marketplace.

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Copyright © James Peggie

James Peggie is the marketing manager for Elixir Systems - a search marketing company located in Scottsdale, Arizona. His expertise includes search marketing, online public relations and online reputation management. www.elixirsystems.com

Posted in Search Engine Optimization | No Comments »

Local Search for your Business

Wednesday, August 3rd, 2005

If your target market is on a local level your can use local search techniques to help develop your online business. Local search or geographically-based search revolves around keywords which include the desired neighborhood, towns, cities or other types of region.

SEO campaigns aimed at local markets generally are geared to develop and optimize individual site pages which are written to target the individual neighborhoods or regions.

For example if you owned a pizzeria in San Diego and you were trying to increase your business with a website there would be little to be gained by targeting a keyword such as ‘pizza.’ People from New York doing a search for ‘pizza’ and coming across your listing are not likely to travel to your restaurant or order a take out pizza from you. However if you were targeting the phrase ‘San Diego pizza’ you are more likely to gain potential business. People in San Diego may be willing to travel to your neighborhood for a good pizza. But say you want to increase your business in your neighborhood. You should then target a more localized keyword ‘Mission Beach Pizza.’ If your business includes delivery you could target a phrase ‘Mission Beach pizza delivery.’

The goal of local search is to capture local consumers to increase your local businesses. You should aim to have an individual page developed with unique text written for each geographic location that you are targeting with localized keywords. For optimum SEO purposes aim to have around 400-500 words of text on each page.

The great advantage of focusing on a localized search compaign is that it enables you to target consumers who are in your area and actively looking to buy your product. This is a great way to grow your online business.

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