I know a preacher that can burn any pulpit down within an hour. His sermons cause the greatest stirs and responses in his audience and he really can keep his congregation awake. But there is one tiny problem. Ask many of his listeners what they think about his sermons and they’ll quickly respond with only words of acclamation. Follow that questions with a request for what the sermon was about and you’re met with only blank stares.
They knew that the sermon was “great” but cannot recall what they learned.
This reminds me of the popular selling tenant referred to as ‘selling the sizzle and not the stake’. In other words, build enthusiasm and curiosity about your product without giving away too much. Let them hear it, smell it, imagine it but never taste it until they buy.
I find however that when you’re selling high ticket items, because you are asking for a higher level of commitment from the prospect, you have to give something in order to get something back. So you have to give some ‘steak’ along with the ‘sizzle’. This is what is commonly referred to as ‘value added copywriting’.
I use some of this myself at my website http://www.webcopy-writing.com to sell my copywriting services. Right there in the sales letter itself are some tips and ideas on how to sell to prospects online. So the reader gains some value from reading the letter even before he or she uses my services.
But this “free information” also serves a few other purposes:
1. It helps to establish goodwill with the potential client. My willingness to share this information shows that I’m not stingy and helps to develop a relationship with the reader. So even if the prospect doesn’t use my service he walks away with something.
2. It helps to establish my credibility. This is an opportunity for me to show that I know what I’m about and have the qualifications to help the reader’s business.
3. It serves as a teaser. It’s obvious that I’m not saying everything that I know and that there is a ‘lot more where that came from’. In other words, if I’m willing to give away this information I must have a lot more ‘secrets’ up my sleeve.
4. It lowers the sales resistance of the reader because I’m in the giving rather than the taking mode. There is really no argument against someone who is giving you something for free.
5. It provides a natural incentive for the prospect to read your entire sales letter. Any device that encourages readership will also improve sales especially with longer sales copy.
It will be therefore helpful if you can provide your prospects with useful information in your sales literature. This may be in the form of a free report, an email course or case studies. Once this information is useful and not seen as an overt sales piece, then this should lead to an easy conversion of a new customer.
This technique of value added copywriting works very well in service-type industries. There are many services where the professional can ‘reveal’ a lot without fear of losing his value to the customer. This often occurs because even though someone may know how to perform a task, the job may be sufficiently difficult or unpleasant that it may be better left to the professionals.
A quick example comes to my mind. I know how to do simple maintenance work on my vehicle but I’ll prefer to pay to have this done. I’ll happily read all the available literature from my mechanic about how a mechanical repair should be done. The fact that my mechanic made this literature available to me gives me confidence in his performance of a great job.
So, in the same way, a lawyer may want to provide information on how to fill easy legal forms, while a plumber may provide information on performing simple repairs around the home. When a prospect read this helpful information and they need further ‘expert’ attention they would easily think of that lawyer or plumber.
Because the public today is bombarded with so many advertisers’ messages the usual sales talk is having less impact. With the advent of online advertising where it is easier and cheaper to get your message before thousands of eyes your sales message must have a lot more bite than its bark; a lot more steak where only sizzle use to be.
After listening to your sizzling message, your market congregation will need to recall more than the enthusiasm of your delivery. They must be able to recall enough value to want the whole shebang from you.
Thursday, 15 December 2011
Want to freelance as a Programmer, Copywriter, or Web Designer?
Have you ever considered freelancing instead of being employed at a company? Ever thought of working independently from home? There are for sure thousandth if not millions of opportunities out in the internet that tell you about residual income within one or two weeks, with just as little effort as possible. These programs are promising and promising, again and again…
Freelancers are particular independent contractors that set their own hourly rate and their own time schedule. As a freelancer you live on the constant feed of projects you are working on. One of the main essentials is the portfolio, all the recent projects that have been successfully completed by you.
What opportunities are out there for you? There are loads of employers out there waiting to outsource their projects to freelancers like you. As a freelancer you can choose projects that fit to your expertise. Be it SEO and Web Promotion, Web Design, Web Development or Copywriting. Furthermore you can handle as much projects at once as you want, you just need to keep the deadline.
But where to start off when there is no portfolio you can deliver to prove you work? One good answer may be: Start off by bidding on open projects that have been opened by serious employers. Such a place is called a freelancer marketplace, and it may be one of the places on the internet to quickly find projects that fit to your skills.
One of the advantages of such marketplaces is that your reputation is increasing as you complete projects. For every completed project you are being rated by the project manager/employer along with a short review. And everyone knows that better ratings bring you more valued projects… Also consider that it is also possible to freelance part-time to earn additional income to your actual job.
At WorkAsFreelancer.com you get the chance to sign up completely free and bid on any open project. If you win the project you get contact information and other details concerning your project. Also there is a possibility to open a secure escrow account for absolute secure payments. This way you cannot be tricked!
Furthermore there are several RSS feeds available for easier access to new projects. Stay up-to-date with any new project and be the first who bids on it, that, by the way, improves the likeliness that you are chosen as the final freelancer to work on the project. RSS feeds are available for any category.
Freelancers are particular independent contractors that set their own hourly rate and their own time schedule. As a freelancer you live on the constant feed of projects you are working on. One of the main essentials is the portfolio, all the recent projects that have been successfully completed by you.
What opportunities are out there for you? There are loads of employers out there waiting to outsource their projects to freelancers like you. As a freelancer you can choose projects that fit to your expertise. Be it SEO and Web Promotion, Web Design, Web Development or Copywriting. Furthermore you can handle as much projects at once as you want, you just need to keep the deadline.
But where to start off when there is no portfolio you can deliver to prove you work? One good answer may be: Start off by bidding on open projects that have been opened by serious employers. Such a place is called a freelancer marketplace, and it may be one of the places on the internet to quickly find projects that fit to your skills.
One of the advantages of such marketplaces is that your reputation is increasing as you complete projects. For every completed project you are being rated by the project manager/employer along with a short review. And everyone knows that better ratings bring you more valued projects… Also consider that it is also possible to freelance part-time to earn additional income to your actual job.
At WorkAsFreelancer.com you get the chance to sign up completely free and bid on any open project. If you win the project you get contact information and other details concerning your project. Also there is a possibility to open a secure escrow account for absolute secure payments. This way you cannot be tricked!
Furthermore there are several RSS feeds available for easier access to new projects. Stay up-to-date with any new project and be the first who bids on it, that, by the way, improves the likeliness that you are chosen as the final freelancer to work on the project. RSS feeds are available for any category.
Friday, 21 October 2011
Watch Out! Copy Mistakes Are Sinking Your Site
No matter how well you write, or even if you have a professional writer create your web site copy, you're going to have errors. Misspelled words, awkward sentences, phrases that don't make sense, and words that are used incorrectly run rampant through many sites. And it's no wonder. Writing well is hard work. Even a good writer will be too close to the copy and won't see ALL their mistakes, even when re-reading the copy carefully.
Mistakes in your copy can sink your web site. The online audience who accounts for most of your customers are a rather literate group of people. Studies show a large percentage have a good knowledge of spelling and punctuation. If they find your copy has several errors in it, prospects will figure you do sloppy work.
The solution is simple. Get a proof reader to carefully check your copy. You can enlist the help of a friend who has a sharp eye for spelling and punctuation. Better yet, get a professional proof reader to read your copy. Proof reading is almost always affordable and the investment will pay off big time in avoided embarrassment and missed sales.
Don't get too comfortable with spell checkers. Many have limited numbers of words they recognize, and will skip past some misspelled words. One of the most common problems is that a spell checker can't help you if you use the WRONG word.
Don't feel like I'm picking on you. I worked in the TV and movie industries for many years. I can tell you from personal experience that even Hollywood's writers struggle with typos and other errors in their copy. None would dream of turning in a script without first having a capable proof reader go through their drafts and revisions.
Mistakes in your copy can sink your web site. The online audience who accounts for most of your customers are a rather literate group of people. Studies show a large percentage have a good knowledge of spelling and punctuation. If they find your copy has several errors in it, prospects will figure you do sloppy work.
The solution is simple. Get a proof reader to carefully check your copy. You can enlist the help of a friend who has a sharp eye for spelling and punctuation. Better yet, get a professional proof reader to read your copy. Proof reading is almost always affordable and the investment will pay off big time in avoided embarrassment and missed sales.
Don't get too comfortable with spell checkers. Many have limited numbers of words they recognize, and will skip past some misspelled words. One of the most common problems is that a spell checker can't help you if you use the WRONG word.
Don't feel like I'm picking on you. I worked in the TV and movie industries for many years. I can tell you from personal experience that even Hollywood's writers struggle with typos and other errors in their copy. None would dream of turning in a script without first having a capable proof reader go through their drafts and revisions.
Web Copywriting
Within this article on Web copywriting, we will look at copywriting in general and how to succeed in this particular niche of copywriting. Copywriting is a growing field but some of the greatest growth is coming in the niche of Web copywriting.
There is a great deal of demand for Web copywriting today as more and more people realize the importance of good web content. This is critical for two reasons and explains why there is such a demand for Web copywriting. The first reason is that there are more than 4 billion web pages out there according to Google and this number continues to grow in leaps and bounds every day. With such a large number of web pages, it is very hard for your website to get noticed if you're writing average content that no one wants to read. The second reason that is important to have good web content is that it will give you a better chance at having your website indexed. The way that websites are indexed is that search engines have search bots go through and find different web sites. The search bots analyze the page and look for particular keywords. To truly know what you should write when developing a website, you need to have some knowledge of Web copywriting. There are many different factors that go into getting your website indexed and noticed by the search bots so this is where experience in this arena can greatly help.
If you have experience in Web copywriting, you will find that you will have a great deal work available for you. You can write Web content for websites as well as sales letters and other types of marketing materials for websites. In addition to the reasons that you must write good web content, this content must also be easy to read for your prospective audience so that the traffic driven to a client's website can be converted into sales.
Web copywriting will continue to grow in leaps and bounds due to the difficult nature of this task. You must work to get your website noticed by both search engines as well as human audiences. This is a difficult task because you're writing for two audiences as opposed to one and making sure that you can sell at the same time.
Hopefully this article and Web copywriting has given you some good information if you are thinking about going into this field. There are a great deal of opportunities and it is a very flexible and high-paying occupation due to the fact that you can work from around the world if you have an Internet connection. You'll want to take some time to read more about the field so you have a better grasp of how you should write for people. Any person can write Web content but it takes a strong copywriter to write content that can sell as well as get indexed. This is a field which will take a great deal of time to learn so be sure to expand your Web horizons as well as you can.
There is a great deal of demand for Web copywriting today as more and more people realize the importance of good web content. This is critical for two reasons and explains why there is such a demand for Web copywriting. The first reason is that there are more than 4 billion web pages out there according to Google and this number continues to grow in leaps and bounds every day. With such a large number of web pages, it is very hard for your website to get noticed if you're writing average content that no one wants to read. The second reason that is important to have good web content is that it will give you a better chance at having your website indexed. The way that websites are indexed is that search engines have search bots go through and find different web sites. The search bots analyze the page and look for particular keywords. To truly know what you should write when developing a website, you need to have some knowledge of Web copywriting. There are many different factors that go into getting your website indexed and noticed by the search bots so this is where experience in this arena can greatly help.
If you have experience in Web copywriting, you will find that you will have a great deal work available for you. You can write Web content for websites as well as sales letters and other types of marketing materials for websites. In addition to the reasons that you must write good web content, this content must also be easy to read for your prospective audience so that the traffic driven to a client's website can be converted into sales.
Web copywriting will continue to grow in leaps and bounds due to the difficult nature of this task. You must work to get your website noticed by both search engines as well as human audiences. This is a difficult task because you're writing for two audiences as opposed to one and making sure that you can sell at the same time.
Hopefully this article and Web copywriting has given you some good information if you are thinking about going into this field. There are a great deal of opportunities and it is a very flexible and high-paying occupation due to the fact that you can work from around the world if you have an Internet connection. You'll want to take some time to read more about the field so you have a better grasp of how you should write for people. Any person can write Web content but it takes a strong copywriter to write content that can sell as well as get indexed. This is a field which will take a great deal of time to learn so be sure to expand your Web horizons as well as you can.
Web Copy – How Much is Enough?
These days, there’s widespread acceptance that a website is an integral part of the marketing plan of any business. Likewise, it’s commonly accepted that web copy is a vital component of any website. But how much web copy is enough?
The pure volume of information available on the Internet is daunting – often counterproductive. There are approximately 550 billion documents on the web, and every day another 7 million are added. According to an A.T. Kearney, Network Publishing study (April 2001), workers take so long trying to find information that it costs organizations $750 billion annually!
Yet people continue to use it. Information gathering is the most common use of the Internet (American Express survey, 2000). And it seems work-related searches are amongst the most common, with 48% of people using the Internet to find work-related information, as opposed to 7% who use magazines (Lyra Research, 2001).
Interestingly, however, the average person visits no more than 19 websites in the entire month in order to avoid information overload (Nielsen NetRatings in Jan 2001).
So how do you ensure your site is one of those 19? How do you make your content helpful without making it overwhelming? That’s what this article is about…
I’ve written several articles on WHAT to write on your website in order to make it helpful. (See http://www.divinewrite.com/benefits.htm, http://www.divinewrite.com/webbenefitwriting.htm, and http://www.divinewrite.com/webwriting.htm.) But that’s only half the battle… Businesses also need to know HOW MUCH to write. Here are 5 quick rules of thumb to help you decide how much is enough.
1) Know your audience (Reader or Search Engine?)
Think about whether you’re targeting human readers (potential customers) or search engines. This must always be one of your very first questions, as the answer will determine your approach to content.
In general, human readers think less is more. Search engines, on the other hand, think more is more (well, more or less…). In many ways, it comes down to a question of quality versus quantity. Human readers are interested in quality, whereas search engines are interested quantity. Human readers want you to answer their questions and make it clear how you can benefit them. And they don’t want to wade through volumes of text. Search engines want a high word count, full of relevant keywords, and short on diagrams. (See http://www.divinewrite.com/seocopy.htm for more information on writing for search engines. See http://www.divinewrite.com/SEOCEO.htm for an introductory article on search engine optimization.)
You need to think carefully about your audience. In most cases, it’ll be a trade-off. A high search engine ranking is important (or at least beneficial) to most businesses, so a happy medium is required. The following tips will go some way toward providing this balance.
2) Make it concise
Say everything you need to say, but always ask, “Can I say it with fewer words?” The literary world may be impressed by complex writing, but visitors aren’t. Keep it simple, and keep it brief. Your home page shouldn’t be more than 1 screen long. In other words, visitors shouldn’t have to scroll. Subsequent pages can be longer, but try to keep them to a maximum of about 300-400 words each (approximately 1 scroll). A lot of people will tell you that you also need 300-400 words or more on your home page for a good search engine ranking. You don’t. If you focus on the right keywords and generate a lot of links to your site, you can achieve a high ranking without losing your readers’ interest by padding
TIP: For most businesses, a good rule of thumb is to make it conversational. Old school writers and would-be writers oppose conversational copy; don’t listen to them. Unless you’re writing for an old-school audience, feel free to write as people talk.
3) One subject per page
On this, both readers and search engines agree. Don’t try and squeeze too much information onto a single page. For example, instead of trying to detail all of your products on a single Products page, use the page to introduce and summarize your product suite, then link to a separate page per product. This way, your content will be easier to write, your readers won’t be overwhelmed, and you’ll be able to focus on fewer keywords (so the search engines will get a clearer picture of what you do).
4) Make it scannable
According to a 1998 Sun Microsystems study, reading from a monitor is 25% slower than reading from paper. As a result, 79% of users scan read when online. So make sure you accommodate scanning. Use headings and sub-headings. Highlight important words and sections. Use bulleted lists and numbered lists. Use tables. Use statistics. Use meaningful indenting. Use short sentences. Most importantly, be consistent in your usage. Oh… and follow rules 2 and 3 above.
5) Use a simple menu structure
Try to keep your high-level menu (Home, About Us, Contacts, Products, Services, etc.) to a maximum of about 10 items (5-8 is ideal). If you have too many options, your site will seem unstructured and your visitors won’t know where to start. In order for a visitor to want to come back to your site, they need to feel comfortable when they’re there. They need to know what to expect. If they can’t identify any logic in your menu structure, they will always feel lost. What’s more, this lack of structure will reflect badly on your business.
The Internet can be an incredibly cost-effective form of promotion because the cost per word to publish is so low. Don’t be fooled into thinking more is more just because it costs less. Audiences – even search engines – don’t want everything; they just want enough.
Happy writing!
The pure volume of information available on the Internet is daunting – often counterproductive. There are approximately 550 billion documents on the web, and every day another 7 million are added. According to an A.T. Kearney, Network Publishing study (April 2001), workers take so long trying to find information that it costs organizations $750 billion annually!
Yet people continue to use it. Information gathering is the most common use of the Internet (American Express survey, 2000). And it seems work-related searches are amongst the most common, with 48% of people using the Internet to find work-related information, as opposed to 7% who use magazines (Lyra Research, 2001).
Interestingly, however, the average person visits no more than 19 websites in the entire month in order to avoid information overload (Nielsen NetRatings in Jan 2001).
So how do you ensure your site is one of those 19? How do you make your content helpful without making it overwhelming? That’s what this article is about…
I’ve written several articles on WHAT to write on your website in order to make it helpful. (See http://www.divinewrite.com/benefits.htm, http://www.divinewrite.com/webbenefitwriting.htm, and http://www.divinewrite.com/webwriting.htm.) But that’s only half the battle… Businesses also need to know HOW MUCH to write. Here are 5 quick rules of thumb to help you decide how much is enough.
1) Know your audience (Reader or Search Engine?)
Think about whether you’re targeting human readers (potential customers) or search engines. This must always be one of your very first questions, as the answer will determine your approach to content.
In general, human readers think less is more. Search engines, on the other hand, think more is more (well, more or less…). In many ways, it comes down to a question of quality versus quantity. Human readers are interested in quality, whereas search engines are interested quantity. Human readers want you to answer their questions and make it clear how you can benefit them. And they don’t want to wade through volumes of text. Search engines want a high word count, full of relevant keywords, and short on diagrams. (See http://www.divinewrite.com/seocopy.htm for more information on writing for search engines. See http://www.divinewrite.com/SEOCEO.htm for an introductory article on search engine optimization.)
You need to think carefully about your audience. In most cases, it’ll be a trade-off. A high search engine ranking is important (or at least beneficial) to most businesses, so a happy medium is required. The following tips will go some way toward providing this balance.
2) Make it concise
Say everything you need to say, but always ask, “Can I say it with fewer words?” The literary world may be impressed by complex writing, but visitors aren’t. Keep it simple, and keep it brief. Your home page shouldn’t be more than 1 screen long. In other words, visitors shouldn’t have to scroll. Subsequent pages can be longer, but try to keep them to a maximum of about 300-400 words each (approximately 1 scroll). A lot of people will tell you that you also need 300-400 words or more on your home page for a good search engine ranking. You don’t. If you focus on the right keywords and generate a lot of links to your site, you can achieve a high ranking without losing your readers’ interest by padding
TIP: For most businesses, a good rule of thumb is to make it conversational. Old school writers and would-be writers oppose conversational copy; don’t listen to them. Unless you’re writing for an old-school audience, feel free to write as people talk.
3) One subject per page
On this, both readers and search engines agree. Don’t try and squeeze too much information onto a single page. For example, instead of trying to detail all of your products on a single Products page, use the page to introduce and summarize your product suite, then link to a separate page per product. This way, your content will be easier to write, your readers won’t be overwhelmed, and you’ll be able to focus on fewer keywords (so the search engines will get a clearer picture of what you do).
4) Make it scannable
According to a 1998 Sun Microsystems study, reading from a monitor is 25% slower than reading from paper. As a result, 79% of users scan read when online. So make sure you accommodate scanning. Use headings and sub-headings. Highlight important words and sections. Use bulleted lists and numbered lists. Use tables. Use statistics. Use meaningful indenting. Use short sentences. Most importantly, be consistent in your usage. Oh… and follow rules 2 and 3 above.
5) Use a simple menu structure
Try to keep your high-level menu (Home, About Us, Contacts, Products, Services, etc.) to a maximum of about 10 items (5-8 is ideal). If you have too many options, your site will seem unstructured and your visitors won’t know where to start. In order for a visitor to want to come back to your site, they need to feel comfortable when they’re there. They need to know what to expect. If they can’t identify any logic in your menu structure, they will always feel lost. What’s more, this lack of structure will reflect badly on your business.
The Internet can be an incredibly cost-effective form of promotion because the cost per word to publish is so low. Don’t be fooled into thinking more is more just because it costs less. Audiences – even search engines – don’t want everything; they just want enough.
Happy writing!
Sunday, 16 October 2011
Web site copywriter in the 21st century
The process of keywords search is well-known. However large the company can be, whatever industry it operates in there are usually some persons at the company who can perform this task. However, once the keyword search has been performed one should start working these keywords phrases into the text of your web-site. The person who performs this task is a web site copywriter.
Apart from being creative and have an aptitude fro producing appealing, memorable and attracting content the professional web site copywriter should be able to write the text in easy-to-read, convincing and action-driven style. He should also be able to perform thorough web site analysis and understand how the web site maintained by you should be changed or adjusted in order to get higher conversion rates. But even if he has these qualities it may not be enough. It today’s highly competitive and ever-changing online world it is indispensable for him to understand current marketing trend, what customers want to purchase as well as what expectations they have. Apart from this he must also analyze marketing and advertising strategy of the main competitors of the company and propose effective adjustments in the content of the web site to countervail them.
If you are hiring experienced web site copywriter it is advisable to look through his portfolio in order to get an insight into his experience. Experienced web site copywriter who has already provided some copywriting service should indicate what type of copywriting he has been working on and what results he has achieved. Moreover he must also understand modern marketing techniques such as writing press releases and writing article. The web site copywriter should always keep himself abreast of the latest changes in marketing in order to produce high-quality content. If the web site copywriter you intend to hire matches the above mentioned criteria, than he will be able to bring high results for your company.
Apart from being creative and have an aptitude fro producing appealing, memorable and attracting content the professional web site copywriter should be able to write the text in easy-to-read, convincing and action-driven style. He should also be able to perform thorough web site analysis and understand how the web site maintained by you should be changed or adjusted in order to get higher conversion rates. But even if he has these qualities it may not be enough. It today’s highly competitive and ever-changing online world it is indispensable for him to understand current marketing trend, what customers want to purchase as well as what expectations they have. Apart from this he must also analyze marketing and advertising strategy of the main competitors of the company and propose effective adjustments in the content of the web site to countervail them.
If you are hiring experienced web site copywriter it is advisable to look through his portfolio in order to get an insight into his experience. Experienced web site copywriter who has already provided some copywriting service should indicate what type of copywriting he has been working on and what results he has achieved. Moreover he must also understand modern marketing techniques such as writing press releases and writing article. The web site copywriter should always keep himself abreast of the latest changes in marketing in order to produce high-quality content. If the web site copywriter you intend to hire matches the above mentioned criteria, than he will be able to bring high results for your company.
Web Site Copywriting for Search Engines - Keywords
Your goal when copywriting for your web site is to get your site to the top three pages in the SERPs (search engine results position). Any further back than the first three pages or thirty sites, and your site won’t be found because that’s where the average web site surfer stops—after just three pages of searching. And web site information seekers account for the vast majority of click-throughs on your site.
Copywriting for search engines should be part of your search engine optimization strategy, but it’s challenging to say the least. Most of us are either artistic or scientific types; few are both. But that’s what online copywriting is all about. It’s both an art and a science, and that’s what gets most people on the wrong track.
In a nutshell, good web site copy needs to be rich, keyword-specific and topic-based. Many inexperienced web developers simply use brochures for their web site copy. Don’t let them talk you into it! Search engines most likely won’t find your web site if you do.
The optimal web site page size is around 2 MS Word pages. If you have more copy than that, consider splitting it into two or more. If you find you’ve got more than one topic on a page, split it into two or more.
If you’re like me, your first instinct is to sit down and start plunking away at your keyboard and get as many of your thoughts out as quickly as possible.
And that’s fine for your basic outline, but that’s about as far as it’ll get you. That’s the artistic side. And it just might be the wrong side to start with. I’ve learned over the years that, contrary to my instinct, starting with the scientific is actually easier and faster.
So, where do you start?
The first thing I do is find the right keywords to base my copywriting on, and there’s a relatively simple way to figure out which keywords to use. Open your favorite spreadsheet program (I use MS excel), and head four columns with:
Keyword   #Searched   #Returned   Ratio
Then, find a good keyword suggestion tool. Wordtracker has one and so does Overture, and both have free trials. There are also several others out there to use.
Tip: Keyword suggestion tools suggest more keywords and phrases for your search terms.
So, what you’re going to do is brainstorm some keywords and phrases for your product or service, enter them in the “keyword” column, and find out how often it’s searched for in your keyword suggestion tool.
Next go to a search engine and search for the phrase in quotations to find your competition for that word or phrase. And then figure out the ratio of “#searched” to “#returned”. What you’re looking for is a low number of returns for a highly searched word or phrase, or a relatively low ratio.
Tip: Keyword phrases often work better than keywords alone.
You want brainstorm a hundred or more words and phrases, and choose two to four to use in your web site copy. And as the saying goes, “two heads are better than one” so ask your family, friends and neighbors for input if you can.
Try a general keyword and start there. You’ll find a general keyword will be searched a lot, but you’ll also find there’s too much competition in most cases, so your ratio is too high. Then try different spellings, misspellings and more specific phrases. You’re looking for two to four target words or phrases per page.
For example “bodybuilding” has a ratio over 4,000, but “body building” is under 3,000. To get more specific, try targeting women. “Body building woman” has a ratio of around 500.
Once we’ve found our target phrases, we can start writing our web site content. But where do we put our targeted keywords and phrases?
Search engines look in specific places to try to determine your web site’s theme, yet they’re all slightly different as to exactly where they look and relative importance of each placing.
Nearly all search engines use page title as one of the most important, so try to make sure your page title uses at least one targeted phrase, or better yet, two. Our example title could be “Body Building Supplements – How to Build Muscle | Company Name” for example. That uses two of our target phrases and our company name. Or we could substitute the protein shake name for the company name.
Some search engines use meta tags, others do not, so I generally include meta tags for the search engines that do.
Heading tags are next in importance, ranging in importance from H1 and down. If you recall, in our last newsletter, we mentioned that headings are also high on your list for catching clients’ interest, so h1 heading tags carry lots of weight for both. One thing to watch for is cute headings, which can work for clients, but won’t work for search engines. To make the search engines happy, you need to include your keywords in your headings.
The last thing to be aware of for search engine copywriting is keyword density and placement. Again, each search engines seems to want something a little different, but you’re pretty safe if you have keywords near the beginning, middle and end of your copy. You’re looking for keyword density balance though because too many and your site is seen as spam by the search engines, while too few mean your web site theme isn’t clear enough to be found by your target audience.
So, now you have your keywords and you can start writing, right? Well, you can, but unless you keep a few points in mind, your copywriting won’t be as effective as you’d like it to be. But that’s the subject for another article.
Copywriting for search engines should be part of your search engine optimization strategy, but it’s challenging to say the least. Most of us are either artistic or scientific types; few are both. But that’s what online copywriting is all about. It’s both an art and a science, and that’s what gets most people on the wrong track.
In a nutshell, good web site copy needs to be rich, keyword-specific and topic-based. Many inexperienced web developers simply use brochures for their web site copy. Don’t let them talk you into it! Search engines most likely won’t find your web site if you do.
The optimal web site page size is around 2 MS Word pages. If you have more copy than that, consider splitting it into two or more. If you find you’ve got more than one topic on a page, split it into two or more.
If you’re like me, your first instinct is to sit down and start plunking away at your keyboard and get as many of your thoughts out as quickly as possible.
And that’s fine for your basic outline, but that’s about as far as it’ll get you. That’s the artistic side. And it just might be the wrong side to start with. I’ve learned over the years that, contrary to my instinct, starting with the scientific is actually easier and faster.
So, where do you start?
The first thing I do is find the right keywords to base my copywriting on, and there’s a relatively simple way to figure out which keywords to use. Open your favorite spreadsheet program (I use MS excel), and head four columns with:
Keyword   #Searched   #Returned   Ratio
Then, find a good keyword suggestion tool. Wordtracker has one and so does Overture, and both have free trials. There are also several others out there to use.
Tip: Keyword suggestion tools suggest more keywords and phrases for your search terms.
So, what you’re going to do is brainstorm some keywords and phrases for your product or service, enter them in the “keyword” column, and find out how often it’s searched for in your keyword suggestion tool.
Next go to a search engine and search for the phrase in quotations to find your competition for that word or phrase. And then figure out the ratio of “#searched” to “#returned”. What you’re looking for is a low number of returns for a highly searched word or phrase, or a relatively low ratio.
Tip: Keyword phrases often work better than keywords alone.
You want brainstorm a hundred or more words and phrases, and choose two to four to use in your web site copy. And as the saying goes, “two heads are better than one” so ask your family, friends and neighbors for input if you can.
Try a general keyword and start there. You’ll find a general keyword will be searched a lot, but you’ll also find there’s too much competition in most cases, so your ratio is too high. Then try different spellings, misspellings and more specific phrases. You’re looking for two to four target words or phrases per page.
For example “bodybuilding” has a ratio over 4,000, but “body building” is under 3,000. To get more specific, try targeting women. “Body building woman” has a ratio of around 500.
Once we’ve found our target phrases, we can start writing our web site content. But where do we put our targeted keywords and phrases?
Search engines look in specific places to try to determine your web site’s theme, yet they’re all slightly different as to exactly where they look and relative importance of each placing.
Nearly all search engines use page title as one of the most important, so try to make sure your page title uses at least one targeted phrase, or better yet, two. Our example title could be “Body Building Supplements – How to Build Muscle | Company Name” for example. That uses two of our target phrases and our company name. Or we could substitute the protein shake name for the company name.
Some search engines use meta tags, others do not, so I generally include meta tags for the search engines that do.
Heading tags are next in importance, ranging in importance from H1 and down. If you recall, in our last newsletter, we mentioned that headings are also high on your list for catching clients’ interest, so h1 heading tags carry lots of weight for both. One thing to watch for is cute headings, which can work for clients, but won’t work for search engines. To make the search engines happy, you need to include your keywords in your headings.
The last thing to be aware of for search engine copywriting is keyword density and placement. Again, each search engines seems to want something a little different, but you’re pretty safe if you have keywords near the beginning, middle and end of your copy. You’re looking for keyword density balance though because too many and your site is seen as spam by the search engines, while too few mean your web site theme isn’t clear enough to be found by your target audience.
So, now you have your keywords and you can start writing, right? Well, you can, but unless you keep a few points in mind, your copywriting won’t be as effective as you’d like it to be. But that’s the subject for another article.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)