Archive for the ‘Writing for search engines’ Category

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Build More Links to your Site by Syndicating Articles

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010

Generating original articles for your site accomplishes several objectives – they build content on your site which boosts rankings, they provide a valuable resource for prospective customers and they attract incoming links, which helps your position in the search engines.

One way you can obtain incoming links for your site is to submit knowledge articles to other sites in exchange for a link back to your site. These “article submission” sites provide great resources on various topics in addition to helping you spread your name around.

If it’s done correctly, it is reasonable to expect you will get links to the exact pages you want that include the exact anchor-text you desire.

But submitting content to some of these article submission sites can also have some drawbacks – namely low quality links, duplicate content problems and drawing unwanted attention to your site’s search engine optimization efforts.

Google in fact frowns upon this and views it as an artificial link-building tactic.

There’s in fact a right way and a wrong way to build links through these article submission sites. Some of these sites are in fact duplicating content from your site so you need to be sure your stuff is tweaked to not trip the duplicate content alarm at Google.

You also don’t want to totally rely on these sites. The ones you do use should be reputable and professional. Sites who say “looking for writers” or “submit an article” are better options to choose that won’t paint a big target on your website.

Some popular article submission sites include: Ezine Articles, Article Dashboard, Buzzle, Article Alley and more.

Check back again soon for some more tips on how you should go about submitting articles to these submission sites along with some info on finding good ones to work with.

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3 Steps to Making your Site worth Coming Back To

Wednesday, August 4th, 2010

Not to diminish the advantages of SEO but it’s not the only consideration when marketing your small business online. While many sites depend exclusively on traffic from search engines, many people forget that getting “new” traffic is only one part of the equation.

Once you get someone to your site for the first time, you need to be sure the content is compelling and informative enough for them to return again and again. If visitors don’t return to a site, you’re putting yourself into the position of having to rely on visitors coming directly from the search engines. The problem with this of course is first-time visitors are least likely to subscribe or buy.

Your best customers will be those who have reviewed your site several times and know it better rather than first-time visitors coming from a search engine who just quickly glance at your page and move on.

So keep reading for three steps you can take to get first-time visitors to come back again and again.

Step #1 – Optimizing your site for the search engines

Of course, the first step is getting new people to your site. Optimizing your site to rank on page 1 in the search engines is key to making this happen. Be sure your site architecture is friendly to search engines and your content contains valuable keywords woven into the content. Meta and title tags do help and you also need to obtain inbound links from other sites.

Step #2 – Write great content that keeps visitors reading

Someone coming to your site for the first time is unlikely to return if they don’t entirely read the first page they land on.  If your site/business depends on people taking action on your site, you need to engage them from the very beginning so they’re interested in the entire page and want to come back for more. To succeed at this, you need to diversify your content beyond simple advertising slogans and the like.

Step #3 – Get people to come back again and again

For those of us who have sites primarily consisting of content, it can be quite a challenge to develop engaging content that keeps people coming back. You’re likely one of hundreds or thousands of sites offering information on the same subject. Simply adding more pages won’t keep people coming back…to do this, you must:

  • When compared to other sites on the same subject, your site’s content needs to provide more value
  • Add great content frequently and let people know you’re adding new stuff in the near future to keep ‘em coming back
  • Invite your readers to leave comments and suggestions to engage them with your site
  • Take full advantage of social media networks like Facebook and Twitter to get people talking about your content amongst their friends

To summarize, content driven sites need to stand out from the pack in order to maximize conversions.  Basically speaking, your content has to be good enough for people to want to come back again and again.

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Posted in Online Marketing, SEO Technology, Site Architecture, Tip of the Day, Writing for search engines | No Comments »

3 Step Process for Writing Persuasive Copy without the Hype

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010

Writing persuasive copy that isn’t filled with hype is a common challenge for web copywriters. It takes some talent to thread that needle effectively. You want your copy to be persuasive but not filled with so much hype that it turns people away.

If it is filled with a lot of hype, the customer could experience buyers’ remorse and have ill-feeling toward you (the seller).

Marketing online is more than just making a quick sale…it’s about building your reputation as much as anything. If your website gets the reputation of having too much hype, people will know and either leave your site quickly or not visit at all.

So how can I create persuasive copy that doesn’t contain too much hype?

Many of these copywriting tips have proven their worth in terms of consistent conversions and sales. Continue reading for 3 quick steps you can use to create persuasive copy without resorting to hype.

Focus on your readers, not your products and services

Be sure your copy is focused on your readers and solving their problems. Focusing on how great your products and services are will only make you seem less than sincere. If someone lands on your site, they either clicked an ad or a link on a search engine results page or some other site. They came to you so you can assume they know what they’re looking for and why.

Therefore, focus on the readers to capture their attention and move them through the buying process.

Draw readers’ attention with a great headline

We’ve discussed before how headlines are one of the most important elements in a landing page or online article. If it doesn’t grab a reader’s attention quickly, they will move off your site quicker than you can blink!

Your headline needs to do two things – it needs to ‘catch’ the readers’ attention and it needs to be relevant to the sales copy. To fulfill both of these conditions of an effective headline, place an ‘emotional trigger’ in the headline to keep people’s interest. Focus on the problem your readers have and the solution your products/services offer rather than resorting to hype.

Quickly make your point and provide a ‘call-to-action’

Without resorting to promotional pitches, quickly tell people what your product can do for them. People are not concerned about your business but their situation, which is why they’re searching online for a solution to their problem.

Therefore, that’s why it’s important to speak about them and their problem rather than your products. And do it quickly and provide instructions on what to do next. Most people’s attention spans are quite short and they won’t spend a lot of time trying to figure out what they should do next.

Additionally, your sentences and paragraphs should be quick and to the point…one, you don’t want to lose readers’ interest by taking forever to get to the point and two, you don’t want to intimidate readers with large chunks of text. Therefore, keep your paragraphs short and to the point (5 lines max.)

Harnessing these 3 steps will go a long way to ensuring your copy is persuasive without the hype that’s so common in many websites and marketing materials. Today’s shoppers are more meticulous than ever…they won’t spend much time on a site that spends all its time talking about itself.

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4 Ways You Can Build Trust in your Site’s Content

Wednesday, July 14th, 2010

Building trust is a tried and true method of drawing in new customers and keeping them. You want to create content for your site that helps build this trust – not simply pepper your copy with keywords to get the search engines’ attention.

Saying the same thing over and over again may work in politics but when you’re marketing your small business online, it appears fake to prospective customers. Most who come across content like this immediately leave a website as they are seeing right through the angle the site is trying to play…if not consciously realizing it, site visitors will feel something just doesn’t seem right about the site so they leave.

Besides helping build links and SEO rankings, good content builds trust with site visitors. Continue reading for four ways you can build trust with prospective customer with your site’s content.

1.  Do not hype anything

Hype is still a favorite tactic of low-level marketers. We’ve all seen hype time and again – in commercials, on billboards and in magazines. We’ve become accustomed to it. But the Internet is still relatively new and useful for many things – research, business, shopping and more. People have a much lower tolerance for hype in the online world.

Substantiate all claims. Don’t say you’re “#1” or “the best” unless you can back that up through a third-party. Simply claiming you’re the best because you want it to be true isn’t enough…people find unsubstantiated claims very suspicious.

2. Be genuine, like a friend

Great copy that sells generally reads like a conversation between friends. Writing in a conversational tone that helps the reader solve their problem goes a long way toward building trust. Since online shoppers cannot meet the seller in the flesh, they get extremely suspicious and leave if your content is bland and boring.

Also, don’t spend much time telling outlandish stories or make claims that appear too good to be true…be able to backup claims with third-party verification.

3. Don’t use hidden text that’s hard to find

In the infancy of SEO, webmasters used to write content and make it the same color as their background to hide it from readers. The keyword-rich content got the attention of the search engines at first but no real person would spend much time on the site. You can still “hide” content like that but there’s a right way and a wrong way to do it.

It’s okay to employ hidden content to make your page more usable as long as the reader can easily find it with a simple click of a mouse. But hiding content to make it more difficult for readers to find is wrong.

Before using hidden text though, ask yourself is it valuable? If it is, then your visitors need to be able to read it. If not, then it probably shouldn’t go on the site anyway.

4. Include negative reviews

Another powerful way to gain trust in your site’s content is to include negative reviews of your products. Only including positive reviews will only serve to turn people off…you can lose credibility pretty quickly. Negative reviews help because they give the reader a better-rounded picture of what they’re purchasing. They also help readers determine how the positive attributes of your products outweigh the bad.

Courtesy of SearchEngineGuide.com

Courtesy of SearchEngineGuide.com

Your site’s content is where you make your impression on potential customers. Therefore, it needs to build trust if you want site visitors to purchase your products or use your services. Make sure you’re giving your site visitors a good first impression and not simply creating a jumbled mess of keyword optimized content.

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5 Ways you can maximize your Landing Page’s Value

Monday, July 12th, 2010

Writing effective product/service landing pages accomplishes several necessary objectives when marketing your small business online. Not only does the keyword-rich page need to grab the attention of search engine spiders, it also needs to maintain a reader’s interest and motivate them to continue.

You don’t want to give away too much but you do want to draw their interest enough so they will click on that link to learn more or buy.

Creating copy that simultaneously achieves both of those objectives is the needle you need to thread to effectively harness the Internet to grow your small business.

So when you’re writing landing pages for your website, consider the following 5 tips to maximize their value on both ends…that is serve as good search engine fodder on one end and an effective marketing message on the other.

Write attention grabbing, eye-catching headlines

Headlines are the best opportunity you have to really grab your reader’s attention…if it doesn’t, they will most likely leave the page. You will want to include a primary keyword that will grab both your both your reader’s and the search engine’s attention.

Include call-to-action often

Next, you need to include a call-to-action that instructs visitors on what to do next. Generic forms of this are “Click here to learn more” and other quick anecdotes but those have shown to not work as well as more unique calls-to-action like “…start increasing your online presence and find more customers by contacting search engine marketers at SEO Advantage today to learn more.

Read 3 Elements of a Good Call-to-Action to learn more.

Like our example, you should also include a keyword phrase for your link in this call-to-action statement for additional search engine benefits. Include at least 2 calls-to-action for a short landing page and 3-5 for longer ones.

Directly address the customer

In your main copy, address the customer as “you” and “your” rather than saying “we,” “us” and “our.” Let the customer know what your company and its products/services and do for them. This relaxes the customer too…making them feel like they’re talking to a friend.

Directly deliver the message

When you’re writing landing pages and other content for marketing your small business online try to think about your copy as a business tool and not an art form. You’re trying to persuade readers to take action, not feel good about your ability to express yourself.

Keep content closely written

Whether your landing page is short (500 words or less) or longer, keep the context of the page tightly knit. Meaning, don’t get sidetracked by including extraneous facts and benefits of your products or services. There’s much debate amongst copywriters on an effective length for a landing page but no matter which one you choose, keep the subject matter within certain parameters.

Accomplishing both SEO and marketing goals through your landing pages and other content will maximize the value of your site for both you and your customers. Not only will search engines reward you for compelling, keyword-rich content, those who find you will be reassured that your products/services can address their needs.

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