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Content Creation Firm Once Again Makes TopSeos List

January 11, 2011 By admin

Greeting us in the New Year is news that our content creation and SEO firm, SEO Advantage, once again made TopSeos’ list for content creation. While we didn’t move up any spots (placing #4 like we did in December) we’re certainly proud to be included on January’s list.

But as we’ve always said, it doesn’t matter what any lists say.

We try our very best to create the dynamic, informative, keyword-rich copy that helps our clients rank higher in the search engines and attract more customers.

Businesses in fact rely on TopSeos.com to find quality web marketing services. They provide regular evaluations and ranking lists for a variety of areas, including content creation, SEO, social media, graphic design and more.

We’ve in fact been featured on TopSeos’ social media list for in the past as well.

Learn more about TopSeos and view their rankings in a variety of areas. And if you’re interested in learning more about our content creation services or any of our other web marketing services like SEO and graphic design, contact us today.

Filed Under: Copywriting/SEO Content Development, SEO Advantage Tagged With: , ,

Maximize Conversions by Following these 9 Tips for Writing the Ultimate Landing Page

December 8, 2010 By admin

In one sense, every page on your site is a landing page. Every page on your site should one, be optimized for the search engines, and two, should move the visitor along in whatever path you’ve set them on (…whether that’s a sale, downloading a newsletter, subscribing, etc.)

But you’ll be amazed at the number of sites that direct someone to the homepage that’s coming to the site from a PPC or some other ad.

Many leads like this are very valuable. However, dumping them off at the front door of your site with little direction leads to them leaving your site. That costly click got you nowhere.

To fully capitalize leads coming into your site, you need to develop good landing pages that clearly identify where the prospect is at and where they should go from there.

Continue reading for 9 tips you can use to ensure you write the ultimate landing page. By landing pages, we mean specific pages arrived at through either an ad or a particular online search.

1. Keep your visitor oriented and engaged by making sure your headline refers directly to the place from which they came or the ad copy that drove the click.

2. Provide a clear call-to-action – Whether you use graphics or hyper-text links, be sure you tell your visitor what they need to do. For a short landing page, use at least 2 separate call-to-actions. For longer pages, use 3-5.

3. Write in second person – Say ‘you’ and ‘your’ rather than saying ‘we.’ Prospective customers could care less about you. They want to know how you can solve their problem.

4. Write pages with a clear, persuasive message and not to showcase your creative abilities or how well you can come up with a catchy phrase.

5. It’s okay to write a long landing page as long as you keep it tight – Your reader will continue reading as long as it’s motivating them to act. Good rule of thumb – use longer copy for sales pages and use shorter ones for subscription pages that don’t require a cash commitment.

6. Be crystal clear in your goals – Keep to the point and make sure your copy maintains a logical progression from start to finish. Don’t add fluff or other ancillary elements…these digressions cause you to lose readers and conversions.

7. Keep most important points at the beginning of paragraphs and bullet points – Since most visitors are skimming through your copy, be sure they can easily get the main points without having to look very hard.

8. Keep paragraphs short but vary their length – Variable paragraph lengths help create visual dissonance and make it easier to read your copy.

9. Write to the screen – Or rather, take some time to figure out where your copy will appear on the page. Think about what will appear above the fold and make sure you place the most critical elements above the fold.

Following these steps and others outlined in this informative article from Copyblogger can help you generate landing pages that generate a high amount of conversions. These are great elements to get you started but you also need to think about critical design elements too (i.e. color, images, layout).

Video, audio and other elements need to be considered when it’s warranted to more deeply engage visitors and boost response. Each of these things merits a closer look and testing when it makes sense.

Filed Under: Copywriting/SEO Content Development, Online Marketing, Tip of the Day Tagged With: , , , , ,

SEO Advantage Vaults Higher in TopSeos’ Content Creation Rankings

December 6, 2010 By admin

Last month, we told you about our placement in TopSeos’ Content Creation list…well, December’s rankings have come out and we’ve jumped six spots to #4 on their list!

We’re certainly delighted to hear this news and hope it’s well deserved.

No matter what any lists say, we try our utmost best to deliver quality content for our clients’ websites. We understand that much of the success of marketing a business online depends on providing informative and relative content to prospective customers.

Topseos.com is a website dedicated to helping businesses identify quality web marketing services. They regularly provide ranking lists for various areas of online marketing, including content creation, social media, SEO, graphic design and more.

In fact, our small web marketing firm has appeared on other Topseos’ lists in the past, including their social media ranking list.

Learn more about TopSeos and view their rankings and check out our expert web copywriting services to see why this independent authority felt our presence on their list was warranted.

Filed Under: Copywriting/SEO Content Development, Online Marketing, SEO Advantage Tagged With: , ,

Eyetracking Studies Reveal Users Read Webpages in an F-Shaped Pattern

November 18, 2010 By admin

Don’t be shocked by this – most users will only read a fraction of what you write on a webpage.

Now I’m by no means implying that web copy is useless. But considering the fact that readers typically scan a page for important points, you have to setup your content in a way that reflects this reality.

An experiment by usability expert Jakob Nielsen evaluated over 230 users and how they read a webpage. He found readers’ behavior was fairly consistent across different types of websites, exhibiting the following three general characteristics:

1. First is a horizontal movement that usually occurs across the upper parts of the content area, which forms the top part of      the F-shape.

2. Next, users go down the page on the left side a little bit then read horizontally again for a bit, forming the middle part of the F-shape.

3. Finally, users will scan the copy’s left side slowly to the bottom of the page. Depending on the user and the content, this is either a slow and systematic scan that appears as a solid streak on the heatmap or a fast scan, which is evidenced by a spottier heatmap. Either way, this forms the stem of the F-shape.

Of course, this is just a generalization as users may take a third scan across the page (making an E-shape with the eyetracking heatmap) or only read across once at the top (making an inverted L-shape with the eyetracking heatmap).

And as the eyetracking heatmap shows below, users interact with pages differently depending on what’s included on each. But as you can see, each of these roughly follows the F-shaped pattern.

The middle image for instance, an e-commerce site, includes products and prices, which is why the second horizontal part of the F-shape is lower down on the screen.

On the third image, a search engine results page, the second horizontal line is a bit longer than the top since the second headline is longer. While the second headline seemed more interesting and was longer than the first headline, users typically don’t read secondary headlines as much.

What does all of this mean for your content?

As we’ve said before, users won’t read your copy word by word. Most will scan the page to pick out important points and see if the site answers their questions and addresses their concerns.

Therefore, you need to include the most important information in the first 2 paragraphs. In all likelihood, users will read the first paragraph more closely than the second.

Also, start sub-headings, paragraphs and bullet points with “information-carrying” words. Since users typically scan the left side of the page (as shown by the eyetracking studies), you will want to be sure you include high-impact words at the beginning to draw their interest.

Filed Under: Copywriting/SEO Content Development, Site Architecture, Tip of the Day, Usability Tagged With: , , , , , ,

4 Components of the Marketing Funnel and how they relate to Social Media Channels

November 16, 2010 By admin

Anyone with a cursory knowledge of marketing is aware of the AIDA funnel – Awareness, Interest, Desire and Action.

Even in the age of SEO and social media tools like Facebook, this marketing funnel is still extremely relevant although some slight modifications are required. Each section of the AIDA funnel represents an important component of your marketing process. They help you set expectations and even determine metrics to measure your goals against.

Continue reading for a breakdown of this marketing funnel along with some additions in the new age of social media.

Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action

Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action

Awareness

Awareness is the bread and butter of any social media channel – whether it is Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or any of the minor networks. Rather than being your point of sale, they’re more like your communications and outreach tools…think of them as the spokes of a wheel that lead back to the hub. The hub in this case is your blog, landing page(s), shopping cart and other places designed to convert visitors into customers.

Conversation frequency, increased mentions and sentiment are a few of the metrics to consider with awareness. Remember, you have to let people know you’re out there and that you can solve a problem they have.

Interest

Once you have their attention, you have to pique their interest. You can do this by offering something special like buy one, get one free, free shipping or some other offer. Provide compelling reasons as to why you’re better than the competition and how you can solve the visitor’s problem. If you’re talking about a specific product or service, link to a specific landing page rather than a homepage.

Click-thru rates (CTR), retweets/Facebook status updates and conversations about your products are a few of the metrics to consider.

Desire

Social media can also help build desire for your products and services. However, your corresponding site needs to be easy to use in order to carry that desire all the way to the end. If your site is hard to understand or navigate, then you’re likely going to kill any desire your visitors may have. Move your customer from interest to desire by having a clean, navigable site with lots of information.

Bounce rate, time on site, pages viewed and incoming links are some of the metrics you can use to determine the effectiveness of your efforts.

Action

At this point, your site is the primary tool. You’ve built the desire so all that’s needed from here is for you to close the deal…social media isn’t going to have much influence here. Therefore, like desire, you’re going to have to be sure you have a usable site that’s easily navigable.

Metrics like conversion rate and ROI will give you a full picture of how well your efforts are working…and the ones your boss will be most interested in.

Two More Levels to the Marketing Funnel – Loyalty and Advocacy

Loyalty and advocacy are two components that should be added to the AIDA funnel to better reflect the realities of social media and marketing online. Maintain loyalty by thanking customers through Facebook and Twitter and let them know you’re always available to answer questions or address concerns.

Advocacy is another important component of social media marketing, and the most desired. Customers who are happy with your products/services will let their friends know. But to make this happen, you need to make it easy for them to share your brand. “Like” and “Retweet” buttons in convenient locations are a great way to help this along.

The AIDA funnel certainly isn’t perfect and not all of the steps are required. You don’t need to live and die by this funnel…people can skip a level or go through multiple levels at once.

But it’s important to factor the AIDA funnel into your online marketing strategy. It should help you focus and prioritize your efforts for success.

Filed Under: Copywriting/SEO Content Development, Online Marketing, Social Media, Tip of the Day Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,
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