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2 Ways to Really Connect With Your Customer in Your Copywriting
Copyright © 2005 by Bruce Carlson One of the least talked-about areas in copywriting education is voice. This is probably because it’s tough to set general rules for something that’s so personal to each of us. After all, the same things go into...
"Clever Headlines Usually Flop! Are You Being Too Clever For Your Own Good?"
Copywriters that try to be clever, humorous, abstract, or use double entendre with their headlines and ads will normally find that they flop and are thus a waste of both time and money. Many of the Super Bowl ads fall in this category. While they...
Copywriting Tips for Sales-generating Brochures
Copywriting Tips for Sales-generating Brochures by Karon Thackston © 2003 http://www.copywritingcourse.com Brochures have held an important place in marketing plans for longer than most of us can remember. There is no doubt that they have the...
Do you make this big mistake writing your articles?
Do you make this big mistake writing your articles ? By Chen Zarza In the marketing world if you want to be a prosperous individual, you need to get the skill of copy writing, immerse into this skill is mandatory, this proficiency is vital...
Engage Your Customer – Write About Benefits
Think quick. In 10 seconds, can you list the 5 key benefits you offer your customers? I bet you said “Yes”. But are you sure you listed benefits? If you’ll bear with me for another 10 seconds, I’d like to test out a theory on you. Recap your...
Five Steps To Online Copywriting Success
One of the most important priorities of evey online business should be their copywriting. Online copywriting skills are a "must have" for anyone who is thinking about real success with their online business.
It doesn't matter if you're marketing a...
How to Get B2B Clients: A Primer for Copywriters
In more than 20 years of copywriting for both
business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B)
clients, I have found mid-size and large B2B clients to be
generally easier to work with, and more professional than B2C.
(I do not recommend...
The Right Words Can Make You Wealthy
Imagine you're in a darkened movie theatre watching a suspense
thriller, and the scene you are engrossed in shows a beautiful
woman walking alone on a dimly lit, shadowy street. The only
sound is the rhythmic noise of her shoes against the...
The Story: The Most Powerful Marketing Tool on the Planet
The Story: The Most Powerful Marketing Tool On the Planet
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What's the most memorable novel you're read in the past year?
Saturday, by Ian McEwan? Mary, Mary, by James...
Why Copywriting Is The Secret To Your Online Success
Over the last decade, the number of companies selling their products and services on the Web or sharing information online with their target market has exploded. It's no longer frowned upon to conduct your business on the Web, and huge numbers of...
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Copywriting Makeover: Search Engine-Friendly Can Also Mean Visitor-Friendly
by Karon Thackston © 2005
http://www.copywritingcourse.com
When it comes to search engine optimization, copywriting plays a big role. You want to have excellent copy that appeals to both your visitors and the engines in order to create pages that will rank highly. However, sometimes there can be potential problems with fitting copy into certain types of sites. Due to space constraints, page layout requirements or other issues, some site owners hesitate to include SEO copy thinking it will detract from the visitor's experience. It won't if you do it right!
Gigmasters.com is a database site that allows visitors to search for any number of entertainment options then book them directly from the site. They segmented their target audience by the events visitors would book entertainment for (i.e., wedding entertainment, birthday party entertainment, etc.) Pages were then created for each entertainment type.
The Problems
Gigmasters.com wasn't ranking highly for its keyphrases on a number of pages. In fact, for the page we're focusing on in this article (see the original copy here: http://www.copywritingcourse.com/gigmasters-original-wedding.pdf), Gigmasters.com wasn't ranking in the top 50.
The page desperately needed more copy. The concern was that visitors would be distracted by the addition of more text. After all, customers who come to a site to book entertainment are going to focus on the information in each performer's bio… not the copy on the category page, right? As we found out, this was not at all true.
In addition to quantity (word count), the page also needed quality. The one paragraph of copy that was on the page was rough and sounded awkward.
The Solutions
Writing copy that appeals to the site visitors and the search engines should be the goal of every SEO copywriter. You never want to sacrifice one for the other. However, I knew that adding a long block of copy right in the middle of the page would not be using good judgment. Good thing nobody ever said all your copy had to be in one place!
By breaking the copy up and adding short blips under each section of the page, we were able to include enough text to support the chosen keyphrases. At the same time, we were able to help visitors make
the best choices for their wedding entertainment.
The Rewrite
For this particular page, the target customer was someone in need of wedding entertainment. The visitor might be a bride or the mother of a bride looking for a wedding band (a wedding music band, that is), a DJ or some other form of wedding reception music. Most often the site visitor was a bride, however.
I never want to include copy strictly for SEO purposes if possible. The copy should always have a dual purpose: to help the visitor and to boost rankings. To accomplish this with Gigmasters.com, the introductory paragraph of copy spoke directly to the bride-to-be. It gave her the feeling that Gigmasters.com understood how important the music for her wedding and reception are.
Under each music classification, the bride was given ideas or suggestions. Statements like, "The gentle melodies played by a harpist or flutist during the prelude to your ceremony can add an air of distinction" and " Do you want your guests to dance? Consider a Latin band or swing band to pick up the beat" prompted visitors to think through their selections and evaluate all their options before deciding.
Each section of copy used at least one primary keyphrase to boost support of those terms with the engines. The copy was carefully written so as not to sound forced or stiff when including search terms.
The Results
You can view the updated copy here: http://www.copywritingcourse.com/gigmasters-updated-wedding.pdf. What happened after the changes? Within just a few weeks the page began to rise in rankings dramatically! Currently, the page has great rankings with various engines for various keyphrases - several in the top 10 with Google and Yahoo.
And conversions? They are holding steady if not increased some according to site partner Kevin Kinyon, further proving that search engine copywriting can be helpful to real people, too.
About the Author
Copy not getting results? Learn to write SEO copy that impresses the engines and your visitors at http://www.copywritingcourse.com. Be sure to also check out Karon’s latest e-report “How To Increase Keyword Saturation (Without Destroying the Flow of Your Copy)” at http://www.copywritingcourse.com/keyword.
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