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website marketing is about getting
people to your site, then convincing them to take action:
buy, join, subscribe, read more, etc. I'm going to give
you the secrët to unlocking the potential in your website.
Right now. Absolutely for frëe. (Of course, if you WANT
to send monëy, feel frëe to do so!
The Secret is Words
Hmm ... not very exciting, is it? You were expecting
something flashier and unexpected probably... like special
meta tags or coding or a secrët search engine ranking
recipe. The truth is that many websites just need more
descriptive copy.
When many business owners set out to build a website,
they start by looking at images, themes, and color schemes.
They worry over technology like flash and javascrïpt,
wanting their site to be "cool" and outdo the competition.
Their focus is on the visual and the interactive elements
of the site. They pony up thousands of dollars to designers
and coders to get that cool, interactive site they feel
they must have, then they get someone in the office
who's not busy at the moment to throw together some
copy. It's almost an afterthought.
All You Need is Words
Ok, maybe that isn't all you need, but words are The
Most Important aspect of your site. The professional
that most people think they can do without -the copywriter-
is the one who can have the biggest impact on the success
of your site. No matter what your website looks like,
plain and simple or a triumph of visual graphic art,
if the words are right it will convert.
Search Engine Rankings & Customer Conversions
Search engine spiders can't read pictures. They can't
read Flash very well, although they are making strides
in that direction. The same goes for javascrïpt and
other non-html technologies; for the most part search
engine spiders ignore what they don't understand and
look for what they do understand-text.
The words that are visible to people reading the page
are the key element that search engine spiders use to
determine what your page is about. (The other key element
is links- we'll cover that in a future article.) Once
the engine knows what the page is about, they can show
that page to people who are searching for the words
found on that page. That sounds pretty simplistic, but
it's amazing how many pages only contain a picture and
a few words, or flash animations, or other non-text
items.
Sometimes the text on the page is really an image and
not text at all, making the information virtually invisible
to search engines. Some designers will tell you that
putting the text from the image into the alt attribute
of the image will solve the problem, but alt text is
virtually ignored these days by the major engines. It's
too easy to put irrelevant information in an alt attribute.
While the site owner often thinks the picture says it
all and the web designer thinks it is cutting edge,
the customer wants to know more. The web is a research
tool as well as a marketing medium and when viewing
a commercial site people want to know all the benefits,
sizes, colors, and configurations.
Words Make All the Difference
A company rents cotton candy machines in Kalamazoo,
SC. Their Cotton Candy Machine page has a big picture
of a Cotton Candy Machine with "Cotton Candy Machine-
$45" under it. Their page title says "Cotton Candy".
That's all. A searcher typing in "cotton candy machine
rental Kalamazoo" will not be able to find this page,
because the search engine doesn't know that is what
the page is about!
A potential customer who does find the page may look
at it and think, "Hmnn... the other rental place has
their machine for $40, I'll call them instead."
You need pictures and words in order to sell effectively.
The Payoff
A search engine will know that page is about cotton
candy machine rental in Kalamazoo and your customers
will know the benefits of renting from you. By taking
the time to put all the information about a product
or service and repeating the key terms where they make
sense you can:
- Help search engines to know what the page is about
- Give people a reason to buy
- Reinforce your company services or offerings
- Spend less time on the phone/sending e-mails giving
out basic information
- Identify the location for local businesses
- None of that requires a special copywriter, designer,
or programmer. You can do it yourself!
Don't be tempted to sneak in extra words... hidden text
is penalized these days and stuffing words in your image
alt attributes is a waste of time; most engines completely
disregard it. And semi-visible or tiny text looks very
unprofessional to your clients- it's just not needed.
If you can't work it into the visible copy, you don't
need it on the page.
Write a page title that reflects what the page is about,
a good meta description, keywords that appear on the
page, then put all the information you have about the
product or service on that page in visible text for
your visitors to read. If your writing skills are lacking,
hiring a web copywriter, or even better an SEO copywriter.
It may very well be the best investmënt you can make
in your web marketing strategy!
About The Author: Scottie
Claiborne - is the owner of Right Clïck Web Consulting
and the facilitator of the Successful Sites Newsletter(www.successful-sites.com).
She is a speaker at the Search Engine Strategies conferences
and the High Rankings Seminars as well as the administrator
of the High Rankings Forum.
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