Web Sites Gone Wrong: Copying a Look Without a Strategy

As the Web Site Turns . . . starring Company "C" . . . episode one . . .

"When we started the project, we told the web designers we wanted a site similar to the Prada site."

And so, the project began, seemingly without thinking about whether the overall approach of the Prada site made sense for Company "C".  The web design company was experienced in creating sites in Company "C"'s industry.  What could go wrong?

Who would have thought that copying the overall look of another site, without thinking through your own strategy, could be a recipe for disaster . . .

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Copywriting for SEO: Every Page is a "Book"

  • By: Olivia
  • On: 09/17/2009 20:38:08
  • In: SEO
  • Comments: 0

I heard a great concept at an SEO presentation today, that makes sense for copywriters trying to learn how to write SEO tags for their web site.  The speaker suggested:

"Think of every page on your site as a book."

When you pick up a book, you read the book title.  Then you might read the short description on the back of the book.  Then you might browse the table of contents to see what the chapters are about.   This, suggested the speaker, gives the SEO copywriter a great analogy for writng SEO tags for every web page.

 

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Build more specifics into copy for better results

There's a television commercial running currently, that advertises a chain of "home cooking". restaurants.  As part of the spot, the owner is asked what her restaurants are known for.  Here's the opportunity for the owner to deliver SPECIFICS in answer to the key question -- "why should we buy from you (or eat at your restaurant?"   Because amid the clutter and viewers general disinterest in most commercials, it's the SPECIFICS that will draw the viewer in -- and be memorable.  But the owner wastes her precious limited TV time by mentioning "our excellent customer service."   How much stronger would her commercial have been if she'd given us the SPECIFICS of her menu?

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Keys to Effective Search Engine Marketing

Lately, I've been getting a lot of emails about search engine marketing -- and it seems that maybe we've forgotten that getting the basics in place is still a good idea.   Have you examined your page titles, keyword focus, and description on each page lately?  If you've recently changed or added content to some of your pages, it's likely your page title, keywords, and description for that page also need to be changed.

Have you recently checked your ranking for your most important keywords -- and then checked out what all of the sites ranked above you are doing in terms of SEO?   SEO isn't a "set it up once and forget it" effort -- it should be addressed at least monthly.

What about your keywords themselves?   Have you checked their search volume lately?   Have you looked to see what other keywords may be hot right now and generatng more search volume?  

Selecting the keywords your site will focus on is now a much more far-reaching decision that it has been in the past.  Every press release you send out, every blog post you make, every Twitter tweet you make -- all should be supporting those keywords on which you focus.

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The 5 Levels of Social Media Usage

Johnny Chan of eBoost Consulting talked recently about the 5 levels on the social media participation ladder.  Every marketer needs to think about these 5 levels in relation to your own audience.  Where is most of your audience on the online participation scale?   Your job is to move your audience up the ladder of participation.   

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Using Twitter: Listen before you Tweet

If you've been wondering if you should get involved with Twitter, a recent presentation at the San Diego Software Industry Council (www.sdsic.org) convinced me that EVERY company needs to be involved there.  As the speaker pointed out, "Conversions are happening with or without you . . .".   Marketers really can't afford to not be involved.

 

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A Letter in Search of an Objective

I recently received a one-page letter from a list company.  Not unusual, except that this letter didn't come with any other information in the envelope, so the letter had to stand alone.  The idea of a short, personal letter from the CEO may have been a good one -- except that after reading it, I was confused as to why it was even sent.    The four paragraphs, filled with wonderful "corporate marketing-isms," seem to circle around and around, looking for a purpose . . .

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There's an 'app' for that: is this really the best message for iPhone?

The recent television spot for Apple's iPhone seems to assume everyone is a software engineer, and runs around talking about "apps."   Does the average potential iPhone prospect speak in terms of "app(lication)s" for their phone?   I'm not sure the phrase "there's an app for that" is the best one to appeal to the average prospect.  iPhone is long past the early adopter audience.  Now they're appealing to the masses.   Should the copywriter have assumed the masses think in terms of "apps"?   Isn't there a better term that wouldn't jump out as inappropriate in this TV campaign?

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"Nurturing" Prospects with an Email Conversion Series

When a prospect completes one of your web forms in response to an offer, what then?    Maybe you have an email autoresponder message set up to automatically thank the prospect for their request, and to perhaps deliver the offer -- access to the promised white paper, special report, podcast, webinar, or perhaps a special web page.   But do you stop there?   Are you assuming that everyone who visits your web site also learns what you want them to learn while they're there?    Realistically, few (if any) prospects read all the pages on your site that you'd like them to read.  By the next day, it's likely that prospects have forgotten what they read on your site the day before.   We all need to do more careful "nurturing" of prospects over time.

 

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Web Marketing Discoveries: Everything Old is New Again . . .

"Web visitors don't read -- they scan."

"One effective technique when you have a lot of information on a web page is to organize it into 'chunks.'"

"When testing various search engine pay-per-click programs, you should always allocate some funds for 'exploring' new options."

Speakers at an online marketing conference made these web marketing "best practices" pronouncements.  But is this anything new?   Aren't these the same "best practices" that direct marketers have been using for decades in magazine ads and direct mail?

 

 

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