Copywriting

Let’s be honest, Google knows EVERYTHING about you. It knows you ‘google’ yourself once a month (okay more like once a week…), it knows that you were recently in the market for a new car, bought an iPhone, and that you are baffled by Halo 3 because it caught you looking for cheats online. In essence…Google has become your closest confidante. But who is Google..and what do YOU know about it?

As a website owner, it is imperative that you get to know Google. Google is largely responsible for the success and failure of your website. He holds the answers to your most important questions: How do I get more traffic to my website? Or How are my customers finding me? Google knows, and unfortunately he isn’t telling.

Luckily for you, it’s not magic, it just involves a little elbow grease and knowledge. We have realized that it comes down to three basic factors: quality inbound links, frequent updates, and publishing content that reflects the interests of your users.

Link building is a means of attracting high quality sites to link to your website.
It’s basically an internet popularity contest. Generally, he who has the most links wins! The more quality inbound links your site has, the better it does in Google search rankings. Is there a magic number of links you should get? YES..more than your competitor! Go Team!

Google LOVES fresh content. Its main job is to crawl through websites to look for new information. By updating your site with new information, a press release, a business blog or even a simple RSS feed, Google will be more likely to deem your site more credible and visit it more frequently. And you know what that means…more visits from Google…higher search rankings!

When writing copy for a website, it is important to write quality content which will be of interest to your readers. There is a lot of talk about ‘writing for search engines’ which consists of stuffing searchable keywords on every page. This is not an effective way to attract repeat visitors. Web searchers who find your site are looking for interesting information, reward them for visiting your site by giving them what they are looking for..and they are sure to return.

There you have it, Google’s secrets revealed…a cheat sheet of sorts. It may not be the Halo 3 Cheat sheets you were hoping for, but it is a great way to start the optimization of your website.

It runs roughly. It’s hard to get started, or quits abruptly after it’s running for a while for no clear reason. You put off some basic maintenance months and months ago, and when the problem’s so bad you finally face it, the cost is four times what it would have been to prevent it from happening. Now you’re frustrated.

If this sounds like car trouble, you’re wrong. I’m describing web site trouble.

Just like an automobile, a website requires due diligence and regular maintenance in order to keep working for you. Search engines don’t put your web site through the same wear and tear as the road does your car, but they do expect a web site to be continually refined with expanded text, growing numbers of links and more web traffic. Underperforming, plateauing or ignoring the web environment could mean to your website what running on low motor oil means to your car.

It’s a frustrating issue for many website owners to tackle, and for understandable reasons — you put a good chunk of change down for your website, shouldn’t it just work? Unfortunately, the web’s not that simple — it needs more and more fuel (content) to continue running, and if you don’t have a good mechanic (developer) who knows the history of your vehicle, and the nature of the environment it’s running in, you’re likely to end up stranded somewhere with a very expensive problem on your hands.

That said, there are plenty of ways you can ease the burden of managing your website and make it a satisfying part of your business process, not a chore. One thing that’s appropriate for nearly every client we work with is a content management system that modifies a distinct area of their site — press releases or news, for example. A simple log in allows you to update your website as easily as writing an email, and practically anything can be news. New employee? New office? New product? New client? New service? There’s plenty to write about, and even if you’re not aspiring to be Hemingway, some solid content with good keywords in it should be enough to keep your site looking fresh.

What else can you do? Make sure that any businesses you partner with link to you from their website (and vice-versa, if appropriate), come up with a series of articles on your industry that would interest your potential customers, and contemplate getting your own blog.

Finally — don’t go it alone! While we can appreciate being cost-conscious, understand that your web site is a de facto marketing medium that needs attention and frequent maintenance in order to get you where you need to go — whether that’s across the country, the world, or to the most qualified customers in your local area.

One of the biggest challenges with any site is producing quality content that draws in new visitors and keeps existing visitors returning. This is especially true of sites of small businesses and nonprofits, whose resources are limited as a rule and rarely have someone who writes content as part of their job description. In these situations, when time and money are scarce, how do you get the content you need to rank in search engines?

The secret is: maybe you already have it.

Most businesses typically have some sort of regular publication, whether it’s an online or offline newsletter, or even marketing collateral. Are these news items archived on the website, in a form that is easily indexed by search engines? How about press releases? Have you recently been featured in the news? Anything written about your business that isn’t on your website should be. And chances are, there’s more material than you think.

While this isn’t much of a long-term strategy, it can help you leverage what you’ve already produced for minimal cost. It also may give you ideas on what kind of content you’d like to add — maybe there was a news item that highlighted a feature of your business you’d like to go into more depth, or an industry-wide change that has pretty wide-reaching implications you feel people should know about. Even if your focus isn’t with the pen, these ideas are the seeds which you should plant with whoever will be writing for you.

There’s no alternative to having good content, and sooner or later you’ll need more of it to continue building web success, but make sure you’re taking advantage of what you have if finding time to write is a challenge.

Inspired by Johnon this week, here are some of the fundamentals essential to gripping web copy that entertains and sells:

1. Tell a story.  Customers aren’t looking for a sales pitch.  They’re looking for solutions.  If your product or service is so great that they just have to have it, you need to demonstrate why, not just tell them that.  Stories (which may be as various as testimonials, case studies, quotes or just examples within your writing) allow the reader to make a visceral connection and experience what it is that makes what you offer so great.

2. Have something to say.  This may seem obvious, but I’ve read too many op-ed pieces and blogs whose writers were obviously trying to yarn because they have a quota or deadline, not a burning gut, compelling them to write. Even if you’re an all-star writer, when you’re trying to fake passion, it just won’t work.  Go into whatever you’re writing with intention and make what you say matter.

Yes, this even applies to business writing.

3. Make it clear.  No grammatical acrobatics, no dynamic new paradigms of leveraging modern solutions to 21st century business problems.  Be up-front with what you do, and write in simple sentences that convey those points effectively.  Use metaphor and story (see #1) to make your writing great, not language that draws attention to itself.

4. Keep it lean.  You need to make your point, but once you make it, move on.  Follow the immortal mantra of William Strunk: Omit needless words.

5. Take a second look. Randall Jarrell once said, “You don’t write, you rewrite.”  This may seem an antiquated concept in the age of blogging, IMs and email, but if you’re writing anything other than a note to your mother-in-law than it’s worth taking two looks at (or three or four, if you can swing it).  Your perfect article will always have a couple of redundant sentences, mis-used words, strange syntax, and poor grammar.  People notice polished writing.

And that’s about it — by focusing on clear, direct language you will unintentionally write better, stronger, more concrete writing that people find irresistible.  And by knowing what it is you’re trying to sell (or tell) and what role it functions in people’s lives, you’ll actually plant than intangible hook that leads to calls, clicks, or downloads.