Diamond Bar Local SEO – Foot in Mouth Consulting

Entries categorized as ‘Guest Blog’

7 SEO Copywriting Mistakes You Might Be Making

April 5, 2010 · 8 Comments

No matter how well your website is ranking in the search engines and no matter how much traffic you’re getting, if your copywriting isn’t great, you won’t get sales. Those rankings will be meaningless. And that traffic will be for nothing.

SEO copywriting is the glue that brings all your other online marketing efforts together. Without strong glue, everything unravels, and you get no results.

If you aren’t converting visitors into customers, it could be that you’re making one or more of these 7 SEO copywriting mistakes.

  1. Targeting the wrong keywords—Just because you’re ranking well doesn’t necessarily mean you’re targeting the right keywords. You want to focus your SEO efforts on keywords that draw in searchers who are in the final stages of the buying cycle. Never guess about which keywords you should be targeting. Do your research. There are several great keyword research tools online you can take advantage of.
  2. Stuffing keywords—I can’t believe I still see this mistake, but I do. Amateur SEO copywriters think that repeating the keyword as often as possible increases their chances of ranking well in the SERPs. Even if that was true (and it’s not), this method completely overlooks the fact that you need to actually convert visitors into customers. Keyword-stuffed copy doesn’t convert. Don’t just write for the search engines; write for your ideal customer as well.
  3. Making word count a priority—One SEO myth that just won’t die is that there’s some magic word count you have to hit if you want Google to rank your page properly. Some people say that you need at least 250 words; others believe it’s 400 words. The truth? It doesn’t matter. Just search for any phrase, and look at the top results. The word counts are all over the place. Instead of focusing on hitting a certain word count, just focus on writing clear, concise copy, no matter what the length.
  4. Not being focused on the consumer—One of my favorite copywriting tools is the We We Calculator. The purpose of this tool is to ensure your web copy is focused on the customer…not you. See, customers are selfish. They only care about how your products and services will benefit them. Your copy needs to use the word “you” as often as possible. Limit the use of “me”, “we”, “us”, etc. because no one really cares about you.
  5. Writing copy that’s difficult to scan—Eyetracking studies show that online users tend to scan content rather than read it. They scan in an F-shaped pattern, trying to get the gist of your copy as quickly as possible. This means you need to write copy that’s easy to scan. How can you do this? Use short paragraphs, short sentences, bulleted lists, and bolded text to highlight important information throughout.
  6. Having a weak call to action—How can you expect your website visitors to take action if you don’t tell them what action you want them to take? One thing I’ve noticed is that too many copywriters are afraid to sell. They’re constantly demeaning sales-y copy, and they’re always trying to tone down their copy. Look, I’m not saying your copy needs to read like a Billy Mays infomercial script, but let’s cut to the chase, you’re selling products and services. So, sell them! You need to have a clear, strong call to action that motivates visitors to take action now. Keep your call to action brief, and only ask visitors to take one action so you don’t overwhelm them.
  7. Not being credible—One of the biggest challenges companies experience when selling online is that customers just don’t trust them. With every word you write, you should be working toward building your credibility. Use statistics whenever possible, and it’s always a good idea to include testimonials on your website.

Take a look at your website copy. Are you making any of these mistakes?

About the Guest Author:

Gagandeep Singh works for a conversion rate optimization company Invesp and blogs about landing page templates, conversion rate optimization, SEO and affiliate marketing.


Categories: Guest Blog · Search engine optimization · content writing advice

Using Ten Words When One Will Do

March 5, 2010 · 4 Comments

Guest post by Stacey Cavanagh of Tecmark SEO Liverpool

When it comes to web content, irrespective of whether it’s sales copy, informative writing or random thoughts and musings on a blog, it should be easy reading! Reading online shouldn’t be made a tedious task and for most of us, perusing websites and blogs is a leisurely activity.

Too Much of a Good Thing

Words can be to much of a good thing..

Personally, if an article (no matter how interesting its title) starts like a rocket science manual, I’m out of there! By all means, vary your vocabulary – by the same token I hate to read posts where a blogger evidently doesn’t know another word for ‘good.’ But stretching out a word count by fluffing up the content is annoying. Concise content makes for quick reading, ideal for the busy workaholic society we live in.
Now, I’m exaggerating with the title of this post, in complaining about ten words where one will do. More often than not, my peeve comes where writers use two words in place of one. Of course, sometimes there’s a need for this and child like sentences devoid of adjectives, for example, would make for bland writing. There’s a fine line between ‘concise’ and ‘bland’ content.
So, examples?

Unnecessary adverbs and adjectives

One Lump Or Twelve

"A Sentence with to many adjectives is like Coffee with to much sugar."

There’s a time and a place for adjectives and sometimes they just sound out of place and long winded when read out loud. Take the sentence, “He was an incredibly intelligent fellow, but had an extreme lack of common sense.” When read out loud is lacks punch and crispness. A revision to, “He was an intelligent fellow, though lacked common sense,” is easier reading. That’s a 14 word sentence versus a nine word one.

Unimportant Information

If you’re writing an article on Barack Obama’s proposed health reforms, you would want to let your readers know what the changes are, how they would be affected by the changes and the obstacles the President faces. While it’s easy to wander off on a tangent at times, writing about Obama’s educational background or going into too much depth over the history of health in the US fluffs the article up and takes away from its point. After writing, read out loud and be critical. Ask yourself what the point of each sentence is and if you can’t find a purpose of a sentence, delete!

Repeated Information

Sometimes we repeat ourselves without even realizing we’ve done it. Even if you’ve worded it differently, the same point or fact made twice (even at opposite ends of an article) is just more words than necessary!

Squeeze Out More Words

Crush

Look for opportunities to crush and squeeze your verbiage. - Photo by Tomf

Once you’ve cleared out everything you think you can, read through again (preferably out loud). Look for opportunities to tighten up your sentences in ways not described above. An example could be changing:
“Whenever the Jones family got news pets, the neighbour’s children always tended to take to them quicker than the Jones boys,” to
“The next door neighbour’s children always took to the Jones’ new pets quicker than the Jones boys did.”

I know I’ve barked on about concise content here, but this should never come at the expense of meaning. The idea of concise content is saying what you need to say as tightly as possible – not about cutting points out in order to shorten a piece. Think punchy, crisp and natural sounding content and you’re well on your way to great copy.

Categories: Content · Guest Blog · content writing advice
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Creating Content for Maximum Impact

March 4, 2010 · 1 Comment

An Introduction to Psychology of Content
Guest Post by Amy C.

Content creation is one of the most dreaded aspects of existing online for majority of the internet business owners.  High quality content plays a crucial role in creating a successful internet business.   Poorly written content results in poor readership, and thereby, fewer sales.

Here are 3 wickedly effective techniques to create content in a way that instantly establishes the connection between you and the reader:

Start off with what your readers already knows.

Start with the familiar

Expand from there on to what they don’t know.   Milton Erickson, founding president of American society of clinical hypnosis, often lead his patients from what they know to what they didn’t know. This approach of presenting information increases your readers’ receptivity to your information and establishes a sub-conscious rapport between you and your readers.

Draw Out Your Readers

Well written content educates the reader by drawing the information out of readers mind.   Education originated from the Latin word “educare”, which means “drawing out from within”.  A story or a metaphor is perfect medium to let your readers “draws out” the information from their subconscious mind.  When you start telling the story or present a metaphor, the mind lets its defenses down and opens up.

Create “Aha” Moments

Valuable content is the content that creates “aha” moments.  It restructures and interconnects the existing beliefs and concepts.  When these concepts and beliefs integrate with an experience, it creates understanding.  Taking your readers to this point of understanding should be the ultimate goal of content-creation.  If you just leave your readers with insightful ideas, but don’t offer them any examples, their “aha!” moments never fully converge into an understanding.

Frame Your Content Effectively

Frame Your Content Effectively

Frame your Content

When content is presented with a well-designed frame, it becomes potent.   What the content is framed with decides the “stickiness” of the concepts presented in that content.  When you create content based on factors described above, your content draws your readers inside their mind and helps them absorb the information more effectively.

About the Author
Amy  C. is a consultant for a Phoenix Internet Marketing firm, Niche Solutions, LLC.  She is a full time business student as well as an entrepreneur in the niche of Tabletop fountains.  Amy invites you to browse her most recently launched collection of decorative solar fountains

Categories: Content · Guest Blog · content writing advice
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Blog is a Four Letter Word

February 27, 2010 · 1 Comment

- Guest post By Erin Rivera

A personal blog is, to me, a misnomer. Other than being in the drivers seat as to its contents, what’s so personal about it? Isn’t the point to reach other readers?  Because honestly if I just wanted a personal diary, I’d still keep it between my mattress and box springs.  And I’m not gonna lie… even at my age, it would have unicorns or ponies on the cover and a cute little plastic padlock that couldn’t keep a two-year old out.  Whether it’s posting personal photos, articles I find interesting, music recommendations or random ramblings, my primary audience is friends and family.

But let’s face it. Branching out from that and reaching strangers who want to read what you have to say has its appeal.  And with user friendly operating systems and the plethora of blogging sites out there to get you started, it’s so easy for almost anyone to get into blogging.

If you’re like most people, you want to make your blog special. You want yours to stand out. Or at the very least, as in my case, I want to enjoy looking at it. Because if I enjoy it, then the friends, family and occasional stranger who stumbles across it just might enjoy looking at it as well.

The basic templates available to users are fine for getting started. But who wants a blog that looks like (potentially) thousands of others?  So you have to get creative.  In the interest of full disclosure, I did cheat a bit.  Being barely conversational in html, I usually turn to my lovely sister-in-law for assistance. She’s responsible for my newest blog layout and can read code like she’s reading an elementary schoolbook.  But what to do when she’s not available? (The Holy See of search engines, Google, doesn’t even need to be pushed here, right?) So aside from bumbling around with trial and error,  has some great advice and straight-forward instruction for html, graphics, and coding of all sorts. I’m even tempted to delve into their Java tutorials next.

Another site I found helpful when first starting out was (http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2009/02/04/starting-a-blog-12-ideas-for-blog-posts/) I find #12 especially amusing given my present task, but I vehemently disagree with #6.  That just seems like dirty pool to me.

So go forth and blog. It’s simple enough to do, and hey, it’s the interwebz.  That means someone, somewhere, will probably want to read what you have to say.  And if you feel so inclined, stop by, say “hi,” and listen to the birds.

Categories: Guest Blog · Opinion · Random · social media
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Don’t Forget Onsite Optimization!

February 23, 2010 · Leave a Comment

Guest Post By Brian Harnish of Artistic SEO [commentary by Jeremy Rivera]

While many of us in online marketing are SEOs and work on a full time basis with web sites, and keeping ourselvesHTML - The Backbone of Web Sites updated with tons of articles from everywhere on the interwebs, it’s possible for some of us to lose track of the basics from time to time.  That’s why it never hurts to review the basics [of onsite search engine optimization] every once in awhile to keep our foundation strong and hopefully never forget these essentials to ranking well!

Title

This may be a no-brainer but there are still a few web sites I’ve been to that have even neglected to add their title!  Or, they leave an obvious default title that is not going to help anyone who’s searching on Google find the site.  It’s important to have a good well-written title!  The function of the title tag is to tell search engines what the page is actually about.  So, be sure to have your major keywords in the title, at the very least.  The title should be around 50-60 characters at the most.

Meta Description

A well-crafted Meta Description is another important on site item on your page.  This is essential because it does 2 things at once:  it tells potential clients running across your listing on search engines what your page is about, and can help convert a lead by enticing clients to click on the link and move forward into your site.  However, it really isn’t used by Google to that much as far as keywords are concerned.  Keep the description to 150-160 characters.

H1s, H2s, H3s

These are all header tags.  They need to be a part of the page because keywords and descriptions within these header tags tell Google what is actually on the page.  It helps to establish a page structure/hierarchy that will actually help your rankings. [Header tags also help break up the various topics on the page for the user, so it makes for a much easier experience.]

Internal Linking

Internal Linking Examples This is another important page item.  Using appropriate internal linking does 2 things at once – it tells people what’s behind a link on a page, and it tells the search engines what to follow, what not to follow, what to index, and what not to index.  In short, links are the backbone of the world wide web.  Without links, you can’t expect Google to do much in terms of spidering and indexing your site.  Use links with anchor text that accurately describes the name of the page.  It’s important not to mislead your users or search engines, as doing so can raise red flags that your site may possibly be considered spam.

Keyword Mentions On the page

There is an age old myth in SEO that’s based on keyword density.  The keyword density myth includes requirements that claim anything from a 10% keyword density to more than 25% keyword density is a ranking factor and can get you ranked.  In all of my experience as an SEO, I have not seen this to be true.  One or two mentions of a targeted keyword on a single page is really all you need.  Anything more than that is unnecessary. [SEO Moz did an excellent article on keyword targeting that deserves a read]

Images

This may be the last thing that you think of when it comes to basics, but it’s probably one of the most important.  If you create images for your site and they take too long to load, that can cause search engines to spider your site more slowly than they would have otherwise, leading to slow site load times and other issues that can have a negative effect on your rankings.  In addition, it can cause a high bounce rate, a major limiting factor when it comes to increasing your lead conversions.  Instead, always ensure that you optimize your images for the fastest download times.  This will make it easier on both your users and search engine spiders who spider your site. [Additionally, if you're adding images, be sure to upload them with appropriate file names. A project I assisted with had a background image labeled skeleton.jpg, and 4 months later it was ranking for "skeleton in desert", "jack skeleton" and other terms, when there was no other reference at all on site in meta text or text about "skeleton".]

Image Alt Text

This is usually incorrectly referred to as the image alt tag.  It’s not actually a tag.  It’s theBlueprints for Building the Web alternate text attribute of the image tag.  The reason it’s an attribute is because it’s something that you add to the image tag that tells it what to call the image.  See, by default Google does not read images – while they may spider and index them by file name, Google sees images as a blank space on the page.  So, you need to have some kind of text that appears in place of the image to tell the search engine what’s really there.  Enter image alt text.  Keyword rich, appropriate image alt text can actually help your rankings.  But, be sure that it describes the image itself and isn’t just laced with a number of keyword repetitions that are useless to the user.

Valid coding practices

This is true whether you’re a designer, SEO, or developer.  You need to have good coding on your site.  If you don’t or you’re not sure, then you’d best get over to the W3C and crack open your site with their HTML validator to ensure that you have valid code.  Or, you can utilize any of the cheap or free HTML validator software that’s available online.  Valid code ensures that your site design is going to work on many modern browsers on the market. [Remember that with all of the various browsers, and various versions of those browsers that site rendering may be different on each platform, and browser specific elements can be established in your CSS code to adjust for this. Additionally, more outdated browsers are now getting messages from places like Twitter that their browser is outdated, and should be updated.]

These are essential basics [for onsite optimization] that must be on your site to help it rank well.  Even if you know these by heart already, it’s always a good idea to review them from time to time to ensure that you’re optimizing your web sites correctly.  Remember – only you can prevent web site penalties!

Categories: Guest Blog · Opinion · Search engine advice · Search engine optimization
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Thoughts on Local Search

March 3, 2009 · 4 Comments

Recently I did a guest blog post about Taking your Local Search to the next level of awesomeness. While researching into the impact of local search on small businesses I had the pleasure of talking to Todd Butcher of Pepperjam, who had some great ideas about local search. I did quote some of his thoughts in that article but thought that the rest of his ideas would be very helpful to businesses interested in local search.

Question: Given that fact that Yellow Pages, Super Pages, Yelp and other “yellow page” type services now include geo tagging, address, and often a map of a business location, would you say that getting these entries could
be helpful in your organic rankings, if you have a geographically
centered Keyword?

Todd: If a business cares at all about local search, they have to go after these entries. Here is why: First, if a searcher is sophisticated enough to actually search with a geotargeted term, the local results are the first thing you see on the SERPS. In addition, for many local listings there are sub categories linking off to sites that google feels provide valuable information about that business.

Quality Local Information

This means that sites which are acting as local aggregators of business information are going to motivated to provide thorough and accurate information to be listed there. This will greatly improve the overall search experience.

Google is Getting Geographic

Second, it seems many people simply search a term like “pizza” or “car dealer”. Search on these terms and Google will ask you to enter a zip code to better refine your search locally. This is just another example of the importance that is being placed on local results.

Also, I think Google is trying to take the emphasis away from other aggregators like Superpages and try to keep it all “in house” so to speak. For that reason, I think it’s important now more than ever for the 100% local business to position themselves to take advantage of these local results.

Advice for Local Business Owners

The bottom line is, if you are a local business, it doesn’t make sense to go after broad keywords. Geotarget. Do everything you can to get listed in these results. Of course, to make sure your site shows up in these results is a whole other SEO discussion.

Categories: Geographically sensitive keywords · Guest Blog · Search engine advice · Search engine optimization · link building
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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

Blog vs. Brochure Optimization Comparison Chart
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.

Categories: Guest Blog · content writing advice
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Tips for New Content Writers

December 2, 2008 · 7 Comments

erinmaherErin Maher is a blogger who gives us all great tips on blogging,was kind enough to answer some of my questions and give some advice for those just starting writing content for their website.

If you’re starting a static website(Vs. a blog), do you think it’s best to wait until you can start with a full compliment of pages, or to launch sooner and then build up over time?

I’m a firm believer that you should launch as soon as possible. The worst thing that can happen is that your site will be the worst site to ever exist. It might/probably will/most assuredly will be. But there are a million things you might have to do before it stops sucking. We learn more from failure than success, so get the failing/sucking over quickly. I mean, come on, you’re not the type to pull a band-aid off slowly, in other words, a total baby? Of course not! So start early, be humble, learn, grow, get feedback and develop from there.

If you were giving advice to someone starting a site from 0, what link resources would you say are most important to start building your online presence?

My site is not even 6 months old, but I’ve had the best progress from commenting on others’ sites who I admire, building up relationships and learning from them. The key is that these communications need to be genuine, and then already established individuals are happy to help you out. I also found interesting/helpful content on www.problogger.com, www.menwithpens.com and www.becomeablogger.com, the last one which has video tutorials.

Which social platforms should a new site owner participate in first?

It would be good to look into where your niche goes. I heard Sphinn is a good place for bloggers, Digg and StumbleUpon is very wide and general. I participate on facebook, Twitter, and am branching out to develop my LinkedIn profile, as well as StumbleUpon (:)based on your recommendation). At first I found social platforms a little overwhelming and scary, but I’m finding a terrific crowd on Twitter. It’s really simple, good for a lot of info and some laughs.

Any other random advice for new website owners?

Be hilarious. Or just not stuffy. The web is an impersonal medium, so letting personality shine through like the glorious rays of the sun parting the clouds is good. Letting your humorous anecdotes split forth into the internet like the Earth does in The Land Before Time. Let all readers bow in gratitude and good spirits, like gracious dinosaurs on the ridge of the paradise that is your site.

Update: Found a really great related post about new bloggers driving traffic to their site.

Categories: Content · Guest Blog · content writing advice
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