Online Marketing Blog

Copywriting for the web is a true art form, whether you’re writing web pages, press releases or landing pages. Add the practice of search engine optimization and it can get even trickier.  Too much focus on SEO and that high ranking web page may confuse readers, resulting in lacking conversions. Too little focus on keywords and search traffic will suffer.  Both questions remind copywriters to consider who their target audience really is: search engines or customers?

Obviously it’s both and working with a Keyword Glossary can provide copywriters with a solid guideline for topic planning, organization and emphasis so that both engines and customers are being optimized for.

While many companies have bought in to the fact that they need to make their content more “findable” and socially interesting to reach and engage more customers, the implementation is often a bit fragmented.

Wordle Cloud Using the Text of This Article

I recently had an interesting discussion with Ron Jones who is writing a book specifically on using keywords for online marketing called “Keyword Intelligence“. He was researching for the content marketing portion of the book and we talked about where keywords fit. These kinds of discussions are great for blog posts so here are a few ideas for you on keywords, SEO, Social Media and content.

Content marketing is customer centric and therefore often focused not only on creating information to educate prospects and customers about product/service features and benefits, but also about topics of interest relevant to the situations that cause people to need or want those products and services.

The core of search marketing  is the mix of keyword phrases that people use to search for  information on the web. Part of the value of Search Engine Optimization is to identify what searchers actually enter in the search box. If optimization efforts can focus on the phrases that are equally relevant and in demand, there’s a resonable expectation that the optimized news content will attract more visitors of the right kind: journalists, reporters, analysts, bloggers and even end consumers. 

Choosing the best keywords for news content starts with brainstorming using a mix of sources including the main topic of the content, talking to customers, analyzing competitor news content and topically relevant news that already rank wells. Effective keyword research generates a seed list of concepts from the brainstorming exercise and then proceeds to use keyword research tools to determine the popularity of those phrases as well as discovering related phrases in use.

Just as with Leverage Your Brand Lovers, the “Branding and Search” session gave the SMX West audience much to think about.

Bob Tripathi, Search Marketing Specialist at Discover Financial, reinforced the need to understand your brand as it relates to SEO/SEM.

Brand Recognition: Do searchers recognize your brand?
–ex. McDonalds’ arches are recognized worldwide

Brand Perception: Do searchers know what you do?
–ex. Discover Financial doesn’t just offer credit cards, but they offer a slew of other financial services

Brand Loyalty: Are searchers loyal to your brand?
–ex. Google and its VERY loyal followers

Brand Affinity: Are searchers aspiring to be part of your brand and culture?
–ex. Mercedes and the status associated with the brand

Different regions of the country have very different ways of saying the same thing. Maybe it’s because our country is spread across such a large land mass, because we’re a melting pot or maybe it’s because we all love creating new words and coining new phrases.

Whatever the reason, there are various ways to say the same thing and most often the word chosen is dictated by the region, creating an opportunity for every website to capture more visitors, if they are indeed optimized for the variations.

For example, here are all the different ways one might search for a ‘cabin’ in which to spend some vacation time:
Cottage
Chalet
Retreat
Country house
Camp
Cabana
Shed
Villa
Lodge
Log house

One of the downsides to a blog is the ability to easily assign meta keywords and descriptions to each blog post. I have done some research and found with a simple and fantastic plugin called HeadSpace 2.

HeadSpace 2 has two different ways of creating meta descriptions and keywords.

1) For those of us who feel we don’t have enough time, there is the automatic way. HeadSpace 2 can put an excerpt of your post in the description tag and the categories associated with the post in the keywords tag.

2) For those of us who need control, there is the manual way. Once installed each post now comes with a meta description and meta keyword box on the posting screen. Simply fill those two out and HeadSpace 2 will do the rest.