Online Marketing for Local Business
Posts tagged SEO
Web Content 102
13 years
by jhaynes
in Uncategorized
As you have heard us say before, there are millions upon millions of online blogs and other informational websites, but what makes for great web content?
Clear and Concise
Being vague is one of the biggest mistakes a web content writer can commit, as it can compel your audience to instantly evaporate. No one wants to stay a second on something they find too complex or vague to understand. The mark of an expert lies in his ability to make complicated things clear and simple. Don’t use 200 words to say something that could easily be written with 50; people don’t have that kind of time these days.
Know Your Audience and Be Compelling
Know what your customers or general readers care about. If you think that your content can catch people’s attention because YOU are really passionate about the subject, you’re falling into the trap of assuming visitors will care because you care. Most people won’t spend a second on topics they don’t care about.
(…now it certainly does help to have a strong attachment to your topic, but you need more than just that!)
And “compelling” means that your web content not only grabs attention, but has purpose. Typically this is a sales conversion, but not always – especially on news-based blogs. Know what the end goal of your online copy truly is.
Accurate and Complete
The very first step is to create content that is accurate and complete. You need to ascertain that what you tell the world is correct. Information online is easily accessible today, but readers can easily spot posts or articles that were rushed and not fact checked pretty easily. If you don’t have the time to fully research your facts, like many business owners and others responsible for web content, find someone who does.
You also need to fully develop your ideas, or link to follow up information or action steps that make sense (such as a purchase option, if your content is made as a teaser).
And a good example is:
If you found this information helpful and would like to talk about ways to make your web content more compelling, contact us to learn more!
Tagging Done the Right Way
13 years
by jhaynes
in Uncategorized
Most blogging platforms let you apply tags to your posts. Tags help organize your blog so both humans and search engines can find what they’re looking for. They’re terms like “consulting,” “local” or “technology” that reflect the topics and content of the post.
Google tries to recognize tags and use them to prioritize your site in its search ranking for those terms. The tags are usually links to other pages on your blog (usually a backlog of other posts with the same tag), and like we said earlier, linking search terms to other pages on your site helps too.
So by all means, add pertinent tags to your blog post, but be warned that Google and other search engines are wary of sites that try to game this system. They will penalize you in the search rankings if you use so many tags that the web indexing bots suspect you might be attempting to associate your content with unrelated topics just to score extra traffic.
Most blogging platforms let you apply tags to your posts. Tags help organize your blog so both humans and search engines can find what they’re looking for. They’re terms like “consulting,” “local” or “technology” that reflect the topics and content of the post.
Google tries to recognize tags and use them to prioritize your site in its search ranking for those terms. The tags are usually links to other pages on your blog (usually a backlog of other posts with the same tag), and like we said earlier, linking search terms to other pages on your site helps too.
So by all means, add pertinent tags to your blog post, but be warned that Google and other search engines are wary of sites that try to game this system. They will penalize you in the search rankings if you use so many tags that the web indexing bots suspect you might be attempting to associate your content with unrelated topics just to score extra traffic.
The method for determining this is arcane, but a good rule of thumb from a pro blogger is that five to 10 appropriate tags are usually right in the sweet spot.
Great Media Exposure for Your Business
14 years
by jhaynes
in Uncategorized
I wanted to take a moment to talk a bit more about the last post below, about an article that I wrote for our team at Hat Trick Associates that focused on Email Marketing and it’s continued marketing viability, even in the face of new competition.
The reason for bringing up the topic again is certainly NOT to impress you the reader with how fantastic the article was, or how important it must have been to receive the coverage that it did.
Actually, quite the opposite.
Although no surprise, I do feel the information it contained was fairly interesting, and made for a good story…the truth is, with the right message and distribution, I could probably gain a similar amount of coverage for an article in YOUR industry, attributed to YOUR company.
And the coverage the Hat Trick article received was pretty cool, I will admit. It’s not every day that you write something that gets shared on Yahoo, CNBC, MSNBC, AOL…as well as lots of other niche websites, like the European Business Express, or the media powerhouse which is KAIT – Channel 8 in Jonesboro, Arkansas(!)
The great thing is, if a piece is written in the proper way – and shared via the right channels – I can almost guarantee similar results. And having so many incoming links is not only good for conversions today from people interested in your subject matter, but also creates some long-term SEO benefits from having high quality sites “aimed” at your own with links. So it’s a win-win.
If you’d like more information on how we can do the same for your company contact us today.
In fact, if you take the time to fill out the quick form, or if you prefer to shoot me an email directly, I’ll even tell you (no-strings-attached, of course) how I did it. I just wish this method existed back in my early days of PR at a large local ad agency.