SEO copywriting is harder than it looks
When I first started working as a website copywriter, I knew relatively little about search engine optimization (SEO). I understood that keywords could open the door to search engine traffic, but I didn’t realize just how much effort was involved in successfully finding and implementing those keywords using SEO.
In hindsight, I entered the SEO copywriting niche almost by accident. Back then, I provided general copywriting services for online and for print. As I settled into my newfound profession and increasingly focused on web content writing, I noticed that I was receiving more and more requests for “keyword articles.”
The premise was simple: Write an article (or ten) and use a particular keyword or keyword phrase a predetermined number of times. Some clients wanted the keyword to appear five times in an article. Others specified that the keyword must appear in bold, headings, italics, or near the beginning of a paragraph. Often, the keyword also had to be included in the title.
These assignments made me curious, so I started researching SEO to better understand my clients’ goals. After realizing how SEO could positively impact traffic to a website, I started testing SEO copywriting on my own sites, and finding the endeavor successful, I eventually added SEO services to my repertoire.
What is SEO Copywriting?
SEO copywriting is the practice of writing material for online publication. It includes strategically placed keywords in order to attract traffic from search engines. The most targeted search engine is Google.
Ideally, extensive research is conducted to determine which keywords are a good fit for the website to which you want to draw traffic. This should be done before the SEO copy is written.
Also, there should be a strategy for implementing the keywords not just in the copy, but in the website’s code.
Understanding Keywords
Many business owners request written copy for their website and when asked about keywords, they just list keywords off the cuff, without truly understanding that in website copywriting, a keyword is more than a word from the dictionary that relates to your website or your business.
For example, a restaurant owner might suggest the keyword “food.” I don’t even have to research this keyword to know that it’s highly competitive, and it would probably be impossible for a small business to rank on a search engine for this keyword. Also, it’s extremely nonspecific. Folks searching for “food” could be looking for a grocery store, recipes, or nutrition information. In fact, I’d guess it’s quite unlikely that a searcher looking for “food” is actually seeking a restaurant.
Keywords can’t be pulled out of thin air, and website or business owners should never make assumptions about keywords. Take an entrepreneur who calls herself a beautician. She’s attached to that title and requests it as a keyword in her site without doing any research. Would she be interested to learn that the keyword “beautician” generates about 110,000 searches per month through Google alone?
How would she feel about her keyword choice if she learned that “hairstylist” gets 165,000 searches a month? Or if she were to discover that “hair stylist” (two words) gets 368,000 searches?
Imagine her surprise when she finds out that “hairdresser” is searched 823,000 times a month.
Which keyword should she use?
Keywords, SEO, and Assumptions
It’s easy to assume that the beautician should target the keyword “hairdresser” because it gets the most searches. However, a good SEO specialist continues to ask questions.
- How competitive is the keyword?
- How much research, copywriting, and other resources will it take to rank for this keyword?
- Can my business handle the amount of traffic that this keyword could potentially draw?
A large chain of salons might have the budget and resources to hire an extensive SEO campaign in the tens of thousands of dollars. Such a chain could also handle the number of customers that a massive campaign could attract.
However, an independent, self-employed beautician may prefer another strategy. It could be more beneficial to rank high for a beautician-related keyword that gets a lower number of searches and for which it will take less time and resources to achieve high rankings. This is especially true if she is intent on remaining independent and cannot handle a clientele roster that numbers in the tens (or hundreds) of thousands.
The Art of SEO Copywriting
The actual practice of SEO copywriting involves writing copy that contains keywords. This is neither as simple nor as straightforward as it sounds.
A good copywriter knows that the first priority is to create copy that compels. That means understanding the primary intent. Should this copy incite website visitors to buy a product? Encourage them to hire someone for a service? Register for membership? Click to another page?
Compelling copywriting is clear and easy to read. It speaks to the target customer and it is concise. Usually, it’s formatted to be scanable. Often, it’s balanced with descriptive and interesting images (or video).
Keywords have to fit into good copywriting, which requires a significant aptitude for writing. If you build copy around keywords, then the copy will be keyword-driven rather than customer-oriented. A talented or skillful SEO copywriter knows how to work keywords into great copy, much like a chef works herbs and spices into a gourmet recipe.
Hiring an SEO Copywriter
The goal of SEO copywriting is to increase a website’s rank in search engine results pages (SERPs). A professional SEO copywriter understands this and wants her clients to succeed.
A good SEO copywriter may or may not provide keyword research and other SEO services. Some copywriters only do the writing. However, any professional SEO copywriter should have a thorough understanding of how SEO works.
When you hire a copywriter, you may already have a list of keywords. Perhaps you hired a professional SEO and just need someone to write the copy. Or maybe your site has been optimized for some time and now you just want to update the written content.
In any case, both an SEO copywriter and a client should understand that SEO is not as simple as plucking keywords from one’s vocabulary and then casually strewing them throughout the written copy.
Online marketing: think like your customer
With all the available outlets for online marketing, many small business owners are confused and overwhelmed. There are blogs to post, social media profiles to update, and newsletters to send out. Coupons, directories, search engines, ads. The online marketing strategies you’re supposed to be engaged in never end.
To make matters worse, small business owners have a hard time latching on to a clear and meaningful message. Their websites are full of industry jargon that customers can’t relate to. Their tweets are self-indulgent braggery (we’re number one!) or pleas (please buy from us!). They’re increasingly being seduced by wily SEO firms that promise “Number One Ranking for Over 500 Keywords!,” a promise that may be fulfilled but is unlikely to bring new customers to the business.
The entire purpose of online marketing is to reach out to your prospective customers and attract them to your business. So, why aren’t more small business owners thinking like customers?
Whether you’re running your own online marketing campaigns or hiring consultants and marketing firms to handle them for you, it’s essential to look at your business from the customer’s perspective so you can make smart decisions about how to spend your time and money.
Step Into Your Customers’ Shoes
What do your prospective customers want? What problems are they facing, and how do your products and services solve those problems? What makes your business the best one to patronize? Most importantly, how are your target customers using the web?
These are simple questions that any small business should be able to answer without second thought. In fact, if you’re already in business or if you’ve started laying the groundwork for your small business, then these are a few of the first questions you should have addressed in your business plan.
But all business owners lapse into industry thinking. We get caught up in our own fields of expertise. We forget that the consumer sees from a different point of view and speaks a completely different language. Take the website designer who gushes about his clean code or the restaurant that taunts its new, industrial oven. Customers don’t care about that stuff. They want to know the designer can build a sharp looking website and the restaurant serves up tasty food. They don’t care what code or ovens these businesses use.
The best online marketing campaigns speak to customers from the customers’ own perspective. Once you step into your customers’ shoes, you’ll be able to craft a clear and meaningful message that speaks to them, and you’ll be able to create quality content for your online marketing campaigns.
Using Your Expertise and Experience
One of the most overlooked facets of online marketing is expertise. A realtor knows the ins and outs of the real estate market, knows about home loans, escrows, and can tell you every step involved in the process of buying or selling a house. But first-time home buyers (or sellers) have no idea what they’re getting into. So, a realtor’s online marketing content can bring value to prospective customers by publishing tips that clearly explain the processes in laymen’s terms.
You’re a pro at what you do, but your customers are novices. Don’t ever forget that. In addition to the products and services that you sell, you can give away your knowledge (advice) to make the customer’s experience more pleasurable. Let’s say you’re an electrician. You can just go to people’s houses and fix their wiring or you can leave a lasting impression and give your customers a branded flyer that offers some tips on how they can maintain their electrical devices. Now, post those tips to your website and you’ve just added some useful content for your website visitors.
And the grateful public will respond. Whatever your profession, you have acquired expertise and experience. It’s likely that your knowledge about your industry has become so second nature that you take it for granted. So, if you can step back and look at things from a novice’s prospective, you’ll find that in addition to your products and services, you possess knowledge that has value.
The Inside Scoop
On Facebook, a local restaurant can regularly post updates about their menu and specials. Anyone who “likes” the restaurant will get the inside scoop on special meals and sweet deals. A popular performer (comedian, musician, etc.) can set up a newsletter letting fans know about secret or low-profile scheduled appearances.
These types of communications achieve two things. First, they make customers feel like they are in the know, or in on a good secret. Second, they encourage buzz. When customers have “secret” information that their friends and family don’t have, they’re more likely to share that information. Broadcast a commercial on television and they’ll assume everybody knows about your big, Labor Day sale. But utter a secret deal to your subscribers or followers and they’ll go out of their way to spread your message for you.
For a small business, the best customer is a loyal customer. These are not only the customers that come back again and again, they’re also the customers that run around telling all their friends how great you are. They send you a lot of referrals. The most loyal customers are the ones that follow your business or post positive ratings and reviews. Reward these customers and they’ll not only continue to patronize your business, they’ll bring their friends and families with them.
Case Studies and Storytelling
Too many businesses talk about their products and services from a technical perspective. Instead, you need to think of your products and services as solutions. And you also need to think of your customers as people with problems — problems that need solutions. Now, all you have to do is explain to your customers how you can solve their problems. One of the most effective ways to do this is through case studies and storytelling.
Our friend the electrician has a website that lists all of his skills and services. He does residential and commercial, he can replace and upgrade electrical components, he offers energy-saving solutions, retrofitting, troubleshooting, and installation. Most of his services are useful but they way he’s explained them on his website mean nothing to the average consumer.
The electrician should certainly list these services somewhere on his site, but the front page needs to help visitors understand what he’s offering by telling a story: Power outlets not working? Did you know faulty wiring and broken outlets can be a safety hazard? I’m here to help keep your family safe and make sure your electrical wiring works.
Once you’ve been in business for a few years, you’ll have some stories to tell. You’ll have stories about customers who benefited greatly from doing business with you and stories about customers who suffered because they didn’t. In the meantime, be creative. Use storytelling to show (not tell) people how your business offerings will improve their lives.
Online Marketing for Customers
Building an effective online marketing campaign can have an exponential impact on the growth of your business. Think like a customer to create engaging and meaningful content, then use social networking, blogging, and other online marketing efforts to bring visitors to your site and then convert them into customers.
How the website copywriting process works
I’ve already touched on the basics of website copywriting. Now, I’d like to present a more elaborate explanation of exactly what website copywriting entails.
Why should I do such a thing?
For starters, I think it’s only fair that my clients understand what I do for them, what they’re paying me for, and how I handle their projects.
Also, I’m discomforted by the idea that some small businesses are paying for website copy that’s thrown together in a matter of minutes. That gives me the shudders. If you hire someone to write your copy and pay a fair rate, you deserve quality service. You deserve someone who will put time, effort, and energy into your project.
I’m a methodical person, and I use methodology to my advantage in the services that I provide. Over time, I’ve developed a process that allows me to tackle website copywriting projects in a way that is both efficient and effective. Basically, I follow a series of steps, but they are flexible and allow room for creative thinking and word play. I find that using this process makes the work flow more smoothly while simultaneously making it more fun. Yep, I love what I do.
Because I know which steps I need to take and the order in which I need to take them, I can focus on creating quality content instead of worrying about how I’m going to get it done.
Here’s how I do it:
Step One: Understand the Project
The first step in any website copywriting project is simple: understand the clients’ needs. I need to know where the copy will be published, whether there are any space limitations, and if I should be using any keywords for SEO. I also need to establish the desired call to action. In other words, when website visitors read the copy, what should it encourage them to do next?
Step Two: Get to Know the Client’s Business
I can’t write a single word until I have a good, thorough understanding of my client’s business. It’s not enough to know that they sell carburetors. I need to know what kind of carburetors they sell, to whom their carburetors are sold, how much they are sold for, and whether or not they offer carburetor installation or just the actual carburetors. I also like to know how the business got started, who runs it, and their mission and philosophy.
Step Three: Collect and Review Materials
Before I start writing, I usually collect all my information into a single file. Sometimes it’s just a Word document filled with notes, links, and other tidbits that I’ve copied and pasted from email communications with my client. Just before I start composing, I like to go over everything so it’s fresh in my mind, and then I’m ready to write the outline.
Step Four: Outline
I love outlines. Some writers refuse to outline, and that’s okay too. But an outline usually only takes a few minutes and provides a road map for the rest of the project, which means I can travel through it quickly without losing my way or getting off track. Basically, it allows me to complete the work much faster, and this is a saving that I can pass on to my customers.
Step Five: Draft Copy
The outline is like a skeleton. When I start drafting, it’s much like filling in the skeleton — putting meat and muscle on the bones. This is where I get creative and have fun choosing the perfect language, images, and style to properly convey my clients’ message. This where I get to tell their story.
Step Six: Revise, Edit, Repeat
In order to let the light of creativity shine while I’m composing the rough draft, I cannot get hung up on technical details. If I’m worrying about commas and apostrophes or spelling and grammar, I cannot keep my attention focused on crafting sentences that compel website visitors. So, once the draft is done, I go through it several times to clean it up and make sure it’s grammatically correct.
Step Seven: Polish
Here’s a little writer’s trick: After you have revised your copy, let it sit for a few hours, preferably overnight. Then, come back with fresh eyes and give it a final polish. Invariably, you will find some unnecessary word that can be cut, some gap that needs to be filled with a catchy adjective, or even an empty space where a comma should be. Polishing leads to website copywriting that sparkles and shines!
Step Eight: The Send-Off
Once the copy is buffed to perfection, it’s ready to get sent off to the client. This is always a good feeling, the delivery.
Step Nine: Revisions
Everybody has personal preferences, and I’m no mind reader. Sometimes, in the initial project plan, a small but important detail gets left out. Like including a phone number in the website copy. Or using a special phrase (a tagline or slogan, perhaps) in the text. Maybe I used a word that rubs the client the wrong way. We all have our language peeves, and small business owners are no exception. I always invite clients to request a round of revisions to the final copy. This is usually a quick process and involves going through and changing a few words or adding a line or two. Most of the time, revisions aren’t necessary at all, but I still like to give everyone the option.
That’s it. My entire process. It might sound long and tedious with all those steps, but it’s a clean and proven way to provide the very best copy possible.
Website Copywriting
Scribizzy offers a full suite of website copywriting services.
Small business website design tips
When you’re shopping around for a small business website design, do you know what to look for and what to avoid? Do you know which design elements will make your site more appealing and which elements will turn visitors away?
If you’ve spent much time surfing around the web, then you’ve probably noticed that some websites have design elements that are distracting, annoying, or just plain ugly. We’ve all bumped into a few websites that make us want to scream. Luckily, escape is just a click away.
But if you’re a small business owner, you definitely don’t want visitors clicking away from your website, especially if they’re seeking escape because the design is unappealing or irritating.
9 Small Business Website Design Elements to Avoid
Here’s a list of design elements that people frequently complain about. Most of these recommendations have been on web designers’ things-to-avoid lists for years, but these frustrating features just keep showing up all over the internet. Be smart and avoid these small business website design faux pas:
- Automatic-playing Music: This is number one on the list for good reason. Nothing startles a website visitor more than loud audio suddenly protruding from the speakers. Maybe the visitor is already listening to background music. Maybe they’re trying to focus on your content (and if your content is not centered around music, the sound is just a distraction). Maybe there’s a baby sleeping nearby. Be considerate and make audio optional.
- Flashing, Blinking, or Scrolling Text: If it’s subtle, you might get away with it. But like audio, moving text is nothing more than a distraction. Sure, you might be using it to get the visitor’s attention, but once you do and they start seriously perusing your site, it’s just going to become an annoyance.
- Animations: Some animations work well with a design. If you’re an illustrator or an animation cartoonist, go for it. But if you’ve got a website that’s centered around some product or service that doesn’t include art or animation, then keep your content static.
- Pop-up Windows: No. Just no. I don’t care if your windows pop up in front, in back, or right on the page. Don’t do it. Some websites are still using pop-ups or have returned to pop-ups. They will never be sustainable because they’ll ultimately annoy people, especially your repeat visitors who have to face the dreaded pop-up every time they are kind enough to visit your site.
- Image Backgrounds: This one almost didn’t make the list because there are a lot of image backgrounds that work well, especially textures. So this is not so much a design element you need to avoid as one that you need to use judiciously. As long as the images are small and fast-loading, you should be okay. But if a solid color will work just as well, then get rid of your image backgrounds. And do note that most major (and hugely successful) websites don’t use them (Google, Amazon, etc.).
- Frames: These days, with CSS and other design technologies so readily available, frames are just an unnecessary and outdated technique for organizing the content on a site. The problem with frames is that they are not compatible with all browsers and may render differently on different computers. So opt for a content management system (like WordPress) instead.
- Excessively Wide or Long Pages: This should go without saying, but I still run into these types of websites on occasion. I always wonder if the designer is using an enormous monitor and has forgotten that most people use 15- to 17-inch screens. And try to remember that visitors don’t like to scroll endlessly down (or across) the page. Except on archived sections of your site, keep scrolling to the length of two or three pages.
- Indistinguishable Links: Have you ever hovered your mouse over a web page and it caused a window to open or carried you off to some other page? That’s just plain weird. Links are meant to be clicked so make sure they’re clickable and make sure that visitors can distinguish a link from regular text.
- Opening a Link in a New Window: There are some instances in which I don’t mind links opening in a new window, but usually I prefer to make the decision myself. All I have to do is command-click (Windows users can right-click and choose “open link in new tab/window”). When web designers use this functionality, website visitors end up with dozens of open windows, and there’s a good chance the window with your site on it will get lost in the fray. Let people use the back button. That’s what it’s there for.
Exceptions to These Website Design Tips
These design elements should be avoided, but not always. Whenever you’re reading a list of tips, it’s important to remember that there are always exceptions. In the list above, I’ve pointed out some obvious exceptions, but you should remember to use your best judgment and keep in mind that sometimes breaking the rules or defying convention is a good thing.
If you’re not sure about whether a particular small business website design idea would have a negative impact on your site, ask your website designer or consult with an online marketing specialist. Also, ask friends, family, customers, and professionals in your network. Nothing beats user feedback!
Tips for choosing the right website manager
Many small business owners find website ownership to be frustrating, which is understandable. After all, not all entrepreneurs are IT professionals, website designers, or marketing experts.
These business owners encounter problems with web design projects and have to overcome challenges presented by technology, not to mention the increasingly murky waters of online marketing.
They just want their businesses to succeed, and they know that a website is mandatory. These business owners often ask: who is responsible for my website?
The answer is simple: the business or person who owns the domain is ultimately responsible for all aspects of a website, from software updates to content changes, and this is usually the business itself or its owner. On the other hand, few business owners have the time or know-how to manage a website and require assistance in this area, which is where problems start to arise.
One small business might have an IT specialist who handles the in-house network or various electronics systems as well as the website hosting. This business also has a website designer and works with a couple of different marketing consultants. But there’s a lot of crossover between hosting, design, and marketing.
These professionals are expected to work together as a cohesive team but often, their ideas clash. The designer wants to maintain a certain aesthetic appeal whereas the marketing people insist on loading the site with links and streams from social media. The copywriter has worked hard to produce clear language and now the SEO strategist wants to pepper the copy with keywords. The business owner is writing weekly blogs that merely document the goings-on in the day-to-day business and since she’s not a trained writer, the work is peppered with bad grammar. The IT guy is responsible for publishing the blogs, but he’s not an editor. The designer is in charge of adding content to other areas of the site, but he usually pushes back in an effort to maintain the integrity of the design. Meanwhile, nobody’s tracking the number of visitors to the site or making sure the software is getting updated and nobody’s making backups.
I’ve seen this happen, and it’s not pretty.
Unless you have a minimalist website that never gets updated and a barely-there presence on the web, there needs to be one person designated to oversee all aspects of your small business website. And this person needs to be knowledgeable in all of these areas, which means in most cases, the business owner is not the best person for the job.
Understanding Your Website Management Needs
In order to choose the right website manager, you first need to determine what your needs are. Is your site running on software that needs to be updated periodically? Does your hosting provider run automated backups or do you need to make sure someone’s taking care of that? Are you publishing new content on a regular basis? What other online marketing strategies are you using and how do they impact or interact with your website? Are there metrics in place to measure your site’s performance? And most importantly, how are each of these efforts contributing to the success of your business?
What happens if there is no website manager? Many small business owners hire various consultants and specialists to handle different aspects of online marketing. As a result, there is zero oversight in ensuring that the site’s content is consistent and basic maintenance tasks get neglected.
For example, I worked on a website that had received a lot of input over the years from various marketers. The copy had been written by a bunch of different people so the business didn’t have a consistent voice. The imagery was mismatched. Worst of all, the logo on the site was different from the logo on the business’s stationary. And in almost a decade of having an online presence, not only was nobody monitoring the site’s performance — tracking tools had never even been installed.
Choosing a Website Manager
Some small business owners let the responsibility fall, by default, to their IT professional or website designer. But an IT consultant may know almost nothing about online marketing. In fact, their area of expertise is with hardware and software, not with marketing, advertising, or sales. A website designer is often the best person to task with updates, but many designers are just that — designers. They are not marketers or business consultants. Their expertise is in aesthetics (although I would note that many of today’s designers are quite savvy in business and marketing).
The ideal website manager tends to be well rounded in all things that are internet, business, and marketing related:
- Fair understanding of internet technology, hosting, and domain registration and an ability to use technology required to update and backup the site (such as a content management system or if necessary, code)
- Good eye for effective website design and an ability to recognize well crafted copy
- Familiar with standard online marketing tools, such as search engines, social media, directories and review sites, newsletters and email campaigns, and various advertising models
- Also somewhat familiar with offline marketing, including business cards, brochures, coupons, ads, etc.
- Most importantly, a good website manager is attuned to the business’s goals and never forgets the ultimate purpose of the site is to keep existing customers coming back while attracting new customers
An Advocate for Your Business
Over the years, I’ve worked with small businesses who either didn’t have a website manager or who had one who lacked several of the qualifications listed above.
One of my client’s websites did not have tracking tools installed, so after three years, nobody knew how many visitors had been to the site. Another had a site that used a plugin to generate the contact form. Nobody updated the plugin to its latest version and the contact form stopped working — they might have missed months of incoming communications from potential customers. Yet another client had hired two SEO firms — one to handle on-site optimization and another to handle optimizing off-site presences (like directory listings), failing to realize that they were both essentially doing the same job and costing the business a lot of money.
Because the vast majority of today’s small business owners are not experts in website management, they may save time, money, and trouble by choosing a website manager that can oversee all aspects of the business’s online presence, including the website itself and various other marketing outlets.
Final Tips for Choosing a Website Manager
Once you have established your needs, you can shop around for the right website manager, but your number one criteria should be choosing a website manager who will work as an advocate for your business and who will consistently appeal to your customer demographic. Look specifically for someone who is enthusiastic about helping your business succeed, not just excited about finding ways to make money off you.
If your site is small and static, you might want to pick up a book or take a class on website management and do it yourself. If you have employees, you may be able to either hire someone or leverage an existing employee who has the right skills.
Many of today’s online marketing firms (ranging from website designers to email marketers) are providing various marketing services and will include website management services or consults to teach small business owners how to oversee their own sites.
Your website is an integral tool that should contribute to the success of your business. Yes, it costs money to build, promote, and manage a website, but this is a cost that should result in increased revenue. If your website seems to just cost you a bunch of money but never bring in business, it may be time to conduct an audit of your online marketing efforts or bring in an experienced and knowledgeable website manager to help you move forward more successfully.
Build brand familiarity with online marketing
A picture is worth a thousand words.
Branding and marketing professionals understand the power of image. Think about the Apple logo, the Nike swoosh, and Starbuck’s emblem. These symbols are burned into our minds and they immediately trigger brand recognition as well as the feelings and attitudes we hold individually or collectively toward the companies and products that they represent.
We’re used to seeing logos and image-based branding on business cards, television and print ads, and product packaging. However, there is no medium more powerful for propelling brand recognition than the internet.
In today’s technology-driven world, online marketing is the foremost method for promoting your company’s brand. Any small business can use the web to build brand familiarity by depicting a logo, maintaining a consistent image, and sharing a clear message across all online marketing channels.
Logo Placement
The core component of your small business image is its logo. The first and most obvious placement for this image is on your website. What comes after that?
As you travel the information superhighway, there are countless opportunities for displaying your logo – that key symbol that identifies your brand. And the more you display that image, the more familiar and recognizable it will become to your associates, competitors, and customers.
Put it in your email signature, use it in all your social media profiles, upload it to your directory listings, and make sure it is prominently displayed in all your marketing and advertising collateral (online and off).
Social Media Outreach
Sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube provide ample opportunities for logo display and other online marketing efforts. Some social media experts make a living using these platforms to promote businesses on the web.
Many small business owners and independent professionals sign up for social media networks but forget to brand them or keep them updated. Embed your brand into your custom Twitter background. Use your logo as your Facebook page picture. Make sure you’ve included a link to your website on your LinkedIn profile.
And as you engage with social media, always be conscientious of how you’re representing your business brand in all of your communications. If you want your business’s tone to be upbeat and positive, refrain from complaining, ranting, or posting bad reviews. If you want to project a sophisticated, cutting edge image, keep your focus on current trends and developing technologies.
Two Ways to Build Your Brand on Blogs
There are two ways to build your brand on blogs. First, launch your own blog and incorporate your company image and tone in posts, images, feed footers, and email subscriptions. Be careful not to overdo it, though. Next, use your image when you visit other blogs. You can do this easily by using Gravatar, which automatically inserts your image beside comments you leave on other blogs. If you publish posts or articles on other blogs or websites, make sure to include your logo.
Complementary Traditional Marketing
Make sure your offline and online marketing efforts complement and reinforce each other. Many of the same rules apply across different mediums. An ad in a magazine or newspaper should include your logo. The attitude or voice of your radio and television commercials should convey the tone you want to establish. Whether you’re using billboards, fliers, signage, or postcards, all representations of your brand should be consistent.
Using Online Marketing for Brand Building
The key to building brand recognition through online marketing lies in identifying opportunities as they arise and then seizing them. Keep a copy of your logo handy and use it in situations where you are asked to upload and display images online. Always insert your company name, tagline (or slogan), and website address (URL) in signatures and profiles that you use around the internet.
Tip: Create a folder with all the information (don’t forget your elevator pitch and company bio) and store it on your desktop for easy access! Be prepared at all times, and keep copies in traveling media (like a flash drive) or stored in your inbox, so you can access and use it anytime, from anywhere. That way, you’ll be able to propel your brand at a moment’s notice.
Start finding those opportunities now by looking for innovative places on the web where you can display your brand. Go through all your online profiles and cyber haunts and make sure you’re promoting your business appropriately.
How do you incorporate your business brand to expand your online marketing strategies?
Seven tips for your small business website design
Your website is your number one marketing tool, and your website is a premium opportunity to communicate your company’s offerings.
When visitors come to your website, they’ll sum it up in a flash based on what they see. Content is important, but aesthetics are a close second.
Whether you’re designing your own website or hiring someone to design one for you, you should have a solid idea of how you want to portray your business. If you have already started establishing your identity with a logo and marketing plan, then you’ve got the foundation you need for your small business website design.
However, there are still many considerations to keep in mind, and throughout the process of designing a new website (or redesigning an existing one), you will need to make choices about how your site will look and feel so that it represents your business appropriately.
Here are seven small business website design tips that cover the core components every website needs in order to succeed. These tips will help you make smart design choices so that your site captures visitors’ attention while maintaining the integrity of your company’s identity.
Small Business Website Design Tips
1. Build Your Brand with a Logo
Your small business website design is an excellent tool for brand building. If you have a logo, it should be prominently displayed on your home page and all subsequent pages as well. If you don’t have a logo, you should get one immediately. If you’re an independent entrepreneur using your name to do business, consider developing a signature-style logo, using a particular font and possibly your photo or some other simple visual emblem. Logos help to build familiarity, association, and reputation, and they are essential in developing your business’s identity.
2. Make Thoughtful Color Choices
Often the color choices you’ve made for your logo will drive the design of your website. However, simple logos, or brand designs that are flexible enough to adapt to a broader color scheme may lend themselves to a wider variety of choices. You should already know the objective of your site, so choose colors accordingly. If you want visitors to feel calm and relaxed, go with cool colors (blues and lavenders). If you want them to feel energized or passionate, go for warm colors (reds and oranges).
There are an unlimited number of color combinations available; a good way to determine what direction you want to take is to spend some time surfing around the web looking at sites that target the same audience you are going after, and make note of designs that strike your fancy. Keep in mind that selecting two or three different colors in varying shades will generate a better design.
3. Font and Text
There are so many exciting fonts out there, but don’t be tempted! You can use fancy fonts for your title, logo, and headings, but use a very simple, easy-to-read font for the bulk of your content, and remember that fonts are stored on visitors’ computers locally, so if you’re using a font that’s not web-friendly, turn it into an image. For your content, make sure that you use dark text on a light background for better readability. Too many people get overly excited about all the font and color choices and go to great lengths to make their small business website design look extraordinary with typography, but if you make the text difficult to read, visitors will click off to some other site that puts less stress on their eyesight. Lastly, make sure your font size is not too small… or too big.
4. Clickable Header
The header is located at the top of a web page, and it’s usually the area where you’ll find the title or site name. This is where your logo should appear. It should be prominent, clear, and easy to read. And it should be clickable. Clickable headers have become standard and modern web users expect that when they click on the header, they’ll return to the home page. The header should also provide clear indication as to what your site is all about. You can always use a tagline in the header to broadcast your site’s purpose.
5. Images
The more images you have on any web page, the longer it takes to load. Generally, web surfers will wait just a few short seconds for a page to load before they go off in search of speedier delivery. Make sure your images are optimized for the web and don’t clutter your page with them. Keep in mind that videos and slideshows take even longer to load than regular images. However, you should have at least a few images on each page. Images break up long strings of text and create spatial interest, which is attractive to the eye. Of course sites geared toward art, photography, film, etc. are exceptions to this rule!
6. Layout & Content Planning
Before you design your small business website, you should have a good idea of what its content will be. This is achieved through thoughtful web content planning and development. Once you have a plan, you or your designer can start to establish a formidable layout and small business website design that is built to hold your content. There’s nothing worse than putting a site together only to discover there’s not enough room in your navigation menu for all the content you want to include.
7. Navigation
Your main menu or navigation bar will act as your site’s table of contents. It is here that you want to display simple links to key pages within your site. There are a few pillar pages that almost every website should have, which include home, about, and contact. Most business sites will also include products or services pages. Take a look at other sites within your niche to determine which other key pages warrant a link on the navigation menu. This menu should be clearly labeled, easy to find, and should appear in the same spot on all pages across the site. This makes your website more user friendly.
Moving Forward
Small business website design projects can be stressful but can also be a lot of fun. It’s exciting to see the whole thing come together, especially for the first time. Redesigns will breathe new life into a business and will often ramp up sales, even in a down economy.
A few final small business website design tips:
- Keep your design flexible enough so that you can add and change content later.
- Include a plan for website maintenance and regular updates. If your budget allows, consider hiring a website manager.
- Make sure the site is thoroughly tested on various operating systems and browsers to ensure full functionality.
Scribizzy offers small business website design services. All projects are tailored to your business needs and specifications.
Thoughtful, strategic selection of SEO keywords
Whenever I’m working on a website copywriting project, I ask my client to fill out a questionnaire that helps me understand their business. This enables me to write copy that truly represents the client’s company, mission, and goals.
One of the items on the questionnaire used to be “Please list any keywords related to your website or business.”
I quickly found out that very few small business owners understood what I meant by “keywords.” Sometimes, they would jot down something like “use your best judgment.” Usually, they’d list a few keywords, but it was clear that they weren’t researched keywords for SEO. They were simply words and phrases that represented the products and services that the client offered, and they had been selected at random.
Since most small business owners don’t specialize in web content and design, how could they be expected to know that when an online marketing consultant inquires about keywords, she means keywords that have been researched for SEO purposes?
It wasn’t long before I changed my questionnaire to read “Have you conducted any SEO keyword research?” Rewording the question had some interesting results. Some clients simply put “no.” Others became curious: What do you mean by keyword research?
Search Engine Marketing
Search engine marketing is an online marketing strategy that grows traffic to a website by increasing its visibility on search engines. This is primarily done through search engine optimization (SEO).
Search engine marketing is extremely competitive. Most small business owners think that by simply launching a website, they’ll automatically start getting traffic through search engines. But these days, to get traffic through search engines, you have to carefully optimize your website. That means researching and choosing keywords, implementing those keywords, establishing incoming links, and monitoring keyword and traffic performance.
Search engine marketing isn’t for everyone. If you’re on a tight budget in a field with highly congested keywords, you would be better off with an alternative online marketing strategy. There are lots of ways to draw traffic, and before you start an SEO campaign, you should do some research, consult with an SEO specialist, and make sure it’s a good match for your business.
Keyword Research
You can’t just pluck keywords out of nowhere. Well you can, but your results will be less than ideal. Keyword research can be a tedious process. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of possible keywords for just about any search term you can think of. When you conduct keyword research in preparation for optimizing your site, your goal is to find the keywords that will draw the most traffic. You also want the traffic to be targeted to your business offerings.
Let’s say you run a small, independent bookstore. You might think that a good keyword to pursue would be “books.” But that would be wrong. To gain traffic through a keyword like that would cost tens of thousands of dollars in research, content development, and other SEO efforts. You’d be much better off finding narrower and more localized search terms. Another option would be to forgo search engine marketing altogether and use another strategy to increase traffic to your site.
To discern which search terms would most benefit your website efficiently and effectively, you conduct (or hire someone to conduct) keyword research. This is a process in which you start with some general and obvious search terms and use various online SEO tools to expand the list of terms, so that there are plenty of choices. Then, you review each of the terms to determine how competitive each one will be, how much content you’d have to add to your site to compete effectively, and decide which keywords your target customers are most likely to enter into a search engine. For example, people searching for the term “books” are not necessarily looking for an independent bookstore (here’s a hint — “bookstore” is a more targeted keyword than “books”) and even if they are looking for such a store, they may be in a different geographic location.
Here are some questions to keep in mind when conducting keyword research:
- What are the primary products or services that the website offers?
- What alternative or synonymous keywords can be used?
- How much search volume do these keywords generate each month?
- Which keywords are potential customers likely to use in searching for these products or services?
- What does the competition for these keywords look like?
It’s important to note that when we talk about keyword competition, it’s not necessarily the same businesses with which we’re competing. In other words, there will be other sites that are using the same keywords as you, but their product or service offerings may not be directly competing with yours. You’re competing with them to get search engine traffic via keywords rather than competing with them in business.
SEO
For many small businesses, a little SEO can really boost traffic. The decision of whether or not to pursue SEO is one that must be made by each individual business, and the decision will likely rest on how competitive keywords are within your industry, the amount of resources you can dedicate to optimization, and the findings that come from keyword research.
One thing, however, is constant: A successful SEO campaign starts with keyword research, and keywords should never be chosen on a whim. A little research can go a long way in helping you make smart decisions about whether search engine marketing and SEO is the right online marketing strategy for your business.
In any small business website design project, the planning phase is the most critical. If you’re working with a website designer, it’s essential that you communicate your vision clearly so that the designer can make your vision a reality. And the designer must communicate her vision too, providing clear examples, ideas, and images that will help you understand what the site will look like once it’s completed.
There are three basic components to any design: the design itself (look and feel of the site), content (text and images that will appear on the site), and functionality (how it works).
As you work with your designer, you need to keep all of these components in mind. Additionally, there will be a learning curve for both of you as your designer studies the nature of your business in order to reflect it appropriately in your design and as you learn about the many options available to you in terms of how your business will be presented to an online audience.
Throughout the planning process, clear communication is key to building a good relationship with your designer and to your designer building a great site for you.
I thought I’d share some basic small business website design tips that will help you work with a designer to hammer out the details of your design plan. By working as a team with a shared goal and by focusing on communications and smart planning strategies, you and your website designer can build a stellar website together.
Website Design Tips to Help You Get Through the Planning Process
1. You Don’t Need a Vision — Most designers are thrilled when a client gives them complete creative control over a design project. If you’re not sure which direction to take in terms of design, consider giving the designer some leeway. Tip: Ask for samples to make sure you like the designer’s work, and pay special attention to the designer’s own sites since they’ll offer a good example of her style.
2. Use Examples — Nothing is clearer than a visual example. Spend some time surfing the web and find different website designs that appeal to you. Be sure to scroll through the pages and note what you do and don’t like. Collect a few URLs (links) and then send them to the designer with your thoughts about each one. Tip: Start with your competitors, but branch out into other fields too.
3. Don’t Overdo It — If you send your designer 100 examples, there’s going to be a lot of confusion. Shoot for sending your designer three to five examples of designs that you like with notes highlighting what appeals to you and why.
4. State What You Want — Be specific about what you like and what you want. If you send your designer three links to sites you like that are all extremely different from one another, she’s not going to be able to figure out which elements you like best unless you communicate your preferences to her. Offer comments about each site’s design. Do you like the colors? The layout? Does the site boast features that you’d like to see on your site? Is the content similar to yours?
5. Mention Your Dislikes — If there’s a design element you’ve seen but don’t like, make sure you let your designer know about it lest she use it on your site!
Avoiding Feature Creep
Try not to engage in feature creep. What’s that?, you ask (I’m so glad you asked). Feature creep is when you see the final design for the first time and suddenly come up with a bunch of new ideas that were not included in your original project scope and expect the designer to add these features to your project at no additional charge.
Examples of feature creep are as follows: Actually, I think I would like a form on the contact page after all. I know I said I didn’t want a blog on my site, but now I do. Those colors just aren’t working for me. Oh, by the way, while you were working on the site, I had a new logo made. Most feature creep requests are followed by a statement like, That’ll only take a minute or two, right?
It’s that last statement that qualifies a request as feature creep. Most designers do expect a project to expand a little as it unfolds and will build that into the price, but any big, time-consuming add-on (as well as a bunch of little add-ons) will incur additional fees. If you do want to make some serious changes, you should be upfront with your designer, because trust me, your designer wants you to be a very happy and satisfied customer. Just be aware that some post-design adjustments may show up on your final invoice.
Teamwork
Like any true professional, a website designer wants you to be pleased with the final product. But since it’s your website, you have an important role in explaining what you want your site to look like. As long as you communicate clearly and openly with your designer (and encourage her to do the same), the design process will flow smoothly and your website will come out looking exactly the way you want.
WordPress is quite possibly the best thing that has happened to websites since the Internet itself.
If you ask someone what WordPress is, there’s a good chance they’ll tell you that it’s a blog platform, but it’s so much more than that.
Since it first hit the web in 2003 as a blog application, WordPress has evolved into a fully functioning content management system. It stores your content, keeps it organized, and makes your website easy to manage and navigate. Best of all, it’s free.
For those of us who once coded websites by typing HTML by hand, WordPress is a monumental blessing. It doesn’t have the same restrictions and complications that programs like FrontPage or Dreamweaver present because it uses code instead of a WYSIWYG format. In non-technical terms, that means it’s highly customizable and flexible enough that a website designer can take full control of the design and layout while simultaneously giving consideration to the content.
About WordPress
Most website hosting providers offer one-click installation for WordPress. That means once you’ve signed up for hosting, getting WordPress installed on your website is just a click away. Only a few, outdated hosting providers still require manual installation, which involves uploading the WordPress files and database to the server on which the site is hosted.
The code and files include instructions that tell a browser how to display the WordPress website on the screen. This is done through WordPress themes, which are templates that drive the design and layout of each site.
The content of a WordPress site is managed online, from the WordPress control panel, which is as easy to use as web-based email. From the control panel, you can compose pages for your site as well as blog posts, and add media including text, images, audio, and video.
WordPress Themes
Often, people are turned off when they hear words like “themes” and “templates.” But WordPress themes can be customized to the point that they don’t even resemble the original look and feel, and there are an enormous variety of themes available.
Most people want a completely original and unique website, especially if they want their business to stand out from the crowd, so it’s understandable that themes or templates don’t sound too appealing. However, there are a number of benefits to using these themes on a website.
For example, many themes have certain standardized components. A navigation menu across the top of a website, a clickable header, and sidebars are familiar to website visitors and make them feel at home. This makes any website easy to navigate and therefore more attractive to visitors.
Also, since the themes are so customizable, it’s entirely possible to strip down a theme and make it look completely different. You can even start with your own design, find a theme that loosely resembles it, and then tweak the theme to match what you have in mind. Or, you can choose a theme you like and tweak it until it has a look and feel that satisfies you.
Some of the available themes are premium, and these you must pay for. However, most themes are free. Many premium themes are available via license through designers who have purchased the right to customize and resell the themes. If you have considerable HTML and CSS skills, you can learn how to customize a WordPress theme quickly and easily on your own. And if you don’t have those skills, you can simply hire someone to do it for you. Chances are, it will be a lot cheaper than hiring a website designer to code your site from scratch.
Problems with Traditional Websites
Traditional websites, which are coded with HTML, present a host of problems and frustrations for business owners:
- If you don’t know how to code your own site, you have to hire someone to do it for you, which means every time you need to make a change or update (no matter how small), you’re reliant on someone else. And you have to pay for it.
- Large amounts of content can be difficult to manage, add to a site, and keep track of without some kind of content management system.
- Small changes to a site’s structure could be costly and time-consuming. For example, you may need to change your URL structure to optimize the site for better search engine performance. That could be tedious and expensive for a larger site that’s not running on any kind of database.
- Designing a site from scratch without a theme or template costs more than customizing a theme because it takes a lot longer.
- It’s difficult to switch designers once your site is up and running. Because a WordPress site uses a theme, if your designer is unavailable or unsatisfactory, you can easily find another who can update your site for you.
WordPress Benefits
WordPress solves many of the problems presented by traditionally coded websites:
- Once your WordPress theme customization is complete and your site is launched, you (or any of your employees) can quickly and easily add content or make changes. It’s literally as easy as composing email.
- WordPress uses a database to manage all of your content, and through the WordPress control panel, you can view and manage that content with great ease.
- With WordPress, changing the URL structure, for example, is just a matter of renaming pages or categories, and that can be done in a matter of minutes.
- Because the site’s design starts from a theme and most coding is done by amending the style sheet, a WordPress website will probably be a lot less expensive than sites rendered the old-fashioned way. The code is already there and it just has to be customized.
- Once your site is up and running, anyone with knowledge of WordPress and themes can make changes to your design or content. This can be done from within the control panel.
In addition to solving problems that traditional website design presents, WordPress offers a host of perks:
- Plugins like All in One SEO make keyword optimization a breeze, and are easy to learn.
- Other plugins make website management much easier. Google Analytics plugin automatically installs on every single page of the site.
- Still more plugins make the site attractive to visitors, especially when your site includes a blog.
- WordPress tells you which other websites are linking to yours.
- Using categories and the blog feature, you can generate categorized blog posts or articles, which is a great way to communicate with your customers, connect with other professionals, demonstrate your expertise, establish credibility, build transparency, and generate content that will help your site perform well on search engines.
Small Business Website Design and WordPress
Of course, there are plenty of other content management systems out there and WordPress is not appropriate for all situations. Mammoth sites might need a more powerful (and costly) system. WordPress is ideal for small to medium sized websites and may even be appropriate for some large, content-oriented sites.
One of my favorite things about WordPress is that it allows you to grow your site so easily. I can continually add content, and WordPress handles it seamlessly. I don’t have to keep track of all my files, file naming conventions, folders, and directories. WordPress handles all that for me.
I also appreciate being able to update my site from any computer with an Internet connection as well as from my mobile phone. That definitely comes in handy.
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