Content Writing Advice, Blogs Vs Brochures
January 26, 2009 15 Comments
Recently I’ve been talking a lot with Jon Henshaw of Raven SEO, and he has kindly agreed to write up a guest post on a topic I’ve been juggling for the past year. I’ve been thinking about how writing for a blog differs from a static website, and Jon was kind enough to tackle this subject and offer some excellent content writing advice and a handy guide on how to write brochure type information for static websites and how to alter your approach when you change over to your blog.
Optimizing Blog and Brochure Content for Search Engines and People
If you’re like most online copywriters, you spend your time writing copy for static marketing pages and also stay busy keeping blogs up-to-date. As you already know, the content for brochure pages and blog entries is usually very different. Whereas brochure copy usually resides on static pages that rarely change, blog entries are created more frequently, take a different tone, and can be subject to frequent updates.
Optimizing Brochure Content
The part of the site that focuses on the marketing message and rarely changes is generally called the brochure. An online brochure is essentially a series of static pages that rarely change. It’s also the first place potential customers go to learn about products and services.
Brochures require a well thought out information architecture (IA) with lots of attention given to how the navigation and URL naming scheme will be configured. The content for those pages should then be highly focused on the area of the website and the keywords specified in the page URL. When writing for brochure pages, it’s important to consider the following optimization methods:
- Page titles should be concise and keyword centric.
- Hierarchal headers should be used liberally and there should be less focus on lists.
- A keyword analysis tool, like Raven’s Keyword Analyzer, should be used to make sure copy is properly saturated with targeted terms for search engines.
- Focus should be more on internal linking and less on external linking.
- Copy length for pages should exceed 400 words.
Optimizing Blog Content
Unlike brochure pages, blogs provide an extension of a company’s personality to the public. It can also serve as an excellent source of frequent and targeted traffic. However, similar to brochure pages, attention to keywords is important.
Blogs provide the opportunity to capture long-tail search traffic that typical brochure pages can’t. Entries should range from industry opinion pieces to tutorials on how to do a particular task. Less emphasis should be placed on the perfect keyword saturation, while more emphasis should be placed on making the content fresh and interesting to the target audience. When writing blog entries, it’s important to consider the following optimization methods:
- Focus should be put on incorporating words like “How to” and “Review” in entry titles.
- Hierarchal headers and lists should be used liberally, because it helps blog readers scan and skim.
- You should write frequent entries with less words or less frequent entries with more words. Both approaches will instill a sense of expertise and passion about your blog’s subject.
- Target keywords should be incorporated within the title and copy of an entry, but don’t worry about keyword saturation. Instead, focus more on making the title and copy interesting.
- Images should be used as often as possible. They can make an entry more visually pleasing and interesting to a reader.
- You should blog about other bloggers and link to them liberally within your copy.
Quick Reference Guide for Blog and Brochure Optimization
| Website Element | Blog | Brochure |
|---|---|---|
| Page Title & Slug | Long-Tail Keyword Focus | Short-Tail Keyword Focus |
| Page Content | Occasionally Reference Services | Always Reference Services |
| Content Voice | Casual Tone | Formal Tone |
| Content Length | 200-600 Words (Depends on Freq.) | 400 Words or More |
| External Links | Frequently Link Out | Rarely Link Out |
| Internal Links | Occasionally Link In | Frequently Link In |
| Keyword Analysis | Unnecessary | Important for All Pages |
| Readability | Liberal Use of Headers and Lists | Use Headers and Occasional Lists |
| Tagging & Categorization | Keep Tags and Categories to a Minimum | Dependent On IA |
| Images | Enhances Quality of Content | Helpful for Showcasing Products |
| Press Releases | Rewrite to Conversational Tone | Can Remain Intact |
| Link Lists | Yes, in the Form of Blogrolls | No “Links” Pages! |
About Jon Henshaw
Jon Henshaw is the Product Manager and Chief Socializer for Raven’s Internet Marketing Tools. Before focusing solely on Raven, he was an Internet Strategist for Sitening, a performance based Internet marketing firm.
As Jeremy has already found out this morning prior to me writing this comment; I have had a hard time reading this particular post.
I have a really hard time relating to the post due to the word, “Brochure” used in place of what could simply be changed to, “Website” instead.
I understand that you are trying to define certain elements of a website to include the static pages and then the blog pages which change frequently but why not simply use “Static Pages” or “Pages that don’t really change” or something similar?
Brochure to many people does NOT mean website, it means a printed marketing material. I think for me personally this is one of the biggest reasons this post throws me off and makes it hard to read.
I did however enjoy the thought you put into your Optimization Comparison Chart
Oh yeah I might also add just for humor… I love how Jon suggests that with blogs that a blogger keep tags and categories to a minimum and then Jeremy adds this post under four categories and six tags.
I’d be curious to know if Jon has a personal opinion on how many categories and tags is too much, too little or just right.
@John_Jones: Brochure is common term used for offline and online content that is strictly for sales material. If you’ve only been in the online world, then it may be strange. If you’ve been in both print and digital worlds, then it may be more familiar.
Jeremy originally wanted the term static, but static pages (in the definition of static content) are way too general. You could have all kinds of static pages, some of which could be a contact form, sitemap, glossary or whatever. However, the static pages that do the marketing and selling are brochure pages or sites, which can be located within a website.
If I could change the term, I would simply call it “marketing copy” vs. “blog entries” Also, do a simple Google search for brochure website and you’ll see that I didn’t just invent the term out of thin air.
Lastly, this was a VERY general article. I could have written a books worth of details in regards to the nuances of how many categories, amount of text in regards to the type of product or service for a page, etc… This was just meant as a broad and general overview of the differences.
I am glad you liked the table thought
@Jon Henshaw
I have indeed only been an online marketer so wouldn’t come across the word ‘Brochure’ all that often if at all.
That being said and many apologies for dragging on this ‘brochure’ argument… wouldn’t it be a better decision to use something other than the word ‘brochure’ given the fact that there are more and more people like me out there that might think in the same way?
Hey Thx @Jon for the guest post, I really liked your handy dandy table setup. I initially looked at brochure and blinked but then read
“The part of the site that focuses on the marketing message and rarely changes is generally called the brochure”. I guess it’s my online only slant as well
@John Jones
Hmm I’ll have to weigh your comment about to many tags, and categories because I felt that those were pretty applicable
Wonder where the saturation point is though.
@jeremypenguin
“… wonder where the saturation point is…”
Regardless if you call SEO art or a science, your statement I quoted above is the reason I love doing what I do. There is no absolute answer to that but instead only a handful… ok a truck load of opinions on the topic of keyword density or saturation.
I’d personally trim out, “Content on Google searches” & “Content” from your categories because one isn’t entirely relevant and the other is easily assumed by the other categories.
I’d also remove, “Brochure writing” (Do a Google search for my reasoning) from your tags.
Just opinions though; don’t shoot me or make me walk home today.
@john jones
FYI Updated tags and categories
I like this article, in general, as there seem to be so many in the SEO world who don’t get the distinction between the two different types of writing and resulting SEO that goes with it.
To me, the main part of the site (which you’re calling the brochure) is the absolute, most critical part of your site. Anything you do in addition to that is extra.
Like John Jones above, I also take issue to the word “brochure” as it is used here, however. I’ve spent countless seminars trying to educate marketers that their website is absolutely NOT a brochure.
To me the difference is that a brochure presumes the reader has already asked for your information and has some idea of who you are. On the web, and search engine traffic more specifically, it can be hit or miss. Those who type in your brand name obviously do know what they’re looking for, but those who type in keywords may not know you exist.
If you write your web pages like you might in a brochure, they may never get a good feel for who you are because you may not be writing descriptively enough. Online copywriting must be as descriptive as possible in order to tell your site visitors (and the search engines) exactly what the page in question is all about.
But all in all, very good article!
I was sitting in on the SES New York 2008 Organic Search Panel
http://footinmouthdisease.net/2008/03/28/blogs-start-outpacing-static-sites-ses-new-york-organic-listings-panel/ where you were a panelist when we had brought up this topic previously. I agree that it’s a topic that seems to get overlooked when it’s very important for webmasters to remember.
I also agree with your point about having engaging content on the site, and not rely on brand recognition, as you may not actually have it
I don’t recall seeing anyone in the audience with their foot in their mouth…but it was a huge room
LOL
I enjoyed this article. Coming from the B2B world, I agree with the Brochure terminology.
One additional point about a brochure :
It is often written to be able to “stand-alone”, with no additional collateral needed to make the key selling points a for a perticular product.
I would drop the keyword density argument. Density does not matter in SEO as long as the terms are on the page. Keyword proximity on the other hand, I would pay attention to.
You can also try to make brochures a bit more dynamic, which may help a bit with ranking. I would suggest allowing comments on brochures (this assumes a blog/CMS or some other mechanism to allow this). I you put in a call to action, you will get comments, questions and feedback.
–thanks
pat
@Pat
I agree that an important point about your sales copy – whether you call it a brochure or not – is that it does need to call the visitor into action, and writing in a purely informative style may prevent you from converting clients. So while the tone is usually a bit more formal in your sales copy, vs a blog post, I would say it still needs to be able to connect, and not just provide info.
A good content management system – that is not a blog site can function to develop rankings for long and short tail keywords, It seems that a good blog site with some static content is the best way to go these days/
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Sarah