My eldest cherub and I — and 50 of her closest friends from Musical Comedy class, plus 1 teacher and a few other parents — are hopping an early bus to NYC to see The Little Mermaid on Broadway tomorrow. I never miss a chance to head “home”, even if it means chaperoning a tonnage of teens on a frosty Saturday am.

In light of my big Broadway plans, here’s a little of flotsam and jetsam I’ve received personally in my very virtual and physical mailboxes. Enjoy!

Item #1: From Direct, November issue

A Bill Me Later/Ipsos Insight survey found that more than 12 million Americans admitted to shopping online while on work-related conference calls. Not just on scheduled and shall we say, non-scheduled breaks. Nope, during those dull-as-dishwater conference calls that go on forever. (My husband usually just texts me when he’s bored in a meeting. Maybe I should be encouraging him to shop more because I think he may be lagging woefully behind the curve. According to the same survey, more men secret-shop than women.)

Item #2: SearchEngineGuide.com

What Every Search Engine Optimization Company Should Know About Keyphrase Choice is an article just as valuable to SEO, related web content copywriters, as well as clients who really need to think beyond raw traffic. Excellent info worth printing out and referring to during your next client meeting.

Item #3: Yahoos from Yahoo Email

You may remember that I also own AdoptShoppe, an online gift and bookstore. I get all kinds of mail, but this one was special.

I was wondering if you have the heart, to be able to send me a beautiful Couple With Two Children Sterling Silver Charm Please ?
I suffer from depression, anxiety, phobias and very bad panic attacks, due to this I am unable to work so my finances are not good.
I would appreciate it so much !

So, she’s too stressed to work but wants me to send her a $17 pendant to Australia? I’m sorry, but I’m way too stressed FROM WORKING to respond. :/

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• The ultimate guide to writing and designing effective landing pages, Marketing Sherpa’s Landing Page Handbook, 2008 (aff)

[tags] secret shopping online, direct magazine, search engine guide, scott buresh, yahoo [/tags]

Online Copywriting 101: The Ultimate Cheat Sheet

Online Copywriting 101: The Ultimate Cheat Sheet — Part 2

The Copywriting Maven wasn’t, I’m sad to say, listed under Copywriting Blogs and Resources, but I’m sure that was just an oversight.

UPDATE - Those super cool guys at GrokDotCom just added Maven to the list. Talk about responsive! Thank you~ 

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• The ultimate guide to writing and designing effective landing pages, Marketing Sherpa’s Landing Page Handbook, 2008 (aff)

[tags] online copywriting, grokdotcom, copywriting tips [/tags]

She was recently interviewed by the folks at Pandia Search Engine News, an online newsletter I like since it has a more global focus than a lot of other similar online publications. It does a good job of compiling  SEO-related news in a convenient weekly format.

In her interview, Jill provided a nice summary of top tips to writing SEO-friendly content. (Some of these will look familiar to Maven fans, but good tips are always worth reviewing.)

• Avoid the use of graphic file to present text. The search engines
  can only read text. They do not understand Flash, but may read PDF
  files.
• The users comes first, the needs of the search engines second. The
  content must make sense for people, so this is not about “sprinkling
  keywords”.
• Be descriptive. Tell the visitors what your site, product or
  service is about. Hence the term “our search engine marketing firm” is
  better than “our team”.
• Focus on search phrases, not keywords. Few people find relevant
  content using one word queries anyway. Hence write “small cap
  investing” instead of “invest”, if that is what you mean.
• Focus on location. That will help you rank higher for searches of
  relevance to your neighborhood: Write “our New York City office”, not
  “our office”.
• Add variations of your keyword phrases: plural, tenses, ings etc.
  Do not rely on the search engines’ stemming ability. You should also
  take a look at words with multiple spellings (“web cam” vs. “webcam”,
  but do not use different spellings on the same page.
• Add bonus phrases to rank high for more than one keyword phrase.
  Bonus phrases would be those that are less targeted, but still relevant
  and descriptive.

Maven’s Maxim
Add Pandia and High Rankings to your must-read bookmarks folder. There are always nuggets to be gathered and results to be gained.

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"While changing the name of the site has definitely helped with search
marketing, there have been some unexpected results. "The most popular phrases that involves skirts are ‘look up her skirt’ and
‘camera up her skirt’" he notes. "So I try to concentrate on phrases like a-line
skirt, or color-based or style-based phrases."

"Oooopsy" as my 8-year-old daughter would say. This underscores a very important point when choosing keyword phrases for your web content.

Anticipate the entendre — mild, medium or hot, hot, hot.

Like the clueless Mr & Mrs Head who name their first son Richard … (Go ahead. I’ll wait.) — marketers and their copywriters need to anticipate the words and phrases searchers use (especially the nasty stuff) and refine accordingly. If you’re making a change in name, concept or business model, be sure to review your content and keyphrase glossary from the ground up.

You don’t want all the eyeballs, you want only the relevant eyeballs who could be in the market to buy what you’re selling.

Many times when I’m working on a new campaign, my brain starts to perculate all things silly and profane. I enjoy it, play with it and then get it out of my system before I get down to work. Not only do I have fun but this kind of free-form thinking/mind-mapping lets me see the possible pitfalls well before it gets me or my client into possible trouble. It affords us plenty of time to rethink and refine the message before we publish word one.

Of course, we can’t anticipate everything. Words are invented and reinvented. Definitions and concepts evolve. But it’s important to do the homework anyway. So take a fresh look at your keywords and phrases with a slight tilt. Review your traffic logs for odd, nasty phrases that are delivering unwanted traffic to your door and revise, refresh and refine.

But don’t forget to have fun while you’re doing it!

Maven’s Maxim
Circa 1960, Shirley Ellis had a one-hit wonder recording. It was called "The Name Game." Even tho it’s practically 50 years old, you probably know it and have sung it yourself. It is the sole reason why no little boy named Charles since that time has been nicknamed "Chuck." (Go ahead. I’ll wait.) This same kind of smart, anticipatory thinking should be used when you’re writing or revising your web content. :=D

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  Maven

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a free subscription to Website
Magazine (aff)

"Writing for the visitor is more important than writing for the search engines. Can both requirements be met without sacrificing quality?"

Michael Fortin and Ryan Healy have both responded to the question. Now it’s my turn.

To be honest, I’m not sure it’s the right question.

Why? First because we need to distinguish between writing sales-oriented copy and information-centric content. For the purposes of this post, I’ll address the latter.

Second, because search engine ranking doesn’t rest squarely on copy content alone. As Michel has already noted, SE ranking success depends on many factors — the code behind the copy (as we’ve discussed in my ongoing SEO copywriting series), inbound links from authority sites and directories, as well as other minor factors.

But are there better ways to present your site content that will help rather than hurt your SE ranking efforts — and still read like English (or your language of choice) to the human reader? Of course there is.

I covered much of this ground in Tip #2, Determining Relevant Key Phrases. If you think of keyword phrases as the working glossary OF YOUR READER, you shouldn’t find yourself getting all tripped up by keyword density (which I don’t pay much attention to) or making obvious rank-and readability-killing mistakes like keyword stuffing.

So what should you do to write good, readable content that SE’s will find meaningful and relevant? Prepare your initial glossary and …

#1 - Just write. You’ll find yourself using a lot of the right phrases but don’t overly focus on them. Write your content, first and foremost, for your reader.

#2 - When you’ve completed the first draft, go back and review. Edit for all the usual reasons - clarifying your message, eliminating obvious errors and reworking sloppy, awkward phrasing.

#3 - Now review your copy with a fresh eye toward incorporating your primary key phrases IN ALL THEIR VARIATIONS. So, for example, if "cancun vacations" is a key phrase, work in the variations –vacationing in cancun, vacation in cancun, vacations in cancun, and the singular cancun vacation. Expand your phrasing with more adjectives — vacationing in sunny cancun, enjoy a fun-filled family vacation in sunny cancun, etc. While the SEs will prefer seeing "cancun vacations" together and you should use the phrase where you can, the variations will make your copy read better and, if a sales piece, sell better. Keyphrase variants tell the SEs that your copy remains solidly relevant to the cancun vacation topic.

#4 - Review again for obvious redundancy and smooth out any of the rough edges. Read it out loud to ensure good flow. Remember, this isn’t about keyword stuffing or stringing keywords together in a nonsensical manner. It’s about writing good, readable content that uses the language of your reader (and which, in turn, will make good SEO sense.)

#5 - Review again your page title, meta description and alt tags just to make sure you haven’t missed any important phrases or variants.

See? Nothing fancy or overly technical. Just one personal caveat, tho.

SEO copywriting by its very nature will incorporate a little more word and phrase redundancy than the average writer or editor would prefer. (I named one of my personal information sites, Adopting from Korea: A Prospective Parent’s Guide to Korean Adoption, because I was able to work in two important primary phrases. Even its URL uses 2 key terms, adopt and korea.) As online readers tend to be content scanners, I don’t think a little redundancy will hurt your credibility. Just be smart about it :=)

Maven’s Maxim
There’s really no magic to SEO content writing. Think of keyphrases and their variations as the primary vocabulary of your readers - the words and phrases they use to describe or talk about your product/service - and just write. Edit, revise, and respect your reader. The SE rankings will follow in due time as long as you remain true to the topic.