Words to the Wise

According to a report by Pew Internet & American Life Project, 49% of those who use the Internet also use search engines such as Google and Yahoo! on any given day. Sources with the project say this is an indicator of search engine users’ desire to be in the ‘driver’s seat’ and find what they want online as opposed to having it given to them passively.

I say it’s an indicator that someone’s lying to the researchers. 49%? For real?

The project began back in 2002 when, at the time, only 29% of Internet users said they used a search engine on an average day.

As for email, 60% of users claimed to use email on the average day.

I’m assuming the other 40% were lying or too busy checking email to respond the to the survey.

Also according to the report, search engine users tend to be “socially upscale” with at least some college under their belts and incomes of more than $50K a year. Younger users search more on a typical day and men are more likely to use a search engine than women…Don’t look at me. I don’t make this stuff up.

Jason Pedley is a professional SEO content copywriter based near Raleigh, North Carolina. Need SEO content that improves your online presence? Contact Jason Pedley today - mail@jasonpedley.com or (860) 886-3455.

Marketers typically break search marketing into three major pieces:

• Price (How much you’re willing to spend each time a customer clicks on your ad)
• Positioning (Where visitors will see you ad when it’s displayed)
• Phrase (The keywords and phrases that will get your ad displayed among the results)

You might want to consider adding another part to the mix though:

LANDING PAGE

I’m talking about landing pages - the place visitors land when they’ve clicked on your pay per click ad. Companies spend outrageous amounts of time and money searching for the right combination of terms and phrases for their PPC ad campaigns; monitoring and subtracting/adding new keywords and phrases as time goes on. The problem is, many companies are sending EVERY person who clicks on an ad to either one landing page, or, even worse, their home page.

The problem with this is that search engine users are typically looking for specific things like “Louis Vitton Sweater” or “iBook Charger Cable”. People who search with these specific terms don’t want to waste their time on your home page - they want to be sent to the specific content they’re looking for.

In an effective search campaign, you should be modifying your keywords when a searcher is in the “sales lane.” People who search for terms like “Buy a Vitton Sweater” are much more ready to buy than people searching for “Vitton Sweater.”

The pages these two searcher see could spell the difference between a sale and setting sail.

Simple things like lowering the number of clicks from your home page to your conversion page and conversion-optimized landing pages designed specifically for searchers can bring your conversion the front of the sales process while still allowing visitors to browse your site.

Don’t sacrifice time spent on keyword research, and budget, but do spend more time on the fourth piece of the pie: Landing Pages.

Some days, it seems like all I get in my inbox are questions. I find myself answering questions about copywriting, questions about marketing, questions about search engines.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind the questions. In fact, I welcome them…although sometimes I get people who just pick my brain with no intention of hiring me. I weed these people out with some carefully worded follow-up questions.

Regardless, I figured my blog would be a great place to talk about some of these questions and share my knowledge and experience with you. Some of the questions are technical, some are personal, and some you’ll just have to figure out for yourself.

1. What did you study in college to become a freelance copywriter? Good question. In my final year of high school, I had to decide what I would study in college. Since I truly had no idea what I wanted to be, I decided that PR would give me a foundation and skillset that I could leverage the most. But even though I studied PR, my most important lessons have been learned in life. There’s no class that teaches you how to navigate your way through the freelance world. I truly do learn something new every day.

2. Have you ever thought about leaving the world of freelance copywriting and getting a full-time job working for someone else? Yes! If any freelancer tells you otherwise, I’ll bet money their lying to impress you. While there are certainly times I think about leaving my freelance copywriting gig, these times are usually short-lived thanks to some good friends and colleagues. I’m very independent and can only work for certain types of bosses…the ones who are the most like me. Go figure.

3. What’s your methodology for reviewing websites? Good question. One of the first things I do when I review a website is to look at the message it sends. Your website either says you’re professional or you’re not. After looking at the overall message, I look at the content you have - its navigation, usefulness, purpose and length. Then I get into technical aspects, like keyword choice, title tags, descriptions, etc. If you’ve had your website reviewed and want a second opinion, let me know.

4. Do you use any special software to write copy? Not really. I use Word for 90% of the work I do. I also use a program called CopyWrite for some projects that have multiple elements, chapters etc. Some days, I just close my computer, pick up and number 2 pencil and write.

5. Why are you such a critic of podcasting? Let’s clarify here. I never said I dislike or don’t see any value in podcasting. I DO however say that there are some really BAD podcasts out there. Most podcasts are recorded by PR agencies who don’t have the time, manpower or experience to truly grasp podcasting for the opportunity that it is. Podcasts aren’t ‘off the cuff’ conversations. If they are, then chances are they’re worthless. You can view some of my other blog posts to get more of my opinion on this topic.

Nine times out of ten, you probably do a Google search hoping for results from the billions of pages that reside on the Internet. Search for Freelance Advertising and PR copywriter on Google, and you’ll probably be happy to get those 42,500 results.

But did you know you can use Google to search for certain terms on specific websites?

A real estate client of mine had a ‘problem’ with a particular property the other day. The property owner decided that my client would no longer be allowed to offer the property and even took things one step further by prohibiting my client from even mentioning the property’s name on their website.

Now, my client has nearly 1,000 pages on content on their site, so finding the instances where the property is mentioned might seem daunting. Aside from going into web development software like Dreamweaver, you can use an advanced Google search to find terms on any website you choose. You can even search particular sub-folders in the form domain.com/subfolder/subfolder1.

For example, if you wanted to find what pages on jasonpedley.com contain the word ‘copy’ in their text, description and body copy just do the following:

1. Go to google.com.
2. Click ‘advanced search‘ next to the search term field.
3. On the advanced search page, enter your search criteria, “copy”, in the fields in the first four fields.
4. Look down to the line that says “Domain” and enter jasonpedley.com.
5. Enjoy your 143 results.

You can also tell Google what part of the resulting web pages to search. The line above Domain lets you choose the following:

1. Anywhere in the page
2. In the title of the page
3. In the text of the page
4. In the URL of the page
5. In links to the page

So if you’re looking for a specific term on a specific site or in a specific location, Google’s got you covered. Again.

For me, a new year brings renewed drive and determination to give my clients the best copywriting, marketing and public relations I can at affordable rates. And that also means attracting new clients to my websites and blogs to learn more about me. Which means adding content and making sure that content is relevant to prospects and search engines alike. I’m going to give a little bit of detail about my five website suggestions for 2008 below. If you want the in-depth version, you’ll have to tune into This Hour has 22 Widgets on Wednesday, December 20th at 10:00am Eastern Time. Let’s just say I have a lot to say, and typing it would take all day.

Here are my five favorite ways to make 2008 an even better year for your website:

1. Fix the ‘little’ things in your site. Did your site designer give your website title tags like this: “About Us”, “What we Do”, “Contact Us” and “Page 5.html”? If your pages have title tags that like those, it’s time to change them. Title tags play an important role in search engine rankings and in overall marketing. When (and if) a prospect sees a page in your site listed in a bunch of search engine results, do you think “What we Do” is going to entice them to click on the link your site? Titles should be no more than 70 characters long, including spaces and your keywords or key phrase should be as close to the start of the title as possible.

Also, do you have description copy for your website pages? This is another very important tool for your online marketing.

2. Plan an online PR campaign. Got company news that you want to get out to the world? While I never discount true, person-to-person PR practices, planning an online-only PR campaign can really boost your traffic and send you qualified leads. Google the term NC Based Copywriter and you’ll see some releases from me. While the releases are not part of my site, they each link to me or describe my news and services in some way. I suggest planning on two press releases per month depending on relevant company news you have available. Obviously if you don’t have relevant news, you won’t be putting out a press releases. As for distribution, tune in to the show and I’ll give you a bit more info about that.

3. Start a blog. This couldn’t be easier, yet it is STILL seen as a daunting task for many business owners. The first major question you need to ask is where you will host your blog. Your blog acts very much like a website. With WordPress blogging software (my particular choice for two of my blogs, including this one), you can choose to have WordPres host your blog (yourblog.wordpress.com) or you can host it with a separate hosting service (www.yourblog.com or www.yourwebsite.com/blog). The difference between the two is very important. WordPress does not allow commercial information to be posted on WordPress-hosted blogs. This is why I moved my blog to my domain: jasonpedey.com/blog. This is not hard to do. Again, the blog creates relevant links to your site and products and also provides an avenue for you to create relevant content both easily and often.

4. Podcast. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Stop the sucky podcasting. I’m serious. There are still PR firms out there who think it’s cool to sit an intern with a script across the table from a C-level executive with a script and let the two read to each other while the conversation is being recorded. I don’t know why this still happens. When you podcast with me, you get interaction. Sure I’ll send you an outline of the topics we’ll cover in a podcast, but no word-by-word soap opera scripts. When you podcast with me, listeners get information with an element of entertainment, interaction and excitement. And again, podcasts are a great way to add relevant content to your site while giving people an inside look at who your company is. It’s easy and affordable and the best part is that I do most of the work. I’m talking 95% of the wrok here. All you have to do is read the overview and dial a phone number.

5. Dream big. I know each of the above counts as one idea. One blog. One podcast. One Ppress release, etc. But, that’s how big, powerful sites with lots of content are born. Imagine blogging twice a week for a year. That’s over 100 pages of relevant content for your site. Then post some press releases, articles and podcasts to your site and you have the nutrients your site needs to grow.

All of my suggestions for 2008 are within your reach. I can even help you set them up and make them happen. Don’t let another year of wanting to blog, or wanting to podcast, or wanting to do a PR campaign pass you by. Now is the time.