Entries Tagged 'writing' ↓
November 10th, 2009 — writing
As part of my consulting work at a marketing communications and advertising agency, I have the responsibility of training a marketing coordinator in the task of SEO copywriting. That’s because there is sometimes too much work for me to handle all their clients’ needs for SEO writing - clients such as CIBA Vision, UFA, Nissan, BASF, LaCURE Villas, and others.
I have written both SEM ad copy for them (Google AdWords) as well as organic SEO for their new websites and optimized landing pages.
I gave my trainee her first assignment recently: To gather up client info - from the most recent marketing collateral she could get from the client - as fodder for the page she is going to write about one of their products.
Conversion Optimization
It is a straight landing page for a Google AdWords campaign, so all the best practices in Conversion Optimization apply:
- Using the keywords selected for the AdWords campaign in the main headline, and secondary headline if at all possible (H1 and H2)
- Using those keywords, and related phrases, in the body text - including keywords in the anchor text for the first hyperlink shown (in first couple of paragraphs)
- Messaging consistent with that of the Google ads
- Graphic design and layout that follows eye tracking patterns
- Optimum placement of Call to Action (CTA) items - e.g. Sign Up Here’
- Value-add apparent above the fold
Stay tuned for more posts in my Training an SEO Copywriter series!
June 13th, 2009 — writing
Keep it Simple Stupid (KISS): the not-so-subtle way of reminding us to write in an uncomplicated, non-flowery style.
Great advice, for web writing in particular and most types of writing in general (maybe outside of journals).
But sometimes it can be the KISS of death. Case in point:
I was in the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo recently (as a Frank Lloyd Wright aficianado I sought a mausoleum designed by the master) when I saw the humble tombstone pictured.
The statement of action here (”died”), in my estimation, is presumed by the inclusion of said Mr. Taggert in a cemetery! But what is missing is the how, what, when, why and where of his story.
Keep it Simple, Stupid all fine and dandy IF there is enough detail to make the story compelling. In this case, I am left wanting.
The SEO Story Behind KISS
As a long-time journalist, my writing instincts go nuts here: EVERYTHING is a story - every life, every building, every process…
And as a SEO, I shudder at insufficient content: the cardinal rule of minimum 400 words (at a pinch, 250 but that should really only apply to a blog post) hasn’t changed as Google knows more is better re: delivering contextual searches.
If content is king (and it is), then the quantity of (appropriate, interesting) words is the royal scepter - consider them the jewels.
If only the relatives of William Taggert knew that. (OK, so I realize stonecutters probably charged by the letter, so family fortune might have been a factor in the deficit of wording.)
May 8th, 2009 — writing
[Full disclosure: I am a graduate of journalism school and a 20-year veteran of print journalism as a writer and editor.]
I attended a presentation by marketing speaker David Merman Scott in Florida last week and to my surprise (and delight) he urged the audience to all go out and hire a journalist for their online content needs.
It was an audience of real estate brokers/owners - top performers invited to the annual Chairman’s Circle held by CENTURY 21 Canada. (Full disclosure: I blog for CENTURY 21).
Who’s Writing the Content?!
These busy brokers - professionals trained in selling properties, working with mortgages, home inspectors and like - are NOT editors or writers. Naturally, they related to a business pain expressed by Meerman Scott not only in person, but in his blog WebInkNow:
“…how can we actually create all this content you’re talking about: e-books, white papers, blogs and the like? We have a small marketing department and very little budget.”
The comments left at this blog post were as interesting as the post. For example, David Leland wrote:
“
Digital Immigrants vs. Digital Natives
Obviously, as a seasoned journalist, I know the value of hiring someone with excellent writing skills - not only accurate and error-free but writing quickly and effectively in language exactly targeted to the readers.
BUT… what about those great, experienced journalists who are “digital immigrants” -i.e. they:
- Aren’t savvy to the styles of web writing (and how that differs from magazine or newspaper)
- Don’t know how to write with SEO to get the content found online and ranked high by Google
- Aren’t up to speed on using social media to disseminate their writing?
OK, so no problem, you think - I’ll go hire a “digital native” journalist…
Oops, now you’re facing a new set of limitations: Namely, a deficiency of proper grammar, sloppy English, spelling mistakes and a general depth of knowledge that they bring to the writing.
What to do?? As what I suggested to some of the brokers who asked my advice in Florida last week, consider hiring TWO people - part-time or contract should suffice for many businesses:
- Digital Immigrant but Seasoned Journalist: To write Case Studies, E-books, White Papers to go on your website. These are powerful ways to spread value-add content through the Internet/blogosphere. Invest in some basic web writing training for this hire so he/she can help write the company blog, too.
- Digital Native: To set up accounts at social media sites (YouTube, Flickr, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.), to upload digital assets to these profiles and maintain them.) You likely have a Gen-Y employee who is a rabid fan and user of social media - tap into that passion, which might be lacking in your older employees.
Look Beyond Print Journalists
Experienced writers, reporters and editors of magazines and newspapers are a great bet for generating online content for your company… but don’t rule out other types of journalists.
Radio and TV journalists (not the talking heads who wear lots of makeup as anchors behind desks) are great at getting the right quote, fleshing out a story, digging for details, and pulling it altogether as a cohesive, compelling story.
(I’d stay away from new grads from J-schools and definitely away from self-taught writers!)
Anyway you slice it, hiring a professionally trained and experienced journalist makes great sense at a time when Content is Online and King.
April 14th, 2009 — writing
I really think I am going to scream the next time I hear “at the end of the day…” in another interview.
My country’s public broadcaster has always been my choice for radio listening as I have no patience for commercials and, generally, the quality of content is high.
BUT every time someone is quoted in a news story, or interviewed about ANY subject, inevitably the phrase, “at the end of the day” works its way in. And I am NOT exaggerating. I started tracking it, but got too depressed to continue.
This is not new; the overuse of this meaningless cliche has been going on in CBC Radio circles for years. I only didn’t mention it before because I didn’t want to be petty.
Now I want to be petty.
Don’t get me wrong; cliches worm their way into my life too, despite my snobbish outlook on language. (Words have been, like, my whole life.)
I read Leslie Savan’s book, “Slam Dunks and No-Brainers: Language in your Life, the Media, Business, Politics and, Like, Whatever” (OK, I couldn’t finish it, due to risk of choking.)
Nowhere in the book did I come across “at the end of the day.” That could be due to a cultural difference; I’ve heard that this cliche is uniquely British/Canadian. Lucky us.
What about other decent cliches that mean the same thing as “at the end of the day”?
How about saying: “When all is said and done”? Or, “The long and the short of it…”?
Some diversity in expression, pleeeease!!
Because, at the end of the day…. it’s evening.
March 2nd, 2009 — writing
I was making a sales call with a local retailer last week, when an entrepreneur walked in off the cold streets of Oakville, ON with flyers in hand. He waited patiently until my pitch was done, then handed both myself and my soon-to-be client some business cards and attractive, colored flyers.
I flinched. Both the flyer and the card had a spelling mistake IN HIS COMPANY NAME… ditto in his website domain name.
I felt really bad for this gentle, somewhat home renovator/carpenter out peddling his wares… not so much because he was driven in these harsh economic times to peddle door-to-door, but because his error was spelt: I-N-E-P-T.
To me, that is…
I am aware that spelling isn’t such a big deal to everyone, and by that, I mean Generation Y (the 20-somethings). I’ve employed many Gen Yers in the past few years for whom spelling is an option - and not even a very popular option at that.
MEMO TO GEN Y: A lot of business customers are my age (45) or older, and for us SPELLING MATTERS! So much so that we will make a knee-jerk negative judgment of a product or service if we see a spelling mistake. Maybe that doesn’t seem fair to you, but it is entirely true.
My generation, and my parents’, were raised by old-school grammarians - some of them even had the hard edge of a ruler come down on their knuckles for improper sentence structure and misspellings.
Yes, I know it’s the day and age of cellphone texting (”ur late 2day”) and Microsoft Spellcheck (which totally doesn’t catch everything and forget it if you’re Canadian or British, MS doesn’t care about that form of spelling).
Spelling matters - to me and others in positions of authority. And if it doesn’t matter to you… IT SHOULD.
(end of rant)
January 18th, 2009 — writing
Content is King - we’ve all shouted from the turrets for years. But now the kingdom is realizing that the content is wearing no clothes (or very shabby ones). You could say, the crown is crumbling…
Good-quality content is the single best way to increase website visibility and increase the time folks stick around your site and DO stuff - read, share, vote, download, comment, inquire… buy!
According to a UK agency, the best way to achieve search engine ranking success is to employ professional copywriters:
“If we’re placing as much importance on the content as we do on the design itself, then why do so many people pay lots of money for design and then write the content themselves?”
Ah, Do-It-Yourself Copywriting - the ole “If I am literate, I must be able to write…” syndrome. Seems the road to poor web analytics is paved with good intentions.
I am lately getting a ton of work copywriting for sites - the keywords, site map, page subjects handed over by frustrated wannabes- so I can dive in and do what I do best. Write. Professionally. So People Read it.
So, to site content DIY-ers, I say… [apologies to Home Depot]:
No You Can’t. We Can Help.
December 16th, 2008 — writing
Last week, I advised a client - paying thousands of dollars to get their site optimized for the search engines - to submit me enough raw content that I can write a bare minimum of 250 words per page (ideally, at least 400).
The response (sadly, not atypical): “Oh, we don’t have that much content. We can get you, maybe 100 words for some of our pages, they’ll have to be even shorter.”
My response: “Say what?” (well, I did think it).
If you cannot find 250 words to say about your product/service on a web page… how well do you really know that product/service? How are you selling it? I doubt your sales pitch - verbally - is less than 250 words.
So, some ideas to bump up that web content, when you hit a wall:
- Business benefits of the product/service: List ‘em in bullets, as done here (good way visually for web readers to digest info)
- Examples of clients and/or applications of the product/service, again in bullet list, or not.
- References to other topics within your website. Internal linking (from one page to another within your same site) is a key component of good SEO anyway.
- Photos/images - these can be optimized for SEO, too, and adding a caption and/or reference in the body text to the photo(s) will help bump up content.
- List of partner companies you’ve worked with to make or distribute the product/service.
Oh, and by the way - this post is 250 words. Exactly.
May 13th, 2008 — writing
Writer Michele Landsberg once complained that people would come up to her and say, “I could be a writer, too”… she likened it to watching surgery on TV and saying, “I could be a brain surgeon.” Her point being: You’re not a writer just because you’re literate.
But you can call yourself a writer - and many do, especially in this day and age of citizen journalism powered by blogging, forums and all things Web.
Writerly snob vs. democratized Web junkie
I am of two minds about this trend enabled by the technological opportunities opened up by the Web, generally referred to as “user-generated content.”
As a professionally trained writer - who waitressed to pay for a journalism degree from Ryerson University and honed the skill over 20 years at newspapers, magazines and websites - I worked hard to become A Writer and jealously guarded that status.
I was educated and trained (by ink-strained, hard-drinking vets of newsrooms) to believe that journalists are the gatekeepers of information who keep society honest and informed… and that’s not something that just anyone can do because they “feel” like it!
On the other hand, there’s a reason I’ve chosen to move my career from traditional media to Web 2.0 communications. I consider myself something of a social activist (OK, maybe the armchair variety) and I love the fact that today anyone anywhere can write about anything and have an unlimited number of readers. Power to the people!
Free-for-all content production
Free, easy, instant publishing and distribution of information via the Web explodes many of the long-held tenets of my profession - but, largely, that’s a good thing.
I cringe when I recall sitting in a boardroom full of editors deciding what our public would see the next day as “news” - decisions driven by our opinions and moods, but which we passed off as “objective” and “authoritative.” (I wonder if they’re still teaching journalism that way today?)
Writing + SEO = the new me
So, I’m going to weigh in with a thumbs-up for citizen journalism, with the caveat that I support Ms. Landsberg’s observation that writing (well) is not as easy as many would surmise. It is a craft and like all skills, it requires formal training and constant and strenuous practice, critique, continuing education, and more practice.
I felt validated recently when one of my clients said he chose my services, over those of other Search Engine Optimization experts, because “it’s rare to find an SEO writer who has also been a newspaper and magazine editor… you understand that good SEO includes good writing as well as good keywords.”
April 20th, 2008 — writing
As one of those poor sods compelled to pick up a crayon/pen/mouse to scribble and doodle since the age of 6 - I was gratified (if not a little shocked) to discover that my mad skills in the arts actually have value in the business world of the 21st century.
Welcome to the Creative Economy - a place where the artsy-fartsy set gets to turn the tables on the numerical whiz-kids and techie geeks… Where “right-brain” juices flow in a steady, productive stream into a sea of innovative solutions.
Why is it our time to shine? Because once all those “left-brain” big-heads made our society as efficient and productive as numbers and computer chips can, what’s left over for improvement is… the “intangibles.”
Big ideas. Imagination. Conceptualization. Empathy. Connecting the dots in a non-linear fashion.
Automation frees us up for doodling
The New York Times recently wrote that:
Much of the left-brain-centric work that the Information Age workers of America once did — computer programming, financial accounting, routing calls — is now done more cheaply in Asia or more efficiently by computers. If it can be outsourced or automated, it probably has been.
Now, I’m a funny bird; I’ve had a passion for business for the last 20 years right alongside my creative doodling. For example, automation happens to be near and dear to my heart. For years, I edited and wrote for a national magazine about manufacturing automation, reporting on ‘lights out’ factories, machine vision, robotic systems, motion control and the myriad other technologies that boost productivity (not to mention take away the burden of dirty, dangerous and tedious work from people).
So I’m no Luddite when it comes to technology and how it has advanced our society, largely for the good.
But I think, at first, that many of the engineers working in automation were amused by my distinctly non-engineer approach to covering their field. In time, though, I impressed some of them because my ideas would prove innovative enough to influence business decisions.
And, truth be told, I always figured that - aside from my natural artistic sensibilities - I’m so right-brained because I’m left-handed. (Did you know that 3% of the world’s female population are lefties.)
As it turns out, I use the logical, linear left half of my gray stuff just as often; my career has shown me that.
The connection to SEO is…
Search engine optimization is the perfect marriage of:
- Right brain: great web writing and all the high-minded conceptual work that goes into that (research, creative flair, edits/rewrites, ’speaking’ to one’s audience); and
- Left brain: search engine algorithms, search technology, source code, metrics systems…
writingSEO is the merger of these two sides that coexist happily inside my skull. This company is my heartfelt way of bringing creativity and technology together to boost your business.
As The New Times put in:
Now the master of fine arts, or M.F.A., Mr. Pink says, “is the new M.B.A.” [Daniel Pink is author of the 2005 book, A Whole New Mind.]
What do you think? Are you looking to inject more creativity into your business processes? Hiring any artistes these days?
