Posts Tagged ‘keyword research’

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

Standard Keyword Research Won’t Always Tell you what your Prospects are Looking For

Friday, June 4th, 2010

Sometimes we just need to get things done quickly…or are feeling lazy…whatever the case, a lot of times we simply refer to our favorite keyword research tools, grab a few phrases that look good and put those into our content.

We figure phrases with strong demand give us good enough insight into what our prospects are trying to find, learn, do or purchase.

But a lot of the time, customers don’t even know what they need to find when they begin searching. They will type some distant phrase into Google and see what comes up, perhaps hoping they will find more descriptive language about what they’re looking for.

Anyone who has searched for things online can understand this after a couple moments of reflection. How many times have you searched for something then found another term that better describes what you were looking for? A lot it’s safe to say.

With that in mind, think about some keywords you may see in your research tool that may not have much demand. Step away from all the research tools for a moment and think about what you would search for if you had no knowledge of what you offer – all you know is that you have a problem that somehow needs addressing.

What terms would you use?

Take these, and integrate them into your copy along with others. While you don’t want to target too many keyword phrases in your copy, many phrases you can target will simply be add-ons to ones that are more in demand. Therefore, Google will pick up the main one along with the extended version – not diluting keyword impact for ranking purposes.

Remember, it’s not all about pleasing the hungry Google bots that love keyword rich content that’s unique and relevant. Success largely depends on gaining a deep understanding of who your customers are down to the most basic levels.

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Posted in Online Marketing, SEO Technology, Tip of the Day, Writing for search engines | 1 Comment »

4 Criteria to Consider when choosing a new Domain Name

Monday, May 17th, 2010

We’re often asked by online marketing clients and others to help choose a domain name for their site.

From a strict SEO perspective, there is indeed a debate as to whether the domain name affects rankings in the search engines. In addition to this, we also think about how it will impact the user’s experience – from the first impression it creates when it’s first noticed to how easily people remember it.

While there are several things to consider when choosing a new domain name, your web address should meet the following 4 criteria.

1. Easy to remember

Your domain should be as descriptive of your business as possible so it helps explains to newcomers what your business is about. This includes the order of words as well as the words themselves.

2. Easy to spell

Try to avoid words people may have difficulty spelling. This will save you headaches when trying to give your web address over the phone and help avoid typos from people typing it in directly or in any press coverage.

3. Contains keywords (industry, location, etc.)

While it’s debated as to whether there are any SEO benefits to be had in your domain name, all things equal, it may help. Use hyphens to separate words so search engines can recognize them (seo-advantage.com vs. seoadvantage.com). If you do this, be sure you purchase both domains so you can redirect folks who don’t use the hyphen and not lose out on their traffic.

4. Brief

What’s a good length for a URL? That depends but you shouldn’t sacrifice the other elements just so you can have a short URL. Your initials will make the URL brief but it won’t carry much benefit otherwise…but don’t make it so long and full of keywords that it’s hard to remember and difficult to enter in.

Remember, you need to think about how this URL will look on your business cards, brochures and other marketing materials as well.

The domain name you ultimately choose for your business will be influenced by your business’ name and situation. If your company is well known or its name meets the criteria above, use it since you will want to build your brand in that regard. Keep in mind that you can purchase several domain names that you think people may try and type in to find you.

Some final advice – get some impressions from friends and colleagues before settling on a new domain name. You never know what a second, third or fifth set of eyes can pick up on!

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Posted in Online Marketing, Site Architecture, Tip of the Day | No Comments »

How Many Keywords Should I Target in a Landing Page?

Monday, May 10th, 2010

Writing content for your website is undoubtedly a major undertaking requiring time and patience. Much research is required beforehand along with organizing your thoughts – all of that before you even write a word!

Considering the time and resources it takes to create landing pages and articles, you may think optimizing for as many keywords as you can is the way to go.

Absolutely not!

To be clear, I’m not saying you should only have one or two words on your page and that’s it…you can’t simply have your keyword(s) with no supporting content to go with it.

However, your page needs to have one primary focus, one underlying concept. Optimizing your webpage for several keywords dilutes the impact of your copy which means you will have wasted your time rather than taking it slow and doing it right.

In many instances, you may have two words that mean exactly the same thing – take “certified public accountant” and “CPA” for example. Both essentially mean the same thing and conceivably either one will be used in an online search. But adding “tax accountant”, “tax services” and “income tax filing” to the same page will dilute your results and keep your rankings off page 1. While these concepts are related to one another, combining all of these keywords onto one page will only frustrate your efforts.

You shouldn’t think of web pages as a catch-all where you can optimize for several different concepts at once…doing so usually results in confusing the search engine and lowering your rankings.

Reading this is probably leading you to one conclusion – “I’m going to have to create a lot of landing pages!”

Quite true…and while it’s a long endeavor, it’s well worth it in the long run. Start out with the big keywords and work your way down. In due time, you will cover your target markets and have a better position in the search engines and well on your way to higher site visits and conversions.

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

3 Essential Components of SEO Reporting: Going Beyond Rankings

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010

One of the best ways to prove enterprise-level SEO provides a strong, consistent return on investment is to provide ongoing SEO reports to your bosses or clients.

Many SEO professionals in the past relied on providing simple visibility reports that detailed the rankings for particular keyword phrases in the top search engines – namely Google, Yahoo and Bing. While this data can provide some excellent illustration of a project’s success, it is possible that reporting of this nature can be misleading or irrelevant when considering things from a conversion/revenue perspective.

Continue reading to learn about 3 essential components your SEO report should have so your bosses or clients can have actionable insight into how their SEO campaigns are progressing…please note that each client is different so you may have to provide modified/customized reporting formats.

1. Executive Summary

This summary provides a quick overview of the SEO campaign’s performance and describes what activities were performed since the last report. This section can also provide other metrics that apply to the client’s particular situation.

2. Visibility Reporting

When starting an SEO project, you collect a list of keyword phrases you intend to target, giving you a baseline ranking report for positioning in the search engines. Progress is measure against this baseline ranking on an ongoing basis.

A good visibility report provides the baseline ranking, the prior report’s rankings and the current rankings for your chosen phrases. It’s important that people who look at your report understand these rankings represent a snapshot in time, as they may not actually match when the report is actually completed and delivered.

WARNING: Unethical SEOs can manipulate this type of information, targeting easy-to-rank for keywords and making it look like the client is farther along than they really are.

3. Analytics Reporting

Analytics should be the primary driver for any actionable data contained in an SEO report. Any number of key performance indicators can apply, including:

  • Organic traffic (broken into branded and non-branded searches when possible)
  • Organic conversion percentage
  • Average order value
  • Revenue per visit

There are many ways you can present this type of information but the most important thing to remember is that analytics data should drive ongoing strategy and adjustments to an ongoing SEO campaign.

Many have a tendency to think that search engine rankings for a particular set of keywords are all that matter but realistically, conversions are what matter so don’t forget to include this type of information in any SEO report you provide clients.

Simply tracking organic results is doing a big disservice to them.

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Posted in SEO Technology, Tip of the Day | 2 Comments »

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