How SEO research leads you to more effective sales copy

Marketing Tips - Start with An Outline

While just about everyone agrees that informed key phrase selection is at the core of effective SEO (search engine optimization), many are surprised to find out that the self-same information also guides them to writing more effective sales copy.

How does researching key phrases help the quality of your sales copy? Because, by selecting the correct key phrases and building your copy around them, you'll be answering the questions that are being asked by your potential customers.

To understand what I mean, think of why people use search engines in the first place - they're looking for information and/or considering buying something. Every search has, at its core, a request or a question.

Connecting to your audience

Great sales copy connects with the reader. It has to. It doesn't shout. It doesn't try to haul the reader round 180 degrees to a completely different viewpoint - it'll lose them somewhere on the way. Instead, it has real empathy.

By following the discipline of building your copy around appropriate key phrases, you can ensure your Web site content dovetails perfectly with people's expectations and really answers their questions.

If you're selling holidays in Italy, for example, and someone types 'weekends in Venice' into Google, your optimized copy about weekends in Venice would almost certainly appeal more to your visitor than general copy selling weekends in Italy or about cruises that take in Venice.

And if it appeals more, you're likely to sell more.

As an aside, it's hardly surprising that most sites find they get better conversions from Organic optimization than from buying clicks from an online advertising system such as Google Adwords. Unless you're very disciplined in matching the key phrases you're buying, your ad text and your target pages, you're almost certainly going to end up with a looser fit between the searcher's needs and the site content you're offering them.

How do your customers really think?

As a writer, I find key phrases are a fantastic guide to how customers actually think. For example, when was the last time you used the word 'cheap' in copy? It's one of these abhorrent words that we must never use - corporate guidelines inevitably insist on 'cost-effective' or 'good value' or something; most copywriting gurus habitually warn us away from such words.

The problem is, for most of us, that's how our customers think. Real people seldom use 'good value' or 'high value' or 'competitively priced'. Time after time, our research shows people looking for 'cheap' and 'low price'. Again, while you may argue that this may show people just looking for a bargain, I'd say it's part of a larger and more important picture.

Key phrase research shows what kind of language is appropriate to our customers. If people are really looking for 'low-cost flights' - and they may be, given the number of times the phrase is used in the media - then we know that we can safely use that phrase in our communications. If people aren't using it, then let's use the expression they identify with.

If you sell large clothing, for example, you may habitually describe your clothing as 'outsize'. I'd bet many more searches use the word 'large' or 'big'. Use your industry jargon, and you may be running the risk of alienating your customers.

Are you up to using everyday language?

The lesson we've learned time after time is that people really do use simple everyday language - and that goes for B2B as well as B2C transactions. And, to appeal to them, we should use simple everyday language, too.

But before you embrace a term like 'cheap car hire', make sure 'cheap' fits with your business and your business planning. Are you really happy to be seen as 'cheap'? Are you ready to fight tooth and claw with your market's most ruthless price-cutters? Do you even want customers who are looking for the cheapest?

You must be really clear why you're choosing each and every key phrase and its implications for your business. And writing powerful copy without some of the familiar props of the copywriter's trade is a challenge in itself. But that's another piece entirely.

Applying key phrase research can so easily give you an unfair advantage. Make sure you seize the opportunity with both hands.

---

About the Author: David Rosam is Head of SEO Copywriting at Web Positioning Centre and specialises in Internet marketing strategy and optimized copywriting. His blog is Dangerous Thinking and covers SEO Copywriting, SEO and Marketing.

Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) And SEOResearchers develop tool to combat Internet auction fraud
The End (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 13)

Internet Marketing - 5 Simple Ways to Improve Your Site

Internet Scams or Internet Fools

Internet marketing involves more than getting traffic to your site. Sometimes the smallest things can have the biggest impact. The following five actions you can take to improve your Internet marketing and Web site are simple and often over looked when creating or marketing a site.

1) Create a unique 404 error page.

What is a 404 error page? It's the page you see when someone clicks on a broken link or a page that has been renamed. When that happens the site visitor will see a standard page that simply tells you the page is no longer available. It has no thrills, no other links, no branding and above all, very little helpful information.

The page usually starts off with these words:

The page cannot be found.
The page you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.

Your unique 404 error page should look like a regular page of your site. It should include your site's header, footer and navigation bar so that the site visitor can easily click on another area of your site. The content of this unique 404 error page should contain text explaining that the page selected is no longer available along with contact information so the site visitor has the option of emailing or calling your company.

An example of our 404 error page can be found at: http://www.eplusm.com/404.html.

2) We value your privacy.

This simple four word sentence can have a tremendous effect on your email or form conversion ratios. Be sure to have the sentence, or at least the word "privacy" linked to your privacy statement.

Use this sentence next to any email form on your site or on your contact page. Clearly and simply stating your privacy policy assures the site visitor that you will not sell, give or trade their email or personal information to a third party.

While a privacy page is standard practice for most professional site builders, lawyers usually have their hand in writing a company's privacy policy. That results in having the privacy policy looking like a long legal document.

Using the simple sentence with a link to the privacy policy gives the site visitor assurance that you care about their privacy without having a long explanation.

3) We vs You.

Re-read your home page copy and make sure it is customer focused text. Customer focused text is text that focuses on the customer and not YOU. When you re-read your home page content see how often you use the term "we, us, or our" rather than "You". If your text reads something like: "We offer bla, bla, bla," or "Our services includes, bla, bla, bla," then it is focusing on you rather than the customer.

4) Email Signatures.

Create standard email signatures for ALL your employees. Anyone that uses the Internet in your company should have a company standard email signature.

What's an email signature? Did you ever notice that at the end of some emails you will see not only the email creator's name, but their phone number, fax, number, company name, logo, Web site address, etc. It's amazing how easy this is to do and how many companies simply over look it. Or they let everyone do their own thing.

Having the company's contact and Web site information makes it easy for the recipient to contact you or visit your site. Making it standard email signature improves your overall branding strategy.

5) Call to Action.

A call to action is a statement that asks the site visitor to do something. Two of the biggest mistakes made on a Website is not using call to actions or using the wrong call to actions.

You have probably been on sites that do not give you a clue as to what to do next. They have text and links but nothing that tells you to learn more, buy, compare, read, or call now. Look over your site and see what call to actions are on your site. Try to view it as a first time visitor and create a scenario or action you want your site visitor to take.

The most common and most boring call to action is "Click Here". Sometimes it's unavoidable or it's the only phrase that makes sense, but consider using other statements. Instead of "Click here" use words like learn, save, read, compare, etc.

Call to actions are usually linked to another page on your site. This is a great opportunity to use a keyword in a link on your site, which helps with search engine optimization. Use the keyword in the link for your call to action.

These five suggestion are basically simple things to do that can help improve your site overall. They are often over looked but can prove to have a tremendous effect on your site.

For one of our client's Web sites we suggested item number 2, adding "We value your privacy" just above their email form. The sentence was linked to their privacy policy. The link was hardly used, but having that simple statement was all that was needed. The added statement increased their form's conversion ratio by over 250%.

---

About the Author: Patricia Hughes is founder of ePlus Marketing and has over 11 years experience in Internet marketing and over 20 years experience in marketing. To receive the ePlus Marketing monthly newsletters and BLOG - both packed with additional Internet marketing tips and suggestions - visit our site as http://www.eplusm.com.

How To Make $40,000 A Year Selling Tumbleweed OnlineAge proves no limit for maritime inventor
Masters of their Domains