Top SEM Tips

Here’s something every web site owner should know. When visitors come to your site, they are looking for a reason to buy from you. Think that’s stating the obvious? You’d be surprised! I come across countless sites every day that do everything but give the visitor a reason to buy, subscribe, click, call or otherwise take action. It’s a fatal mistake in any business, but it’s especially damaging for web-based companies.

Let’s continue with our example of buying a computer desk. You start with the big three office-supply stores. You click the “office furniture” link, and you’re faced with a barrage of links to pages about lamps, printer stands, bookshelves and more.… Read the rest

Let’s go offline for a moment. Go get your telephone book. If you were going to conduct a search for, say, an office desk, how would you go about it? You’d look in the Yellow Pages? under office furniture. Next you’d drill through the ads in search of ads that specifically mentioned “desks” or perhaps the particular kind of desk you want.

SEO for Newspapers?

When looking through the inserts that come with your Sunday newspaper, your eye would be especially drawn to office supply flyers that featured the word “desks” or a picture of desks.

Why? Because you’ve got desks on the brain right now.… Read the rest

My soapbox is just about worn out. I’ve been preaching the necessity of knowing your target audience for at least 10 years. "You can’t write effectively to someone you don’t know," is how my spiel would normally go. When one day someone asked me to show him what I was talking about. "I’m writing copy for computers," he said. "Everybody needs and can use a computer. How could a general product like that possibly have different target audiences?" I’ll show you exactly how.

Be Specific With Your Definition

Don’t ever begin an analysis of your target audience with the word "everybody."… Read the rest

Sometimes, despite our best efforts, the message we most want our customers to hear gets lost in a sea of superlatives. The marketer within us takes over and – before we know it – the core focus of the Web page, brochure or flyer becomes blurred. Let me assure you of one thing… if your prospects can’t determine – with crystal clarity – what you do and how you can benefit them, all your copywriting efforts will be in vain.

Provider Watch suffered from a bit of this problem. When I read their original home page copy (which can be seen here), I was confused about what they offered.… Read the rest

The FAQ page? a standard addition to almost any site. It usually lists questions customers ask on a regular basis, and the answers to those questions. But what befuddles me is that hardly any sites I?ve visited use this page as a sales tool.

Did you think of that? If not, you?re losing out on the use of some valuable real estate! FAQ pages are generally well-trafficked areas of your site. With just a few adjustments, your FAQ page could become one of your leading sources for sales conversions.

Let me give you a before and after version of one site I visited.… Read the rest