My points of contention? Let’s see:

• Random population of anyone’s “title” into the email. Total fail. Kinda like a Twitter auto DM.
• The assumption that anyone requesting a connection with me would have an answer for any question of mine.
• The assumption that their answers would be “high-quality.”
• The fact that I’m going to show you your erroneous thinking in one image.

Sometimes fields that are auto-populated are not such a good idea. After all – if Old Spice can make it personal, so can LinkedIn.

Special thanks to @jodiontheweb for her quick hand at Photoshop today.

Uncharacteristic confusions of it’s and its. Blink-inducing substitutions for shirt and shit. Time becomes tome. Hell is strangely mutated to he’ll (and for this, I blame my iPhone). I’m issuing a shout-out to Microsoft and Apple: the world needs an Idiot Check function (<<which was “cunction” until I corrected it) in any and all word processing applications.

This goes for WordPress’s Spell Check, Mac Mail, Outlook, Entourage, Pages, Word and whatever the hell else you might be using to scrawl your digital correspondence.

Thank god for my readers, as they gently send me DMs and emails with every goddamn typo I make. It’s like having a full-time copyeditor on staff (I’ve even threatened to hire @ShellyKramer for the job). And I love all of you for the proofreading love you so openly give. But if I can have a “phone” (term used loosely, especially given my current disdain for Apple) that allows me to check the weather, complete PayPal transactions and check 93 email accounts, why can’t someone come up with an actual Idiot Check for any application that involves TYPING? Yeah, yeah – I know about the “grammar check” function in Word. Have you SEEN its version of a well-constructed English sentence? Christ. Snoop Dogg has a better grasp on English than the grammar check function.

Just a rant. Weigh in as you always do. And by the way, I’ve been so busy the last two days that my iPad showed up yesterday. It’s still in the box. Total. Fail.

PS: if you find a typo above, lemme know. FML.

One day in the town of Ghent
A businessman to his team sent
An email, not so long, that stated
His company’s website – man, did he hate it
Build me another, one that surpasses the rest
I know with this team, ours will be the best!

On one computer, the designer clicked “close”
And on another, the copywriter started crafting some prose.
Said the designer, “I’ll build the most beautiful 3.0 site!”
And the copywriter purred, “God, I LOVE to WRITE!”
So the designer built, adding navs and buttons
While the copywriter wondered what rhymed with “mutton.”

For days on end, they each boiled and toiled
Their respective ambition for their crafts unspoiled.
The designer crafted wireframes rivaling Frank Lloyd Wright designs
And the writer penned copy inarguably divine.
Alas, the day soon came where their assignments were due
Their client would be delighted, this truth they both knew!

Two emails were opened and to each were attached
And their respective masterpieces to the boss were dispatched.
With the click of a mouse, they each let out a sigh
Their mastery of their craft, neither could deny.
“I love what I do!” they independently exclaimed
And then reached for the phone, braced for their moment of fame.

“Are you there, Mister Copywriter? It’s me, the client.
I’m getting Mr. Designer on the line – will you hold just a moment?”
The copywriter held till the designer chimed in
Then with a cough and a swallow, they heard the reaming begin.
“Did either of you speak? Did you plan? Did you get in cahoots?
Because nothing that you gave me is of any damn use!”

“You, Mister Writer – your words – hey, they’re great.
But with the design from Mr. Designer, not a lick of sense they make.
And you, Mister Designer – what are my site visitors to do?
None of the copy I have fits – do I have to review?
I told you both once that this site must be supreme
And by your lack of collaboration, you’ve ruined my dream.”

“How do you write, Mr. Copywriter, if you don’t know where your words go?
And Mr. Designer, how do you design if you don’t know the word flow?
They both work together, the visual and the text
So my site visitors don’t get confused and know what to do next.
What I have from you two are two separate things
When they should truly be one – a marketing choir that sings!”

Speechless they were as the client bid them farewell.
Is there a moral to this story? Ah, yes – here’s the sell:

A website is a choir, not a series of one-acts
If it’s anything but, it looks put together by hacks.
No matter your role: SEO, writer or designer
No one’s more important, no single role finer.
If you think you’re the schiz and you don’t need another soul,
I’ll tell ya – you’re wrong and have a long way to go!

Words must fit boxes and boxes the words
Your SEO must guide you, else none of its heard.
If code is crap, the words won’t ever matter
‘Cause the search engines won’t find you among the cruddy code clatter.
And no SEO strategy? Well, just give up the ghost.
Words with no purpose? Yeah, your website is toast.

So Designer, Copywriter, Tech Professional – hear this!
Do you want a client like the one above? (pissed)
All it takes is the willingness to work as a team
To conjure-up a plan and build a collaborative scheme.
If this, you can do, you’re miles above all the rest
As they simply don’t get it…So why not work like the best?

Step one: start with wireframes. Where do words go?
How will visitors click though? How will they spend dough?
Step two: SEO research. What traffic do you want?
What words help them get here? Don’t be nonchalant!
Step three: craft the copy, SEO and design in mind.
It all comes together, your separate ideas now refined.

That’s a site to be proud of, no ifs ands or buts
A well-executed strategy with minimal fuss.
Your team? Essential. They make you look better.
So pick up the phone, drop an email – WHATEVER!
But hey – collaboration…it’s not for everyone, I know.
You can lead a horse to a team, but to collaborate? Perhaps no.

Whaaaaaaa?

You heard me. It’s a myth.

After you give that article a read, pop back here and check out 3 handy tools for repurposing content. I briefly covered the subject in my guest post over at Copyblogger last week, but here, I’ll add a bit more detail designed to kick start your Monday in killer content style. Awwyeah.

eZine Articles: If you’re not using eZine Articles to repurpose your existing content, you’re a dink (yeah, I called you a dink). While you may have to slightly reformat your articles to adhere to their self-serving link and keyword density limits, their page rank and command of presence within search engines is, without a doubt, unprecedented in the article distribution market. Handy idea for repurposing content using eZines: take some of your older content and snazz it up. Upload to eZines and adhere to their guidelines. BAM – fresh backlinks to your website or blog.

Tumblr and Posterous: Two powerful tools on the web for content producers and (ahem) anyone paid to get their clients noticed online. These are ideal places for repurposing content. Have a look at each and see how they can enhance your current marketing and promotion strategies. There are subtle nuances in each, yet they are both remarkably easy to use and if you’re always on the run, you can even blog from your phone or via email. N-A-S-T-Y good. Nasty, I say.

Your Blog: Helloooooo…if you’re doing article marketing and you’ve got a corporate website, your blog is ready and waiting as a repurposing tool for your content. But wait – I thought we just used OTHER tools to repurpose BLOG content? Grab a Snickers, kiddo. Look around your world – you product content every day. Brochures, presentations, leave-behinds, white papers, case studies. It’s ALL great fodder for your blog! Take your non-digital content digital and your already digital content to a new level through your blog. I’m not going to share all my nifty tools, but take 10 minutes today and think about what you’ve got and where you can use it. Hear the little voice that calls at you from across the keyboard, “I’m your blog – use me like yesterday’s newspaper.” Wait – you might actually want yesterday’s newspaper. There’s good content in there!

Now that we know there’s no duplicate content penalty (and hey – I even learned something from the SiteProNews article…goes to show ya), start thinking multi-purpose instead of single use. Think in breadcrumbs instead of loaves. Go forth and repurpose. Watch your backlinks multiply. And all was good on a Monday morning.

I met Brian Clark (finally) back at Blog World in 2009. He knew I was a SEO copywriting geek and he pinged me early this year with a question: he had a cool new WordPress SEO copywriting plugin and would I mind giving it a beta test?

Does a monkey fling poo?

Not a moment later, I found a nifty zip file in my inbox. Enter Scribe.

If you’re using a WordPress-powered content management system or blog, it’s essential. If you’re a copywriter producing article marketing content for distribution around the web, it’s like mother’s milk. Here’s why:

• It Thinks Like a Search Engine: It’s all very well and good to think you’re TELLING the search engines what you want them to see through coding meta data like page title, description and keywords, but what do search engines really see? Scribe tells you and helps you pull your head out of your backside before your content goes live.
• It Acts Like a Coach: When you run the Analysis tool, it not only tells you what it sees, but it tells you how to fix it. Hells yeah.
• No Blog Needed: Maybe you’re a copywriter who churns out article marketing content and you have to be careful about keyword density (I’m talkin’ eZines here, folks…). Scribe had a web-based standalone version accessible from anywhere (one you sign up) that catches any boo boos before the big bad submission engines get ahold of you. I lurvs. A lot. (Not alot.)
• It Ain’t Free (and nor should it be): If you want cool free tools, check out HubSpot’s awesome arsenal. The Scribe tool ranges from $27/month to $97/month. Don’t believe it’s worth the cash – try it 30 days for free and see for yourself. I did.

Here’s a screenshot of the analysis tool once it’s run (these are the results for the post you’re reading right now):

Here are a few things you need to know about WHY I’m pimping this plugin:

• I work in the SEO space and have sent referrals for this tool over to SEO firms with whom I work.
• I’m all about anything that’s going to make my job easier.
• Brian’s group is all about feedback and he PERSONALLY responded to a list of improvement/expansion suggestions I sent over.
• They’ll be releasing versions for additional blogging platforms in coming months.
• It takes writers out of the position of thinking like writers and makes you look at your content in a different way – a way that better serves clients.

Will it make you a SEO copywriting pro overnight? Hell no. But it WILL make your path to understanding how search engines read content less bumpy. Read more about the Scribe SEO Copywriting tool and see why I’m jazzed. Have a delightful Monday.

SEO copywriting for the web is an art. It’s not about slapping any old words on a web page and waiting for the traffic to magically appear. As an SEO copywriter, I work with a team of other professionals to help make a client’s website successful: SEO firms, sponsored search specialists, web designers. The most challenging conversation I ever have with a new client is “words do not traffic make.” But they’re a damn good place to start.

While search engines are pretty doggone smart, they’re also pretty dang dumb. You have to tell them what’s important. You might have the most awesome doggie supply business on the planet Earth but if the search engines (and hence, all your prospective customers) don’t know that, you’re screwed. So what’s the key to breaking it down Barney-style and spoon feeding the search engines?

Keywords, keywords, keywords.

Today’s blog is a few simple steps you can take and tools you can use to start thinking like your customers and spoon feed the search engines exactly what they should know about your website, your business and who they should be sending your way.

• Pretend you’re a customer. Stop being the business owner for a minute and put yourself in your customer’s shoes. When they go to the web, what are they typing into that Google Search box when searching for what you’ve got in spades? Here are some simple steps you can take to find out!
  • The Google Test. Play around in Google and act like a customer. If you sell doggie supplies, key in search terms like dog bowls, online pet supplies, online dog supplies, etc. See what comes up.
  • Snoop Around Your Competitors’ Yards. You know who they are, so why not pay their websites a visit? When you land on their home page, use a right click of your mouse to get a pop-up box that says view page source (Chrome/Firefox) or view source (IE). Click that. It will open up a new window that will show you all of that web site’s meta data (information that the site is giving to search engines). This includes keywords, page description and page title. Sneaky – make notes!
• Dig Deeper: Keyword Research Tools. Using free online resources like Google’s Keyword Tool, you can type in multiple keywords and keyword phrases (a single keyword would be dog, a keyword phrase would be online dog supplies). You can then let Google (master of all that is Search), tell you how popular those keyword combinations are! Why is this useful?
  • Because Google is smart and you are dumb. Google knows data and spends more time that you and I have combined compiling data. It knows who is searching for what and how often. But their hard work can help you choose the best search terms to focus on for your web content.
  • Same but Different. Google will show you synonyms and other related phrases (proof that Google is smarter than you and me). You might type in dog supplies online, but it will also give you the following:

• Be specific. I don’t know about you, but when I look for things online, I’m rarely looking for “dog supplies.” I’m looking for a medium Furminator brush. Being generic in Search Engineville is the kiss of death. The more specific you can be, the better for your web copy and behind-the scenes meta data. Here’s a hierarchy as to what your keyword selection should look like from your home page on down:
  • Home Page: general keywords (online pet supplies).
  • Internal Pages: more specific keywords (online cat supplies/online dog supplies)
  • Sub Pages: even more specific keywords (cat litter boxes/online cat food/cat scratching posts)
  • Category-Specific Pages: very specific (Furminator brushes)
  • Product Specific Pages: freakin’ specific (Furminator dog brush/Furminator cat brush/Furminator Medium)
  • The goal is to drive traffic with your web copy and meta data to the point where a site visitor doesn’t have to dig through your site to get what they want. If you’ve ever left Target because you couldn’t find what you were looking for, Target failed in its marketing. More websites than not do this very (bad) thing.

So, you’re doing keyword research. Awesome. Start a spreadsheet with what you’ve found or just make a list in a document that you can keep handy. This information helps a copywriter (an SEO-savvy copywriter, not one that’s used to working with print medium or is a wiz at editorial work) understand your products and business. Your SEO copywriter (if any good) will then take that list and do a little digging of their own and then be better able to craft web copy that works for both the search engines and your business instead of just giving you what anyone is capable of: word on a web page.

SEO copywriting takeways for today regarding keyword research and selection:

• Think like your customers and figure out what they’re typing into Google.
• Check out your competitors – there’s nothing wrong with finding out what already works (and doesn’t)
• Test your results with free online resources like Google’s Keyword Tool (because it’s smarter than we are)
• Understand where to use general keywords and where to get more specific
• Make a list of your research to help the other key professionals in your web campaign understand your business, your products and you target audience.

Next Monday, tune in for the reason your web copy needs a pool boy and a plumber. It’s called specialization of labor, and SEO copywriting will get your web content tuned-in like a well-staffed corporation!

Did you miss installment one in this series? Read Why Your Web Content Isn’t Working.

Are you subscribed? Don’t miss out on the next installment of the SEO copywriting blog series on RedheadWriting. We publish every Monday/Wednesday/Friday! Get a dose of The Redhead straight to your reader of choice or via email – just go to the top right hand side of this screen and clickity-click!

Website content is the undisputed king – search engines rank you by it, people rate you by it, and most of all, it’s the number one tool (in conjunction with a solid website design) that tells your visitors who you are, what you do and what you can do for them.

But your web copy isn’t working. WTF, over?

Today’s post is the first in a series of five posts that will cover website content. As a reminder, installment two in my WordPress Series will be published this Wednesday (catch installment one Three Reasons Your Website Sucks and One Simple Way to Fix It here), so if you haven’t subscribed, have a lookie-loo at the right hand side of this page and subscribe via RSS feed or email. Let’s face it – you get a lot of crap in your inbox every day…why not get some crap you actually want to read?

Most people think that the mere act of having a website is their ticket to instant traffic and an exponential increase in sales. Yeah – you’re wrong. There are two key components that go into a solid website: content (king) and design/coding (a piss-and-vinegar queen that’s bucking for the throne at all times). A pretty website alone, while nice to look at, isn’t going to result in higher traffic or sales. It needs the compliment of coherent, purpose-driven content. Now, before I get the commenters who think I’m being sexist by putting forth that a website is a patriarchal entity and the matriarchal figure is subservient (blah-blah-blah)…it’s a metaphor. The king and queen compliment one another and work together to create a web-based kingdom that:

• Is sticky (keeps visitors on your site)
• Lets visitors know what you want them to do (click here, buy this, subscribe, submit a form)
• Converts visitors to customers (creates revenue or another desired result)

In the words of Mel Brooks: It’s good to be the king.

Any old words slapped up on a web page simply won’t do. There’s a tried and true method for developing coherent and conversion-oriented web copy that works. The next four parts of this series will cover the following topics:

• Do Your Homework: Audience Identification and Keyword Selection (WTF is a keyword?!?!)
  • Who do you want to visit your site and why? This post will delve into how to think like your target audience and how to do the research for your entire site that will result in web copy that speaks to your audience and more importantly, speaks to the search engines. Search engines are smart, but you’ve gotta tell them what they want to hear.
• Specialization of Labor: Why Each Page of Your Website Should Have a Job
  • Ever worked in a company where everyone was the sales/marketing/administrative staff/lead developer and CEO? Too many cooks in the kitchen! We’ll look into why each page of your website should have a clearly defined purpose and talk about how that helps the search engines and your business simultaneously. Copy rules here, and it takes a polished pen/keyboard to write purpose-driven text that gets you where you need to go.
• Who Loves You, Baby? The Importance of Links and Anchor Text
  • Expanding on the idea of specialization of labor, we’ll discuss why the specialization you committed to will help your website from both the inside AND the outside. There’s a heavy importance that search engines place on links (both internal and inbound from other sites) as well as the way you create those links – anchor text. Stop pasting URLs and hyperlinking the words “click here.” Do it right, reap the rewards.
• It’s Not Over Until It’s Over: Revisiting Your Site, Making Revisions
  • When you’ve finally achieved a site that works and one that’s got a design and the complimentary copy to do what you expected it to do—you can’t just let it be. We’ll go over the importance of analytics, competitive analysis and how to stay one step ahead of your competition through some smart “tweaks” to your web copy and site meta data to ensure that as the months and years roll by, your site isn’t left in the dust with the dinosaurs.

There’s a lot of crap lurking out there on the interwebz, but your website doesn’t have to belong to the Crap Club. Follow this series of blog posts and take your website from crap to content-rich in a few easy weeks of reading. We’ll see you next Monday with Do Your Homework: Audience Identification and Keyword Selection, and don’t forget to catch this Wednesday’s installment in my WordPress series and how it can be used as a tool to help you build a solid website.

It’s true. There are millions of folks out there with websites that do nothing – nothing, I say – to actually bring them business. If you build it, that doesn’t mean they’ll automatically come.

A large majority of my freelance SEO copywriting business comes from web designers whose client sites need “copy makeovers.” In the modern age of Google and Yahoo! determining who gets what in search engine rankings, it’s up to SEO copywriters like myself to help clients get seen. I mean, hell – you just spent all this money on a website. Shouldn’t it work?

If you’re the gal who buys a blouse that hangs unworn in your closet for 3 years prior to the ceremonious fling into the “donate to charity” bin or the 42 year-old guy who buys a screwdriver on sale at Wal-Mart (even though you already have SEVEN), close my blog now. Go shopping.

However, if you’re a business owner or marketing manager that’s tasked with (ahem) accountability for your company’s website performance, let’s talk for a minute about what the redhead calls:

s*it that confuses search engines

(aka why you have a website but no traffic, considering the money
you’ve already spent)

1. Your site is built in FLASH. Oy. You know, flash is coolio and totally spruces-up the common web presence. HOWEVER, web crawlers don’t read Flash. Web crawlers read TEXT. Not only that, but you’re paying for a website to WORK for you, not KEEP you from getting more work. If you’re already so bloody prolific in your chosen field of specialty that you don’t need to be indexed by the search engines, by all means – go with a site built 100% in Flash. If you’re like most of us (who are collectively pissed that gas is $4.50 a gallon) who are looking for a smiley face in the bottom right hand corner of the balance sheet each month – go with a content-rich, text-based site.
2. Your site has no page titles, page descriptions or keywords. This is a common problem I find with over 90% of my new clients. See, web designers are web designers. Talented bunch of folk and the best of them can blow your mind with cool code and the latest widgets for website design. They’re just not SEO copywriters (and DO A DOUBLE TAKE IF THEY SAY THEY ARE!). A good SEO copywriter will communicate with your web designer with regards to these things, and I even go so far as to suggest URLs for consideration to help my clients achieve better rankings.
3. Your site has poorly coded URLs. Your URLs should be as targeted as the keywords and search terms that visitors use to get to your site. Consider trading in those old and tired/useless URLs (i.e.: www.mywebsite.com/home.html) for useful ones like www.mywebsite.com/name-of-crap-you-search-for-on-google.html.  Sounds crazy, but search engines really do take your URLs into consideration when determining rankings on a keyword. And if your web designer is using a Content Management System, be sure to inquire about customizable URLs.  See list item 4 for an example of a nonsensical URL as well.
4. Your site design is unclear in purpose, hard to read and/or navigate. You just paid serious bucks (or maybe you didn’t) for someone to design your site. Maybe you used a template program. Maybe you paid nothing. Whatever your site’s origin, if you annoy people when they get to your home page with a confusing purpose, layout or a difficult to understand navigation system, they’re going to leave. If angry people leave, they usually don’t come back. Probably another reason your traffic is down. Angry people don’t tell their friends.
5. Who’s marketing your website? If you build it, that doesn’t mean that people will automatically come. Just like this blog. I can’t assume that people will visit my blog based solely on the fact I’ve got something to say. If you work in conjunction with a reputable web design firm and/or a savvy SEO copywriter, each are generally pretty good resources (or should be) that can point you in the direction of how to best promote your site. Whether through an inbound marketing system, Google AdWords, the ever-important linkback or other methods, you’d be surprised at the advertising and promotion opportunities that are available for your company’s website.

Starbucks didn’t become successful and earn the right to rape us each time we order a $4 coffee because their founders silently thought:

“We’ve got coffee. People will want our coffee. People will pay for our coffee.”

They got out there and told the world:

HEY! We’ve got coffee! And it’s damn good coffee, too!

BUY IT! BUY IT! BUY IT!

The bastards. Wouldn’t you like to be a bastard, too?

EDN – The Redhead

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