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.

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.

Ignorance of the law is no excuse for the authorities so it’s important we’re all on guard so we don’t find ourselves in any trouble.

Privacy bill could mean increased disclosure requirements, privacy protections

One idea floating around Congress that’s seeing traction is an Internet consumer privacy bill being proposed by Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA), chair of the House Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology & the Internet.

Rep. Boucher’s bill is more of a privacy bill for consumers. Its main target is online advertisers who target consumers through behavioral advertising. Many online advertisers – including Facebook with their new ‘like’ features – examine behavior patterns online to target advertising to relevant parties, which in turn increases conversions.

Behavioral technology tracks a user’s searches, how long the stay on a page and even the sites they visit. Data is then taken by advertisers to establish behavior patterns and online demographics.

Web advertisers fear this bill will require web users to opt-in, causing them to lose an important tool in how they target potential customers. However, Rep. Boucher says he supports an opt-out option where web users can choose whether they want their information shared or not.

“If I were [a publisher or advertiser], I would want Internet users to have a sense that their experience is more secure, that they know what information is collected about them, and they be given much more control. They will be more trusting of electronic commerce. . . .it’s good for business,” says the representative from Virginia.

Whatever happens, there will certainly be increased regulation like new disclosure requirements and legal forms indicating how a site tracks data and uses it.

Financial Reform Bill grants new powers to FTC

Tucked inside the financial reform bill passed by the House last November was a provision expanding the Federal Trade Commission’s powers to allow them to impose civil penalties on companies engaging in “unfair” or “deceptive” trade practices.

Since the mid-1970’s, the agency had to hear public testimony and a congressional review had to occur before any penalties could be imposed on the business. With this new power, the agency will basically decide for itself with no public scrutiny what constitutes unfair advertising practices.

Ad industry groups fear this could lead to the FTC acting as an “unelected legislature,” basically giving it free rein over regulating Internet commerce.

The financial reform bill is currently being debated between the two chambers. The House passed its version late last year and the Senate this past April. Both chambers are reconciling their differences, which will need to pass. President Obama has indicated he will sign the bill when it arrives on his desk.

This bill seems more dangerous than Rep. Boucher’s privacy bill since it directly expands an agency’s enforcement authority.

Appointees to the FTC are chosen by the President so vesting this much authority in a centralized executive authority could be dangerous from a checks and balances perspective.

Boucher’s privacy bill is understandable in a big way but it will certainly add new requirements for webmasters and SEO marketers. The combination of the two could be a double whammy for any of us marketing our businesses online.

Stay tuned…

What is voice, exactly? And how can you make it shine through your blog?

In the context of writing, no one can literally hear you…but, they can ‘hear’ you through the words you use and how you use them.

Your English teacher in high school likely didn’t spend much time discussing the voice and who can blame them…it’s a messy, abstract venture that few instructors embark on.

Fortunately, we have a list of four ways you can use to find your ideal writing voice from Joy Tanksley, a middle school English teacher and philosopher. Employing these tips can help you transform your writing from a static compilation of words to an electrifying piece that lights fires in the minds of your readers.

Continue reading for four methods you can use to find your ideal writing voice and take your writing to a higher level.

Get into the flow

Sit down each day or fairly regularly and just write. Don’t worry about grammar or accuracy, just let the words flow…you will be surprised at how good your writing is in these bursts of activity. By focusing on quantity rather than quality, you get a natural and authentic piece…something with a voice attached to it.

Write like you talk

Another way is to write like you talk. Take some prior writings and read them out loud. Does it sound like you? If not, take a tape recorder and simply talk your compositions for a while. Take your recording and transcribe what you said and whammo, you will have some great voice-rich snippets to integrate into your final product.

Forget grammar conventions (…at least at first)

When you were taught about writing in school, you probably learned all of the rules that go along with it. Yes, writing does involve communicating a message so to that end, standard grammar conventions are important. In many instances though, these conventions hinder our ability to create a realistic voice for our writing.

Rather than spending too much time worrying about grammar, start out by pretending the writing conventions do not exist. And when you’re editing your piece, base your decisions on what best communicates your message and not on what satisfies all the proper rules.

If it will enhance the flow of your piece and give it voice, it’s okay to play around with the rules a little bit.

Write about what you know

Many web copywriters try to write about the latest, trendy topics. This may seem like a winner but in reality, if it’s not near and dear to your heart, it will have no voice. Instead, strive for authenticity over popularity…or as Dolly Parton says, “Figure who you are; then do it on purpose.” In other words, don’t try to sound like anyone or anything except who you are.

Harnessing tips like these can help you go beyond simple content creation to satisfy the ever hungry search engines…creating compelling content with the right voice can not only get you to the top of the search engines, it can get you more conversions as well.

Some techniques are more SEO related and “behind the scenes” (coding, tags, etc.) but other techniques are more in the layout of a page, its tone and how we communicate important things to know…our new press room page is an experiment to see how creating a more holistic press room can help site visitors – specifically editors, bloggers and journalists – find information more easily.

In fact, even if you never plan to issue any press releases, it’s important you have one place where people like this can learn more about your company and what you do…reaching out to journalists and bloggers is another way to help you get noticed by search engines and prospective customers.

In the past, most pressrooms simply listed a company’s news press releases. However, having a better understanding of what editors and bloggers are looking for in a pressroom allows you to build a more complete resource.

In fact, a main pressroom page can simply serve as a hub where you can link out to not only your press releases but knowledge center resources, blogs, case studies, testimonials and more as shown by this handy flowchart.

Check out SEO Advantage’s new pressroom and our guest blog post on SEO Site Reference for more insights on turning your pressroom into a powerful online marketing resource.

Now Google has confirmed the “Mayday” update with Matt Cutts saying at Google I/O that “this is an algorithmic change in Google, looking for higher quality sites to surface for long tail queries. It went through vigorous testing and isn’t going to be rolled back.”

Each year, Google changes its algorithm anywhere from 350 to 500 times (2009) which is why many veteran SEOs recommend you not get too focused on specific ranking factors, which puts you at the mercy of these types of tweaks.

Every so often though, Google makes a big enough change in their algorithm that it gets noticed by people who usually don’t spend much time thinking about it.

In regard to the Mayday change, Vanessa Fox at Search Engine Land prodded Cutts for more on the specifics of their change. He stated that it was a rankings change, not a crawling or indexing one. This seems to imply that sites seeing less traffic are still getting their pages indexed but are not ranking as high as they were before. Google’s changes seem to only be affecting “long-tail” traffic which generally comes from longer searches that few people do. But when you add them all up, it could be a lot.

The algorithm change also seems to be affecting very large sites with “item” pages, like an ecommerce site. These pages generally don’t have many links to them and buried deep within a site. They also may not have substantial amounts of unique content on them.

These observations and admissions regarding the Mayday update confirm one thing for sure – it’s certainly beneficial to create unique product descriptions for items you sell on your site (B2C companies). Simply using a manufacturer’s generic description could be causing you to lose rankings for your product pages.

What can I do if I have pages affected by the Mayday update?

Creating compelling content and attracting links to these pages can be difficult. The best we can suggest is to isolate the pages/keyword phrases you’re experiencing a drop in. Do a search using those phrases and see what sites are ranking on page 1 and see what they do. Don’t copy them verbatim but get an idea of what they may be doing that you’re not, or vice versa.

Besides serving as a directory to draw in potential buyers, alpaca farmers will be able to employ our company’s expertise in SEO, web design and copywriting to build a website or maximize the value of an already existing one.

Our company is quite experienced in offering search enhanced directories for specific industries…besides alpacas, which we’ve worked with for nearly 10 years, we also offer these low cost marketing alternatives for the legal, real estate and medical industries.

This new AOBA directory is a giant leap forward in the development of our alpaca directory services, coupling the power of a national industry trade organization with cutting edge SEO and online marketing techniques.

The new AOBA/SEO directory offers very affordable options for burgeoning alpaca owners and breeders to advertise their stocks…ranchers can join AOBA (for a nominal fee), gain access to the site and choose a subscription level based on their needs – ranging from 10 listings per year for $160 up to 150 listings for $875 per year.

Besides a dedicated page directory listing that appears in the AOBA directory and major search engines like Google and Yahoo!, ranchers can also take advantage of affordable packages for building a dedicated website of their own.

Making the investments in a website can help alpaca owners and breeders grow their operations and generate additional revenues.

We invite you to take a look at our new alpaca directory at AOBAalpacas.com and see how search enhanced directories and web properties can help alpaca ranchers dominate their industry on the web.

Getting people to your site is only half the battle – you need to keep them there and guide them to the ultimate destination – making a call, purchasing a product…whatever metric you use for success.

Many great websites offering great products experience difficulty mainly because their copy isn’t designed to motivate customer’s to act. Of course I’m talking about that part of your copy that’s intended to close the sale – or the final step in the inbound marketing funnel.

In the end, your headline is the make or break part of any sales page. If the headline doesn’t entice someone to go further, then it won’t really matter what you’re offering and how good it is. While it doesn’t make the sale on its own, it certainly plays a pivotal part in setting someone up for the sale.

Here are three tips you can use to make a great headline.

1. Identify the problem you’re solving and who your target market is

The more you target your market, the more effective your copy can be. It usually doesn’t take long to identify your market in broad terms but narrowing it down allows you to address their specific problem, creating a relationship between you (or your copy) and the potential customer…the more you relate to a customer, the better your chances of closing the sale.

2. Include words your target market feels comfortable with

Once you have identified your target market and their problem, you’re in a better position to write your headline in a way that speaks to them. This is vital…you want them to feel you’re writing directly to them and that you’re not simply regurgitating a generic message that’s applicable to everyone but resonates with no one. Everyone likes to feel loved and that it’s about them.

3. Tell them how you can solve their problem and include benefits

Often times, your headline will focus on how your product solves the target market’s particular problem. Initially, people are interested in benefits, not features. Seeing what your product does for them will maintain their interest to continue reading and ultimately buy your product in many instances.

One more important thing to remember – many sites often use their headlines to make outrageous claims about their product. It’s okay to pump yourself up this way provided the claim sounds believable and is verifiable.

Web copywriting isn’t simply writing some copy that has targeted keywords sprinkled throughout it…mastering the art of persuasion with your writing is the ultimate challenge, and ultimate satisfaction of copywriting. Think of your ‘sales’ pages as being like the salesman in a store that’s speaking face-to-face with prospective customers.

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!

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.