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It sounds easy...get a website, register the perfect domain name, submit to the search engines, and go to the bank. If only it were that simple, especially in saturated markets like insurance and financial planning. However, if approached realistically and knowledgeably, online marketing can be effective, providing excellent returns on investment. Online marketing is a broad subject, ranging from simply using a website to augment your other marketing efforts (not to be discounted), to email and drip marketing programs, to search engine optimization. The focus of this article is on using search engines to obtain maximum exposure for your firm's website. Toward that end let's discuss the following three activities: Search Engine Overview The goal of a search engine company is fairly straight forward: When a person performs a search, the searcher obtains a list of the websites deemed capable of meeting their needs as defined by the search criteria (keywords) provided. Results are ranked (and listed) based on their perceived relevancy to those keywords. The search engines accomplish this by using an automated means (spiders) of crawling through the millions of published websites in an attempt to understand the essence of what content is contained on any particular site. This information is then indexed and stored in the search engine's database, waiting to respond to a specific search request. What do search engines not like? To be tricked into producing results not relevant to the search request (see deceptive techniques). This is considered spam, and when the search engines detect spamming techniques, most will simply remove the offending website from their database. Experts widely agree that job one in making your site search engine friendly is to ensure that the essence of your website is quickly and easily understood via your website's copy (words) and content. This is good news because it is also job one in making your site Visitor friendly. When asked at a recent conference "How do I SEO (search engine optimize) my website?" a Google speaker simply replied, "write good content". Effective Copywriting ("writing good content") Imagine you are looking for a particular product or service on the Internet, but you have no idea what is available or where to start. So, like millions of people everyday, you perform an online search. You access your favorite search engine, enter your search criteria (search phrase), receive a list of prospective web sites, and begin your research. From the short list of sites that are "above the fold" (visible before needing to scroll or click to the next page), what causes you to investigate one particular site, but ignore others? Once you link to a website, what convinces you that, a) you are in the right place, and, b) persuades you to continue further? Literally in seconds, the effectiveness of the words displayed on the search results page and website has either piqued your interest, or the opportunity was missed. Let's change perspective. You have paid, either through time and energy or consulting fees, to SEO your website and it is now in one of the top ten positions on several popular search engines. Or perhaps you have purchased first page exposure through Paid Placement Advertising. If your copy and content fail to capture the interest of your perspective customers, your effort and money spent to achieve a top ranking will be wasted. Relevancy, interest, persuasion What constitutes effective copy? The first criterion is relevancy. Your potential customers have a need for products, services, or information that prompts their search. As they first scan your listing, and second (hopefully) scan your site, is it quickly apparent that their need can be met? Is it clear they are in the right place? The second criterion is the ability of your copy to stimulate the visitor's interest, encouraging your prospective customer to understand what sets your firm, your product, or your service apart from your competitors. Stated differently, your visitor becomes convinced that you are in the best position to meet their need. The third criterion is the ability of your site to encourage (persuade) the required action that moves your customer along the path toward purchase. In far too many websites, visitors are required to provide their own momentum. You need to identify the action points in your web site/process, and write accompanying text that attempts to "close the sale" for each and every point. Because potential customers can drop out at any time, your copy needs to persuade movement along your sales path. Visitors both want and expect you to encourage and enable their purchase. Recognize "required" action is defined by your customer and is determined by their needs. Perhaps your customer's need is for detailed product information, or she wants her concerns about privacy or security allayed, or she simply wants the quickest path to your shopping cart or request form. Your customer's needs vary depending on their personality and circumstance, and like a good salesperson in the offline world, your website copy and content need to anticipate and address those requirements. Content vs. Copy Copywriters differentiate between copy and content. According to Bryan Eisenberg, Jeffery Eisenberg, and Lisa Davis (Persuasive Online Copywriting): Content is the long stuff: articles, descriptions, white papers, reports, the fine print of your Privacy Policy. Copy is the stuff that is supposed to motivate your prospects to take action. Content informs. Copy persuades. Copywriting with SEO in mind The good news for those striving to accomplish SEO, is that copy and content that accomplishes all of the above is exactly what the search engines are looking for as well. Keep in mind the engine's goal is to provide relevant results to the searcher's request. A website whose essence is quickly understood by a visitor, will most likely be equally clear to the search engine. Furthermore, the methods employed to accomplish clarity for your visitor, lend themselves equally well to the purpose of SEO. For example, an interesting / relevant title and set of headings, well-organized paragraphs, and intuitive navigation are requirements for both objectives. The only difference will be the attention paid to discovery of the most relevant keywords used by people who search for your product / service, and the conscious effort to weave those keywords into your copy and content. Good content is not only critical in terms of conversion (turning visitors into customers), but it is also the most important factor in achieving high search engine ranking. And, from everything I read, copywriting for online use is different than for other media. To find out why, and more about how to write good copy, check-out the resources listed in the bibliography at the end of this article. Also, as a coming attraction, a follow-up article focused solely on copywriting will be the subject of next months Newsletter. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) As you can tell by the above, I am a strong proponent of the "provide great content and they will come" school of thought. However, I know you're thinking...enough about content already. To satisfy your hunger for SEO insight, I've listed the following specific steps, some technical, which you can take to enhance your positioning. As mentioned previously, several of the steps in fact lend direction to your copywriting efforts. Keywords Keywords are the cornerstone of your SEO effort. A Keyword is simply the word, or more accurately, phrase, that someone enters in a search engine when they search for something. Keywords are also the means by which your site is indexed. Search engines first group sites into clusters (broad industry or other groups), and then by keywords within those clusters. Where do they pick-up the keywords? Primarily from your content; your site title, main body headers and paragraphs, and image tags can all provide keyword phrases that the engines will index on your behalf. Think about the products and / or services you offer and create keyword phrases to describe them; the more specific the phrase the better as that will not only reduce competition, but will have a higher probability of bringing people to your site who are looking for what you have to offer. Once you have a robust list of keyword phrases, you can perform further research at sites such as www.WordTracker.com where you can find information regarding the popularity of various keyword phrases. Once your keyword list has been established, you want to optimize your site for those phrases. You accomplish this by weaving your keyword phrases throughout your copy and content. Following is a list of the areas to focus on:
Meta Tags enable you to provide information about your website that is not visible on your web pages. Typically Meta Tags are used to provide a listing of keywords and a site description. There has been some disagreement in recent years regarding the relevancy of the Meta data. Search engines have long ceased to place much emphasis on the information because it was simply used too often by spammers to provided misleading information. Experts now seem to agree that the Site Description (meta name="Description...") is useful, not relative to positioning where it seems to be ignored, but in the description shown on the search result page. If the description is omitted, the search engine may simply use text from the body of the webpage, and you may not like the results. Also, in some engines the site description will be ignored if it does not contain words used in the search, or if the description appears exaggerated. The Meta - Keyword tag (meta name="keyword...") however, is ignored by virtually all of the major engines. Taking into account that the tag makes it even easier for your competitors to view your keywords, it may have a negative net value. A few experts recommend omitting the keyword tag altogether. Links. In order to understand why links are important, think back to the principle purpose and function of a search engine; i.e., to provide a list of websites (ranked by assumed relevance) that meet the need of the requester as defined by the requesters search criteria. When the owners of related websites find out about a website containing information important to their viewers, they will link to the site thereby providing added value to their site's users. Search engines understand, appreciate, and reward this phenomenon. The assumption is; if all of these other sites find the site relevant, it must be worthwhile. The best scenario is for your site to be so good, that others hear about it through word of mouth or they stumble across a link and are suitably impressed. However, you can and should speed the process up by searching for sites where you think there would be interest or synergy in exchanging links or having one-way (in-bound) links as appropriate. What can backfire is use of "for sale" link lists (also known as "link farms") that simply link together many non-related sites solely to create the appearance of link interest (see deceptive techniques). Submitting. In theory it is not necessary to submit to the engines. As search engine spiders crawl through the millions of websites published, at some point they will stumble across a link to your site, index your content, and make it visible to those expressing a need for your products, services or information. Still, you can speed up this process by directly submitting to the various engines. Results indicate that Google and Overture handle approximately 80% of the search engine traffic; therefore direct submission to those engines would be a good first step. Several experts mention that multiple submits to the same search engine could cause your site to be red-flagged. Technical Issues
Deceptive Techniques. As we've previously discussed, the goal of the search engine is pretty straightforward; that is to provide a list of the most relevant sites based on the search criteria provided. For the most part, the goal of SEO is to aid the search engine in finding out about your site, and to ensure your site is deemed relevant for specific search criteria (keywords). In a broader context, the goal of SEO is to modify your site such that it in fact is the best fit for a given criteria. Deceptive techniques are aimed at thwarting this natural process, in essence "tricking" the search engine into listing a particular site even though it might not be the most relevant match. Following is a sampling of deceptive techniques:
It can be argued whether or not deceptive techniques are successful in the short term (and my belief is that for most firms they are not). I am quite certain these techniques are not successful in the long term. If you are in doubt regarding whether or not a tactic crosses the line, Fredrick Marckini in his book Search Engine Positioning poses the following questions as a sanity check:
The Bottom Line Writing keyword rich copy and content that provides solid information to your viewer is the critical step in optimizing your website. While the preceding section on SEO just scratches the surface, the steps outlined will go a long way toward making your site "search engine friendly". Keep in mind there are millions of insurance and financial related web sites. A search for "term life insurance" on Google this month produced 27,700,000 potential hits, a search for "term life insurance fullerton california" produced 54,600 hits. Be realistic in your expectation to reach page one for popular keywords on the major engines. If you really wish to delve deeply into the subject, there are many firms specializing in SEO and considerable information is published about SEO. At the end of this article you will find a short list of resources that can get you started in your quest for more information. Also, our June newsletter will cover SEO in depth. Most experts seem to agree that, in the long run, organic (natural) search engine placement as a result of doing the right things right is the most effective means of search engine marketing. Most however would also agree, that a combination of natural and paid advertising may provide the optimal mix. And, for those in a hurry, or those in markets where the keywords are highly saturated, the pay-for-placement model may in fact provide the best return on investment. Paid Advertising models come in two variations, Pay-for-placement and Fixed Placement. Pay-for-placement (PFP) is the predominant paid advertising model, especially for entrepreneurial and smaller firms. For an example of a pay-for-placement model, go to Google (www.google.com) and type in any search criteria. On the left will be the "natural" search results. On the right notice the column called Sponsored Links; these are the paid advertisements. Some search engines even give prominent placement to the paid advertising models; for example, go to MSN.com, enter your search and you will find a group of three sponsored links in first position. Most PFP models have a bid process that provides an ongoing auction where position for a particular keyword or keyword group is awarded to the highest bidder on a CPC (cost-per-click) basis. These are ongoing auctions that enable a firm to modify their bid price, budget, ad content, and landing page as often as needed. Three aspects in particular make PFP popular for smaller firms. First, the price to begin and/or test is minimal. Literally for a few hundred dollars you can reach page 1 ranking on some of the major engines. Second, your campaign can be up and running in days. Third, the self-service account set-up and management features make it easy for non-technical business owners or employees to establish and modify listings. If you want to find out how Google's program works, click on the following link Advertising Programs, which is found on Google's home page. Fixed-placement models can be effective, but require a high volume of traffic (and of course conversions) to be cost effective. Fixed-Placement guarantees your position, and is usually sold on a fixed cost per impression (a searcher views the search engine results page) basis. The number of impressions is estimated, which is used to calculate your maximum cost exposure; typically you are required to commit to a somewhat extended time frame such as 3 months, 6 months, or one year. If traffic volumes are significant, the cost can often be less on a cost-per-click basis. However, start up costs can be hundreds if not thousands of dollars. On top of that, changing advertising copy is not as easy, and changing the keyword mix can be difficult if it is even allowed. There is a reason why the PFP model is by far the predominant model for entrepreneurial firms. Regardless of the Paid Advertising model used, it becomes even more critical to ensure your copy and content converts visitors into customers. Even though you may successfully bid for a prime position, if your ad copy does not produce an adequate click-through volume, the search company will lower your ranking. And of course, even if you are successful in enticing people to visit your site, if your visitors are not converting to customers your advertising dollars will go for naught. Many of the SEO websites discuss Paid Advertising programs. As a further reference, I found Catherine Seda's book, Search Engine Advertising - Buying Your Way to the Top to Increase Sales, to be a good starting reference. A Quick Word about Measurement Measuring the effectiveness of your website is a worthwhile endeavor, regardless of your means of attracting site visitors. However, if you are using Paid Advertising and SEO methods, measurement is the critical component in understanding your return on investment. At a minimum you will need a means of measuring both traffic and conversion rates. As your advertising budget increases, it may also be worthwhile to invest in software that enables you to understand how customers are navigating through your site. For example, where in your site do you lose potential customers, and where in your site are they effectively persuaded? As a part of the service, the engines offering PFC programs offer a fairly complete measurement package regarding bid statistics, click-through rates, and impression to click ratios. Web logs provide a good start for understanding visiting patterns on your web site. There are tools that allow you to go even further in your analysis on both fronts. In the Paid Advertising arena there are bid management products available that aid you in optimizing your bid amount and protect against click-fraud (visitors who click-through to your site with no intention of buying - typically in large volumes). Resources Web www.HighRanking.com. Jill Whalen - articles on various SEO topics including copywriting. www.iProspect.com. Fredrick Marckini - free whitepapers on search engine topics. www.WordTracker.com. Keyword analysis. www.ClickZ.com. Interactive marketing news, information, commentary, advice, opinion, research, and reference. Books The Online Copywriter's Handbook: Everything You Need to Know to Write Electronic Copy that Sells. Robert W. Bly. McGraw-Hill. 2002. Persuasive Online Copywriting: How to Take Your Words to the Bank. Bryan Eisenberg, Jeffrey Eisenberg, Lisa Davis. Future Now, Inc. 2003. Marketing Through Search Optimization: How to be Found on the Web. Alex Miller and Ben Salter. Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann. 2003 Insider's Guide to SEO: How to Get Your Website to the Top of the Search Engines. Andreas Ramos, Stephanie Cota. Jain Publishing Company, Inc. 2004. Search Engine Advertising: Buying Your Way to the Top to Increase Sales. Catherine Seda. New Riders Publishing. 2004. Advertising Secrets of the Written Word: The Ultimate Resource on How to Write Powerful Advertising Copy from One of America's Top Copywriters and Mail Order Entrepreneurs. Joseph Sugarman. DelStar Books.1998. Net Words: Creating High-Impact Online Copy. Nick Usborne. McGraw-Hill. 2002. |
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