3 Reasons Content is Still King

February 2, 2010

Here I am at my big coaching workshop when once again someone tells me that content is not important to SEO. Well, fine. I know that content is important to SEO, and even more importantly…

It is important to you! Why?

1. Content compels people to take action – at least, good copy will drive conversions. Even in the world of social media, interesting headlines and content will capture the attention of the reader. You have a short period of time to grab someone’s attention, so put your best foot forward with good content.
2. Content delivers your unique selling proposition. Just because you have a high search engine ranking does not mean potential customers will understand how you can help them. Good content clarifies the ways you ease their pain and deliver the solution your customers are looking for.
3. Content goes beyond writing. It is your videos, your direct mail pieces, your podcasts – you need good content in order to feed your various marketing media. By creating a solid content strategy, you maximize your marketing dollars by ensuring you have a continuous message without having to create special content for every media, or worse, at the last minute to fulfill a need.

Content goes beyond just SEO, and into driving interaction, supporting your marketing, and creating leads. It is critical to your marketing strategy. So the next time someone tells you that copywriting is not important remember that your customers will not really understand your business unless you tell them. Content is still king!

Good Content is About Your Customers

August 5, 2009

Writing content requires more than just good writing skills. The right questions need to be asked. Among those questions should be “Why is this important?”, “Who are we writing to?”, and most importantly “What would make it more meaningful?”

Content is not about what your reader wants, nor is it about your company. It’s about your customer. It must be relevant to your potential customers and delivered to them in a compelling way. The voice should be based on a strong understanding of your target market so they feel you relate to them. You can assist this process with an editorial style guide that provides guidelines and examples to help anyone craft content and messages in a similar style.

There are several criteria that you want your content to meet in order to ensure the highest of quality. This is beyond the typical marketing or sales writing. Not every page on your site is about selling to someone. Sometimes it is about providing information to educate that person on how your product or service is the best solution for their need. A balance of sales copy writing and education is needed.

The content should be more useful to search engines, so you want to not only utilize keywords and phrases appropriately, but also create relationships through cross-linking.

Content should be comprehensive and cover the requirements for the web site, as well as any third-party applications that are needed. Part of this process is a gap analysis between what exists and what needs to be written. Placing all pages in the site map and outlining their overall function within the site helps ensure that all topics are covered, as well as any new topics that should be considered for the future.

At the end of it all, though, it is important to remember what your customer wants from you. Then write it down in a way that they truly understand how you deliver on that desire. Your content is better and your customers are happier.

Good Web Site Content Starts With the Basics

July 13, 2009

The most successful web sites are based on a company’s business strategy. Before starting to build a web site, there are several things you need to know, including:

• Goals of the site
• How to use the Internet to achieve these goals
• Who is the target market
• What do you want to say to this target market
• Why this site will be better than the competition

Without answering these basic questions, a client will flounder in his or her attempts to have the web site built, and as writers we will not have the best information to write great copy.

Understand Repurposing Web Content

Another important piece of information to understand is how the content written will be reused. Some basic questions to ask include:

• Does the site need a blog?
• Should articles be written and posted on other sites?
• Are white papers or manuals needed?

Defining the type of content to be written early on will streamline the writing process, save the client money, and give us an opportunity to do our best work. Plus our clients will have a better idea of what pages need to be on the web site, and how the site should be structured saving time and making sure everyone is on the same page.

Content Equals Communication

July 6, 2009

A solid web site strategy should encompass the content. Good web content should speak to your target audience and help them understand how you stand out from your competition. Whether your company caters to the consumer or to other businesses, it is important that your content position your company foremost in the customer’s mind.

Web content must be pertinent, interesting, well written, and most importantly, current.  Customers will flee from a web site with old information in lieu of one with more updated data, even if the data is very similar or the same.  The Internet moves so quickly that your target customers are accustomed to having their information immediately, and they expect that information to be focused directly on their needs. 

An important part of the strategy is to determine the appropriate format for the content.  For example, in addition to the typical static informational pages, you will want to consider including articles, press releases, photographs, charts, customer reviews, blog posts, order forms…the list is extensive.   

Each type of content requires its own method.  Articles and blog posts need to be timely, and are usually more conversational.  Press releases have a specific format and not only reside on your web site but are typically published via an Internet service. 

The content you employ enables you to communicate more effectively to your target market and existing customers.  Spending time developing an overall web and Internet content strategy saves you time and money, and most importantly ensures your message is clear regardless of where the content resides.

The primary purpose of an Internet presence is marketing your business.  Give your target market an easy road-map to follow.  Whether reading an article on a third-party site or one of your web pages, your company will receive a higher return on your online marketing investment and greater success in converting those web browsers to buyers if you have spent time developing and implementing a web content strategy.

Repurposing Web Content

July 1, 2009

A key to making your web site work is to determine the best ways to repurpose your web content.  The return on investment increases by repurposing your web content while providing an opportunity to readers who might not see your web site to learn about your company.

 

There are many ways to repurpose web content, and not all will make sense for your company.  You will need to determine the best use of content based on your target market’s needs. Two of the most effective ways to repurpose content is through e-newsletters and web logs (blogs).  Utilizing content from customer comments or questions not only gives you good content, but makes the information customer centric while allowing you to profile your company’s services or products. Therefore, making good use of your FAQs page, or customer service center, is a good idea.

 

In addition to using your web content’s well written value proposition as part of an elevator speech, you can also repurpose much of the content to add value to various social networking sites.  LinkedIn is a highly respected site that focuses on business networking.  Using the web site copy will not only speed up the process of writing your profile, but by linking your web log to LinkedIn, you can drive traffic to your site by capturing your profile visitor’s attention. Facebook and Twitter are definitely up and coming in the business marketing arena, and should be consider as a serious part of your content strategy. People want interesting, useful content, and they want to get to know you. Using social networking is a great way to fulfill all those needs.

Picking Keywords for Your Site

May 17, 2009

Determining how to use keywords can seem daunting.  First you have to determine which keywords your target market might use to find your services or products.  Then you need to research to make sure you have keywords that are being searched for, and finally, determining your keywords and phrases based on search criteria.

Now what?

I recommend using your site map.  By having a diagram of your entire web site, you can easily determine where to use each of your keywords and key phrases.  Here’s how it works:

1. Put your higher level keywords on the higher level pages.  These keywords are the most broad, such as leadership versus executive leadership training.  Your higher level pages would include your home page, and then any page that describes overall areas such as services, broad products, etc.
2. Use your more detailed keywords and phrases for secondary pages.  These would be pages that go into more detail about services or products.  For example, this is where you might use leadership training.
3. Use your key phrases to any page that describes a very specific product or service.  These are pages that typically only cover one subject or product, and do so in great detail. Think of these pages as the place where your buyers will want to go to understand in great detail what you are offering them. These pages are appropriate for a long-tail search phrase.

By outlining each of your keywords and phrases on your site map before you begin actually optimizing your web content, you will find it much easier to develop the site. The map gives you a reference point, and allows you to make sure you stay on task regarding your keywords.  Plus, your content will definitely stay on-point.

5 Tasks to Perfect Your Web Content

April 7, 2009

The experts seem to write effortlessly. Why does it seem so difficult for you to simply generate new content for your web site?  You know you can write – people tell you how much they enjoy your information on a regular basis.  Your web site looks good.  It should, after all the money you spent on it.

So why do you struggle getting all your amazing information out on the Internet?

You need the processes the experts use.  There are no secrets – just 5 steps you can take right now to improve your web content.

1. Devise a plan on what to write – make an editorial calendar that includes the various topics you want to cover and the audience you want to reach.
2. Research what your target market wants to know – if there are already hundreds and thousands of articles, blogs or web pages on your chosen topic, you will need to alter it to make it interesting for your target.  Some items are worth repeating – but freshen them up with your own slant or new data.
3. Repurpose good writing – if you write an article or newsletter that everyone loves, repurpose that information into blog posts.  CAUTION:  Do not simply cut and paste.  Give it a new slant, get a testimonial or quote on the subject, and find some additional information on the topic.
4. Make your content easy to scan – people need to cram as much into as little time as possible. When you are writing about your passion, it is easy to get carried away. Remember that most people will do a cursory scan of your content first, so make it easy for them to want to read the material.
5. Write powerful headlines – you only have a few moments to capture someone’s attention, so make your headlines really work for you. Keep then succinct, but catchy. Write to your target to let them know this content is for them, and you have the answers to their pain.

You Need a Web Content Strategy

April 3, 2009

I am constantly amazed at the number of conversations I have with people regarding a strategy for their Internet marketing and web presence. When I read the experts, they all say the same thing – have a strategy, maintain a focus, write clear and interesting copy, and make sure you know what your target market needs. So why does it seem to be so difficult to achieve?

I believe that in general we do not think about the strategy early enough in the process.  You really want to begin devising a strategy when you are building, or updating, your web site.  The earlier you map out your goals, the better off you will be. I cannot tell you how many times a customer would have been better served to have retained the services of both the web designer and a web content writer early in the process, thereby ensuring that the web site was conducive to search engine optimization through copy and meta tags. Often I run into web designers who either do not employ SEO tactics, or believe that they can do everything needed on the back-end.  If you utilize an overall strategy, you will have better success in the search engines, and you will have compelling copy that speaks to your target market.

Building a strategy is not always easy. It requires you to think about where you want to be in the future, and know a significant amount about your target market.  By determining what you want to be when you grow up, you’ll have a solid foundation to build your business, and a better mix of online and offline marketing tactics.

So what is the first step? Write down exactly what you are doing and who you are selling to – and be very detailed.  If you are selling gutters, for example, list exactly what type of gutters and who benefits from them the most.  Remember that while the ultimate goal is to sell gutters, you cannot sell them without understanding what your target market wants.  Understanding your target market goes into everything you do – your web design, the information on the web, whether or not you will blog, write articles, what information you will impart to show your expertise, where you will “hang out” online to build relationships, and what the mix of online and offline marketing dollars will need to be in order to be successful.

A written strategy will provide you with a baseline from which to launch all your online marketing efforts. You must also track these efforts to determine their success. The Internet provides an inexpensive way to reach potential customers, but you will be much more successful if you work diligently from a strategy, execute diligently, and track and report regularly.

Writing for Readers vs. Search Engines

March 24, 2009

Search engine optimized writing could potentially become the new “death by PowerPoint”. You know what I mean – people using PowerPoint as a crutch for their presentations, simply reading the screen, making redundant comments, and boring you to death! It can be the same with SEO writing.

“Find your unusual wood picture frames here at ABC Company. We specialize in unusual wood picture frames and want you and your family to have the best unusual wood picture frames.”

OK, so not only are we SO done with unusal wood picture frames, and it is a “long tail” phrase so the redundancy is even more obvious! Long tail phrases are 3 or more words related to your keyword strategy. They are great to use on those pages where you are speaking to buyers. Research has proven that people who search on them are ready to buy and are just looking for the right item or the right deal.

It works the same with a more popular keyword or keyword set.

“Find your picture frames at ABC Company. We specialize in picture frames and want your family….”  You get the idea.

Following are some easy ways to make sure you do not bore your readers to death, or make them think you are perhaps a bit touched in the head!

1. Read Your Copy Out Loud – I cannot tell you how many mistakes I find by just doing this one thing before I finalize my copy. If it sounds redundant to you, it is.
2. Understand Your Target – write to your target market, use phrases they are comfortable with, write at the appropriate education level for your target, and do not worry so much about the keywords and keyword phrases. You will be able to weave them in and it’s more important that your message is delivered in a clear, concise manner.
3. Break Up Keyword Phrases – you can insert small words and punctuation within your keyword phrases to break up the monotony and still get the benefit.  “Our products are made from the most unique and unusual wood. <new paragraph> Picture frames are a wonderful gift for the new bride, Mother’s Day, or a birthday.”
4. Use Tools to Determine Keyword Density – you don’t want to get too caught up in keyword density, but it’s a good idea to use some of the free tools available to get an idea of how often your keywords show up, and ideas for using keywords without writing redundant copy (like image tags).
5. Remember that Conversion is Key – while content is king, conversion is still key. All the best SEO tactics and Pay-Per-Click campaigns won’t motivate customers to purchase from you unless your copy speaks their language and addresses their motivations.

It’s important to balance any keyword strategy with good content, and just as important to ensure your content has a strategy as well. Your site should flow between pages and balance the message with addressing your target customer’s needs. You don’t want to create pages that make your readers feel like they are enduring “death by SEO.”

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