Creative Onion Blog

Creative Onion Blog has moved!

2010-11-21T19:33:00.000-08:00

Well, Creative Web Business has finally grown up enough to get its own WordPress site. No more separate iWeb template website and Blogger blog - everything is now all in one place.

Please be sure to stop by the new blog and subscribe to the new RSS feed.

Thanks!

Twitter Etiquette Boot Camp for SEOs (and other social media-handicapped professionals)

2010-10-25T09:39:00.000-07:00

Twitter is typically used for one of two purposes:

1) To have fun, connect with friends, local businesses and keep up on topics of personal interest.

2) To promote one's business, product, service or personal brand.

While it's certainly not the case all the time, it seems that most people who join Twitter for reason #2 are joining Twitter for the first time. In other words, they're total n00bs. I know I was. #andhow

It's great that businesses are using the latest social media platforms to market themselves. As an SEO, I always love to see businesses that have active social media strategies; it's great for SEO, brand awareness and it indicates a well-rounded campaign.

But oftentimes, it can be difficult for individuals and businesses coming from an advertising standpoint to really GET how Twitter works. Any monkey with a keyboard can create a Twitter profile and start shooting links out into the void, but leveraging Twitter to increase brand awareness, leads and sales - that takes a skilled, very intentional strategy - a strategy which many business Twitterers fail to develop.

As a result, they end up exploiting the platform to push out message after message, without ever engaging in conversation. SEOs, who tend to see the digital world in terms of link building, are particularly guilty of this; many of the Twitter streams belonging to SEOs that cross my path blatantly push links, with little other strategy.

Most social media experts will tell you there's no wrong way to use Twitter. We've all seen enough spamalicious and borderline spam accounts on Twitter to realize that this isn't really true, so I'd like to amend the rule of Twitter relativity:

There's no wrong way to engage on Twitter.

To explain what I mean, I've drafted a list of Twitter Do's and Twitter Don'ts.

Twitter Don'ts

Don't use Twitter just to build links. SEOs, I'm looking at you. Wipe this thought from your mind. The value of the links you could build in your Twitterstream if you use it only for this purpose are going to be absolutely minimal, because no one will be linking back to your Twitter page. You also run the risk of having your account axed by Twitter as spam. Because that's exactly what it is. Plus, it's just tacky.

Don't use Twitter only to push your blog posts, products or services. There's nothing wrong with the occasional bit of self-promotion on Twitter, but the name of the game is moderation. If you have nothing in your Twitterstream but "Click here to buy my awesome ACME PRODUCT X!" or "New blog post: Insert Unoriginal Title and Topic Here", no one is going to follow you. Except for other Twitterers that are using Twitter to blast out information without taking the time to listen and engage.

Don't sent unsolicited replies or DMs pushing your link, product or service. Seriously. Getting a random DM or tweet from an unknown profile commanding me to try app XYZ pisses me off, just like it does everybody else. The rest of us who are actually conversing on Twitter flag that crap as spam every time. If you insist on cold Tweeting, be polite: follow first, then send a polite DM inviting me to try what your selling, being sure to tell me how/why it's relevant to me. E.g. "I saw your Tweet about ___, and thought this ___ might interest you."

Don't fill your "thank you for following" DM with CAPITAL LETTERS TELLING ME HOW AWESOME YOUR FREE CRAP IS. It's like grabbing a stranger on the subway who smiled at you and shouting at them. People don't like to be shouted at.

They also don't like to be aggressively sold at when they're not expecting it.

When people follow you back, it's likely because they found some kind of value in your Twitterstream and profile and want more of the same. So say "thank you for following", tell them what they can expect from your Tweets, and let the selling happen organically.

Don't automate your tweets. Businesses or companies that put their Twitterstream on autopilot are obviously not engaging with the rest of the Twitter community; they can't even be bothered to customize their tweets into 140 characters. The cut-off sentence and ellipses are a dead giveaway. Facebook users interact differently than Twitter users, and linking the two accounts is only going to make you look lazy.

Twitter Do's

Do listen. Twitter is a place for you to send updates to followers, yes, but it's also a place for you to listen to your customer base or fellow industry professionals. Just think: millions of consumers and industry experts are freely sharing their opinions about products, services and business management every day. Follow topics, hashtags and groups that target your customer base, and use that data to your advantage by listening.

Do have conversations with the Twitterers you're following. Answer a question.

Compliment someone on a job well done, or a great blog post. Ask a question. Put your two cents in on a trending topic - you know, have a conversation. You might try making it your goal to interact with one new person every day. People will value your participation and willingness to engage and will be more likely to see you as an expert or resource of information

(read: brand awareness and industry expertise).

Do follow Friday. Every Friday, Twitterers around the world pat each other on the back for engaging, creating great content and being interesting in general. The best way to get yourself on someone's #FF list is to start creating lists of your own. Choose 3-6 profiles each Friday which you have found valuable and interesting, then Tweet about how wonderful they are using the #FF or #FollowFriday hashtag. This can be a great way to get key industry professionals or influential leads to take a closer look at your business, and it's completely spam-free.

Do Tweet links to sites other than your own. People who are great at what they do are constantly learning from other organizations and professionals. If you want people to view you as an industry expert or resource on Twitter, you need to be pointing to relevant information that other people have written. This could be as simple as retweeting great article links, or tweeting top picks from your RSS reader.

Do relax and CTFO. Twitter is a place for informal communication, partially because you're restricted to 140 characters and partially because informality is just the general vibe. So loosen that tight business bun a little and try to have some fun. People appreciate an honest, "real" voice - it demonstrates there's a real person on the other end of those Tweets.

When in doubt, locate a group of well-respected Twitterers who are your peers or who work in similar industries and learn their strategies. See what has worked for others. Once you master the basic rules of Twitter etiquette, you can begin creating your own unique ways of promoting your brand, products and services. It's like any other kind of writing: you have to master the rules before you can bend and break them.

How to Choose the Perfect Keywords for Your Website

2010-10-17T16:40:00.000-07:00

Recently, an associate of mine passed along a link to a new business website he wanted me to review for SEO. The development, coding and SEO had been contracted to a web development firm in India, and the firm claimed to my associate that the website was 100% search engine optimized.

Which I found very interesting.

To be fair, the site's overall structure and code was clean and very SEO friendly. There was no text hidden in images, URL structures were neat and each page had a defined keyword cloud. H1 and H2 tags were used, and some in-paragraph keyword text was even bolded.

So, why did I feel this site was not properly optimized? One main reason: its keywords were off. Also, its page titles were not properly formatted, but we won't focus on that today.

A recent guest post over at Men with Pens lists common "SEO mistakes that make you look like an amateur", and two out of five of these mistakes are regarding wrong keyword choice. One of the mistakes is "choosing useless keywords" - in other words, keywords that people aren't searching for. The other is "choosing keywords you can't win" - keywords that are simply too competitive for your budget.

Choosing the right keywords for your website is absolutely foundational to your site's success. After all, the keywords you decide to target determine who will find you in search results - and what your visitors will expect from your site. When I talk about your website's success, I'm not talking about traffic volume. You can choose keywords that bring your site plenty of visitors, but ultimately, number visitors aren't what matter most. I'm talking about quality, engagement and conversions. If you're a marketing manager, it's thing your boss is always nagging you about: ROI.

The right keywords will bring your site visitors, yes, but more importantly, they should bring you visitors who are looking to buy the products or services your site is selling. They're not looking for definitions or general information - they're looking for what your site has to offer.

In the web marketing industry, this is called traffic quality.

Let's take a look at a few key factors to keep in mind when choosing keywords.

Overly competitive keywords.

Aka "keywords you can't win" - these are keywords with a monthly search volume that is simply out of your range. When you check for keyword search volume (which you NEED to do for every last keyword), have a target search volume which matches your budget and project scope already in mind. For example, if your website's budget for startup marketing is only $2,000, you don't want to choose keywords with 110,000 monthly searches. It's simply not practical. You don't have the resources to compete for this keyword, but don't worry - you have other options. Try narrowing your keywords to hone in on your site's specialty or niche; find keywords with between 2,000 and 5,000 in monthly search volume, and optimize for those. Once revenue for these niche keywords begins to come in and your site budget expands, you can begin to try for the more competitive terms.

Overly general keywords.

Another reason not to go for terms with the highest volume is that they may not be as specific as they need to be. Think again about traffic quality, and weeding out potential visitors who are only looking for general information, or services your site doesn't offer.

Going back to my associate's website SEO, this was my biggest problem with the keywords. Most of them were very general and, consequently, competitive, and the site simply didn't have the budget to compete for the keywords it was using. Also, its general keywords could be often used to search for information about the service it was marketing, not the services themselves.

Look, for example, at the difference in search volume in the terms below:

"Product design" and "product development" (the terms being used on the site in question) have a very high search volume, close to 300,000 in global searches each. Yet if you google both of these terms, you'll find 1/3 to 1/2 of the first page results are informational. Even if the budget was expanded to effectively market these terms, a large portion of the traffic would be unqualified.

Smaller, more specific terms such as "new product development", "new product design" and "new product development services" would be easier to gain rankings for AND would bring in more qualified traffic.

Keywords with little or no search volume.

On the flip side of the coin, it is possible to optimize your site for keywords that are too specific - or are simply the wrong terminology. Industry professionals have a tendency to use a different terminology than their consumers, and this becomes very evident when it comes to search. Websites which are optimized for the terms industry insiders use to describe the products or services being offered run the risk of getting little or no traffic at all. You may call your sweater a "brushed Montauk cardigan", but I'm probably going to search for a "merino wool cardigan", and unless you've optimized your product page with those descriptors, I'm not going to find your sweater.

Irrelevant keywords.

This concept is obvious enough: your keywords must be 100% relevant to your products, period. A great way to test to make sure the keywords you've chosen represent your products or services is to do a little searching yourself. Search for the terms you want to use, and browse the results. Are your competitors there? Do the results match the contents of your own website? If so, you've found a winner. If the results are unrelated to your product or service, you'll need to refine your terms.

In retrospect, the firm in India my associate contracted may have done the best with what they had to work with based on the terms they were given. This, however, punctuates how important it is for business owners and their SEOs to thoroughly discuss and research keywords before moving forward on a project.

Over at Creative Web Business, we've got a resource section specifically dedicated to helping business owners understand the keyword research process. Just visit us and click through to the resource section.

4 Simple Social Media Giveaway Ideas (that won't have you tearing your hair out)

2010-10-05T18:09:00.000-07:00

All the cool kids are doing it. Giving shiny new MacBooks away on Twitter, handing out ergonomic (and surprisingly affordable) furniture on Facebook and summoning armies of brand loyalists with promises of reality hair stardom. Yes, social media giveaways have become a useful tool for building brand awareness, customer loyalty and general "buzz" around products and services for many companies. But we can't all be Ikea or Pantene. Can we?

For starters, I think it's important to point out that there's an enormous difference between a social media giveaway run by a big brand and one that's run by a small business or startup. Brands that are already well known (read: have lots of $$$) have a much bigger megaphone to work with than us little guys, but that doesn't mean social media giveaways won't work for us. It simply means we need to be creative, strategic and very, very intentional.

Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and blogs offer a plethora of ways for the savvy marketer (or business owner) to generate buzz and customer loyalty around his or her brand. Here are my top 4 picks:

1) Facebook photo tagging contest.

This idea is a complete rip-off of the photo tagging contest Ikea ran last year, but it's a great idea which could be repurposed in a number of ways.

The contest: You post a single photo which lays out several of your products, then ask your Facebook fans to tag themselves on products they want. The first person to tag themselves on a product wins that product.

Who should use this strategy? This campaign works best with consumable products, especially if they're fun and/or aesthetically pleasing. Consumable, tangible services such as spa services could work too, if they were creatively arranged in a single photo. If a spa in my town ran this campaign, I'd tag my name on that leg wax nook like it was gold.

Keys to success: If you don't already have a sizable Facebook fan base (300+), you're likely going to be disappointed. More fans means more exposure, and if you're going to go to the effort, make it worthwhile by investing in some targeted Facebook PPC ads before launch.

2) Give money to charity.

Nothing says "we care" like donating cash to a worthy cause. Social media platforms make it easy to get others involved in your efforts, and a well articulated charity giveaway can pick up momentum quickly. Your customer base will appreciate your generosity and work with you to further your cause - and your brand.

The contest: Do your homework, and choose a charity organization that has an excellent reputation and that preferably relates to your industry. Do you sell motorcycle apparel? Choose an organization that assists injured motorcyclists. Do you provide graphic design services? Choose an organization that promotes art education. Next, decide how you'd like people to participate. Volunteer to donate $1 for every Facebook "Like", $2 for every follower, or $3 for every blog subscriber. Be sure you have a clear strategy for following through.

Who should use this strategy? Any business with a well-established customer base, a solid (if somewhat small) brand and an ambition to be seen as a company that gives back to its community.

Keys to success: Set goals first, then pick your strategy. If you need to build your blog/website's search engine rankings (SERPs), ask participants to comment on your blog. If you want to build a solid following on Twitter or Facebook, put your efforts there. And be sure to publicize. Write blog posts. Tweet about it, and ask for retweets. Post it on Facebook. Write and syndicate a press release about it. Ask local bloggers and/or citizen journals to do a feature. Get the word out!

3) Facebook Survey Sweepstakes

Need feedback or market research on your product or service? Nothing hits the spot like a survey baited with a juicy sweepstakes prize.

The contest: Choose a prize that's relevant to your customer base. If you have healthy social media accounts, consider asking your fan base (albeit tactfully) what kind of prize they might enjoy. It might be as simple as a free product/service, or it might be something else. Next, write your survey questions clearly and succinctly - don't make people work to understand your survey. Use multiple choice whenever possible.

Who should use this strategy? I've found this is particularly effective for small local service businesses, although product companies could also use this as a great opportunity to stir up enthusiasm about a specific product.

Keys to success: Keep it simple, short and sweet. The best way to do this is to choose a streamlined 3rd party application which specializes in Facebook contests. Wildfireapp is my particular favorite.

4) Twitter Hashtag Giveaway

Perhaps the simplest type of giveaway, Twitter hashtag giveaways are an excellent way to boost your followers, and they're very simple to execute.

The contest: Choose a prize people think they can't live without, then choose a unique hashtag to identify your contest. Next, write a blog post about your contest, detailing exactly when this contest will be in effect, what the prize is and how it will be distributed (people will want to be assured it's not a scam). Instruct people to write creative tweets using your designated #contesthashtag, then specify how winners will be chosen - at random? Based on creativity?

Who should use this strategy? Companies that have a clear strategy and purpose for their Twitter account. Followers are not like knickknacks; once you've collected them, you need to interact with them and maintain a clear, strategic relationship. Before deciding to invest $1,000s in your Twitter followers, be sure a) Twitter is going to effective for your business, and b) you know what to do with all those new followers.

Keys to success: Twitterers are inundated by a LOT of information, so your carrot needs to be juicy if you're going to stir up genuine enthusiasm. Try to choose something universal, like a flat screen TV or an iPad. Something that will get people excited. And, as always, promote the contest. Ask industry writers who are active on Twitter to blog and tweet about it.

Remember to set yourself up for success by laying out clear strategies for your social media giveaway. If you need help concocting a strategy, I'd be happy to put on my social media consulting hat and lend a hand.

Organic SERPs vs. Sponsored Ads: A Consumer's Perspective

2010-09-26T12:14:00.000-07:00

Like many other SEOs, I work with Google AdWords ads as well as "natural", or organic search engine optimization.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the differences between these two strategies, let's summarize quickly. Having naturally high search engine rank positions (SERPs) for products and/or services is ideal, since traffic from organic search results is free. Getting good organic SERPs requires SEO, which, while requiring a larger investment up front, will yield a higher ROI over time (when executed well).

Sponsored ads (aka Google AdWords ads) can, however, be a great supplement to a solid SEO strategy in many cases, particularly for ecommerce. These ads can provide visibility for highly competitive search terms where obtaining organic SERPs is difficult; used in conjunction with organic SERPs, sponsored ads can also provide a solid branding strategy.

Now, on to the fun stuff.

As a search engine marketer, staying in touch with consumer behavior is critical - which is why I was excited to have the opportunity to put myself in the shoes of a consumer last week.

I've been a light smoker for the past 3 or so years, and while it's been fun, it's time to quit, for some pretty obvious reasons. Rather than going cold turkey, I thought it would be fun to try the new "e cigarettes". Not that I necessarily need the nicotine; I just want something to hold when I get stuck in an oh-so-temping social smoking situation. Also, e cigarettes are typically charged via a USB port, and I think the idea of charging my cigarettes from my computer is pretty hilarious. And awesome.

So I warmed up my fingers, got my notepad ready to take notes, and Googled. Here's what I found:

As consumers often do, I changed my mind mid-query and decided that before looking for vendors, I should look at some reviews. Yes, Google Instant's suggestion that I search for reviews influenced my decision to do so. As you can see, this did not "kill" the importance of vendors being visible in these search results (i.e. SEO), it simply reinforced common consumer behavior. All the more reason for SEOs to take a look at Google Instant's query suggestions and optimize accordingly.

For example, what vendor brands do you see in these organic SERPs? Blu is the only one that is evident, which is important to note. We'll come back to Blu's organic ranking for this term in a moment.

I was intrigued by the sponsored ad titled "Warning: Electronic Vapor", so I clicked. Why did I click? The ad text resonated with an issue which was important to me, the soon-to-be consumer of ecigarettes: what is the effect of ecigarettes on my health? This ad successfully capitalized on a common concern. So far, so good.

Then things took a turn.

What did I think was wrong with this landing page? Well, for starters, it completely fails to deliver on the ad's promise. This isn't a report warning about the health effects of ecigarette vaporizers, it's a list of reviews and, from the looks of it, a pretty biased one at that. There were three brands listed on the page, and the 1st brand, Joy, was the only one the page had anything good to say about.

Importantly, there were no other reviews available to read, making it impossible to verify their supposed findings. I had to wonder where on earth they'd gotten their ratings from. Something smelled fishy.

Also, check out the actual copy. It's rather stiff and uninspired. Not terrible, but also not great. Especially when you factor in the spelling errors.

The kicker: the link to the third product (the only brand I recognized), Blu e Cigarettes, was BROKEN. The person who'd put this landing page together was either incompetent or intentionally misleading. Not great for building confidence.

So, I googled again. This time, I searched for the brands I'd seen on this page. Joy e cigarettes? No reviews to be found. NJoy and Blu had very similar review ratings, and Blu was $20 cheaper. Finally, I went back to my original search term and searched again, this time scanning the organic results. Aside from reviews I'd already seen, what did I find?

Blu e cigarettes.

This time, I googled "blu e cigarettes" and found what I was looking for.

Take a careful look at the organic listings. The brand itself occupies the first two results, with a slew of positive reviews which follow below. Ironically, the last listing praises Blu for its "great looking website", which other sellers seem to have taken for granted.

I couldn't agree more.

In the end, I steered clear of Joy (which copycats the popular NJoy brand name and appears to be a ripoff of Blu) and ended up buying a Blu starter kit.

Why? Blu had earned my trust. The product had good reviews, their organic listings were solid and they didn't present me with misleading ads or links.

I think it's important to note that the reason Joy's AdWords ad didn't work is NOT because sponsored ads are intrinsically doomed to failure. On the contrary - if I would have seen a sponsored ad for Blu e cigarettes, the confidence instilled in me by the positive organic ranking would likely have incited me to click the ad and cut my time spent investigating products in half. The sponsored ad I clicked on failed because the ad was misleading and the information on the landing page could not be verified by a third party.

The moral of the story?

Sponsored ads can be an effective tool when backed by honesty, off-page brand building and organic SEO. If you have a crappy product no one has anything good to say about, rather than using AdWords, you might consider investing in a product that will inspire consumer loyalty. And please. Invest in some decent SEO, for goodness sake.

SEO Article Marketing Special: Give Your Brand a Kick in the Pants

2010-09-21T09:04:00.000-07:00

So, I don't normally DO "specials". It's not like my copywriting and SEO services are some dusty collection of knickknacks from last season. They're my livelihood.

But when I saw EzineArticles.com's "100 Articles in 100 Days Marathon Challenge", I saw an opportunity that both you (the business owner) and I could cash in on.

Taking on this challenge would be a wonderful way to increase my discipline as a writer and businessperson. But my business doesn't need 100 syndicated articles, and if I'm going to be writing all this content, I want it to be making a difference for business owners and independent professionals. Getting compensated for my time wouldn't be bad, either.

The challenge starts on Thursday and runs through the end of December, so here's the deal.

The SEO Article Special:

From Thursday through the rest of 2010, I'll be offering my article marketing services for a breathtakingly low $50/article. Each article will include:

- A consulting session to determine which keywords/article topic would be most beneficial for your business to target.

- Thorough keyword research tailored specifically to your business' industry/niche.

- A well-researched 400-600 word article written on the topic of your choice.

- 3 in-text links, optimized with keyword and brand anchor text.

- Syndication of the article to Ezinearticles and my own super-secret list of 100s of industry-relevant content sites.

Feel free to take a look at a few articles I've done. See how well they rank in search engines by searching for the key terms in the title.

Boat & Vessel Title Insurance

Home Title Insurance - What Is It, and Why Is It Necessary?

How to Write Great SEO Page Titles

What is Article Marketing, and why should I buy your articles?

Article marketing is, simply put, writing great content and syndicating it to as many relevant online article publishers as possible. There are 1,000s of sites which accept article submissions on every topic under the sun.

In short, article marketing serves two main purposes:

1) To funnel traffic back to your website and/or to establish you or your business as an industry expert on a specific topic. Well written, informative or entertaining articles will attract a larger readership, and other sites will link to this content, driving qualified visitors to you. Content sites require that readers who re-syndicate this content on their own site credit you as the author and retain original reference links.

Articles written using a good SEO keyword strategy and posted to high ranking sites like EzineArticles.com will obtain high search engine rankings for niche terms fairly easily. Just Google "watercraft title insurance" and check out the #2 result. Booyah.

2) To build links. Lots of links. Nearly all the sites that syndicate your content will keep your optimized HTML links, giving your website an SEO adrenaline shot. We don't have time in this post to discuss how and why links are important to your site, but you can read more about it in my website's SEO resources.

If you think about it, $50 for an article which provides your brand with SEO, brand awareness and improves your industry expertise is pretty darn cheap.

Do you need to increase your visibility online for one particular niche service or product? Try one or two articles. Are you a large or ecommerce business facing heavy keyword competition? Buy 20 articles! Remember: I'm happy to consult with you on how to leverage articles to your business' best advantage.

Writing About Us Pages: Not Just Another Space to Sell

2010-09-16T08:11:00.000-07:00

Each week, my girlfriends and I get together and drink wine and discuss life. It's extremely therapeutic and often a source of inspiration, both personally and professionally. If you don't have this kind of friend group you meet with regularly, I highly recommend you go out and get one!

Last night, as we were engaging in our weekly ritual, I decided to take the opportunity to conduct a mini consumer survey on an issue which had been bugging me lately.

The issue: About Us pages.

In recent projects, I've noticed a tendency by marketing managers, agencies and/or business owners to use company "About" pages as an extra space to sell their products or services. In other words, "About Us" pages are being used as more of an "about how awesome we are" page rather than an "about our company history and mission statement" page.

While there are no predefined set of rules about what kind of content should go in company About pages, my gut told me this approach was wrong. From a consumer's point of view, this is not the kind of information I look for when I click on a company's About page. Rather, I'm looking to learn more about the company, such as origins, ownership, company mission and practices which make this company unique.

I decided to double check my gut instinct against other consumer perspectives. Turning to the consumers I had on hand, I asked my girlfriends what they thought (let's not forget that women hold a majority share when it comes to consumer spending).

My question:

"What do you expect - or hope - to find when you click on a website's About Us page? Are you looking for more information about the value of the company's products or services, or are you looking to learn more about the company's history, ownership and mission statement?"

GF #1: "I get frustrated when I click on an About Us page and don't find anything about who the company actually is and what they represent. A lot of About Us pages just tell you more about how great they are, not about the company's vibe and ethics."

GF #2: "Yeah, if I go to an About page, I want to know what that company's ethics are, how they conduct their business and what value they offer to their community. If I wanted to know more about why I should buy from them, I'd visit their service or product pages."

GF #3: "Vibe and ethics is a good way to describe it. When I visit an About page, I want to get a feel for what the company stands for and who their owners are."

Ok, so my ad hoc "consumer survey" may not be quite as scientific as a real survey should be, but it confirmed that I'm not alone in my perspective on what an "About" page should - and shouldn't - be.

Let's look at an example of an "About Us" page which is actually an "About How Awesome We Are" page:

What does this page tell you about company ownership? Company history? Mission statement? Ethics? Not much. It gives us plenty of information on the business' value-added services and the level of quality they strive to provide, but none of the kind of information we might look for in an "About Us" page.

If I wanted to see this kind of information, I'd go to the "Why choose..." page, service pages or home page. Or I'd go watch some TV ads.

Now, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with this page's copy; I think it highlights the company's main selling points very effectively and could be quite valuable - on a different page.

So what SHOULD an About Us page look like?

I think it's a matter of switching perspectives. Think like a consumer, not like a business owner/marketer. There's no reason your About page can't be a great sell page - but it needs deliver on its promise of providing information about your company. Stop and think:

- What parts of your business' beginnings, ownership and philosophy are inspiring or unique?

- What is your business' core mission, and how does this separate you from the competition?

These are the answers consumers are looking for, and they can pack a much more powerful punch than "we have industry expertise".

Internet marketing software company Hubspot's About page is a dead-on example of an About page which subtly doubles as a direct sell piece. Notice Hubspot's simple strategy: on the surface, their About page simply answers the questions When, Who, Why, What and Where. The fact that they've named the URL to the About page "www.hubspot.com/internet-marketing-company" is, incidentally, also very awesome (from an SEO standpoint).

Acclaimed copywriting company Men with Pens (I definitely want to be James Chartrand, who is actually a woman, when I grow up) takes a different yet equally effective approach in their About page. The what-we-do-style intro strongly conveys a sense of the company's "vibe" and approach, then the content launches straight into introducing you to the individuals who make up the company's team. Beautiful.

Bottom line: save direct selling for your service and home pages. Use your About pages to give an honest reflection of who your business is and what it represents, and let the selling happen organically.

Need help coming up with the perfect angle for your About Us page? I happen to know a web content copywriter who could help you (see what I did there?).

Why On-Page SEO Content? Boosting Traffic for Longtail Keywords

2010-09-10T11:04:00.000-07:00

In a recent interview with a potential client seeking SEO services, I was posed with an interesting question. It was the kind of question which made me pause to reconsider my SEO copywriting methods and how I market my services.

"Marjorie," he said, "I like what you're saying about the importance of content, but I can't help but notice that your approach seems quite different from many of the other SEOs we've spoken with. They've talked a lot about links and meta data, while you seem to be much more focused on site content. What can you say about that difference?"

I tend to consider myself a writer, first, SEO second. It just so happens that SEO is often easiest to apply when integrated into site content writing and content marketing. You want me to write content for your website? Well, why not do the keyword research and incorporate optimized page titles, meta data, header tags and internal links into the content while we're at it? You'd like me to write articles or feeder sites to market your website? Why not include well-researched, optimized titles and links with strong anchor text? It just seems to make sense.

Ironically, my emphasis on quality writing seems to have only pushed me deeper down the SEO rabbit hole. It's as if quality writing and SEO go hand in hand!

In answer to the potential client's question, I pointed out that my end strategies and goals were very similar to those of the other SEOs he'd spoken with, they just took a different approach. My proposal contained plenty of recommendations for link building and optimization, but they were expressed in terms of content rather than in terms of straight text link building. I pointed out that in order to gain a substantial number of quality links, SEOs must at one point or another syndicate articles and content. The other SEOs didn't reference content writing because they most likely planned on outsourcing article/content writing at bottom dollar, while I included article writing as part of my service package.

But there was another important difference he was picking up on: my emphasis on on-page site content optimization and writing. Other SEOs emphasized link building as the priority - why did I place such importance on on-page content writing?

Well, first, because I'm a writer. If you want someone to pull grey or black hat SEO ninja moves and acquire thousands of links for you in a short span of time, I'm not your girl. True, more aggressive link building strategies can be very effective for ecommerce sites in competitive markets, but there are plenty of SEOs who specialize in that area, and I don't care to compete with them.

But there's another reason I place a strong emphasis on on-page SEO copywriting: it works. In the long run, having lots of well-written SEO on-page content tends to develop more sustainable search engine rankings while drawing more qualified traffic - or, in other words, people who are more likely to buy.

Why? Because on-page content allows you to optimize your site not only for competitive main category terms (i.e. "auto body repair"), but also a host of niche longtail keywords as well (i.e. "car bumper dent repair", "fix auto paint scratches").

Why target longtail keywords? By their nature, longer search queries are more specific AND less competitive, allowing you to market your site to people looking for very specific products or services with a lot less effort.

Neglecting to optimize your site for longtail keywords means missing out on a huge sector of your market. Recent figures indicate 56% of buyers searching online use queries of three words or more, and 20-25% of all Google search queries are completely unique. Studies have also shown that visitors brought in by longtail keywords tend to have higher conversion rates.

In a recent article on optimizing content for longtail keywords, SEOBook.com used the following diagram. Take a close look at how the On Page Optimization slice of the pie chart differs between competitive and longtail keywords:

According to SEOBook.com's research, on-page optimization only has a 5% influence in gaining rankings for competitive keywords, while it has a whopping 50% influence on rankings for longtail keywords. These figures seem very low, and from my experience, on-page optimization tends to carry more weight than 5 and 50%, particularly for smaller niche industries and local businesses (i.e. sites with lower competition). Still, these figures demonstrate an important point about marketing sites for longtail keywords: it requires on-page content.

And what does good SEO on-page content require? Good SEO copywriting.

Lead Generation: Give Away Your Best Ideas for Free

2010-09-01T14:09:00.000-07:00

In an effort to participate in the delightful LaVonneEllis' #customerlove challenge, I'd like to take a break from SEO to talk about a more personal kind of lead generation.

While blogging, twitter and SEO can be great tools for marketing, sometimes it pays to take a break from mass content syndication and find a much smaller - and more qualified - pool of potential leads. Industry forums, niche social networking sites and LinkedIn groups can be all be fantastic places to hunt down people who are interested in the products or services you offer. Even better, many of these people are actively asking questions that YOU KNOW THE ANSWER TO.

"How much should I pay for SEO?"

"How do I find a way to tell my brand's story?" (Cottage Copy, I'm looking at you)

"Why am I loosing money on my Google AdWords campaigns?"

What better way to get your customers to love you (as a consultant/writer) or your product (as a retailer) than to step in and provide valuable, expert insight?

It's not quite as easy as it sounds, however. As it turns out, people really don't like having sales pitches shoved under their noses - especially when they're in spheres which are designed to protect them from in-your-face advertising. The idea is to answer peoples' questions in a way which draws them to you rather than alienating them.

So how do you put your brilliant, genius skills (or products) on display without coming off as a door-to-door salesperson?

Simple. Write answers which are 100% relevant and valuable.

If you're within 500 miles of the web marketing industry, you hear the term "valuable content" a LOT. How do you engage customers on social media? Engage in discussions with valuable content. How do you build qualified traffic with a blogging campaign? Blog valuable content. How do you make your article marketing strategy successful? Write and syndicate valuable content.

You get the idea.

So how do you turn your would-be sales pitch into a relevant, valuable answer? You pull out the stops. Don't just give enough information so that leads need to contact you to find out the rest of the answer - give the WHOLE answer, including the "secret" tricks you've been cloistering away.

For lack of a better example, let's look at a forum response I posted which helped me snag a new client. I provide social media management services/consultation to a lot of automotive repair shops, and one of my clients was kind enough to invite me to participate in a nationwide forum of auto repair shop owners. As a twentysomething (blonde) web marketer, I could potentially be on very treacherous ground with this crew. But I chose which conversations to engage in very carefully, and I try my best to make my contributions genuinely valuable to the audience. No one's booted me out yet, which I take as a good sign. Here's a thread I posted on:

Original thread:

I wrote a 2800 word article on How to Market Your Automotive Business Online that I think folks here would like. Let me know - edits or feedback on it would be appreciated! - D. Anonymous

Reply:

Loved the article, Dave. A very thorough summary of solid SEO
strategies. I can't emphasize the importance of thorough keyword
research and analysis enough. Finding high volume keywords isn't
enough; those keywords need to be 100% relevant to the web page (or blog post, if you use a blogging strategy like the one I manage here:
www.keepthecar.com). Increasing traffic is worthless if your visitors
are looking for something other than what you're selling.

Also, segmenting services into multiple sub-pages is a great way to
gather traffic for specific niche services, like "corvette repair" or
"computer automotive diagnostics".

If you're feeling confused, my web marketing
blog (www.creativewebbusiness.blogspot.com) has plenty of down-to-earth SEO tips for DIY business owners. - M. Steele

My answer was very specific, and I gave up many of my "secret tricks", but I also took full advantage of any opportunity to provide access to my portfolio. Less than 24 hours after I posted the reply, I had an email in my inbox from a new lead asking for a phone interview. Within a week, I had myself a new client. At 1 lead per post and a 100% conversion rate, I'd say the 45 minutes it took me to post a thoughtful answer to D. Anonymous was well worth it.

Here's another great example of creating #customerlove by giving away your great ideas for free.

While this post mostly addresses business-to-business lead generation, this concept could just as easily be applied to business-to-consumer and retail industries. The interweb hosts forums for just about every industry and product under the sun, and search tools like Google Social Search, Google Alerts and Twitter Search are fantastic ways to listen to questions your customer base is asking.

How to Write SEO Page Titles (and Why They're Important)

2010-08-23T08:31:00.001-07:00

In the same way a well-written book title or article title draws readers in, page titles sum up the content of a web page. Different from books or articles, however, the page title's first job is to communicate with search engine spiders to determine the web page's relevancy in search results - or, in other words, what terms the page will rank for. That's not to say that page titles should ONLY be written for search engines; site users also use these titles to determine whether or not the content of the web page is worth reading.

So what exactly is the page title? It's the text snippet nestled between the <> and < /title > tags just below the header. Try right clicking on any page (or command clicking, for us Mac users) to view source on any web page, then use CTRL+F (or command + F) to find "<>".

An easier way to view the page title is to look at the top of your web page browser.

The title is the link which is displayed in search engine results, above the site description. This is the first thing search engine users see when deciding whether or not to visit your site. Bottom line: page titles NEED to be relevant, for both search engines and search engine users.

Writing search engine optimized page titles.

Page title length: 69 characters. The reason for this character limit is simple. Search engines can only fit 69 characters of page title into search results pages, meaning anything beyond 69 characters won't be shown in search results. Page titles which are too long end up getting cut off in search engine results, looking both awkward and unprofessional. More importantly, excess characters in page titles dilute the density of keywords contained in the title.

While this length may seem restrictive, it forces SEO writers to focus only on the web page's most critical keywords, improving the title's impact in search engine results. Like a haiku, a page title's rigid structure facilitates elegant simplicity, and this simplicity is appreciated by both users and search engines.

Page title structure. Every SEO writer has a slightly different approach when it comes to structuring page titles. This is my approach, and it's worked well for my clients.

Home page titles:

Business Name | Location | Main Keyword | Secondary Keyword

Home pages are unique, and my formula for home page titles is different than it is for page titles of subpages. Business name prominence is key on home pages, and should always be listed first. You want your business website to be first in search results when users search for your brand. Likewise, locally-based businesses need to include location keywords to differentiate themselves from national or international service providers or ecommerce vendors.

Product or service category pages would look a little different:

Product/Service Category Keyword | Secondary Keyword | Location (if relevant)

Notice the use of pipes ( | ) rather than commas or other punctuation. Pipes are the cleanest way to separate information for search engines, and they give pages a clean aesthetic for users as well.

Keyword usage in page titles. If you're optimizing a website, you should have a list of keywords on hand for each web page in the site, especially for the home page and service or product category pages. While some overlap is inevitable, each home, service and/or product page on a site needs to have a unique (and small) set of keywords. Writing page titles offers the first opportunity to use these keywords.

Like humans, search engines read from top to bottom and left to right, meaning your most important keywords need to come as early in the page title as possible.

For example, if I were optimizing a website which offers local driver education services, my homepage keyword list might look something like this:

business name

driver education

driving school

drivers ed

location/service area terms

"Driver education" has the highest keyword volume, but remember that we want to give the business name highest priority. This is how I would write the page title:

Driving School XYZ | Smalltown, USA | Driver Education

Since "driving school" is included in the business name, I don't need to repeat this keyword.

Let's take a look at optimized page titles in action.

Take a look at the #1 result (yes, this is a website I optimized. This is the part of the post where I get to brag).

This site ranks in the top 3 results for virtually any combination of the terms "driving school", "driver education", "west michigan" and the six cities it serves. While writing keyword-rich content and doing some minimal link building were also important elements of optimizing this site, the site's keyword-rich page titles "pull it all together".

As with every other type of SEO copywriting, writing page titles requires walking a fine line between giving keywords prominence and maintaining user readability. Keywords are useless if the page title is nonsensical and nondescriptive; likewise, beautifully written titles are worthless if they fail to rank highly in search results.

Why You Shouldn't Outsource SEO Copywriting to India

2010-07-29T20:15:00.000-07:00

As a disclaimer, I'd like to point out that I recognize that as an SEO copywriter myself, I'm naturally biased against internationally outsourced content writing. Yes, of course copywriters in India and the Philippines have a tendency to "steal" business away from professionals like myself. Yes, Indian and Filipino writers are able to charge 1/10th of what I charge due to the differences in our respective countries' currency values.

But that's not why I believe outsourcing SEO copywriting overseas is a very, very bad idea.

For example.

A prospective sent me a sample of SEO articles he'd purchased (and regretted) from an SEO company as part of a package deal. The content was sold to him as "high quality SEO content", and he THOUGHT he was getting a bargain.

The articles were very similar to other "high quality SEO" articles another client of mine had purchased (and, again, regretted) from India for $5 per 500 word article. I've seen plenty of this kind of outsourced SEO content - never in search engine results, mind you - and it never fails to irritate me.

Still, I can understand why SEO companies and businesses think outsourcing their SEO copywriting in this way is a good idea. At $5 per 500 word article with guaranteed quality writing and optimized linkbacks, how could it go wrong?

Just like this:

"Considering how the global economy is faring these days, saving as much money as possible is not just an option. If before, a one-dollar difference does not warrant a second glance, now, even the amount of half a dollar is valued. This is why, more often than not, most people opt to do things their own rather than hiring a professional. Granted that the task may require most of their time during weekends, if it will be cheaper, then it is fine."

I'm not making this up.

Silly phrasing and substanceless subject matter aside, there are far more sinister flaws in this so-called "SEO content". Not only do these articles often fail to meet basic SEO criteria for keyword density, but they also use strategies which, if executed in bulk, could actually cause the website to be penalized in search engine results.

Keyword density. Can you tell what this particular article's main keywords are from the above paragraph? No, you can't, because there aren't any. That's right, an entire 80 word paragraph and not a single keyword.

Keyword density for main keywords inconsistent, at best. In the above mentioned article, density for the main keyword is below 1%. To make a solid impact (without getting too spammy), SEO articles need to target a keyword density between 2.5%-6%. Density aside, the keywords in these articles are often too general or improperly formatted (e.g. using "checks" rather than "ink for printing checks" and "MICRtoner" instead of "MICR toner").

No longtail keywords. Notably, the article focuses on only root keyword phrases without incorporating any longtail variations. Embedding main keywords into longtail variations is a tactic I've found to be effective for drawing traffic for the often-ignored lontail search query when drawing traffic for smaller, more competitive terms would be impossible. Thanks to low keyword density, lack of longtail keywords and lack of content value, these articles will likely never see the light of search engine results pages.

Too many links. Links are too numerous and the anchor text used is unvaried. Articles used for link building purposes should use between 2-6 links; more will put the article at risk of being flagged as spam - because it IS spam. It looks like the SEO copywriter hyperlinked every keyword in the article, bringing the average number of links to 10-20 per article.

Unvaried anchor text. The lack of variation in these links is cause for major concern. As SEO guru Tim Grice points out, Google is now giving more weight to "natural" links with varied anchor text. Websites with 100s or 1,000s of incoming links all using the exact same anchor text phrasing appear highly automated to Google. Consequently, these sites have been getting pushed farther down in the search engine results pages in favor of sites with a wider variety of deep and varied anchor text links. In short: fewer links can be better, if those links appear more natural. There's nothing natural about the links in these outsourced articles.

The Moral of the Story

Internationally outsourced SEO copywriting may be a lot cheaper, but the quality is simply not there. From a content standpoint, these articles are full of nicely phrased, disorganized fluff which provides no true value to the readers. From an SEO standpoint, these articles contain a critical lack of genuine SEO savvy which could end up wasting your money at best and hurting your website's rankings at worst.

Stuffing keywords into an article about nothing is not SEO copywriting. A true professional SEO copywriter has invested significant time into understanding the finer nuances of SEO and how successful SEO copy works; he or she takes the time to perform keyword research, outline a content strategy and leverage longtail keywords and varied anchor text. And yes, professional SEO copywriters like to be compensated for their work.

As with any other business investment, you get what you pay for. If you pay $5 for an SEO article, that's exactly what you're going to get.

Unfortunately for my prospective client, he paid far more than $5 per article once his SEO firm was finished marking them up. This brings us to the issue of purchasing re-marketed SEO content from SEO companies.

SEO companies are in the business to make money, and professional US-based SEO copywriters like me can be expensive. What better way to cut costs than to hire international ESL copywriters for $5 per page?

To be fair, not all SEO companies remarket this kind of crap to their clients - but there are plenty out there that do. If you're purchasing content from an SEO company, be sure to ask exactly where and whom that content is coming from. Investigate to see what the company's "high quality SEO articles" really are. SEO copywriting guru @HeatherLloyd has some great tips for determining whether or not your SEO firm is qualified to provide you with SEO content.

SEO 103: Link Building Terminology & Basic Concepts

2010-07-23T16:48:00.000-07:00

So you've done keyword research for your business's website. You've written (or have hired a copywriter like me to create) quality, keyword-rich content with proper header tags, bolding and formatting. That programming firm in India has finally gotten around to updating your website with new content, and it looks beautiful. Only one thing is missing: traffic!

Link building is one of the three most important aspects of search engine optimization, the other two of which we've already covered. When you're going through the first phase of website optimization, link building is the "capstone" that pulls it all together.

First, let's review the first three steps of SEO for small business websites.

Search Engine Optimization:

1) Perform thorough keyword research.

2) Write quality, well-optimized content.

3) Gather inbound links from authoritative sites.

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of link building, let's define a few key terms.

Outbound Link - A hyperlink which directs from your website to another website. This shameless SEO copywriting link, for example, is an outbound link which directs from this page to my main business site.

Inbound Link - A hyperlink which directs to your website from another website. For example, I got an inbound link as part of my new Local First membership.

Anchor Text - The text that is used to hyperlink to another web page. Sometimes anchor text is the same as the website URL, e.g. www.creativewebbusiness.com, but ideally it's composed of actual words, e.g. Creative Web Business. More on that in a sec.

Link Building - The SEO practice of gathering more inbound links to your website in order to help boost your website's rankings in search engines. Good link building also boosts referrals from other sites and, ideally, helps to build brand awareness in relevant industry circles.

What does link building do, and why is it important for SEO?

I could ramble on about the complexity of Google's constantly changing algorithms and Page Rank, but why bother when Matt Cutts is still prowling the interweb?

This is what it boils down to: inbound links let search engines, like Google and Bing, know that your website is worth being included in search results. The more inbound links your website has, the more authority it has in Google's eyes and, consequently, the higher your website will rank in relevant search results.

You can think of it as networking, but for your website. A successful business person is constantly expanding his or her network; likewise, a well-ranking website is constantly gathering new inbound links from quality websites.

Key Elements of Link Building

Ok, that was the easy part. Link building isn't as simple as paying for a bunch of crappy directory listings. There are a few important details which are necessary to make link building a successful part of a larger SEO strategy.

Over the years, SEO spammers have found a way to wiggle around Google's rules of etiquette, and, consequently, Google's rules have gotten a lot more strict. An important part of link building is avoiding practices which will get you banned from Google's search results.

Never pay for inbound links. Paid links are strictly forbidden by Google, and Yahoo and Bing don't take too kindly to them either. There are ways to wiggle around this rule, but it must be done carefully. Some directory sites require you to pay a small fee for inclusion in the directory, not for the link itself - an important distinction. These directories usually offer very low quality links, however, and are usually not worth the money. Speaking of which...

Links from quality, authoritative sites carry more weight. Search engine optimization specialists used to rely on "Page Rank" to determine how much a website is "worth". Page Rank is quickly becoming outdated, but it's still a useful guide to determining which sites to target for link building. In general, links from websites and/or pages with higher Page Rank will give you more "link juice" than those with low Page Rank. For example, a link from LocalFirst.com, which has a PR of 5, will send more link love than a link from MichiganLookup.com, which only has a PR of 3.

Prominent links outweigh buried links. How deep within a site a link is placed is yet another factor to consider when determining the value of a link. In other words, a link placed on the home page of a website is going to be far more powerful than a link placed on a sub-sub-subpage or a buried "Links" page. Remember what I just said about LocalFirst.com's PR? Well, when you drill down to the actual page my website link is listed on, the PR of that subpage is only 3. Most listing pages on MichiganLookup.com haven't even attained PR, so the LocalFirst.com listing is still more valuable.

Anchor text counts! If I could only give you one piece of advice for link building, it would be to pay attention to anchor text. Whenever possible, use the same keywords for which you want your website to rank for in inbound link anchor text. In other words, if you're targeting the term "Grand Rapids transmission repair", you'll want to gather inbound links which contain those keywords in their anchor text.

Using anchor text properly can be tricky, however. You do NOT want all your website's inbound links to have the same anchor text, since Google tends to see this as spam and may lower your website's rankings. The solution? Change things up. Changing anchor text as much as a word or two can keep your website on Google's good side.

Of course, there are many finer nuances of link building not discussed here, and I didn't touch on how to go about obtaining these links. Those topics will have to wait for another post.

Confused yet? Comment and drop me a question.

Small Business Success with SEO: Achieving Google's Page One in a Month!

2010-07-12T07:54:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned last week, I've been working on my first marketing video, which is in the form of a case study. Thanks to my iMac's build-in camera, microphone and video editing software, iMovie, doing the actual editing, voice over and timing portions of this video weren't too difficult. The hardest part was recording the video portion without looking and sounding like an awkward robot. There goes my future acting career.

The graphic slides were created in Keynote, then exported as images so they could be imported to iMovie. Pretty slick, if you ask me.

The video is a case study outlining the basic search engine optimization strategies I used to boost a small local driving school to the top of Google's first page. The SEO campaign I ran for this small business was relatively simple, but what made it worthy of having a case study video made of it were the phenomenal results we saw.

Using:

- keyword research

- quality, optimized content & meta data &

- basic link building,

WCMDE.com saw the following results in less than a month:

- page one rankings for 95% of the business' key service & location terms in Google, Bing & Yahoo

- 2 known sales conversions directly resulting from the campaign

- a complete return on investment

Hopefully, this video conveys how simple and cost-effective SEO can be for small and local businesses. Far too often, the costs associated with SEO and internet advertising are inflated and unnecessary, and one of my main goals as a web marketer is to make make internet marketing affordable for the businesses that struggle the most: small businesses.

I would love to hear your thoughts, comments and criticisms (yes, I want to hear your criticisms!). Comment and tell me what you thought about the video or the case study.

Thanks!

The Marketing Copywriting Golden Rule: K.I.S.S.

2010-07-02T14:07:00.001-07:00

Over the last two weeks, I've been developing a web marketing video based on a campaign I recently did for a Michigan driving school (Forgive the shameless link building. What's a marketing blog for, if not to give yourself and your client links?). In concept, the video seemed like it would be very simple to put together; it would be just a basic case study with screen shots, text and voiceover. In execution, however, it proved to be MUCH more difficult than I anticipated.

As a writer I've always been overly verbose, and my creative writing background doesn't help to stem that tendency (see?). My professors taught me to edit and be critical of my work, and it's no coincidence that my most successful poems and creative pieces were always the shortest and most tightly edited. When developing copy for marketing materials, however, there's even less room for excess words. Being verbose with marketing content - whether it's video, ad copy, white paper, whatever - is the best way to kill your message and bore your customer base.

This is the lesson I learned the hard way over the past few weeks. My first video script was three pages long and took 10 minutes to read. That was after 3 rounds of slicing and dicing up the copy. 10 minutes! Without interesting visuals, nonetheless! Who would watch such a boring monster?

Luckily, a friend of mine (who just happens to also be my cousin-in-law) owns Creo Productions, the sweetest video production studio in town. Last week I asked him if he had any tips on writing scripts for video. He and his business partner always prefer to write video scripts themselves, and they've gotten pretty darn good at it (visit their blog for proof). Without blinking, he shrugged and responded, "just keep 'em short."

Andy's sage advice gave me the boost I needed to take a hatchet to the script once more until it was pared down to a manageable 5:15. Hopefully, after one more round of editing, I'll be able to get it down to 4:30.

The whole experience reminded me how important it is to "keep it simple, stupid", or "KISS". No matter what kind of content I'm writing, I have to remind myself of two important things:

- What is the message I'm trying to convey?

- What is the simplest, clearest way to communicate that message?

If there are words or phrases floating around that aren't absolutely essential to the message I'm trying to communicate, more likely than not they need to be cut.

Marketers have egos - often larger than normal folks - and it can be particularly difficult for us to take a hatchet to our creations. But when it comes to content, simplicity always wins. Whether you're a copywriter, video producer, blogger, social media guru or graphic designer, it pays to remember that less is more.

Stay tuned next week when I (fingers crossed) will publish my first video here. You can be the judge and tell me whether I "KISS'ed" or not.

How Not to be Heard: 5 Marketing Lessons from Hiring a New Programmer

2010-06-25T09:13:00.000-07:00

One of my clients recently tasked me with hiring a new programmer for his company. This was my first time being in the shoes of the hire-er; up until now, I've always been the one job hunting, laboring over cover letter wording and concocting elaborately short follow up emails. Suffice to say, being on the potential employer's side of the table for the first time was quite an adventure, and I learned a lot.

The part of this process that shocked me the most was the huge number of applications I received that completely missed their mark. Some applications semi-failed, and only a tiny handful of applications succeeded in holding my interest and landing an interview.

As I think about the successes and failures of the applications I waded through, it occurs to me that there are some important marketing messages to be gleaned. Five messages, to be exact.

1) Pay attention to what the customer is asking for.

Applications that addressed each item in the want ad instantly rose to the top. Sure, it was convenient to have resume, portfolio and experience all at the tips of my fingers rather than having to call or email to get them, but the main reason why these applications impressed me is that I felt that the applicants had been attentive to my requests. In other words, they listened.

Customers aren't going to be as explicit about what they want from a product or service provider as an employer posting a want ad, but the concept of listening applies to both. Truly, genuinely listening to your customer base is the first step towards effective marketing, and tuning in is getting easier. Use Google Alerts, have Twitfeeds dedicated to your industry's most relevant hashtags, run customer surveys and ask your customers for exit interviews. It's amazing to me how often businesses ignore feedback they receive directly from customers. Knowing what customers want and expect from you isn't that hard, if you make listening a priority.

2) Present your message meticulously.

Applications with misspellings, sentence fragments and just plain awkward wording immediately got stuffed to the bottom of the pile. Sure, I'm not hiring a programmer for his or her writing skills, but if you aren't detail-oriented enough to proofread your cover letter, you're probably not the hire I'm looking for.

Every print ad, banner ad, landing page and social network profile is a resume for your business. If you haven't taken the time to make your message clear and engaging, why should your customers listen to what you have to say? You would think that marketers and businesses would make it a priority to make these messages pristine and user-friendly, but it's often not the case. The internet is littered with shoddy landing pages, websites lacking clear calls to action and just plain obnoxious Facebook updates. Take an honest look at your website from a customer's point of view. Is it appealing? More importantly, is it clear, concise and easy to navigate? Does it have all the information it needs to have to get leads to convert? Does it have an appealing call to action? Think about it from an employer's point of view. If this ad were a resume, would you get hired?

3) Clean up your online image.

My most...shall we say interesting applicant was one that showed real promise; the cover letter language was a little rough, but it was engaging and the applicant's portfolio looked great. Then an interesting thing happened. As we corresponded through email, Gmail automatically added the applicant to my Gchat and Google Buzz. The applicant had placed a link in the status update which showed in Gchat, so I clicked on it and was directed to a social networking page dedicated to the growing and selling of illegal botanicals. Marijuana prohibition debate aside, this isn't exactly the kind of image you want to portray to a potential employer. No thank you.

Businesses that don't google themselves frequently or make any effort to clean up after negative reviews open themselves up to a similar situation. Has your business gotten bad press in the past? Hide that dirty laundry by replacing bad press with good press. Do a charity and syndicate an online press release about it. Make your business available in vertical directories, then ask customers to post reviews. If negative feedback is posted in a public arena, go there and respond directly, doing your best to make amends. Demonstrating that you're listening and that you care, even if you're responding to a bad review, is great for your business' image.

Being careful how you and/or your employees connect their business identities with their personal identities online is becoming another big factor in business identity. If this is a concern, have a meeting discussing Facebook privacy settings, personal Twitter policies and what content is appropriate to post on business networks like LinkedIn.

If you need help creating content or managing your online identity, keep in mind I offer social media consulting and creative copywriting services.

4) Be clear about what you have to offer.

I loved getting cover letters or email responses which specifically mentioned what the applicant was NOT capable of. Rather than having to cajole this information out of the applicant or waste time pursuing an unqualified candidate, these rare applicants were upfront about what they could and couldn't do for my client and me. Honesty is important in an employee or contractor, and even if the applicant's skill set wasn't a good match for this project, their application will be kept in mind for future opportunities.

While I don't think very many retailers or service providers intentionally mislead their customer base, many have a tendency to be unclear about exactly what it is they can do for the customer. Highlighting only the positives of a product without mentioning any of its limitations can irritate customers and cause them to put your business on their "never purchase from" list. If I download a piece of software that turns out to be Mac incompatible but wasn't labeled as such, I'm probably going to shun this company in the future for wasting my time and hard drive space. Be clear about what you can and can't do for your customers. They'll thank you for it.

5) Stand out from the crowd.

My two favorite applicants were both very different; one was extremely brief and the other quite long and detailed, but both of them were unique. The short application read like a checklist of everything I'd asked for in the ad, and it was concluded by tasty phrasing like "if my skills look like a good match for your needs, I'd love to talk more with you...". We all love to have our needs considered!

The longer application took longer to check off my list of requirements, but it was full of genuine exuberance. It oozed energy, confidence and interest in new work.

I think marketers and business owners can learn a lot from both of these very different models. A message that's extremely short but to the point can be refreshing for customers who are used to being bombarded with irrelevant information, and it's a message that stands out above the long-winded masses. On the other hand, using a genuine tone and expressing excitement about a product, service or your customers can be a great way to engage customers emotionally. The common element in both types of messages is being genuine.

Should You be Using Twitter for Business?

2010-06-17T08:46:00.001-07:00

It's a common question and one of the most hotly debated topics between marketers and business owners today. Should we be using Twitter? What's the concrete ROI of being on Twitter? Aren't all social networks just a giant waste of time?

This video, produced by Earnest Agency, highlights some of the reasons why social media involvement is so important for businesses. Although this video focuses on business to business (B2B) marketing, the message applies to both B2B and B2C industries.

It's understandable that many business owners and CEOs view Twitter primarily as a time-waster. After all, it IS time-consuming, and the results of being active on Twitter are difficult to measure. Worst of all, it's fun.

Many social media evangelists make it seem like being active on every social network the web has to offer is crucial to any business' success - regardless of the business' industry and target demographics. In my opinion, Twitter is NOT the right tool for every business, just as Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, MySpace, Digg and Flickr don't fit the needs of every business' marketing goals. It's better to think of these as tools in a marketer's toolbox. Why would you pull out a chainsaw, hammer and nailgun when all you really need is a chisel?

Here comes the big HOWEVER. As countless businesses across B2B and B2C industries have demonstrated, Twitter can be more effective in a wider range of applications than many business owners realize. Dismissing social media involvement without researching how competitors and businesses in similar industries are using it could mean losing out on business and market share. Again, I'm not saying Twitter is the right tool for every business, I'm simply saying that it's an option worth exploring.

Let's explore how businesses in a range of B2B and B2C industries are currently leveraging Twitter - to some pretty phenomenal results.

Business to consumer (B2C) businesses using Twitter successfully:

@jetblue (aka Jet Blue Airlines)

Jet Blue Airlines has taken its industry's reputation for shoddy customer service as an opportunity to stand out above the crowd. @jetblue tweets real-time customer service updates and responses with a dedication that shames the rest of the airline industry. A glance at @jetblue's Twitter page, at any given time, will yield information about luggage checking, flight availability, destinations and even the availability of certain produce at given destinations. By leveraging Twiter this way, Jet Blue manages to provide high quality, real-time customer service, promote its services and boost its PR through ceiling in a single swipe.

@homedepot (AKA Home Depot Corporate)

Following a similar model to @jetblue's Twitter strategy, @homedepot's Twitter page is full of responses to customer questions, problems and even compliments. An entire team is dedicated to responding to customer inquiries sent to @homedepot, and from the looks of it, they're doing an excellent job. Home Depot has created a series of short, helpful DIY fix-it videos which it uses to populate its Twitterfeed when it's not responding to customer inquiries, a great applicaiton of "pull" marketing.

@gap (The Gap)

Sure, Gap uses its Twitterfeed to push new product and sale information to customers, but @gap also successfully leverages Twitter to engage in fashion and clothing communities. @gap keeps careful tabs on who is talking about Gap products where and talks right back, spreading the discussion further with frequent shoutouts to active Twitter-ers.

@fivesparrows (Five Sparrows Marketing)

While there's nothing particularly noteworthy about @fivesparrows' Twitter strategy (they essentially use it to share information), they mentioned an interesting case study when I heard them speak recently. One of their clients was a chain of gas stations, all located close to freeway entrances. Rather than funneling out specials on slurpies and hot dogs, they used their Twitterfeed to ping customers on changes in gas prices. Truckers traveling through were able to save hundreds of dollars each week by checking the company's Twitterfeed.

Business to business (B2B) companies successfully leveraging Twitter:

@steelcase (Steelcase)

This office furniture manufacturer averages 4-10 tweets per day without ever slipping into shout-about-our-products-with-a-megaphone mode. The majority of @steelcase's tweets are genuine conversation between customers, colleagues and design professionals, and a small percentage are @steelcase slyly plugging its products by sharing conversations other people are having about them. @steelcase slips in occasional customer service when necessary, as well.

There are plenty of individual B2B professionals who leverage their personal Twitter accounts to expand their network and create "buzz" around their own name, a form of personal branding. @b2btw and @mvolpe are both individual marketing professionals who have gained respect and notoriety in their respective B2B communities by sharing honest, interesting perspectives on industry issues. @b2btw's dry commentary on marketing fails and events serve to engage the B2B marketing community while re-affirming @b2btw's own expertise.

@MIWomensForum is the Twitter arm of a website of the same name. Solely operated by publisher Joni Hubred-Golden, @MIWomensForum acts as a hub for all business-related women's issues in Michigan and has become a powerful authority on information, connections and events. The true bottom line, however, is that @MIWomensForum makes advertising space on www.michiganwomensforum.com far more valuable than it would be otherwise.

So how do you determine whether or not Twitter is the right marketing strategy for your business? It might help to consider the following:

- Is your customer base on Twitter? Do the research. Some businesses may find that not enough of their customers use Twitter to justify establishing a campaign. Others might find a thriving community of untapped potential customers.

- What kind of value would real-time updates provide to your customers? Be creative; research competitors and consult with your creative staff.

- What goals could Twitter enable you to accomplish? Brainstorm a list of your business' biggest obstacles, then explore ways Twitter could help address them.

There are plenty of resources available around the interweb to help you figure out the ins and outs of using Twitter for business. If you'd like help mapping out a successful strategy for your business, I'd be happy to sit down with you for a free consultation.

SEO 102: Longtail Keywords, Business Blogging Secret Weapons

2010-06-04T12:42:00.000-07:00

I tend to talk about longtail keywords a lot, for three main reasons:

1) I've had steady success using them, particularly in the context of business blogging

2) Longtail keywords can make up 50-90% of any given site's organic search volume (not to mention traffic brought in from longtail keywords usually has a higher conversion rate)

3) Writing with longtail keywords is WAY more fun and sounds WAY more natural than trying to use a single term to reach an unnatural keyword density.

Still, when a client grows tired of my marketing lingo and asks me to explain what a longtail keyword is, I inevitably find myself saying, "um..."

In short, longtail keywords are long, complex or unusual search queries. Unlike regular keywords, longtail keywords usually have very low - if any - search volume, since these queries tend to be very unique. Longtail keyword search queries are highly sophisticated searches made by search engine users who know exactly what they're looking for and are trying to weed out generic search results.

For example, as a savvy searcher, I might use the longtail search query "aaa ford focus front end repair grand rapids" rather than simply typing in "auto repair" when searching for an auto repair shop. Using a very specific query like this makes it more likely that I'll find exactly the result I'm looking for. From a marketer's end, this means that users who find a website by using longtail keywords are more likely to convert into a sale or lead.

Although longtail keywords have very low search volume and are very often unique, when you count up all the longtail keywords bringing traffic to any given site, they often outnumber the amount of traffic brought in by regular keywords, such as "auto repair". Optimizing for longtail keywords takes some strong creative thinking skills, but if done well, it can dramatically increase quality traffic.

Rather than discussing longtail keywords abstractly, I'd like to show how I've used them effectively in the context of business blogging. This particular case study will show how blogging using longtail keywords helped boost qualified traffic - and likely gather a few inbound links - for a local auto repair shop.

First, take a look at a blog post I made on tire rotation:

I initially landed on the topic of tire rotation by doing keyword research on a number of repair services to see which ones were searched the most. I noticed that not only did "tire rotation" related keywords have a fairly high prominence, but it seemed that many people were searching this term in an attempt to find out more information on when, how and where to have their car's tires rotated.

From there, it was downhill. I did a few quick Google searches to see what information was already available on these topics, then I brainstormed a shortlist of phrases based loosely off my initial keyword search. This is where the creative part came in. Rather than picking short, obvious (and highly competitive) terms, I thought about all the various ways users might phrase questions about tire rotation. My shortlist included phrasings like:

when to have my car's tires rotated

front end tire rotation

all wheel tire rotation

routine tire rotation

how often should my tires be rotated

rotate tires every ___ miles

Keeping these phrases at the top of my mind, I continued to write an informative post about optimal tire rotation maintenance, peppering in other related terms, such as "maintenance", "car", "rear tires" and "misalignment".

Phrases which were most important received the most prominence by being placed in the blog post's title and bolded header.

Now, let's look at the results.

Here's the traffic this post pulled in since it was posted in October. As you can see, it's continued to bring in a steady amount of traffic long after its original post date. Additionally, the bounce rate for this page is well below site average.

Here's a quick look at the keywords which brought traffic in to this post. This is only a snapshot of the top 25 keywords. As you can see, "tire rotation" may be the most common, but the rest of the longtail keywords combined brought in more traffic than the main keyword, "tire rotation" did alone.

Here's a similar example, based off a "failed thermostat" blog post.

Here's the original post, with targeted keyword phrases circled:

Now, take a look at this post's web stats and the keywords for which it was most frequently found:

I can understand why longtail keywords make many old school SEO gurus squeamish; they're amorphous, unpredictable, and using them requires a great deal of intuition. When combined with a well-optimized business blog, however, they can be an incredibly effective tool for getting more traffic and, if the business blog is well written, hopefully inbound links as well.

Why are longtail keywords most effective when paired with a business blog? If you'd like to know more about SEO for business blogs, head over to my website's business blogging resource section. Of course, if you're still confused, I'd love to answer your questions personally.

Next week we'll take a look at basic link building strategies.

SEO 101: Keyword Research

2010-05-20T16:39:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd kick things off with a series on the basics of Search Engine Optimization. SEO is one of the most common - and complex - topics I find myself engaged in with clients, and it makes sense to start out with the "building blocks" of every successful web marketing strategy.

Even if you know nothing about search engine optimization, you've probably heard about how important keywords are. Keywords are absolutely foundational to search engine optimization, and for any successful web marketing campaign, for that matter. SEO experts discuss how and where to use them all the time, but what's seldom discussed is exactly what they are - and how to identify the right ones to use in your campaign.

Without thorough, accurate keyword research, even the best internet marketing campaign will at best be inefficient. At worst, it will hemorrhage time and money.

Let's take a look at the basic principles of keyword research, starting with a definition:

Keyword: a word or short phrase which captures the essence of the topic being discussed in a particular web page or campaign.

Now, this is where it gets tricky.

There's a huge difference between the keywords YOU think apply to your website and the keywords your potential customers are using in search engine queries. If you simply try to guess, you may be right sometimes, but it would be like playing darts in the dark. Plus, you will be guaranteed to be missing out on other major terms you wouldn't have thought of.

Example:

I was recently reviewing the website of an auto repair shop. The page title read:

"Community Car Repair".

Granted, the owner hadn't put

too much thought into the words, but he felt fairly confident he'd chosen a good phrase. I took 30 seconds to plug a few alternative phrases into Google's keyword tool, and this is what we found:

"Community Car Repair" ended up having the lowest search volume, and "Car Repair" has roughly 1/7th the search volume of "Auto Repair". (PS, for now we're only looking at Global Monthly Search Volume. Local Search Volume is usually unreliable, for a number of reasons we won't go into now).

Clearly, "Community Auto Repair" will bring this auto repair shop more traffic than "Community Car Repair".

But wait: there's more. It's not enough to find the one highest volume term for your industry then pepper your entire site with that single phrase. Focusing on a single phrase, or even two or three phrases, will not only make your site look spamalicious to your potential leads, customers and to Google, but it will cause you to miss out on a host of traffic brought in by longer, more diverse phrases.

Search queries composed of long, complex words and phrases are called "longtail keywords", and they're quickly becoming the Holy Grail of SEO. One of my favorite SEO bloggers, Tim Grice, pounds this point home when he emphasizes that 90% of his organic search traffic comes from longtail keywords, rather than short, 2-3 word keyword phrases.

For example, Tim routinely ranks between #1-#5 on page one of Google for the "shorttail" keyword:

seo consultant

Yet the majority of his traffic comes from longer, more complex search queries such as:

search engine marketing consultant in the UK

how to use link building to improve seo

anchor text best practices for on-page search engine optimisation

We'll tackle using longtail keywords in business blogs to boost search engine traffic in a later post, but it's important to understand the concept of them in order to do effective keyword research.

How do longtail keywords effect keyword research?

Being aware that long, complex phrases are just as crucial - if not more so - as regular high volume keywords causes us to be more alert when performing research. Rather than scanning Google's keyword tool for only the highest volume terms, we need to look for common words and phrases which appear across different queries.

When performing keyword research, I typically segregate keywords into a focus group and a content group. Into the focus group, I toss short, high volume keywords which I'll use to optimize the most crucial areas of a website. Into the content group, I'll toss keywords with lower volume which appear commonly across different phrases, including their most common combinations. When writing content, such as web page content or blog posts, I'll string words from the focus group with relevant phrases from the content group into as many different "longtail" keyword combinations as I can fit.

Using this strategy, I not only capture a more diverse pool of keywords in organic searches, but I help the content sound more natural by using more diverse phrases.

Take the above results from Google's keyword tool, for example. If I were optimizing a set of pages for "high heel shoes", I'd want to take into consideration all the color and style qualifiers which are used in the lower-volume search strings. By combining common descriptive qualifiers with my root keyword, "high heel shoes", and peppering my longtail phrases throughout content and titles, I could triple my search traffic.

Confused yet? Shoot me a question!

Next week we'll take a more in-depth look at how to get the most out of Google's keyword tool.

Why I Don't Want to be an Internet Marketing Expert

2010-05-12T17:16:00.000-07:00

The term "expert" has been getting banged up lately, particularly in regards to social media marketing. Social media legend Peter Shankman recently presented a blog post listing 25 traits to be wary of in a social media "expert". The list includes points such as:

- They call themselves an evangelist, guru or expert, and no one else does.

and

- They use "expert" or "evangelist" or "guru" or our personal favorite, "influencer" as any of their usernames.

Social media marketing is a new field - new enough for it to seem ridiculous that anyone could call themselves a social media expert. It simply hasn't been around long enough for anyone (aside from Mark Zuckerberg) to claim expertise. But what about self-proclaimed expertise in more established fields such as SEO or PPC advertising?

The truth is that these fields are constantly evolving. Thanks to the unethical practices of many SEO "experts", search engines are constantly changing their ranking methods to avoid spam. Ironically, this in turn causes SEO best practices to change monthly, or even weekly. Likewise, Google is routinely altering its AdWords advertising program to keep up with the ever changing online environment.

Being an expert in internet marketing requires not only experience, but a dedication to continual learning. Considering how quickly the rules change in SEO and social media, it's a wonder anyone calls him or herself an expert. It would be like Lewis and Clark claiming to have discovered every plant species in North America.

To be fair, it's true that there are some talented - even expert - internet marketing professionals in the industry. But they tread very cautiously around terms like "expert" and "guru", and they don't often mistake a lengthy career history for applicable skill. Dave Snyder, a respected SEO analyst, entrepreneur and co-founder of SearchEngineJournal.com, makes the following comment:

“When I talk to SEOs now who throw around how long they have been in the business I happily tell them I have only been professionally doing this for a portion of their lengthy career, because in the end talent and drive are what this game is all about, not the number of years someone has been mediocre.”

As I kick off my own entrepreurship in internet marketing, Dave's words are both comforting and inspiring. Sure, most other internet marketing professionals have much larger portfolios and a thick number of years in the industry under their belts, but that's all the more reason for me to work extra hard at staying on top of best social media practices and changes in Google’s algorithms. In an industry which increasingly rewards relevancy and freshness of content, surely being “new” has its perks.

Take my husband's success in freshwater fishing, for example.

I grew up very close to a private lake here in Michigan owned by my family. My grandfather was an avid fisherman, and I started tagging along when I was two years old. By the time I was ten, I had the whole process down, from catching bait to frying fillets. I consider myself a pan fishing expert.

My husband, on the other hand, is a native Filipino and had never fished in a freshwater lake until we were married. When I introduced him to my family's lake, he was enamored with my grandfather's fishing legacy and dove into the sport headfirst. While I lingered on the dock casually threading worms onto my hook, he was mining the bait and tackle shop for information on which lures worked best, when, where and how to use them. Before I'd caught enough bluegill to fill a frying pan, he'd pulled sixty inches of pike and bass out of the lake.

It may be a silly analogy, but I think it's a great example of how being an "expert" can end up limiting what you're able to accomplish. In this case, I was the "expert" in the field of fishing, but my novice husband was the one who landed the big catch. He researched and gathered effective “tools” while I used the same thing that had always worked for me - worms. I complacently went for small fry while he jumped in with high expectations - and fulfilled them.

Rather than attempting to become another internet marketing expert in a sea of self-proclaimed gurus, I aim to be a perpetual student. I look forward to sharing what I learn about web marketing here on my blog, and I hope those of you reading will share your own insights as well.

If you've gotten all the way to this paragraph, my heartfelt thanks for reading through my first blog post! I've set a goal to make a post each week, so stay tuned, and thanks again!

First Post Coming Soon!

2010-05-06T16:16:00.000-07:00

I'm still in the process of getting the final touches put on the Creative Web Business website. Visit us there, and please check back soon!