Out of the Fog Marketing

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Labels: marketing, mindmaps

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Labels: social networking

Welcome to the last installment of my Wow with Web Copy series. In past blog posts I've discussed setting website goals, finding the most effective key phrases and setting up a web content template. Today I'll address writing the actual on-page copy for a site.

Step 4. Write keyphrase-rich headers & body copy with anchor text links. Now that you know the primary and secondary phrases you are targeting on your page, you need to figure out how you can link to other pages within your site. Since your homepage is probably going to have the most authority in Google’s eyes (link juice to pass on), you’ll especially want to ensure you have keyphrase-rich links off your homepage.

As an example, consider the copy on the Clarity Quest homepage in the graphic below. We link to several sub-pages within the Clarity Quest site. We also use keyphrase-rich copy "Marketing Agency...Technology Companies" in the H1 header.


We've also put a small flash area at the top of the page and it's here where we inserted our snazzy copy which is not keyphrase-rich, but eye-catching and attention-grabbing.

There is a Google penalty if you try to stuff too many links into a page, especially if you put a whole bunch in the footer. The key is to provide just enough links so you are guiding the user to particular areas of your site and not putting in links just for their own sake. If you write for a site visitor, Google rarely penalizes you.

I hope this four-part series has been helpful for those who write copy for websites. As always, I welcome any feedback.

Labels: on page seo, SEO, web marketing, website design, website development

Part 3. Create a master web copy template.
In my ongoing series on crafting the perfect copy for your website, this week I'll discuss creating a master copy template. I recommend you setup a master copy document in a word processing application. I create a new page for each web page and insert a table with the following headers at the top of each page.

Page Name
Call to Action for this Page
URL
Title Tag
Meta description
Keyphrases to use

Here’s how to complete each field in the table. I will use the Clarity Quest outsource marketing landing page as the example.

a) Call to Action for this Page – Earlier you determined the overall goals for this site, now it’s time to figure out what you want the visitor to do as a result of visiting this page. In the case of the Clarity Quest outsource marketing page, I want the visitor to either request a proposal or further investigate our other marketing service offerings.

Clarity Quest’s Outsource Marketing Page
Call to Action for this Page: Go to request proposal form, check out our clients or additional services.

b) URL – Use your primary keyword phrase in the URL. In this case “outsource marketing” is the primary phrase for the page. If you do not already own a domain name, it will help your search rankings if you can obtain a domain containing the keyphrases such as www.outsourcemarketing.com. However, since we already owned a domain, we just used the keyphrase at the end of the URL separated by underscores. There’s debate in the search engine community on whether dashes are better separators than underscores. The consensus seems to be dashes are better, although we have not seen a detrimental effect using underscores.

Clarity Quest’s Outsource Marketing Page
URL: http://www.clarityqst.com/services_outsource_marketing.aspx

c) Title Tag - Although visitors don’t often know where to find the title tag, it’s one of the most important pieces of information in the eyes of the search robots. It’s located at the very top left of your browser window and it’s the first line you will see in a search engine results page listing.
a. Use the title of your site or your company brand at the beginning or end of every title tag. If you are working with a nationally-known brand such as IBM or Apple, put the company name first for brand awareness. For all other companies, I recommend the putting the brand at the end of the title tag.
b. Limit the length of the tag to 65-70 characters (including spaces) or less. The search engines limit the number of characters they display on the results page listings.
c. Use keyphrases in the tag. Incorporate your primary and secondary keyphrase in the title tag without keyword stuffing.
d. Use different keyphrases or variations in every page’s title tags. This is one rule we see violated all the time. If you use the same tag on different pages you’ll force the search engines to decide which page is more relevant. For example, on the Clarity Quest site we use “technology marketing agency” on one page and “high-tech marketing firm” on another. This way I've fulled used each page of real estate to my advantage.
e. Use a divider symbol to separate your brand name from the rest of the title tag. We like to use the “|” (pipe) symbol but the forward arrow “>” or hyphen “-“ also work effectively.
f. Use the title tag keyphrases in your headlines. Re-using the keyphrases in your H1 and H2 header tags makes search engine robots happy because it is confirmation you didn’t falsely keyword stuff the title tag. More importantly, it makes visitors more comfortable when they land on your page and it actually has something to do with their search term.

Clarity Quest’s Outsource Marketing Page
Title Tag: Outsource Marketing Department, Virtual Marketing |Clarity Quest

d) Meta description - The meta description tag is most often seen as the descriptive text in a search engine ranking page listing.

If you do not provide a meta description tag, the search engines will scrape the content off your page that most closely matches the search terms. However, if you provide the meta description you can target your keyphrases within the descriptive text.
This tag is not so important for the search rankings, but it makes a big difference in click-through rates. Here’s where you can write the eye-catching, ad-like copy that is compelling and gets attention. Remember there are 9 or so other listings on the search engine result page and you want your site to stand out.
The tag should describe your page clearly and accurately. Google allows the fewest number of characters at 160, so use this as your limit.
There is controversy in the internet marketing world on whether or not you should always provide a meta description. Here’s a general rule. If you are targeting 1-3 high-volume, highly-targeted keyphrases on the page, then write one. If your page is a blog or product model catalog with many possible long keyphrases, then let the search engines scrape the best descriptive text off the page. As with many aspects of web copy, it’s always best to test for the best conversion rates.

Clarity Quest’s Outsource Marketing Page
Meta description: Clarity Quest provides outsource marketing services serving as the virtual marketing department for technology companies across North America.

e) Keywords to use - I like list primary and secondary keywords to use on the page just so I have them staring me in the face when I go to write the body copy for the page.

Clarity Quest’s Outsource Marketing Page
Keywords to use: outsource marketing, outsource marketing services, outsourcing marketing

Once you have your template, you'll be ready for our next blog post covering Step 4: Writing Headers and Body Copy with Anchor Text Links. Stay tuned.

Labels: google web design, Internet marketing, SEO, web copywriting, web marketing

Last week we spoke about the importance of determining overall site goals before writing copy. This week we tackle finding the right keywords to use in your site pages.

Step 2. Compile a keyphrase list. We highly recommend a comprehensive keyphrase analysis which looks at monthly search volumes for each keyphrase related to your offering in addition to how difficult it will be to rank for these terms. Many internet firms including Clarity Quest offer a keyword analysis service.

However, if you cannot afford this step or you sell into a very niche field, you can create a keyphrase list yourself. Come up with a list of 25-50 seed phrases you think prospects would type into a search engine in order to find your products or services. Try to think like your buyers, not your product development team. Note the phrases your competitors are using on the headlines and title tags (first line in the browser) of their sites. You can also enter competitor website URLs into Google’s Keyword Tool and it will extract keywords used in that site.

Once you have a seed list, plug it into Google’s Keyword Tool and make sure the “include synonyms” box is checked. If you have different product platforms or vastly different services, it makes sense to break your seed list into sub-segments. If you select “exact match” under “Match Type” at the far right, Google’s Keyword Tool will return an estimate of average search volume during the previous month for the keyphrase. Note: these numbers are not exact, in fact, they are inflated. But give you a way to compare keyphrases to each other.

If your search terms have significant volume you can run them through Google Trends. You can also try Google’s search-based keyword tool. Based on your URLs, the Search-based Keyword Tool displays a list of relevant user queries that have occurred on Google.com (and on other Google search properties, such as google.co.uk) with some frequency over the past year.

In addition to keywords with a lot of volume be sure to include product names, brands and model numbers that you sell. These won’t have high volume in many cases, but they will be extremely relevant to a searcher.

To analyze the competition, look at the top 5 Google results for the keyphrase. A quick and dirty way to do this is to check the number and quality of backlinks the top sites have. To do this go to Yahoo! and type linkdomain:url.com -site:url.com in the search bar. For example, to see the number and listing of back links for "technologymarketing.com", type in:
linkdomain:technologymarketing.com -site:technologymarketing.com.

Once you have possible keyphrases narrow your list down to 1-2x the number of pages on your site based on count, relevance and competition.
For example, if you are writing copy for a 20-page site, you will be able to optimize for approximately 20-40 keyphrases. Separate your list into your primary keyphrases (top 5 heavy hitters) and secondary keyphrases. Using your sitemap for reference, create a table in which you pick at least a primary (and possibly a secondary) entry webpage for each keyphrase.

What's next? Part 3 of Wow Your Visitors and Search Engines with Your Web Copy will focus on creating a master web copy template.

Labels: google keyword, google trends, keyword research, keywords analysis, seed keywords

If you are looking to pitch journalists or publications for public relations efforts and need to know who has been covering your areas of interest, check out the Google News Timeline. Enter a search term into this Google Labs web application and the tool will display news, press releases and other data sources related to your phrase. If you click on the "Add more queries" option, you can select to view results from blogs or specific newspapers or magazines.

It's also a great way to check out what your competitors have been releasing in the news realm.

Labels: google news, journalists, marketing, online public relations, publicity, timeline

Writing website copy which appeals to both your website's visitors and search engine robots is part art, part science.

Over the next few weeks we we detail a step-by-step process for creating effective copy on your technology business website. This is not a guide on writing award-winning taglines and catchy phrases. It is, however, a step-by-step formula for writing copy that compels visitors to act while helping you get ranked highly in search engine result pages.

Step 1. Determine your overall goals for the site. Many B2B companies do not conduct online transactions, however, there should still be clear visitor goals for the site. Are you trying to educate customers or trying to get them to call your business development team? Are you attempting to increase the perceived value of your company or products? It’s crucial at this stage to determine if catchy copy or search engine rankings are more important to your overall goals, because at times during the copy writing process you might have to choose one over the other.

At this stage also determine which pages on the site you would like to be the top landing (entry) pages. Having clear positioning goals for the site will result in more effective copy.

Stay tuned for Step 2...Compiling the best keyphrase list.

Labels: copywriting, Internet marketing, website copy