Category Archives: Search Engine Optimisation

Posts related to search engine optimisation.

Questions to Ask Before You Write Your Website Content

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Website content matters. Possibly more than many businesses appreciate. It makes all the difference to whether anyone can find your site and to what they do when they get there. If you’re having a new site put together, refreshing your existing one, or perhaps wondering why your site isn’t delivering the results you expected, here are a few questions that could help.

website content - the weakest link?

Is your website content the weak link in your online marketing?

darwin Bell via Compfight

Who and When?

Two questions, but inextricably linked – and followed by a few others. If you are writing your own content, who’s going to do it? You? A member of your team? How much ‘spare time’ do they currently have? If they are fully occupied what are they (or you) going to stop doing in order to get the content written?

Why this matters: Any web designer will tell you their biggest frustration and the biggest cause of delay is waiting for content from their client. The record from conversations I’ve had with designers currently stands at 18 months (can anyone beat that?). I’ll leave you to work out the opportunity cost. Also, how effective is the content likely to be if it’s been ‘bashed out’ because the web designer is running out of patience?

How well do you understand SEO?

Search Engine Optimisation is increasingly intertwined with content, to the extent that you cannot have an effective optimisation strategy that doesn’t have content at its core. Writing intelligent and SEO friendly meta title and description tags is not easy. Integrating keywords into content in the most effective way, while still creating natural and easy-to-read copy requires skill. Is it reasonable to expect somebody who is taking a break from the day job to get this right?

Why this matters: Is there any point in having a website that nobody can find? Structure, usability and the reader experience are as important as selecting the right keywords in getting your site to rank well in Google. There’s no quick fix for this – despite what several emails in your inbox may be claiming.

Can you be objective about your business?

Your business may well be one of the big passions in your life. You are bound up in it and you are excited about your capabilities and your opportunities. Will a potential customer have quite the same perspective? Sure, they want to know that you care about what you do – but they really want to know what you are going to do for them. Standing back and seeing what matters from an outsider’s perspective is difficult.

Why this matters: Content that engages and persuades is the difference between ‘having a website’ and having a website that makes a positive contribution to your business growth. An external resource will inevitably see your business differently. This usually makes it easier to identify and emphasize the critical arguments that will persuade your target customers.

How confident are you in your ability?

Mercedez-Benz :-)

However you choose to produce the content, your website is a significant investment. It’s not just the money that you pay for design and hosting, it’s also the time that your organisation has to put in to make it happen. Design matters; but even with the best design in the world your website will stand or fall on how easy it is to find – and how well it engages and persuades your target customers. Creating readable, engaging, persuasive and search-friendly content is quite an undertaking. Are you confident that you have the skills in-house to do all of that?

Why this matters: Writing is a bit like driving: people are reluctant to admit that somebody may be better at it than they are. But, while I can drive, I’m happy to acknowledge that Lewis Hamilton is a better driver than me (there, I’ve said it). Choosing to write your own content might be like Mercedes asking me to drive their F1 car – both likely to result in a big crash and disappointment!

Photo: Paco CT via Compfight

Richard Hussey Freelance Copywriter South West England

Richard Hussey, Owner, RSH Copywriting

I help smaller businesses market themselves effectively online through better website content, blogging and social media. Call me on 01823 674167 to find out how I can help you. I’m always happy to chat and explore opportunities without any pressure or expectation.

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Why you Need an Online Content Strategy

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Anything that can take a website from getting virtually no traffic to getting several hundred hits per month has to be worth looking at. This type of experience is actually typical for businesses which adopt a well planned online content strategy. And yet, increased website traffic is just one reason that businesses should think seriously about a coherent plan for publishing and distributing online content.

Content Marketing Strategy

Frits Ahlefeldt-Laurvig via Compfight

Are you getting found on the web?

But let’s deal with the traffic issue first. As the internet gets more crowded, setting up a website and hoping people find it through searches is becoming an increasingly misguided approach. No matter how good your on-site Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), it’s still getting more difficult to get found by search alone – unless you are a really big player or in a very narrow niche market.

The value of publishing online content is that you are putting highly relevant and interesting  information in front of people and inviting them to read it. In doing so they link back to your site. These ‘hits’ would otherwise require somebody to decide they need your services and type something into Google that hopefully matches the keywords you have chosen.

Some businesses, copywriting included, don’t naturally generate a lot of search traffic. They need to stimulate website visits. And even for businesses where internet searches are more common, competition for page 1 ranking is likely to be stiff. Getting your share of this natural or organic search traffic can be challenging.

Your content is your SEO

Which brings me to the next big reason for implementing an online content strategy. The Google search ranking algorithms place an increasingly high importance on the number of links to your site, how much your content is shared, and your social media presence. Your ranking is determined by many things that go on outside of your site. You could say that your content strategy should be part and parcel of your SEO strategy. Without publishing regular content, and without generating activity around your site, a high Google ranking will get harder to achieve.

Use content to grow your business

Of course, it’s not just about traffic. The idea is to generate business. One limitation with a static ‘brochure’ website is that, just like a printed brochure, there’s a limit to how much you can say. They can also go out of date. An active blog allows you to look at your services from a variety of angles, illustrating different ways that you add value to your customers.

Blogs naturally keep pace with changes in the market place because you are continually adding new content. Get it right and you can appear ‘ahead of the game’, knowledgeable and focused on your customers’ needs. The resulting increased awareness and trust is a great platform for future sales. Here are a few things to consider when developing an online content strategy:

1. Brand Values. The important messages that sum up what your business stands for need to be reinforced consistently. If you don’t know what these are you may have a bigger problem than a lack of a content strategy.

2. Target products or services. If there are more profitable parts of your business or specific areas you are looking to grow, focus on these.

3. Target customers. Who are they, what’s important to them, what’s the best way to reach them? No point putting stuff all over Facebook if your target customers are on LinkedIn!

4. Key Messages. For each of your target services and your target customers there will be critical messages that you want to get across. These illustrate how what you do and how you do it add real value.

Spend a bit of time analysing these four areas and you should come out with a pretty clear idea of what you need to say, the tools you will use, and the media you will need to spread your message.

Richard Hussey is the owner of RSH Copywriting, which helps small and medium sized businesses achieve results through targeted written content. Find out more.

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What’s the Link Between the Hibu Share Price and Your Website Content?

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In case you don’t know, Hibu used to be called Yell. Back in 2007 its shares were selling for over £6 each. Today they are virtually worthless and the company is in urgent discussions with creditors about rescheduling debts. What’s this got to do with your website content? In a word: Google!

Google loves content

Don’t be fooled by the ducks. Google’s friendly off-beat image has helped it conquer the on-line search market

Creative Commons License Yahoo! Blog via Compfight

Put simply, people increasingly go to Google when they are looking for products and services, rather than on-line directories. So if you want to be found on-line you’d better be playing by Google’s rules. And Google’s rules are increasingly about content: Is it original? Is it current? Is it being read? And do people value it?

Optimised website content

It’s easy to glaze over when people start talking about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) – I know, I’ve seen it happen. Sometimes smaller businesses assume that it’s all highly technical and they’ll never understand it. Consequently, optimising website content for search engines becomes a task that gets put off for another day.

While SEO can get very technical, some aspects of it are more straightforward. As straightforward as understanding your customers, for example. Understanding what words somebody looking for your services is going to type into the Google search box is fundamental to getting your content noticed.

The more specific you can make your keywords, the more likely you are to rank highly in a search performed by somebody who is likely to buy from you.

Website Content – things to consider

If you are targeting specific market niches or locations – this is where you need to focus. Often there’s no point trying to optimise your content for the whole of the marketplace. You’ll probably just find many sites using similar combinations of keywords competing for the same ranking. An extreme example to illustrate: If you only want to sell small red chairs to people in Devon and Somerset, there is no point trying to optimise your content around ‘furniture’ or even just ‘chairs’.

If you have a broader range of products or target markets, you might need to split your content across several pages. That way each one can be targeted at specific types of customer and the searches they will be making. But never copy blocks of text between pages (to target different locations for example). Google does not like duplicated text. This also applies to content that is the same or similar to other people’s sites.

Optimising is not stuffing

Your content needs to be natural and readable. A keyword density of more than about 4% will count against you, so use keywords wisely. Also, if you have a combination of targeted keywords try to use them as a single phrase as close as possible to what you expect somebody to type into a search box. If you need some guidance, have a look at the Google Adwords tool which provides data based on the terms people are actually using for similar or related searches.

On-line content – keep it current

Playing by Google’s rules also means not letting your content stagnate. Google has programmes that crawl over your site trying to understand what it’s about and looking for when it was last updated. It makes an assumption that old content will be less interesting to users and relegates sites accordingly.

Google also wants to know whether people are reading and sharing your content. A blogging strategy based on things which interest your target audience is becoming essential for many businesses.

If achieving page 1 ranking is absolutely essential for your business it might well be worth considering hiring a reputable SEO consultant. But even without this expense there are many straightforward things you can do with your website content to improve the number of relevant visits it gets.

Google’s fundamental rule is that it wants to serve its users by returning search results that are relevant, useful and interesting. This could be a good place to start.

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Should start-ups be our marketing gurus?

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Are business start-ups better at marketing than large enterprises?

This question was prompted by an article by a media professor that I read recently.  His contention was that large enterprises often become internally focused, bound up in their own culture, products, technology and jargon.  As a result they lose the ability to see their business through their customers’ eyes.  Start-ups, on the other hand, do a much better job.

There is some truth in his views about larger enterprises.  I was less sure, however, about his view that start-up business are inherently highly customer focused and, therefore, better at marketing than large enterprises.

Here’s my unscientific view.  Owners of successful start-ups I’ve met are almost always excellent at face-to-face marketing.  Enthusiasm, specific knowledge and charisma get you a long way when getting a business off the ground.

The difficulty starts when companies grow beyond the size where continued growth can be achieved just by meeting and persuading enough people.  Suddenly, putting across your capabilities, passion and commitment are much harder.  Whether companies are using on-line or off-line marketing, words become very important.  How do you take all of that stuff that you tell people, and that ‘marketing charisma’ and put it into a website, brochure or marketing email?  And put it into a logical structure using language that your audience can relate to?

This is where I think many growing small businesses take too long to recognise they need specialist help, and lose growth opportunities as a result.  Help doesn’t always mean spending a fortune on branding; often a modest investment in finding the right words to connect with the potential customers you haven’t met can give you a massive pay back.

So my first advice for a small business that has seen its growth stalling is to take a hard look at your website and marketing materials.  Ask yourself whether these are helping or hindering your progress and whether the words you use really communicate just how much you have to offer.

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SEO is Dead – Long Live the Copywriter

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OK – I’m over-emphasizing for effect. Obviously you need to understand how search engines work and how to get your site to rank as highly as possible. However, there is a wealth of informed opinion that says too much SEO can actually have a negative effect on your ranking.

How?  Well you need to think about what search engines such as Google are trying to achieve.  When we type some well chosen words into the Search box, what we want to get back are links to the sites of reputable organisations with something interesting and relevant to tell us or sell us. That’s why the Google algorithms have got much smarter at weeding out the obvious SEO tricks like keyword stuffing and meaningless reciprocal links with people you’ve never heard of.  In fact, keyword stuffing should have died with Google’s ‘Florida update’ sometime around 2003 – but sadly the practice persists.

Additionally, Google is now placing a much higher emphasis on things that happen externally, such as the number of links from respected sites.  One report I saw recently suggested that around 85% of the factors affecting your ranking happen outside of your site.  Food for thought!

How do you get these links?  Well it won’t be through ‘link farming’ – respected organisations don’t play that game.  It will come down largely to the quality of your web content and how useful other people find it.

So, the message is clear  Make sure that your site is as useful, interesting and informative as possible.  Websites that are dull, uninformative and littered with typing and grammatical errors are not the ones that folks are going to be adding to their bookmarks and sharing with their friends.

Hopefully this is a time when the skills of the copywriter will come to the fore.

If you want some further reading try this: Optimization, Over Optimization and SEO Overkill

 

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