Search engines try to view websites like people to better understand what the sites are about, how relevant they are to the search queries, what the intent is behind them and so forth. It means that you need to make the site relevant to your target audience, which will also help the search engines.
To use words naturally, you need to know your audience by:
In terms of making the website relevant to your customers, you need to know their needs, values and what words they use, when thinking and talking about your product
To create the website and pages that your visitors will understand, you also need to place the words where the visitors will see them, such as in the:
If a page has the keyword you are targetting in all of the above points, then the visitor will understand that the page is at least related to it or maybe even about the subject. So will the search engines, which will drive targeted traffic to your website.
Once you know the words you need to use and where to place them, you can get to work:
You simply need to write for the people, about how easily they'll get what they came for and how to get it. The search engines will follow.
You may wonder, "Why should I write for the people, not for the search engines, since they rank the websites?" That's a good question. The thing is, that though the search engines index and rank websites, people choose which website to visit by checking the page title (tag) and the snippet they see underneat (taken from meta description or from the page), so you need to make the page human friendly.
Also, it is humans who pay your bills, and you need to make sure that visitors actually convert to customers and you can only do that with human and value focused approach. Remember: the search engines follow how humans view and value websites, not the other way around.
But simply having the words your visitors know and can relate to doesn't end what you can do to help them find what they want on your website. You can also use:
In essence, you need to use the words to inspire people action that interests them and where you can assist them. Of course, you need to have the udnerlying offers, technologies and content to make this possible, but this is another topic altogether.
Generally, the whole optimization thing is about making it easy for people to find what they want. If you provide what people want and make it easy to find it on your website, you've got a conversion or even a sale. Using words that your customers use is just one of the tactics to make this happen.
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]]>Use this 'how to write titles' list to build your readership:
Use this 'how to write titles' list to build your readership:
And while you are there, thank Lyndon for this great advice!
I'd personally use these two lists with all the most powerful headling formulas. Write titles like a wizard!
A must read for anyone in writing, definitely.
and many more.
When you tell your potential customers to use the product they need, because it'll make their life easier, most likely, you are describing their reality. Of course, it closely matches to yours, as you should be interested in what you are selling.
]]>When you tell your potential customers to use the product they need, because it'll make their life easier, most likely, you are describing their reality. Of course, it closely matches to yours, as you should be interested in what you are selling.
If you are lying or use less appealing reasons, the people stop believing you.
The thing is, instead of just considering the customer for the reality check, you can check everything else around you and how precisely you describe it.
Describing obvious things probably won't get you wreaths, but stating the things that people take for granted, unexpected stuff, as well as new and, possibly, controversial, will get you noticed and appreciated.
It is more about the objective reality, than the customer's reality. Not that you shouldn't pay attention to the latter, of course, but the objective one includes everything. The question is, of course, to see the objective.
Allow me to demonstrate.
Instead of saying:
"In the blogosphere, only a small percentage of blog readers actually write blogs."
you could write:
"There's a noticeable chance that you don't write to a blog."
Immediately you recognize that the address of the sentence was changed: from some anonymous readers to you. While this is a great tip to use, to write personally, that copywriters have known for a while, it closely ties to the reader's and the overall reality.
If you simply state the obvious, which was taken for granted before, you may get a chuckle from the person you write/talk to, but that's better than a blank stare or "Yeah, I know, go on".
This isn't limited to just copywriting, but marketing. You can honestly say:
As the people will immediately recognize a connection to their lives with the message (any message), they'll connect to the product, company, blog, you name it.
Right now, I can't give many exact examples, because I've just had this idea and wanted to share it with you. But when you notice a chance to describe something more precisely, most likely, you'll connect better with your readers.
Stuff to read:
Reality TV is the new Dot Com
Shark Attack!
Yes, I like Seth, but who doesn't.
]]>Nowadays, linkbait is some kind of content, created with the intent of getting links. Most effective linkbaits are build on delivering great content, tools and such.
]]>Nowadays, linkbait is some kind of content, created with the intent of getting links. Most effective linkbaits are build on delivering great content, tools and such.
But back in the days linkbait was just another word for 'link-worthy content'. And in my opinion, that's what a good website should have: something amazingly useful for the audience, links or no links.
Thus, when you read the articles below (and you may be familiar with some of them), you should first remember about your audience, visitors, potential customers and whoever you may be running the site for. You need to know your audience and create something they desperately need and can use, with your help. That'll get some attention.
The posts below list various ways that you can go to create great content for your people.
Some link-bait attempts are simply aimed at gathering links, either by running a contest of sorts, spreading a badge or simply asking people to link to you (mostly works on blogs).
A good example of this could be this very post of Jim Boykin, who's running a contest to anyone, who links to that very post. The winner will get We Build Pages prizes and $720 worth of ads.
While some people think that linkbait is focused on links, yours should really be focused on creating value on your website for your visitors. Needless to say, spreading the news about the content is quite an important step of benefiting from it.
Usually, it involves:
Ideally, the content should spread itself. But it doesn't happen. You need to share your great value with others - only with this attitude you can succeed.
Once your site gets popular on one of the social sites, it may get popular on another, because many people have accounts there, too.
While I am not savvy enough to talk about my experience of spreading link-worthy content (I should be doing more of this, really), some of the articles have sufficient information for you to get your toes wet.
Sometimes, it is better to see, than to hear a story 100 times. Here are some examples of well-written content and successful promotion:
As you might notice from the examples, the posts/tools are so great, that they were naturally accepted by the audience. Perhaps, some authors only wanted links. But the rules of the game are that only valuable information/tools get popular, because the people want to read/use them. In the end, only the quality matters - and how you distribute it, too.
No matter what other webmasters say about 'links, more links and linkbaiting', you'd rather still be focused on creating something valuable for your audience. Only in this case you'll find unique ways of delivering value that others haven't thought about. Links come after value, not visa versa.
P.S. Anyone else wants to go back to 'link worthy content' 'great content' instead of 'linkbait'? People are not fish, they are people.
But how do you make your site visitors stay? First you have to attract them to visit your website. Then think of ways to keep them on your website. Here are some of the most powerful techniques on how to entice your site visitors and hook them up to your website:
Research shows that long and friendly sales copy attract more visitors. Aside from that, it has a higher chance of converting site visitors into paying online customers. But writing a long copy is a challenge. You must be able to make it as interesting as possible. The secret is to make it appear like a friendly conversation rather than a technical sales piece.
It takes a technique to keep the online surfers stay on your site. One way of doing this is to make them comfortable in your website. You can do this by maintaining a conversational level with them. However, you must remember that you must be conversational yet also interesting enough to attract them.
Your website content must be conversational in nature. It should appear to be more like a friendly letter than an obvious sales pitch. Conversational content creates a meaningful connection between your website and its visitors. It somehow entertains the site visitors, at the same time; it provides them with relevant information.
Why is it important that you keep your site visitors' interest high? By doing this, you have the guarantee that they will keep on reading your content until such time that you will be able to draw out a positive response from them - which is of course, sales! Each part of your website must constantly lead the site visitors to further explore your website.
How can you make your visitors respond to your website content or sales piece? The secret is having a longer sales copy. A longer sales copy gives your site visitors more chances to either agree or disagree with what you say.
Your target market's field of passion must be your guiding factor in determining what method to use in terms of attracting them. Knowing what your visitors take pleasure from will give you considerable ideas on how to develop your website's content and how to design your website effectively.
It is important that your website contain a unique and creative content. This type of content will put an edge over your website compared to other sites. Although going beyond the ordinary and natural will be taking a risk, it will be worth it. There are a number of websites that puts the credit of their high rank on the uniqueness of the content.
These simple steps give you a guarantee that your site visitors will stay. They will be tempted to stay because they know they will learn more if they do and because your site's content interests them. And what's more, the longer they stay in your website, the higher is your chance to convert them into customers. This only means one thing: higher sales for your website.
This article is written by nPresence an online web marketing agency that specializes in Search Engine Optimization, Pay Per Click advertising, Content Management Systems, Web Design, Conversion Tracking and Analysis. For all your all your web marketing needs, please see Web Marketing Services.
]]>Of course, there are many more factors that just language simplicity. So many people, so many places they live and so different is the education they get. Each of your site readers will have its own word vocabulary and will or will not understand something you speak about on your blog. What can you do to improve the situation?
First of all, you should learn to express your thoughts clearly. This not only involves consecutive, logical placement of words and sentences, but also of paragraphs as well. You can learn this by expessing your ideas when talking with real people or by writing anything you can come up with (your personal blog, corporate blog, site content, etc).
Secondly, you'll need to use the words that the least educated person on your blog will understand. This will ensure that everyone will understand what you are talking about (provided you have expressed your thoughts clearly, of course).
Thirdly, you'll need to format your text to make it readable. It will be partially well formatted by logical writing, but you'll need to make sure the text is formatted specifically for the Web, too. This usually involves simpler sentences and paragraphs, subheadings, lists, emphases, etc.
Of course, what you write about matters, too. If you write about some advanced things that only real experts can ponder about, you are risking losing a part of your readership. Let's see how you can keep everyone enjoying your writings.
To keep your less industry savvy readers absorbing what you wrote, you'll need to word everything carefully. This involves all the three techniques from above.
You not only need to explain complex things easily, so that your grandma could understand it, but you have to use the words your less savvy readers can understand. And you have to make your text readable, as well.
The advantage of this technique is that you can keep writing about what you want to write (the advanced material), while keeping both newbies and experts happy.
Of course, the major benefit is that your readers will undertand what you are talking about. They'll be able to comment on the issue on your blog, send you e-mails or continue discussing it with you on the forums.
Another advantage of writing simple is that the readers will read your text to the end. This is an often overlooked aspect that many writers neglect. In real copywriting, you need to write a sentence with the only purpose of the next sentence to be read. And so on.
Yet another benefit of using natural language is traffic. If you use the words other people use, along with the synonyms, when talking about your topics, you'll notice that those very people will find you easier from the search engines. Take it as a bonus.
Whatever you write, you can make it more appealing to your readers by writing naturally and using as simple language as you can get. If you also put it in a readable format, you'll be not only make your readers glow with pleasure, but get the benefits of such writing, as well.
Read an example of confusing writing from Seth Godin and why using old words is important from Jakob Nielsen.
]]>Actually, this is all pretty simple. People are only interested in them - even when they are seemingly interested in others. Oh wait. Let's put it this way: you are only interested in yourself - even when you are seemingly interested in others.
Notice the difference?
]]>Actually, this is all pretty simple. People are only interested in them - even when they are seemingly interested in others. Oh wait. Let's put it this way: you are only interested in yourself - even when you are seemingly interested in others.
Notice the difference?
Direct address - that's what some linguistic geeks tend to call it - is when you speak to a person directly. It naturally prompts the person to pay attention to what you are saying. If you say something important, it makes sure you are heard.
If you write for no one in particular - for your "average customer", you'd rather be clearly knowing who you write for. The first step of knowing that is to learn who your customers are. The next one is to imagining as if you write for a single, specific person.
Sometimes, you may not have someone specific, in which case, a persona will do. When you don't have one, you can write for your best customer. Why not for an average one? Because you'll want to get the best business you can get without trying to appeal to everyone with your single piece of text.
The more detailed your picture of your best customer is, the more interesting, intricate and fascinating your copy will be. Obviously, the more appealing and useful it will be for your customers.
Tell the most important things to your customers straight away. Don't pollute the screen with ramblings, excessive comments or anything not related to the target of the copy/text/article. This should keep your readers interested and motivated enough to stick to the end.
Often, this means speaking honestly, even if it can hurt you in one way or another. But speaking sincerely with your potential customers will win trust and, hopefully, admiration among your customers, which is high valuable.
In essence, you need to know and remember who you write for. Apart from knowing the needs of your customers and how to format the text, you need to make sure your message gets through and evokes a reaction, which is beneficial to the customer and desired by you.
]]>Writing valuable content for your site can get you more targeted traffic and help you to increase conversions. Here is why:
]]>Writing valuable content for your site can get you more targeted traffic and help you to increase conversions. Here is why:
The most interesting thing is that when you get more word of mouth advertising, incoming links, you will get more visitors, which will also recommend your site to other people and will link to your site gladly, thus generating the snowball effect. The more valuable content (snow) you create, the greater your success (avalanche) will be.
There may be different kinds of content that may be of interest to your visitors, however there is only main principle: the content is aimed to provide value. Here are various kinds of content that you may place on your site:
Though the type of content may be limited within hundreds of options, each site can get a wealth of unique, quality content, because in itself, each site is unique and their owners have their own views on their product or service. Thus, it may be guaranteed that any site can build a lot of attractive, valuable content easily.
Update: To prove my words, here is an example of content ideas what one could write about tooth picks.
As the information is aimed to help the visitor, to keep readers interested, it should be written in a neutral or personal style, perhaps injecting some light humor, a couple of puns, jokes or allusions here and there. The most important point is, though, to provide extreme value to the visitor.
The piece of content should be written, addressing the problem from various points, analyzing it, probing it here and there and giving the reader tips on how to best do for something him/herself. This can be achieved on focusing on the benefits to the reader, talking directly to his needs and offering various effective ways of accomplishment.
Special attention should be paid to not advertising your website, product or service within the content. This will make your piece of text advertising, which most Internet people have strong aversion to. Of course, you can mention that your product can solve a particular problem, but that's the most you can allow yourself to write.
Though creating unique, quality content for your visitors will help you to drive your targeted audience, it is also important to focus on keeping the people on your site, engaging them with it and converting them to your customers. This way both, you and the customers, get what you want: you get loyal customers and your clients get what they came for and had great experience on the Internet.
]]>Quality content is content written for the site visitors. Quality content is aimed to benefit the readers by providing information, relevant to their search query, providing educational, objective, entertaining, amusing or exciting information. The whole purpose of quality content is for the potential client use it for him- or herself.
While there may have been examples of quality content, there is little known on how to create quality content.
General principles for creating quality content are:
The benefits of quality content are:
Where to get quality content?
The best way is to write it yourself. If you don't write, start writing, because only you know what your product is about, its benefits to the people, the people, who use it, and reasons why the do that. Here's a short checklist, for now:
And, above all, once you know what to do, be patience, hard-working and responsive to what other knowledgeable people say.
Where to learn more about copywriting:
Additional information about what quality content is:
]]>Not to seem more talkative than efficient, let's examine a case of a toothpick. Here is what can be written about tooth picks:
]]>Not to seem more talkative than efficient, let's examine a case of a toothpick. Here is what can be written about tooth picks:
No, I do not have a tooth pick factory or an online store nor I use any toothpicks. I have chosen a toothpick to show that one can think up of a lot of content about anything, even about such a common, undescriptive thing as a tooth pick. And I don't want to rank for any "tooth picks" as well (though it might be amusing of course).
First of all, you can get more ideas from a thorough keyword research.
Secondly, you can ask your customers for words they use, when relating to your product. You can also ask them what information is required on your site (as simple as that) or which problems or issues interest them about your product. Of course, you'd rather offer them an incentive - a discount or free product, for instance.
Brainstorming with your colleagues may be helpful as well, just keep in mind that you know your product from the inside, while it is important to find out the words people use outside of your company. That's why customer interaction and keyword research are so important.
Also, you can think about site content with a viral aspect: what content do you need about your product to make people talk about you everywhere, link to you, etc? This may get you some off the beaten path content ideas.
You can also check the 78 ideas for additional content from Jim Boykin.
If you think your product can't be written about, leave a comment here. I'll try give you as many content ideas for it as well.
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