Ten Tips To Writing Web Copy

June 30th, 2009 // 4:07 pm @ Fox

1. Web copy should be left-aligned. Indenting the first word of a paragraph is often used in print material but is not correct for Web copy. This has become a standard with Web writing and also with modern business letters.
2. Do not use underlines. On a Web page, underlined words often represent links. It confuses a reader if a word has an underline but is not a link.
3. Do not colour-code words to highlight them. Many websites use a colour theme for links so a coloured word may lead the reader to think it is a link. Headings can have a colour theme.
4. Use bolded words or italics where appropriate. Highlight a word or sentence with bolded or italic font. Don’t overdo it.
5. Use semantic headings. Depending on how your page is set up, use H1, H2 or H3 headings where appropriate. The use of semantic headings is like letting search engines know the importance of a heading and is better house-keeping from a styling perspective.
6. Do not use long sentences. Long sentences are for print material. Online copy should use short sentences which are to the point. Break up your long sentences into two sentences.
7. Break up large blocks of text. It is difficult for the reader to absorb large blocks of text when reading online. Try to keep blocks of text to a minimum and break the page up with images, headings, bullet lists, words in bold or white space.
8. Reference material used from elsewhere. If you are quoting someone else, using their information or thoughts, always cite the reference whether it is a link to their site, or a mention in the copy, or in references at the end of the copy. Plagiarism and copyright infringement are serious issues.
9. Have a clear call-to-action. If the purpose of your page is to encourage a sale, or provide information on a product or a service, always make it clear to the reader what the next step is. A simple call-to-action such as ‘Order U-Beaut Now!’ or ‘Contact us today for a quote!’ with a link to the relevant page would suffice.
10. Have interesting content. If your site is a business site, write in a general, neutral and professional tone, but don’t get too bogged down in trivial detail. Keep the content fresh and appealing. More intricate detail can be offered in a PDF or over several pages, giving the reader the choice of reading more.

Category : Content &blog

Email Communications – Gaining a Subscriber List

May 29th, 2009 // 11:27 am @ Fox

A few weeks ago I posted a blog titled SPAM – Australian business and the law. I have had phone calls since then asking questions on how to obtain a mailing list.

If you wish to email a newsletter, specials and promotions, or other marketing material to a list then the best list to have is your own customers. Start collecting subscribers as soon as possible even if you are not ready to start emailing until some time in the future. By the time you are ready to send, you should have a list where the subscribers have consented to receiving your email.

For online subscriptions you will need to add an area to your website where the user can sign up:

• A text box where the subscriber enters their email address
• A checkbox with some wording such as ‘Please send me newsletters and special offers’. The checkbox must not be pre-ticked. The action of the ticking of a checkbox must be a manual process that the subscriber performs.
• A Submit button which saves the subscriber to a database maintained either by you or a third party.

Best practice dictates that an automated email is sent to the subscriber asking them to click on a link to confirm that they wish to receive the communications. There are times when a person signs up a friend so the request to confirm is a safeguard to ensure that the recipient does wish to receive the communication. It is also recommended to offer a link to your Privacy Policy so the subscriber can read your process and practices regarding protecting their private information. Of course you must let the subscriber know how they can unsubscribe from the mailing list at any time.

It is a good idea to place this subscription area on your website where it is easily seen such as the homepage, or a side column common to each page. Also add the subscribe option to any membership forms on your website. This is a good opportunity to gain a subscriber as they are already filling out a form and interested in your product or service.

You can gain subscribers offline as well. If you have a printed membership form or an offline newsletter, you can add the subscription complete with un-ticked checkbox to the form. There are a number of ways you can gain subscribers, but just be careful that you are clear about what they are subscribing to.

What if you are a new business, without a mailing list and want to email a target audience to let them know about your product or service?

You can buy a legitimate mailing list from a broker using a Pay Per Lead model. These companies will gain consent from a targeted consumer segment for your specific website to send information to them. Often the subscription is on a survey site.

There is no need to preach that you should never buy a mailing list from any other source.

Category : Email Communication &blog

Guaranteeing Search Engine Rankings

May 7th, 2009 // 6:15 pm @ Fox

I have been asked a few times lately if I guarantee first page ranking in search engines as a few competitors do.

The answer is ‘No’ and allow me to explain why this is so.

In a perfect world if a client implements every single idea I have and gives me an unlimited budget to spend, and Google never change their ranking algorithm, and if the client’s competitors do not spend much on SEO, then the chances are good that they will rank highly on the first page, maybe even #1. However, this is not a perfect world. There are always compromises with SEO, there is always a limited budget, Google continually enhance and tweak the ranking algorithm, and your competitors may be spending more than you.

Compromises with SEO include:

• A content management system that may not allow unique meta descriptions or page titles, or renaming images, or have friendly URL structures
• The client may not be comfortable using some of the suggestions for the strategy such as the use of social media, blogs or articles etc.
• Some marketing departments are very pedantic about content and will not change copy to include keywords
• I have experienced a few clients that are protective and argumentative about any shortcomings their site may have, and do not wish to make changes

Each Google update re-jigs the rankings and often includes an algorithm tweaking that shuffles competitors around including your site.

No one has control over Google or can influence the algorithm.

In this ever-changing landscape, how can anyone guarantee a particular ranking position?

Another important thing to keep in mind is that being on the first page of a search engine results page is only part of the race. Actually achieving a click-through and a subsequent conversion is another matter and a higher priority.

It would be a good idea to read the fine print on the contract regarding a guarantee. Is it within a particular time-frame? Is it subject to any conditions? Is it for one keyword only or all keywords? Who gets to choose the keywords for the guarantee, you or the provider? It is easy to rank on the first page or even for the #1 position for an obscure term such as ‘purple striped socks with braces’.

Let’s see what the experts think about guaranteeing search engine rankings.

Rand from SEOmoz is a guru in the industry. View his blog- ‘Why Reputable SEO Firms Don’t Promise Guaranteed Search Engine Rankings’ to get an idea of his views.

What do Google think of SEO providers guaranteeing search engine rankings. You can read their view here: ‘Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings …’

I will finish this post with a quote from Rand from SEOmoz that I strongly agree with:

What search engine optimization companies can & should guarantee is that they’ll provide the best advice possible to help your site earn more traffic.

Category : SEO &blog

Analyse Web Data To Enhance User Experience

April 28th, 2009 // 2:24 pm @ Fox

There are many insights that can be gained by analysing your web statistics regularly, but there is a difference between analysing the data and just looking at the reports. Looking at the reports confirms that they exist. Analysing them is what you do to try to understand the users of your website:

• what they do,
• where they go,
• where did they come from,
• what do they want.

For this post, we are just looking at the amount of time a user spends on your website, the number of pages they viewed and the bounce rate.

The majority of web analytical software will give you a report on these three items. The three tie into together to give you a basic idea of your site’s relevance and appeal.

A user is likely to enter your site from any content page. Don’t always assume they will enter from the homepage. With people becoming more savvy with search engines, a search term could lead a user to any part of your site. If they exit at the same page without going anywhere else, then they have bounced.

All sites are different and the number of pages a user visits and the amount of time they spend will ‘depend on what is on your site. If your site is a content-rich site with lots of informative articles and interesting posts, then you would expect to see the user go to several pages and spend at least a few minutes on the site.

If your users spend a few seconds on your site and only visit the entrance page before bouncing even though you have a content-rich site, then it is time to look at why. Either the site is not relevant to what they were looking for, or the site is not appealing enough for them to want to read, or there is too much text which can appear overwhelming, or a number of other factors.

Put yourself in your user’s shoes.

• Does the site have immediate appeal?
• Is it immediately clear what the web page is about?
• Is there too much text that makes the page look heavy to read?
• What else might contribute to a high bounce rate?

As mentioned earlier, users can enter a site at any page. The homepage may be very appealing with clear descriptive sentences of what the site is about, but are the other pages up to scratch?

Are there stand-out headings that describe what the page is about? Headings catch the eye of the user. If the text is heavy, try breaking it up with more space, add sub-headings, bullet lists, a graphic or two and try to make the page more appealing.

If you feel the page meets all the right criteria and yet there is still a high bounce rate, perhaps the site is not relevant to what the user is seeking. Look at the source of the referral. Where did the user come from? Was it through a search engine? Was it from a link you placed on a friend’s site, or a link from a directory? Was it from an advertisement you placed?

Having links all over the Internet to your site may sound like a good idea at the time, but the key is relevance. Having links from related sites or complementary sites is a better idea than having a link on a totally unrelated site. Alternatively, maybe the text on the link needs to be reviewed and rewritten to be more descriptive of what the site is about or what it sells.

Don’t put a high bounce rate in the ‘brand awareness’ bucket.

A friend was telling me that she placed an ad on a well known social media site and had lots of click-throughs. When we looked at the web analytics for those clicks, it showed that around 95% of the users that clicked through were on the site for around one second and bounced. Hmmm … This ad either was not targeted to the right audience, or my friend is a victim of click-fraud.

Think of the web data as user feedback. It is unsolicited information that you can use to enhance the user experience.

Category : Web Analytics &blog

SPAM – Australian Business And The Law

April 15th, 2009 // 9:52 am @ Fox

SPAM – unsolicited commercial electronic messages – that endless junk in our inbox that we try so desperately to reduce or remove.

As a business, are you guilty of adding to this global problem?

In Australia, the laws are quite clear on what you are allowed to do and what you are not. It is very important to businesses to be aware of the laws. Even the smallest company can be reported for not complying and the penalties are very steep. Although the SPAM Act 2003 covers SMS, MMS and IM, I am only referring to email in this post.

Consent

To send an email to anyone including a newsletter or brochure, there must be inferred or express consent.

Express consent – This is where a person has physically agreed to receive emails from a particular business. This consent may be given via ticking a box on a website, ticking a box on a form such as a membership application form, agreeing over the phone, handing over a business card or agreeing in person.

You cannot pre-tick a checkbox for consent on a website. The person must physically tick the box themselves.

Inferred consent – This is where there is an established business relationship. For example, if a person joins a membership based club or site, it is reasonable to expect to receive emails regarding account information, product information or emails specific to conducting a transaction. Inferred consent does not necessarily give permission to send marketing material or newsletters. It is better to gain express consent for this activity.

Conspicuous publication is when someone has publicly published their email address. In this case inferred consent is applicable. You can email this publicly published email address if the email is relevant to the person’s line of work. This does not mean you can start sending newsletters or promotional material to the address.

If in doubt about whether you are allowed to send something specific, gain express consent.

I have worked with many organisations where they say that one day they would like to send newsletters or promotional material. I ask them whether they have a subscriber list and the answer is generally, no. Don’t wait until you want to send newsletters and then realise that you don’t have a list to send to. Start now! Add a checkbox on your website form or on a paper-based membership form asking for permission. Then when one day arrives and you want to send newsletters, you have a list to work with.

Identify

Ensure your communication clearly displays the business details including:

• The name of the business, postal address, phone number, fax number, URL, email address and ABN or ACN.
• Logo if a html email
• The ‘From’ should clearly display the business name
• The reply path should be a valid email address

Clearly identifying your business will reduce the chance of the recipient or an ISP (Internet Service Provider) thinking your email is SPAM.

Unsubscribe

This is a very important function and mandatory. There must be a functional unsubscribe on every communication. This is generally placed in the footer and contains a sentence such as: ‘Unsubscribe me from the mailing list.’

This may be an email unsubscribe or one that happens through a website. The business has 5 days to ensure the person’s email address is removed from the mailing list.

Penalties are harsh for a business that fails to remove a requested unsubscribe. You would be surprised how many companies I have seen that tend to disregard this aspect, or offer the unsubscribe but then fail to remove the email address. Big No-No!

Australian Link

The SPAM Act 2003 applies to anything with an Australian link. This may be an email send that originates in Australia, a SPAM email that is received in Australia, or an offshore send to offshore recipients where the authorising business is registered in Australia.

You can read more about the SPAM Act 2003 and how it applies to business in Australia at http://www.acma.gov.au/WEB/STANDARD/pc=PC_310321.

Category : Online Laws &blog

Perkonomics – Perks and Privileges

April 12th, 2009 // 10:27 pm @ Fox

Have you heard of the buzzword ‘Perkonomics’?

Trendwatching.com coined this term in October 2008 to describe a growing trend where consumers are offered extra perks and privileges than the standard customer services.

PERKONOMICS: A new breed of perks and privileges, added to brands’ regular offerings, is satisfying consumers’ ever-growing desire for novel forms of status and/or convenience, across all industries. The benefits for brands are equally promising: from escaping commoditization, to showing empathy in turbulent times. One to have firmly on your radar in 2009.
http://trendwatching.com/trends/perkonomics/

I thought about this recently on an overseas trip. I was flying business class with Emirates and thoroughly enjoyed the chauffeur driven car that picked me up from my home and delivered me to the airport (1 ½ hour drive) as well as drive me home upon my return. The business class lounge was exceptional with free food and drink. I was able to board the plane early; my luggage was on the carousel first and the whole experience made me feel special and that Emirates appreciated my business.

The benefits to Emirates of this form of perkonomics are that:

• I walked away with a very positive customer experience (I could get very used to this)
• I will convey this special treatment to others (here I am writing about it)
• I will use Emirates again

Of course with the cost of flying business class, you would expect to receive special attention. I did expect to receive special attention while on the plane itself, but the before and after care were an especially appreciated perk.

Customer loyalty programs have been around for donkey years. Some companies reward their customers repeat business by offering special discounts or free products. I once worked for a company who granted their VIP customers special privileges. So if customer loyalty programs and VIP treatment are old-hat then what is the difference between them and perkonomics?

Loyalty programs are fairly standard these days and the rewards that can be gained are usually well documented and expected. There are no special surprises with these programs. By the time a customer has gained a special discount or free product, they feel that they have well and truly earned it. Generally, to qualify for VIP status you had to be extremely wealthy and be prepared to spend a massive amount of money with the company.

Perkonomics is a perk or privilege designed to give the customer a ‘warm and fuzzy’ feeling for the brand involved by offering a service to make life easier or give a certain status to the customer. The customer may be a first time customer that spends over a certain amount in a transaction, or a repeat customer. This may be in the form of:

• A chauffeur driven car to attend a function
• The ability to go to the front of a queue
• Free shipping on products
• Free pedicure with a manicure
• Express checkout or check in service
• Free tickets to entertainment

There are countless options and it will depend on what type of business you have as to what perks can be offered. Hotels, banks and airlines are the pioneers of perkonomics, but you don’t need to be a large organization to take advantage of this trend. EditsMadeEasy is a professional editing and proofreading service who offer free plagiarism checks on all dissertation and thesis editing projects.

There is an opportunity to think up novel and exciting new ways of providing perks and privileges to customers that will improve the consumer experience. Bear in mind that any perkonomics offered must remain in place long-term. It would be harmful to the brand to grant special privileges and perks to customers, and then take them away.

Category : Trends &blog

Eye Tracking and SEO vs PPC

March 6th, 2009 // 11:10 am @ Fox

According to Wikipedia:

Eye tracking is the process of measuring either the point of gaze (“where we are looking”) or the motion of an eye relative to the head. An eye tracker is a device for measuring eye positions and eye movements.

How can understanding eye tracking help the marketing effort?

Studies have been undertaken using eye tracking to determine how a user interacts with web pages and with search engines. The screenshot below shows a search engine results page with the darker colour where the eyes spend the most amount of time. The shape of these ‘hot spots’ is commonly termed the ‘golden triangle’.

With the user’s focus on the golden triangle, this is the place in search results where we would all like to be.

What happens to the golden triangle when we add paid advertising (PPC) to the mix?

Rand from SEOmoz has a very good post on The disconnect in PPC vs SEO spending,where he concludes that organic search drives approximately 75% of search traffic and PPC drives around 25% of search traffic, yet PPC makes up 80% of the marketing budget and SEO around 15%.

The value of SEO is quite apparent when viewing the eye tracking images above, however the value lies in being in the top 6 positions on a search results page. If you are able to achieve these top rankings then you could reasonably expect to attract a great percentage of the search traffic for your keywords.

Rand questions the logic of spending so much on PPC when SEO results are so much higher. In competitive markets it is more difficult to achieve this top ranking so many companies turn to the easy and fast solution to reach the top of the tree.

I also feel that the search behaviour of the user differs depending on what they are looking for. If I am looking to purchase a product or service then I am more likely to view the PPC ads down the right hand side of the page, whereas if I am looking for information or just ‘surfing’ then I rarely glance at the PPC ads.

Achieving a top placing in organic search results can often take time. It rarely happens overnight and rarely for a new website.

Plan A: Have a top 5 placing in organic search results
Plan B: Put a long-term plan into action to be in the top organic search results and as a short-term strategy, have one of the top placings in PPC.

Category : Eye Tracking &blog

Customer Trust – Online Transactions

February 23rd, 2009 // 1:18 pm @ Fox

“Trust me. Give me your money or credit card details and I promise I will send you the goods/service. Scouts honour … promise … cross my heart.”

Trust is so important in online transacting. It is not like the customer is going into a bricks and mortar shop and buying something they can see and touch, and take home immediately. When purchasing online it is like flying blind. You can’t see it, you can’t touch it and you can’t guarantee getting it. It is a virtual sale and you may end up with virtually nothing.

How do you know you can trust an online company to deliver what they promise to and not rip you off? In two words – you can’t.

So why would you deal with a company that you don’t know from Adam?

At the end of the day it is always a risk. Here are a few tips to reduce the risk:

• Read the About page on a website. Sometimes they do not tell you much, but other times it may have a bio of the CEO or photographs of staff members and the company vision or mission statement. You can get a feel for if the site and business is genuine.
• Look at the Contact page of the site. Does it have a location listed? I am very wary of any business that does not have a phone number, fax number and physical address. Simply filling out a contact form is not enough for me to trust a company.
• Is the business or site affiliated with any industry bodies? Are there any icons to show accreditation? This often depends on the industry, but displaying affiliation or accreditation icons helps to establish trust.
• Check the privacy policy, terms and conditions and support information. This is often overlooked. How many times have you filled out a form only to be bombarded with SPAM forever after? If the business is international, don’t expect to have easy come-back with your local country laws. What happens if your parcel does not arrive? What happens if you are not happy with the service? Often terms and conditions will say that you (the buyer) are responsible for anything damaged in the post, or missing in the post, or an unsatisfactory purpose.
• A big one is checking that any form you submit, particularly with your credit card details, is a secure form. This means that any personal or financial information is encrypted and secure. How do you tell if the form is secure? Always ensure the URL (web address) has https and not http in the front. A little padlock icon appears either down in the bottom right corner of your browser or top right. Each web browser shows things differently.

  If you get a security warning popup do not enter your credit card details. This happened to me with a transaction once. I immediately stopped the transaction and phone the company to tell them that their security certificate has expired and their form was no longer secure. They had no idea what I was talking about.

• Testimonials from satisfied customers are good up to a point. Genuine ones can help build trust, but how do you know if it is genuine? You would not believe how many business owners write their own false testimonials. I have always had an ethical problem with false testimonials. I believe that potential customers can smell a rat from a mile away. Over-enthusiastic customers writing soppy testimonials doesn’t shine my shoes, but testimonials with a name, title and business (which can be checked) are more likely to build my trust.

  I know a one-man commercial business where the staff photograph comprises of the business owner, his brother, his father and two administration girls from another office. His little business of one looks like a much larger concern. I wonder if anyone noticed the family resemblance.

In the words of Abraham Lincoln:

If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. It is true that you may fool all of the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all of the time; but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.

Category : Trust &blog

Claim Your Business In Google Maps

February 14th, 2009 // 9:35 pm @ Fox

Do you know if your business appears in Google Maps?

Judging by the number of unclaimed businesses in Google Maps, it seems many business owners do not know that they need to claim their business.

What happens if a business is not claimed?

Before a business is claimed, the listing is open to editing by the community at large. This means that ANYONE with a Google account can edit the location of the business and add information that is not correct. This can potentially leave room for business listing to be hijacked.

This is an excellent post titled Microsoft’s listing in Google Maps Hijacked (oops by me) which discusses the possibilities of foul play with listings.

How do I know if my business is vulnerable?

When you go into the detail for the listing, you will either see ‘Provided by the business owner’ or ‘Claim your business’.

Once your business is claimed and verified by Google, it is locked and can only be edited by the authorised business owner.

Business is too important to leave these details unattended.

Category : Local Search &blog

Can You Have Too Much Web Content?

February 9th, 2009 // 11:24 am @ Fox

Time and again it is instilled upon us that ‘content is king’ when it comes to a website. The experts all say to write as much copy as you can on your product or service, add a blog, write reviews, FAQ’s, articles and so on. Is it possible to have too much content?

The benefits of having a ton of copy on your website include:

• Plenty of information for customers researching your product or service
• A full and comprehensive site seen as an authority
• Loads of long-tail keywords or phrases for people searching
• The more opportunities for people wishing to link to one of the pages

There is a big ‘however’ here. HOWEVER, there are two ways that you can have too much content.

1. If the content is not meaningful, there is no point in having lots of content. Meaningless dribble will not give customers much information on your product or service or encourage people to link to it. It is very easy to write a few hundred words on a particular topic, but boring and trivial will result in a high bounce rate.

   The content needs to be informative, compelling and easy to read. Put yourself in the shoes of the audience and think about what information they need, or what copy would interest them.

2. It is not recommended to have too much copy on one page, particularly if it is just massive blocks of text. This is not how people read online. Many websites, particularly corporate sites, make the mistake of treating the online environment in the same way as the offline environment. Where offline you can read a book, magazine or article with lots of block paragraphs, online it does not work this way.

   Online readers tend to scan web pages looking for something that will attract their interest. The use of headings, bolded text, bullet points, images, links and plenty of white space is much easier to read than just text.

It is fine to have a few hundred words per page providing it is broken up into easy to read and manageable chunks.

Category : Content &blog