Found by whom? Well, people who can spend money with you, silly.

Most of our clients haven’t worked with an SEO copywriter before, and this means we go through an education phase. Today, you get to see what that looks like! I know, you’re excited (pom poms for everyone). I hope you enjoy the tour and that you see what Redhead Writing thinks it takes to deliver a successful SEO copywriting project.

Step One: Gather Up Yo Schiz (translation: bring something to the table)

Wanting to “spruce-up” your website copy isn’t enough of a reason to talk to an SEO copywriter. Here are the things we need when you come to talk to us about your project:

Site Architecture: This is either a flow chart, spreadsheet or bulletpointed list showing the Parent Pages and Subpages in your website. You can also think of this as your navigation.

Why do SEO copywriters need this? Because we need to understand how many pages we’ll be writing copy for, which pages need to be optimized (as not all do) and…uh…because we can’t really wrap our heads around a project unless we see what it’s going to look like.

Keyword Research & Keyword Matrix: Oy vey and pass the Mylanta. No, this isn’t a movie starring Keanu Reeves and unless you’re an SEO specialist, this really isn’t something you want to jack with running and building yourself.

About Keyword Research: Quite simply, the results that you and I can get from Google’s Keyword Tool are okay. But what they don’t give you is a true picture of competition and popularity for each of the keywords you may consider targeting. A little green bar in the keyword tool shows Competition. Per Google, “The Competition column gives you a sense of how many advertisers are bidding for a particular keyword. This data can help you determine how competitive the ad placement is.” If you’re not going an Adwords campaign, I hope you see how useless that information is for web copy. Let a pro give you a report so you can make better decisions. And if you think it’s not worth the couple hundred bucks, see you on page 8 of the search results.

WTF is a Keyword Matrix? It’s a map of your site made with words. (Fancy!) I’ve included a sample below. These can only be created (wait for it) after you’ve done your keyword research!

Why do SEO copywriters need a keyword matrix? Because we need to know which words to target on each page we’re writing and how the pages of your website need to talk to one another (in words). An internal linking strategy is a factor in search engine rankings for your website, so when we write, good SEO copywriters include a solid internal linking strategy for their clients.

Step One Redux: You’ve come to the table with your site architecture, keyword research and keyword matrix. An SEO copywriter can now get a complete picture of your project. For clients who come to us with only a site architecture, Redhead Writing also provides keyword research and matrix-building services. We added this in June of last year as it was more common than not that clients didn’t have this essential piece of the SEO copywriting puzzle.

Step Two: Gettin’ All Up in Yo Bidness (translation: discovery session)

Any SEO copywriter worth their salt will hold a discovery call with a new client. This is your chance to find out if the SEO copywriter you have in your sights has any bloody idea what they’re talking about.

But let’s go back for a minute: it’s my steadfast opinion that if you’re bidding out an SEO copywriting project and the company in question hasn’t asked you for the things in step one, run screaming. I simply can’t fathom how they can produce effective copy without those three things. Redhead Writing will not take SEO copywriting projects without seeing the research a keyword matrix was built on unless it comes from one of our referring SEO firms. Why? Because we don’t write for giggles. We write to produce results for our clients.

What should you expect from a discovery call? This is your opportunity to tell your SEO copywriter about your business. Your clients. Your industry vernacular. The tone you want to convey throughout your website. We’re geeks of just the right sort that, when you find the good ones in our herd, we’ll make your site visitors fall in love and stay on the page, digging deeper into your website and driving them to the desired action.

What should you be able to give your SEO copywriter on this call? Well, here’s what we ask OUR clients: for each page of your website, what are the THREE most desirable actions you’d like a site visitor to take? Those can be things from calling you, filling out a form, downloading something, making a purchase decision or clicking through to another page. But if you don’t know what you want your site visitors to do when they land, an SEO copywriter isn’t going to be able to create copy to produce the desired results.

Step Two Redux: Your discovery call is your chance to have home court advantage. Download on your SEO copywriter everything they need to have a solid grasp on the look, feel and tone of your project and company. Understand where you want site visitors to go on your site…what you want them to do. Finally, ask about time to first draft and the revisions process, what’s included in the project fee, etc.

***

These are the two most important steps to your SEO copywriting project’s success. Do your home work and help your copywriter understand your company and we’ll take it from there! We find it simple to quote a per-page rate that includes one rough and two rounds of revisions, with a change fee if the keywords change or a page is requested to be modified with more than 30% new content. And please – if you have questions, ask away. We won’t do your project for free, but we’ll help you ask better questions that will make your project, website and company an even greater online success!

Enjoy!

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.

Holy hell. Look at your website.

It sucks. No, seriously: it really sucks. The chrome off a Studebaker’s fender type of suckage. The kind that it took someone who knew just enough to be dangerous to achieve.

Houston: we have a crap website. That is confirmed.

The first reason your website sucks? I have no idea what it’s about or what your business does when I get to your homepage. I mean, thank god someone posted a bit.ly link on Twitter or else I never would have come here on my own. All I’m seeing is a boatload of words and a tiny stock image at the top of the screen. I could be reading a pamphlet for interstitial cystitis for all I know. It’s possible you’re in real estate because there’s a little picture of a house and your big, shiny mug all over the screen. Then again, you could be an animal shelter because all I see is pictures of a woman surrounded by dogs. Personally, I’m lost.

The second reason your website sucks? The search engines can’t find you. It’s pretty obvious that when you put your website together you felt that any ol’ words on the page will do. When I pull your site’s source code (go ahead, blink…I know you have no idea what I’m talking about), there’s no meta data, your pages are all named www.mywebsite.com/afbijkaf6^&()^%^#$, or everything on your site is in Flash (which is totally brutal for search engines and site vistiors alike). If Google can’t find you, good luck on generating traffic. Aren’t you glad you paid that cheap (or maybe not-so-cheap) web firm $249 for your site?

The third reason your website sucks? I have no idea what I’m supposed to do when I get to your homepage. Your site’s navigation is so confusing that I would probably be able to come up with a bipartisan-approved solution to the heath care question in this country before I can find your “Contact Us” page. That is, if you even have one. So, I quit. I’m going to work as a lobbyist for the American Medical Association because it’s an easier gig than trying to find anything on this digital abomination you call a website.

But there’s a simple way to fix all that ails you. And it’s called WordPress.

Not WordPress.com…I’m talkin’ WordPress.org. If you’re thinking about redirecting a WordPress.com-hosted blog to your own URL, I’ll issue you a pre-emptive bitch slap now and tell you to read Stop Being a WordPress Whore.

“But that’s for bloooooooooooooooooooooooooogs.”

Really?

RedheadWriting is powered by WordPress. So is RedheadedFury.com.

So are www.copyblogger.com

www.chrisbrogan.com

www.ourayicepark.com

Yup. All powered by WordPress.

The beauty of a self-hosted WordPress-powered website is that everything you need to be successful is available in a simple, easy-to-use, and FREE package! Just think: you can have the website you always dreamed of for your business (or blog, or whatever) and if you have opposable thumbs – YOU can manage your entire website yourself! Soup to nuts.

This blog is the first blog in a series that will cover WordPress as a tool for website development. Here are the topics of the next installments in this series:

• WordPress Themes – Out of the box and onto your site solutions that are more than just pretty pictures. We’ll explore the genius behind DIY Themes’ THESIS theme and those available from Woo Themes and iThemes as well. Themes can single-handedly help you avoid the perils of poor navigation design and are easily tweaked (yes, that IS a technical term) to meet anyone’s aesthetic demands.
• The Power of CSS - What the hell is CSS? My guest blogger, Jason Nelson of Visual Adventures Web Design (and WordPress CSS Style Sheet guru), will tell you in plain English and show you how a friendly web developer can take your WordPress-powered site from blah to BAM!
• Plugins: they’re not just for lamps anymore – WordPress plugins are like Legos for your website. You literally plug them in and watch them go. We’ll cover some of the cool things they can do for your website and how these and wise theme selection will solve that pesky SEO problem once and for all.

Subscribe now via either a reader or email updates (look on the right hand side of this screen) and don’t miss the rest of this awesome series. I hate to see websites that suck and there’s really no reason for them. If you ever wondered about the power of WordPress, here’s your chance to learn the basics…and for FREE.

I never said I was easy, but WordPress is…and my advice is the right price.

Go organic in search results!

Just like your body, your website is a reflection of what you put into it: crap in, crap out.

And then there’s the other side of the coin: fill yourself up with too much of the good stuff and you still get fat, not fit.

So Erika – where’s the happy medium?

As I discussed awhile ago (I Have a Website, I Have No Traffic – WTF?) there are fundamental components of website design that can completely screw you if you’re not savvy. Today, we’re going to talk about the grunt work of getting those coveted organic search engine rankings. I’ve been getting this question a lot from my followers on Twitter as well as my clients this week, and it’s an issue I deal with daily as InvestorLoft’s Director of Communications & Content.

How do I get my website to that first page…even first POSITION in Google?

Straight-up: if I KNEW the answer to that question, I’d be rich beyond belief and living on some tropical isle with a herd of cabana boys fanning me and keeping me in mojitos  or Twisted Pine Billy’s Chilies 24/7. I’m not a search engine specialist, nor will I ever claim to be. I do, however, write the copy for a shitload of websites and find myself explaining a whole lot about keywords, meta data, backlinks….and…..(snore)….

What I can tell you is that there are several things you can do in order to increase your traffic and your page rank. Both of these factors contribute highly to your position on any search engine and when you pair them with linkbuilding, increasing all puts you well on your way to better rankings built over time.

We’re heading to Whole Website Market(ing), so grab your reuseable cgi-bin and let’s get going.

1. Examine your keyword strategy. When’s the last time you looked at your on-page keywords and meta data (page descriptions, page titles and meta keywords in your code)? Have a look and make sure that they’re still consistent with your target audience. I have many clients tell me, ” I don’t show up in Google for Arizona Real Estate Investing.” Many times it’s because that phrase is nowhere to be found on their pages at all (crazy, I know). What you THINK you should be ranking for and what your website is TELLING the search engines you should be ranking for are sometimes two entirely different things. Get your stories straight and then move on.
2. Start a blog. Not a self-serving gratuitous bullshit blog, folks. A solid informational source about topics of interest to your potential clients and customers. This blog should be hosted on your website and if you missed why, read this before your become a WordPress whore. Blogs are excellent linkbait and another tool that search engines can index in oder to help you build rankings, traffic and interest from your audience.
3. Catalog Your Website & Blog. Directories with decent page rank (and I consider a Google Page Rank of 4+ decent for directories) that link bck to your blog can only help you in search engine rankings. Many are free and many are paid – start with the free ones or even use a directory submission service to minimize your energy expenditure. Here is a starter list of blog directories. If you use a directory submission service, make sure they provide you with a report of sites submitted. You’re never guaranteed acceptance and many have reciprocal link requirements. Understand the terms before you submit.
4. Article Marketing – It’s Not a One-Shot Deal. One of the keys to highly successful websites is the consistent generation of new content. Your blog will contribute to this as will new articles both on your website and externally that link back to you. Article Marketing through such sites a eZineArticles, GoArticles, iSnare and others not only generate backlinks to your site (most often through your author bio/footer), but also position you as an authority on your chosen subject matter. However (a BIG however), you need to establish a schedule for regular submission of articles.  Most article marketing sites will also require that they have exclusivity on the content you submit (this means one article can’t go to 3 sites). Instead of “spinning” content, contemplate how to address your subject matter from a complimentary angle. For example, the article “Self-Directed IRAs: 10 Reasons to Start One Today” can lend itself to “How Do I Set Up a Self-Directed IRA?” and “Self-Directed IRAs: Pros and Cons.” (ya catch my drift?)
5. Maintain a Blog Comment Campaign. First of all, if you spam my blog – I WILL remember you and blacklist you. I have no mercy. Don’t pump someone’s thoughtful blog full of your bullshit, marketing-only comments that are just poor excuses for backlinks. Engage in conversations. Find blogs in a related industry that your target demographic is likely to read and leave thoughtful comments (not that you just “liked the post and will check back often”). Real conversations develop on blogs, and I’ve earned clients from them.

This is just one short list of five ideas to get you started. I’ll encourage readers to leave their thoughts on additional strategies below and enlighten everyone in the process. It’s definitely possible to feed your website with good vittles like these and boost your organic search results in the process. As a conversation I just had with someone extolling the virtues of a frozen box of Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies – they taste good as hell but ultimately do nothing for yor bottom line.

You, you, you…

Guess what folks – it ain’t about YOU.

A recent webinar by HubSpot reminded me of an often overlooked, yet extremely key point when it comes to web design and website copy: IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU.

You being the company, being the person writing the checks to your web designer, SEO firm and SEO copywriter.

It’s about YOUR CUSTOMER.

If you’re designing a website to be pretty, flashy, cool…because you have a new corporate look and feel…because you feel “it’s time.”  You’re redesigning for all of the wrong reasons.

Seth Godin was right when he said there’s nothing that hasn’t been done before and why are you trying to reinvent the wheel? Why not take something that works and use THAT to drive business?

If there’s anything I can impress upon you with this week’s blog it’s that when you consider strategies:

1. On which to spend your marketing budget
2. That will produce marked ROI
3. To increase brand visibility
4. To raise brand awareness
5. That justify the reason you’re spending money on your company at all…

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) coupled with a functional, easy-to-navigate website should be at the top of the list.

When visitors come to your website, a clever intro will catch their attention once, but do they really want to see it again? Likely not.

However, if a visitor comes to your site, finds exactly what they’re looking for, and is faced with a call-to-action to poop or get off the proverbial pot…they’re probably going to come back. Why?

You took the thought process out of the sales process by giving them exactly what they asked for.

Brilliance. Pure marketing brilliance, I say.

Think I’m wrong?

Contemplate for a moment the last website you went to that:

• ticked you off because you couldn’t find what it is you wanted, or
• let you find what you wanted and didn’t make it clear how to act on that want.

It’s not cruel to take the thought process out of the sales process. It is, however, cruel to torture your potential customers.

By working with both your SEO and web design professionals, you can create a website that not only guides your prospective customers/patients/penguins to exactly what they’re looking for, but encourages them to contact your business to complete the sales process.
Crazy thoughts, I know, but here’s a few bullets to sum it all up in a nutshell:

• Pretty websites don’t sell products: smart companies sell products with smart sales processes
• SEO coupled with smart, functional web design keeps development budgets down, website visitors happy and dollars where you want them: in corporate pockets
• Nothing is new, everything’s been done before. It’s all in how you choose to make it work for your business.

Hug your web designer and SEO professionals today. We’re not talking foolish — we really do want you to be repeat visitors on OUR websites. Just like you want customers to be repeat visitors on YOURS.

Email questions to erika [at] redheadwriting.com

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Visit RedheadWriting online

1. Brakes on my car
2. Proper installation methods for rebar for structural reinforcement
3. Zoning ordinances
4. Marriage (apparently)
5. Why my puppies like to chew on my underwear (especially in front of company)
6. Why my cats only barf on my expensive clothes and carpet, not flip flops and tile

Though I strive to expand my horizons every day, I’m not an idiot when it comes to SEO and the value my clients place on website copy that will help them drive traffic.

Today’s the day where I open-up my treasure trove and share with you a few tools that anyone can use to get a glimpse of the power and method behind the madness when it comes to SEO.

Wondering if your website is up-to-snuff?

Have a gander at HubSpot’s Website Grader. This free online tool allows you to key in your website’s URL (web address) and see how your site rates with regards to key SEO elements. It’s also an excellent tool to make sure your web designer is doing his/her job and building you a search engine-friendly site.

Google’s Free Adwords Keyword Tool

Wondering what search terms you should include in your web copy or why your site isn’t drawing the traffic you think it should? Prepping for a PPC (Pay-Per-Click) campaign? This free online resource from Google will let you key in terms that you want to use, terms you think people search for and more and give you search volumes for each keyword. It will also let you know the comeptition rates for keywords if you’re considering a PPC campaign. Helpful for budgeting purposes if you’re going after high-demand keywords.

Checking Backlinks

Backlinks are an important consideration in search engine algorithms in deciding where your site ranks. In other words, the more sites that link back to YOUR website, the more legitimate and worthy the search engines view your site. While there are several ways to check backlinks, here are my two favorite (and the easiest):

Google Backlinks Checker

Yahoo Back Link Checker

Those are a Redhead’s thoughts for a Tuesday. And a fine, hot Tuesday it is in Las Vegas. Heat advisory at 112 degrees.

“But it’s a dry heat.”

Simply put, social media is endorsement-based marketing. If you join a social media site like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or StumbleUpon, it’s likely someone told you about the site.

(“he said I should check this site out”)

You join, you tell others. It’s kinda the way you talk about a cool new restaurant in your area that has kickass dim sum on Sundays – you tell everyone you know.

Welcome to the reason for Search Engine Optimization Copywriting (SEO Copywriting).

See, search engines are really no more than the National Enquirerer for the web-based conversations of the world.  They’re the tabloids of what’s hot and what’s not. They send their little ears (aka web crawlers or spiders) out into the sidewalk cafes of the internet and find out who’s talking about what sites.

How many sites are talking (linking back) to a particular site?

Who’s blogging about a site?

How many people are talking about a site and what PARTS of the site are they talking about?

So think of it this way: the hot little teen ingenue in the latest summer slasher flick will never grace the covers of US Weekly or People if she’s got a crappy publicist.

Translated to web-speak:

If your website is the hottest thing next to Amazon.com, but the search engine spiders/crawlers can’t see your site or find pertinent information on it, you’re never going to have coveted first page results on the search engines.

To the Googler, your site appearing on the first page of search results is an endorsement from Google

(“Google says this site is good! I should click on it!”)

and all of the other surfers out there who think your site is “da schnizzle.”

Hence, SEO copywriting is an essential piece of the social media and SEO pie:

We write so spiders can find you, index you and help you rank among the keywords most pertinent to your business.

After all, no one cares that Geena Davis is an expert archer. They cared that she starred in “A League of Their Own” and “Beetlejuice.”

An SEO copywriter is only a slice of the pie, however. To take full advantage of the potential impact of social media and the inherent social qualities of search engine results, the value in SEM (search engine marketing) firms, PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns, web analytics, and solid website design can’t be ignored.

So, there are some thoughts as to why social media and the concept of endorsement-based marketing surrounds us at every turn, as well as my perspective on why search engines are the most social of all the media tools currently on the web. Essentially, this is a “she said” on why you can’t ignore the current and future impact of social media, search engine results and the power of the endorsement.

Still unsure of what social media REALLY is? Check out this awesomely frank slide show by Marta Kagan and thanks to Todd Defren of PR Squared for Tweeting on this yesterday.

Follow The Redhead on Twitter @RedheadWriting

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email questions to erika@redheadwriting.com

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