How copy can improve traffic and boost online sales

Web copy that shines

by Allen Palmer

webcopywriter.com.au

Tuesday, 23 February 2010 1

Typical approach to web development

1. Information Architecture
2. Design
3. Build
4. Usability
5. e-commerce
6. Hosting
7. Security
8. Trivial stuff (like Privacy)
9. More trivial stuff (like paying for images)
10. Even more trivial stuff (like copy)


Why you think copy isn’t that important

1. You can write it
2. Copywriters costs less than designers
3. You misunderstand what a web copywriter does

The job of a web copywriter is not to
not to produce “well-written” sites.

The job of a web copywriter is to
boost online “sales”.


Why you should care more about copy

– Your Goals
– Get members
– Keep members
– Educate members
– Raise public proﬁle
– Inﬂuence govt (preferably without brown paper bags)
– Sell stuff (e.g. Memberships, courses, manuals, etc)

– A good web copywriter helps achieve your goals in 2 ways
– 1. Increase traffic
– 2. Turn more visitors into “customers”


A web copywriter increases traffic
– 80% of users ﬁnd websites by search engine
– Most of your web traffic is via your web address
– Or people Googling your name or acronym
– You can generate more hits through search
– Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) boosts ranking
– People “buying” what you “selling” ﬁnd you
– Not about increasing keyword density
– Good web copywriter boosts site hits


A web copywriter turns hits into “sales”

– Not enough to get traffic
– Need to produce a “result”
– Design important
– Information Architecture important
– Usability very important
– But copy closes “the sale”
– Your web copywriter is your online salesperson


How a web copywriter can help you

– My general impression of your sites
– Not search engine optimised
– Not selling hard enough

– What you’ll learn today
– Not “How to write more nicely”
– 1. How to turn more surfers into visitors
– 2. How to turn more visitors into customers


How to turn more surfers into visitors

– Goal: boost hits by improving Google search rankings
– Need to know how Google works
– Unfortunately no-one does
– Most helpful?
– External Links from sites with high PageRank
– Focus today is on-page SEO
– The key to on-page SEO is keywords


Moving from selling to buying

– What are keywords?
– Words (or phrases) that people enter in Google
– What do your customers search for?
– Don’t think about what you’re selling
– Think about what they’re buying
– Don’t be inside looking out
– Be outside looking in


Moving from “selling” to “buying”

– Selling - “plumber”
– Buying - “leaky roof”
– Selling - “osteopath”
– Buying - “back pain”
– Selling - “cabinet maker”
– Buying - “built in wardrobes”
– Selling - “We are ... “
– Buying - “I’m looking to solve this problem”


Web copy that shines

by Allen Palmer



How to boost web
traffic & lift online
sales

by Allen Palmer



Tools to help you choose keywords
– Wordtracker - www.wordtracker.com
– Used by SEO professionals in US
– US$117/mth
– Disadvantage: Need to export results to SEM account
– Search results relevant to Australia?

– I prefer Google Adwords
– https://adwords.google.com.au/select/KeywordToolExternal
– Target speciﬁcally for Australian territory
– Interfaces with your SEM account
– Track the campaign & ﬁne tune
– Free


Which keywords to choose?

– Need to consider 3 criteria:
– Popularity
– Relevance
– Competition


Primary, secondary keyword phrases
– Don’t just choose one keyword phrase
– Have a primary and a secondary keyword phrase
– A couple of additional phrases
– Don’t choose keywords for the site
– Keywords for each page
– How do you use these keywords to optimise your sites?


How and where to use your keywords

– No Google manual
– seomoz polls SEO experts for their opinions
– http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors#ranking-
factors
– Where do you use keywords to boost Google ranking?
– Stuff in the body copy, right?
– Wrong.


Where keywords boost Google ranking

1. Keyword in the Title tag - 66% of experts consider important
2. Keyword in the ﬁrst few words of Title tag - 63%


Optimising for keywords - Page Title

– What is Page Title?
– It’s what you see at the top of browser page
– http://www.smh.com.au/
– In the source code:
<TITLE> Write your page title here</TITLE>
– Very important to search engines
– Don’t ever want to see “Home”
– Or “Welcome to AMSCRAM”


Optimising for keywords - Page Title
– Tailor it to the speciﬁc page
– 60 characters (including spaces)
– Doesn’t need to include your association name
– Doesn’t need to include your tagline
– Doesn’t need to be a sentence
– People don’t read it but search engines do
– Include 2 or 3 keyword phrases
– Try to double up - “back pain relief” includes “back pain”
– Most of you aren’t exploiting your page Title



1. Keyword in the Title tag - 66%
3. Keyword Use in Root Domain Name - 60% keyword.org.au


Optimising keywords - Domain names

1. Ideally domain name includes your keyword
2. www.cheaphotels.com.au
3. You possibly don’t have a choice for main site
4. But you could create micro sites with keyword domains
5. Buy up useful domains names
6. Redirect to your site



3. Keyword Use in Root Domain Name - 60%
4. Keyword Anywhere in H1 Tag - 49%


Keywords in <H1> Tags

– http://www.pavplumbing.com.au/
– <H1>Your page heading goes in tags like this</H1>
– Only one per page
– <H2>Secondary headings go here>/H2>
– <H3>Tertiary headings go in here</H3>
– <H4> And so on … </H4>
– Tags other than H1 not so important for SEO
– <H> tags have fallen out of favour
– But not with search engines
– Most of you aren’t utilising H1 tags



3. Keyword Use in Root Domain Name - 60%
4. Keyword Anywhere in H1 Tag - 49%
5. Keyword Use In Internal anchor link - 47%


Keyword in internal anchor link

– Google #1 for “mortgage brokers”
– http://www.mortgagechoice.com.au/
– “award winning home loan broker”
– “ﬁnd your local mortgage broker”
– Not all of their links are working for them
– e.g. “Read our tips and checklists”
– Better “Read our mortgage tips and checklists”
– “Find out why we’re different”
– “Find out why Australia’s leading home loan broker”


– 1. Keyword in the Title tag - 66%
– 2. Keyword in the ﬁrst few words of Title tag - 63%
– 3. Keyword Use in Root Domain Name - 60%
– 4. Keyword Anywhere in H1 Tag - 49%
– 5. Keyword Use In Internal Link Anchor - 47%
– 6. Keyword in External Link Anchor - 46%


– 7. Keywords in ﬁrst words in H1 tags - 45%


– 8. Keywords in ﬁrst 50-100 words - 45%


– 9. Keywords in Sub-domain name - keyword.assn.org


– 10. Keyword in page name URL - 38% - assn.org/keyword/


Keyword in page name URL

– Not http://www.webcopywriter.com.au/content.cfm?categoryid=2
– http://www.webcopywriter.com.au/website-copywriting/


– 10. Keyword in page name URL - 38% - assn.org/keyword/
– Where is keyword density?


– 10. Keyword in page name URL - 38%
– 17. Keyword density formula - 25%


– 21. Keyword in Meta Description - 19%


Keywords in Meta Description
– Not important in SEO
– But Description appears on Google Results page
– http://www.google.com.au/ig?hl=en
– Helps drive people to your site
– Needs to “sell”
– Maximum 160 characters (including spaces)


– 21. Keywords in Meta Description - 19%
– 24. Keyword in Meta Keywords - 5%


Why content matters

– We’ve been looking at On-page keyword-related SEO factors
– But seomoz also ranks On-page non-keyword SEO factors
– 1. Substantive, unique content - 65% consider important
– Keyword density in content not important
– Content matters
– And not just for boosting Google ranking and traffic


2. How to turn visitors into customers

– Most of your sites are competently written
– Not necessarily good web copy
– 3 areas to improve
– a. More targeted
– b. More direct
– c. More clickable


a. More targeted web copy

– Most of your sites don’t sell
– Most of your sites house information
– More like libraries than arcades
– Not clear who the target audience is
– Not clear what you’re selling
– Not clear what you want them to do
– Don’t need to become better at writing
– Need to become better at selling


How to write copy that sells

– Before you pick up a pen, ask 3 questions:
– 1. Who is your target audience?
– 2. What do they want to buy?
– 3. Why should they buy from you?



– b. More direct


Good web copy is more direct

– Good brochure copy is “well written”
– Good brochure copy doesn’t make good web copy
– Short attention span
– People tend to “scan” rather than read
– Huge blocks of relentless text are a turn-off
– But search engines like lots of content
– Solution?
– Make it “scannable”
– Structure your copy into snack-sized bites


Structure your copy into snacks
– Short sentences
– Max 25 words

– Short paragraphs (3-4 lines)
– 50-100 words max
– http://www.essentialsofborrowing.com.au/

– Short pages?
– But search engines love content
– Long pages but links above the fold
– http://www.moneysolutions.com.au/Learning-More/Starting-
A-New-Job.aspx


Structure your copy into snacks

– Use Headings and subheadings
– Use <H> tags
– Keywords ﬁrst
– Don’t use puns in headlines
– Search engines have no sense of humour

– Use bullet points
– Link bullet points to content if possible
– Remember: internal links improve SEO


How to write opening paragraph

– Can’t save the best for last
– Journalistic style rather than wannabe novelist
– Inverted pyramid style
– First paragraph needs to summarise the page
– Hooks reader & improves SEO
– Only introduce detail as the reader digs down the page


How to write for the web

– 3 guiding principles
– Shorter sentences
– Simpler construction
– Less formal language


Formal language Informal language

By means of ... By ...

As a consequence ... So ...

In the event that ... If ...

Is capable of ... Can ...

Is required to ... Must ...

Might be able to ... Could ...

Would not Wouldn’t ...

We would We’d ...



– Before: “This Help Sheet describes diverticulosis, who gets it and
some of its most common forms. It describes some early signs of
diverticulosis and emphasises the importance of an early medical
diagnosis”.

– After: “What is diverticulosis, who gets it, what are the early signs
and why early diagnosis is critical”.

– Eliminate redundant words (e.g. “this help sheet describes ... “)
– Eliminate formal language (e.g. “emphases the importance of ... “)



– Before: “This is the official home page of the Australasian
Beekeeper Association. It is intended to provide information about
the Association and its members as well as current activities and
meetings. The mission of the ABA is to lead and promote bee health
in Australia and New Zealand and to advance the professional
interests of its members."

– After: “The Australasian Beekeeper Association (ABA) promotes
bees and beekeeping in Australia and New Zealand.”

– Eliminate redundant words and get to the point



– Before: “The spirit of sharing, collaboration and innovation is solid
within WWA and along with our many industry partners and
sponsors WWA will pursue every opportunity to ensure our industry
is well placed to support, protect and conserve what our
communities’ value.

– After: “WWA’s mission is to ensure Australia’s weather forecasting
services are able to support and protect our communities.”



– http://www.superannuation-advice.com.au/
– Not like this
– Remember the inverted pyramid
– First paragraph needs to summarise



1. Before: “BBP’s strategic direction for the next seven years is
guided by ﬁve key Goals. These goals are a high level statement
of the outcomes BBP wishes to achieve.”

3. After: “Over the next 7 years, BBP has the following 5 goals:”



– Before:



The designer of the next
Empire State Building -
could it be your child?
– A fun, new, interactive website helps
children explore what it’s like to be a civil
engineer and invites them to take “The
Skyscraper Challenge”.

– Get in their shoes


– Before:
MBA: Don't Include Cram Down in
Regulatory Reform
In response to discussion today in the House Financial
Services Committee raising the possibility that a
regulatory reform bill could include provisions allowing
bankruptcy judges to modify mortgages on primary
residences, MBA Chairman David Kittle issued the
following statement.

"Allowing judges to retroactively modify borrowers'
mortgage balances will destabilize a mortgage market
that desperately needs stability right now.



– After:

Cram Down Bill could hurt 50
million American homeowners
If bankruptcy courts are allowed to
amend mortgages on primary residences,
the cost would be borne by the millions
of homeowner who don’t declare
bankruptcy.



– b. More direct


Making your copy more clickable

– Having worked out what you want people to do
– Make it easy for them to do it
– Images and clickable buttons
– Keyword Links in your opening paragraph
– Keyword Links in middle paragraphs
– Keyword Links at the bottom of the page
– Enhance SEO
– Drive more sales


The psychology of selling

– Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
– Economist subscriptions
– Version A
– Web $59 (68%)
– Print & Web $125 (32%)

– Version B
– Web $59
– Print only $125
– Print & Web $125


The psychology of selling

– Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
– Economist subscriptions
– Version A
– Web $59 (68%)
– Print & Web $125 (32%)

– Version B
– Web $59 (16%)
– Print only $125 (0%)
– Print & Web $125 (84%)


What I hope you’ve learned today
– 1. Web copywriter most important member of team
– involve earlier
– pay more
– 2. Their job is not to produce a “well written” site
– Their job is to sell your association
– Deliver more web traffic
– Convert visitors into customers
– 3. Areas where your sites can improve
– SEO - Page Titles, H1 tags, links
– More targeted - who, what & why
– More direct - shorter, simpler, less formal
– More clickable - link early and often


–]

allen@webcopywriter.com.au


How copy can improve traffic and boost online sales

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