A Question A Day - Will Bring Visitors?

How many times have you gone to a search engine and typed in a question? I know I do it all the time. The search engines have almost become like a "customer service representative" for the internet. You type your question and they come back with a list of places that might work for you. So why not use this to your advantage on your own website?

Become the answer they are looking for:
Why not create pages based around different questions. For example if you own a website that sells clothes for children and in your brick-and-mortar store you hear the question "What does 2T and 3T really mean in terms of size", why not create a page explaining the T system of sizing? You've now answered not only your existing customers questions but you have the chance of being found by people who may never have heard of you before.

What if I can't think of the questions:
Without a doubt there are questions in your industry, it's just a matter of finding the most valuable ones to be answered. There are new tools being offered by some companies such as WordTracker that allow you to see some of the questions people have typed into the search engines. This is extremely helpful because these questions were actually asked on a search engine, not something made-up, or guessed at. Take a few of these and there you go, some new content to add to the site.

Do I just add the pages, where do they go?
The best place to put these pages would be in a support area of your site. Even if you have to create one and it looks small at first, over time it will grow. One section could be commonly asked questions, another could be white paper downloads on your products, etc. Creating a section like this on your site is giving your visitors a resource to keep coming back to and to tell other people about. They don't have to buy anything to browse it and feel like they are getting the world.

Remember: Sometimes it's about answering the question before providing the need.

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Don't underestimate your visitors

All websites are built for a reason, and that's to have visitors be able to see it and hopefully contact you. Why then do we underestimate how smart these visitors are? Time and time again I've heard web designers, SEOs and other marketers say "but our visitors won't get that". I think that what we are forgetting who those visitors are.

Website visitors aren't just computer-illiterate users!
I know it may be hard to believe, but people who visit your website may have actually used another website before! They may have even been on other computers too! OK, enough with the sarcasm, but I honestly think that we sometimes think our website visitors are coming to our website on their first day of using a computer. But lets stop for a minute and think about who those visitors might be.

Lets say that you own an electronics store, and you sell everything from laptops to flat panel TVs on your website. Now lets consider who typically is buying these things. They are usually pretty tech savvy people, and if they aren't their friend or relative is who is helping them purchase the item. Those tech savvy users like to know the details of what makes that particular digital camera work, they want to know about the mega-pixals, zoom ratio, etc. So it would be smart of you as the store owner to provide that information.

Now what about a more simple product like clothing. Well that visitor could be anyone, but lets narrow this down a bit to baby clothing. Your typical shopper is going to be the mother/father or relative. You can bet that the expecting mother wants to know what the article of clothing was made out of, how it washes, and if it has been fire tested. So again, why not give them this information?

Too quickly, we dumb things down:
It seems that we are often times overly concerned with saving time, and dumbing things down. These things certainly have their place, for instance in an emergency you don't want an exit sign that gives every turn; rather a sign with an arrow that leads to the next sign with an arrow is much quicker and more efficient. But the last time I checked, we aren't looking for our visitors to find the quickest way out.

Providing a valuable product along with relevant information, even if it seems like "the visitor won't read it", is important. Sure, not everyone who comes to your website is going to read it, but some people will. For those people that want the information your site has just stood out from the crowd. You've provided that visitor not only with the information they were looking for but the trust that they can count on you to educate and inform them on what they are purchasing.

Quality is more important than brevity:
I would much rather have quality information that happens to be a little on the lengthy side in terms of information then have a site that is so brief on information it doesn't answer all of the visitors questions. You have to remember, these people are purchasing something from you that they could purchase somewhere else if they don't feel like you've satisfied their need, so make sure you are providing as much information as possible, not just the shortest amount of information.

Remember: You are a visitor at other sites, do you like being treated like a toddler? Probably not, so why treat your visitors that way?

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Ignite MediaLLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

How do I get my keywords into my content?

One of the biggest problems I've come across in this field is that too many times people are more concerned with making sure they have a specific keyword/phrase in their site then they are about what the content is really saying. They want to get that word/phrase in there as many times as possible without looking spammy and they could care less how well the content is put together.

The problem with this approach, other than the fact that it makes for very hard to read copy, is that you are focusing on a very small percentage of your potential traffic. Not everyone uses the word/phrase that you have chosen. Sure the keyword research shows that a good majority of the people searching for your product/service will use that phrase, but what about the rest? You certainly don't want to blow off potential visitors.

Write for your clients - not at them
When you are putting the copy together for your site you want to first write it the way you would if you were writing a letter directly to a new customer. Forget about getting certain words/phrases in there; just make sure your message is clear and to the point. Once you've done this then you can go back and see where it's appropriate to substitute one word/phrase for another. Once you've done that go back and read what you've just written to make sure it still is clear and to the point. You should be able to hand that to anyone have them read it and they should be able to explain back to you in their own words exactly what you were talking about; if they can't do that than its back to the drawing board.

Write to educate then to sell
You have to remember, the reason the internet was created was for a means to share information and research. People still use the internet to educate themselves and research what they ultimately want to purchase. When you are writing your copy remember that you want to be sure to give them enough information to make an informed decision and then you want to pitch them the sale. You can't expect that someone will buy from you just because you are selling what they want.

Remember: Copy is the foundation; if it's cracked the whole thing will come tumbling down one day.

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Too much copy or too little; What's right?

As we all know content (copy) is king, but do we all know how much is too much or too little? Does a paragraph work, or should it be 4 paragraphs? Do bullets have the same impact as sentences? There are hundreds of questions like these that come to mind when writing copy for your website.

So how much copy is enough?
That really all depends on what you are writing and for who. If your topic is structural engineering then you will probably have more than just a paragraph and some bullets. On the other hand if your topic is selling a new product, a great intro sentence or two and bulleted feature list might just be the key to more sales.

There is no definitive answer to what is right for your site. You want to be sure that you provide enough content for your website visitors to make an informed decision without inundating them with information that might be better served as a downloadable PDF.

Is there such thing as too little copy?
Yes, generally speaking if you can take someone who has no idea what you sell and have them read the copy for one of your pages and they know what it is you are selling after reading it, you have enough copy. If they are more confused or are left asking more questions then the copy is either not enough or not written clearly enough.

It is important to know that when you are writing people will read it. There is a popular saying that "no one reads on the internet" and frankly I just don't buy it. Sure, maybe they don't read as much on the interent, but they are reading something. This should be your call to create copy that is concise, powerful and informative all at the same time. Not an easy task, but one that will ultimately give your site that leg up you are looking for.

Remember: It's not about the quantity but rather the quality.

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

We started a blog, now what?

Many people are under the misconception that starting a blog will automatically increase the amount of traffic coming to your site. Wrong! A blog takes time, content and links in order to really start driving traffic. It could be weeks to months before your first reader comes along.

So what do I do to get more blog readers?
There are lots of things you can do to get more blog readers. The most important thing above all else though is to ensure that you are writing quality content. Content that means something to your target audience and isn't just a link to another post you've read, or a short one paragraph post. If you want to attract readers, you have to give them something to read!

Another good way to attract readers is to see if you can get a guest blog writer to write a post or two for you. This person should be someone who has something of value to bring to your readers (or potential readers). For example if you have a blog about surf boards and surfing you wouldn't want to get a guest writer on there talking about the newest computer software. However, you might very well want a guest writer who will write something about the ocean and the scientific aspect of the tides. This may not seem relevant to a surfing website at first, but surfers live by the tides and if they know a little more about how they react to certain things then they'll probably get some better surfing days.

How long should I wait for visitors to my blog before I give up?
That question is up to you. My feeling is that if you have something worth reading and you enjoy writing it, keep going. Even if you aren't getting tons and tons of visitors from your blog postings, you are creating new content and sharing your thoughts on your industry.

I often refer to a blog as an "online diary". It's a place that the blog author writes his/her thoughts, critiques, ideas, issues, etc on his/her industry or passion. Would you stop writing in your diary (or journal for you masculine guys), if you knew no one was ever going to read it? Then why stop writing your blog?

What if I run out of topics to blog about?
Then you aren't thinking creatively enough. There are a thousand different things you can talk about within any field. I promise you, if you asked a colleague or friend what they would want to know about your industry you would get some very interesting post ideas.

To use the surfing reference again, you don't just have to talk about surf boards and pro surfers. You can talk about the technology of the surfing industry, the locations of the surf events, etc. All you have to do is take a step back and think about your industry on a little bit broader view.

Remember: Write because you have something to say, not because you want to drive more traffic.

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

A case study for knowing your audience

Last week I read a very interesting blog post at SEOMoz. The post was titled "Colloquial Copy: When Perfect is Wrong" and was written by jkellygarrett. It is one of the most interesting and educational posts that I have read to date at this site, and most of their posts are very interesting and educational.

The post talks about jkellygarrett's brother who is in the long haul trucking business and was upset that he couldn't find a website that used to be extremely helpful for his travels. With some creative searching they were able to eventually find the site again and realized something very important. The site was SEO'd but for the wrong audience! Seems a bit like an oxymoron, that you could SEO a site for the wrong audience but indeed you can.

Instead of thinking like a trucker the company or person that did the SEO for the site was thinking and writing like you and I would write. What they must not have realized was that truckers have their own language of sorts. This language carriers over to the internet when they are doing a Google search, and they aren't about to start using other words to find what they want.

So what does this tell us? Well for one thing you have to know your audience. You have to know where they come from, how they speak, what they want, and how they search to get what they want. It's not enough to do keyword research and get a list back that tells what words the search engines find relevant for that group. It's not enough to look at statistical data. You have to realize that perhaps the group you are optimizing the site for is too small to show any relevance on those statistics or keyword lists.

In this case truckers are a group of their own. They use a different language to communicate and they probably use the internet a little differently then you and I. To optimize this site to it's fullest potential the company should have taken the time to really get to know the industry as much as possible. Then they might have realized that the direction they were thinking of going would have lead the site to a dead-end.

Remember, your audience is your customer, don't leave them out in the dark.

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Content is King. But who's job is it to get the content?

We have all heard the saying that "Content is King" when it comes to building a website and marketing it for the search engines. It makes perfect sense, the search engines index content and if you have more content on your site then you have a better chance of showing up for specific terms/phrases. But who's job should it be to get that content together?

I believe it should be a joint effort from someone that works for the company and the optimziation/marketing company that has been hired. This approach will ensure that you are building content that is relevant to the company at hand. Yes content is king, but relevant content is the supreme ruler!

Why a joint effort?
Who knows more about your business then people who work for you? Yes a search engine marketer should be able to pull information and learn about your company, but they still will not know everything. An employee can tell the search engine marketer what differntiates you from your competitor, a new product/service that is coming down the line, the largest segment of your business, and so much more. Why leave it to the search engine marketer to guess at these things when you could have more impactful content by providing them with this information?

Once that information is given to the search engine marketer then they can work their magic. They should be able to sell that product/service, and make it interesting to read about. They should be able to create keyword/phrase specific pages and sections of the website.

Remember, good content is only as good as the source from which it came. If you leave it all up to your search engine marketing company you may not be as happy as you would be if you worked with them to build out that content.

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization

Knowing Your Audience...

Everyone has heard this saying a million times "Know Your Audience", but it is probably one of the most important sayings in business. As a business owner, blog writer, employee, marketer, or any other job where you interact with customers you need to know who they are.

I don't mean you need to find out what type of food they like to eat, or what color is there favorite color. When they say "know your audience", they mean know what level and what style you are writing or speaking to them in. You never want to assume that whatever you write or say is coming across as clear as you may think it is.

Take for example a small mom and pop shop on main street USA. If they have a website for their childrens toy store and they write a weekly blog you would expect that the language would be simple, fun, and easy to read. You certainly would not want to read about the technical specifications of how each toy is put together (or at least most people wouldn't!). On the reverse side if you are a major manufacturer and your clients are engineers you would want to be sure to have technical information on how your product/service works.

Knowing your audience also helps with the search engines. The search engines pick up text from your website to display in their results page. If you are that mom and pop shop you would want to give searchers a good feeling from the moment they find out about your website (the search engine results). You only have one chance to make that first impression and every little bit counts.

Choosing your style is just that, your choice. With this blog, we have chosen to keep the style more casual and informative. Being a blog about marketing, business and internet related businesses we could certainly get into technical specifications of a website, or the statistical data about each and every market, but that is not the style we chose. You cannot please each and every visitor that will come to your blog, but you can please the type of visitor that you would like to get as a client. Sending people away isn't always a bad thing, especially if that visitor was not your ideal customer.

A good approach to take before ever writing your first word is to do some field research and see what else is out there. Take a look at the blogs and sites you like and don't like and see why it is you feel that way. Once you've done this, you should have a good idea of the style that will work for you and your business. Most importantly, have fun with it and the people reading will most likely come back to read more.

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Ignite Media LLC, Ignite Your Site™
http://www.ignite-media.com/
Website Design & Development eCommerce Development Search Engine Optimization