Stream of consciousness SEO

17/08/2009

rsvp … please?

Filed under: Building trust — Tags: , , — proseotalk @ 4:27 am

RSVP Logo

Répondez s’il vous plaît – yeah, that’s right – respond.

All too often in the information-overloaded world we live in – full of twatterbleeping, facebooking, beebopping, txting, online chatting and emailing messages – to say nothing of the more old fashioned forms of communication (like phone calls and face to face meetings), common courtesy appears to be lost.

What am I on about? Well, all too often, people get caught up in the overwhelm and forget that there is an individual human being on the end of some very specific forms of communication – and sometimes that human being is very keen to hear back from you when they have made the effort to communicate.

So that might be a comment on your blog site, an enquiry through your website’s enquiry system, a request for a quote … or a job application.

How often do you hear frustration from friends, family and co-workers about not hearing back? The sheer inconvenience when not hearing back slows them down from making a decision – what product to purchase, which supplier to use, which job to take more seriously.

Unfortunately it happens all too often, and really, it’s just plain rude.

If you are overwhelmed by so many messages you can’t keep up, and you can’t work out which communication is most important – take someone on to help you, or pay a contractor, service person or professional.

Please don’t be one of those people. Make an effort to respond, even if it is purely with a quick acknowledgement that you have received the communication, in whatever form it arrives.

And then take the time to sit down and respond in more detail, in a timely manner.

Always keep in mind that someone has taken the time to write to you – do them the courtesy of making the time in return.

(And if you really, really don’t have any way of managing your communications, take down your enquiry form off your site and hide your email until you have caught up on things. Mmm, didn’t think so.)

Please.

Merci.

Karen

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12/08/2009

tangerine trees and marmalade skies

Filed under: Building trust, Populating your site — Tags: , , — proseotalk @ 9:29 pm
winter sea

winter sea

So it would seem that the picture really is worth 1,000 words – and if it’s a cute one, then even better! My last picture post brought the most visits so far to my blog, which was very interesting and great illustration of my point about the power of images!

So I figured that this time I should include an image too – this one is from Takamatua, a bay on Banks Peninsula, New Zealand, about an hour’s drive from where I live. And yes, it has been coloured – there wasn’t really a marmalade sky.

And the point of this post? It’s all about perception.

Marketing people will tell you over and over again, “perception is reality” … so no matter what the actual reality is, that doesn’t matter … what matters is what people perceive that reality to be.

How does this affect your web content?

Well it’s all good for you if you have a new site and need to quickly build brand credibility, reputation etc. Because it is possible on the web to immediately present your business as an established organisation – or equally, you as someone with an existing reputation.

Look at the sites of the leading players in your market segment, and pay attention to the cues that indicate they are established and credible. These might be things like case studies and customer testimonials; a significant number of stories or press releases in their News pages;  a company profile that shows more than one person in the team – and gives some history to the business; a number of newsletters archived on the newsletter section; significant number of blog posts etc.

Now you might not be able to produce all of that overnight, but you can start to build up some material that will all go up on the site at once, but possibly with a variety of dates.

For example, you may have launched your business last year, but not got round to creating a web presence until 12 months later. At the time you started the business, you may not have put out any press releases – perhaps because you didn’t know how, or you didn’t think what you were doing was particularly newsworthy at the time. Or, you simply wanted to put a toe in the water before you started making a lot of noise about your business.

No matter what the reason, you can create a press release – that is purely for your site, which is dated from the time you launched your business. Then create additional releases for significant moments in the next 12 month period – so when your new website goes live, you have three or four releases up there, all dated chronologically.

The great thing about this approach is that you don’t have to worry about pitching these releases to your target media, you can write them specifically for your audience. Which means you can provide a more specialised type of information – designed for your audience, rather than the broader brush approach you would take for business media.

You can also optimise these releases for your target keywords, and incorporate links to other parts of your site, and to your sales conversion path, so they provide a great opportunity to improve your rankings and direct people into the most important parts of your website.

If you are not certain or confident about writing good press releases, there are plenty of online resources that will give you tips, like this for writing perfect press releases and this http://www.press-release-writing.com/newsletters/

So filling up your News page is a start to making your site look established and substantial - make sure it is rich with content, even if you have to create it retrospectively.

If you have a blog on your site, have at least five posts up in there before you reveal it to the world. Again, you can date them in sequence, so they give the impression you have been blogging for a while.

I think that’s enough for you to digest now – another post on building credibility further through your site content will follow soon.

à bientôt

Karen

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11/08/2009

5,000 words – the power of images

Filed under: Telling stories — Tags: , — proseotalk @ 6:37 am

baby-hand

center-of-gods-world-8

sleeping-kitten

homeless

happiness

You get the point, right …

What a picture is worth?

Yes, sometimes your content is even more powerful when you don’t write anything.

Namaste.

Karen

Karen

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10/08/2009

there’s a rooster on our back lawn!

Filed under: Uncategorized — proseotalk @ 2:10 am

no really, there was a rooster.

giant rooster on lawn

giant rooster on lawn

but it didn’t look quite like this.

It was a real one – my son sent me a text at work the other day saying “there’s a rooster on our lawn – wtf?” – lol!

I was slightly bemused, and had no idea where a rooster would have come from in suburban Christchurch.  About a week later I was hanging out the laundry and heard the unmistakeable sound of hens clucking someplace over the fence – so it would seem one of our neighbours has taken up the egg production business.

So next time the rooster turns up, a little bit of door-knocking should quickly solve the problem.

And the point of this post?

An eye-catching headline can work wonders!

Don’t be afraid to be creative and put it out there.

That’s all for tonight.

Ka kite ano (see you tomorrow).

Karen

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06/08/2009

The personal is universal

Filed under: Populating your site — Tags: , , , — proseotalk @ 1:57 am

For a number of years now I have kept in my head a catchphrase that really resonates with me – every time I revisit it, it still makes absolute sense. As a creator of written material (daily) and of speeches (less often), I believe very strongly that the “personal is universal”.

What does that mean in practice? Well basically, that there is no such thing as the “general public” – so don’t try to write for them.

As a speaker, the best advice is to speak directly “to” someone in your audience. It is not possible to connect with every single person, but the more you are able to focus your message, the more effective it will be.

The nasty, bland, politically correct ‘corporatespeak’ that we as web content professionals are steering clients away from is the exact opposite of this.

If you try to speak to a really broad audience, not offend everyone, include everyone … you simply end up with content that no-one really identifies or connects with. And that really really doesn’t work.

Individual stories are the ones that connect and resonate – don’t try and “universalise” your story – you risk taking the humanity and the passion out of it.

If you keep it personal, not only people with similar stories will relate to you, other people will connect to your authenticity and learn from it in some way – perhaps be inspired by your experiences, perhaps learn from your mistakes – whatever. Keep it real, and it will work so much better than generalised blurb that connects with no-one.

There are plenty of brilliant examples on the web of people with inspiring, incredible stories … and of course, the plethora of “mommy bloggers” is an example of how people telling their very personal stories can generate a significant audience of readers who are interested to follow what is happening in their lives on a daily basis.

If you are not already following her blog, or her twitter feed,  check out www.dooce.com – a very personal blog that now provides a full time income for its author.

Whenever someone asks me why the personal content gets such a large following, I liken it to why soap operas are so successful (even though they are not the best examples of cinematic art). It’s because we all like an insight into the minutiae of other people’s lives. Helps us feel better about our own, and often distracts us from our own – it’s called escapism.

No matter what the psychology behind it, it works.

So keep it personal, keep it real, keep it authentic.

Ciao for now,

Karen

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03/08/2009

Time to tweak – update, update, update your site

Filed under: Populating your site — Tags: , , — proseotalk @ 6:07 am

Yes, tweak, not tweet! :)

So I promised the next post would be about editing your shitty first draft.

My secret to doing this is simple – read it outloud.

Once again, an old radio trick – which makes particular sense for radio copy, since it is written to be read out loud, but it applies to written text that will never be read out loud too.

When you have put that first draft down on paper, read it out to yourself and you will quickly see where the problems lie. I have yet to come across someone who can’t tell when something is grammatically incorrect as they read it out loud.

The key is that you insert the suitable grammatical tools, ie punctuation, in the places where you naturally stop for breath.

So if you pause, usually that’s the place for a comma. If you stop, and take a full breath – that is usually the place for a full stop. Trust me – this does work.

Don’t worry about any more fancy forms of punctuation at this point – if you can write something that flows as you read it aloud, then you are about 95% ahead of many who aim to put their thoughts on paper or a screen.

One tip though, make sure you are actually reading what you have written, not what you think you have written. If you are a visual type, it can be too easy to simply read out what you think the words are.

Then of course, you might like to run your words through the spell checker.

If you are not confident that spell check will pick up everything, get someone you trust to have a read before you publish your content. Getting two people to check it is even better.

Any questions? I would love to receive your thoughts or comments – just leave them down below.

The next post is about making a real connection through your written content.

Till then, happy creating

Karen

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31/07/2009

It’s the story, stupid! The power of storytelling

Filed under: Telling stories — Tags: — proseotalk @ 10:05 pm

No, I’m not really calling you stupid, but yeah, that’s how we learn, from day one … listening to stories, and sharing stories.

So if you can learn how to tell a good story, you are off to a great start with creating great content – for your blog, your website, whatever method of written or verbal communication you want to master.

If you struggle to write your stories down, don’t stress … focus on the verbal first … then start writing the way you speak – we all have a natural sense of the correct grammar and syntax as we speak, but some people get all bent out of shape when they go to write it down – don’t! (Switch off the voice of that nagging teacher who kept telling you off at school for not writing formal English the way she wanted it.)

If necessary, use a dictaphone – just talk your stuff into it, then go through and type it up later. Don’t worry about making it perfect first up, just get it down.

Many years ago, when I was doing a course in radio, we received some great advice from one of the tutors who was teaching us how to write news stories for radio … just start by putting a piece of paper in the typewriter (yes it was that long ago) and start typing.

Don’t try to get the perfect opening sentence … don’t stress, just start.  And even today, that advice still works for me. Once you start writing, the thoughts will start to line up and flow – I promise.

Barbara Sher talks about a similar process in her books – she calls it making “shitty first drafts” and it applies to written work and art – any kind of creative process really. You liberate your creativity by giving yourself permission to do it badly to start with …. And know that you can throw away those shitty first drafts if you want to. Or not.

What it does is shut down that perfectionist “but it’s not good enough” voice that might be running in your brain … put it right back in its place, because after all, this is not your “best” version, its just a starting point. Which frees you up enough to just start.

Sometimes there is nothing more daunting/intimidating than a white sheet of paper or a blank computer screen. And we all know that if you are feeling daunted and intimidated, your creative juices are not likely to be flowing.

That’s it for today.

Don’t be daunted by the blank screen, just start. And be inspired to create a shitty first draft.

Your story will thank you for beginning to get it written.

Karen

p.s. my next post will be about editing that first draft.

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24/07/2009

But what about credibility?

Filed under: Building trust, Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , — proseotalk @ 3:48 am

Well might you ask – over the years the catchwords of professionalism, credibility and reputation have all been very important in corporate communications in particular.

The words passion, dynamism, excitement, connection, engagement and fun seem a lot way away from the often stuffy world of corporate speak.

But finally companies are coming to realise that what readers/viewers connect with is real people – connecting the way real people connect.

Which is not through carefully selected sentences from the corporate phrase book. Stilted, formal, corporate brand speak that endeavours to never be personal, never be “inappropriate”.

But in reality, that kind of word-smithing takes the reader so far away from the humanity that should be behind it … if they even stick with it long enough to get the point.

Chances are that today’s readers will simply scan the words, not even try to understand, and move right along to something more engaging.

Because there is always something more engaging – be it a viral video, a i can haz cheezburger image, the next tweet popping up on the screen … or your competition, who have somehow managed to capture the essence of what they have to offer in a way that is far more dynamic and interesting than your approach.

So how do we build trust?

Ok, so if you shouldn’t be building reputation and trust through stuffy language, stilted layouts and anonymous photo library images, how do you do it?

Your potential clients need to know that other people have used your products and services, and that they got a good result. They were happy with your service and would recommend you to their friends, family and associates.

We are all very familiar with this formula by now. Amazon.com  and eBay were among the very first e-commerce sites to make it popular. It is the new democracy – the equalizer, particularly on the auction sites, where the opportunity exists to provide mutual feedback.

Whatever the structure, users of a service and consumers of a product now have the opportunity to share their experience with the whole world, but especially other potential consumers of that same product or service.

(Actually marketers have been using testimonials for many years, but the web makes it possible for those recommendations to be read by a massive audience, and for readers to dig down and find out much more about the recommenders than ever before.)

Which is great.

Especially great for you if what you are offering is up to scratch.

  • So let’s assume that it is (and if it’s not, you are making your best efforts to get that issue sorted asap) … customer feedback, testimonials and case studies on your website are a great place to start building that trust.
  • Awards for excellence, innovation, success are also great – make sure you have them up there. And if you don’t have any, think about entering ones in your industry sector.
  • Stories from local media about your business doing well are also great ways to share a third party view of your company. Make sure you include a News section that not only has room for your own press releases, but also has room for you to put up any media mentions.
  • Links to and from your site from other reputable sites are also valuable ways to build trust by association.

I am sure you can think of other ways to build trust on your site – pictures of your products/services being used in the real world; feedback widgets like Trip Advisor that give travellers the chance to give feedback on hospitality providers around the world; forums and blogs with commenting facilities and the chance to offer real time customer service through the net. So many different ways to demonstrate that people trust you, buy from you and come back again for more of your products and services.

Of course you don’t have to use them all, and you don’t have to put them all on your site right from day one. But there is a great selection here of ideas to get you started and give you something to work towards.

So tell me, if your site is already up and running – how do you build trust?

Karen

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23/07/2009

Design plus …

Filed under: Populating your site — proseotalk @ 5:26 am

So if you create this fabulous looking site – or pay someone talented to do it for you … how do you populate it with all that content that reflects your passion for your business?

Keeping in mind a combination of the basics of good communication, great usability and searchability is a good place to start.

Don’t overwhelm visitors to your site with too much information.

Unless they give you permission – so keep it simple, concise and interesting to start with, with clear and logical calls to action – then have opportunities for them to dig down and read more detail if they choose to.

Of course your content will be impacted by your objectives, your product or service, and your potential audiences – so I am assuming you have those things clearly defined already.

For instance, if your site is going to be primarily educational/awareness raising, then the style of communication will be very different from an e-commerce site where your priority is the maximum number of conversions to sales.

Make it intuitive and logical.

Which means you will have to do some testing – on yourself of course as you scope it out, but ideally also on some people who might be your target audience. Work out how they will logically want to use the site, where they would most likely expect different kinds of information to be. Make sure your most important information on each page is “above the fold” – ie they can see what you want them to see without having to scroll down the page.

Don’t reinvent the wheel.

As tempted as you might be to make your site “different” from everyone else’s, when it comes to the way you label important parts of your site in your navigation, remember that you only have your visitor’s attention for a few seconds at the very beginning and they want to be able to quickly find what is of interest to them.

Don’t get over-clever with your headings, because many visitors will not waste time trying to work out what you are talking about or pointing them to. So although it might seem boring, just remember that familiar means easy to use.

Remember your home page is not the only entry point.

Many people make the mistake of focusing all their creative and content mojo on their home page, assuming that this will always be the first point of entry for visitors. Don’t. If your site is easily searchable, with each page optimised for its content, then you will get visitors landing all over the site. Keep that in mind when you are writing. Make sure it is always easy for people to work out where they are and what your site is about.

If grammar and spelling are not your strongest suit, get it checked

This may seem obvious, but how often do you visit sites with grammar and spelling mistakes in the copy? Get it checked by more than one person, and if they happen to be Scrabble champions or otherwise anal about spelling, so much the better.

Retain your passion throughout

You know how it is when you are learning a new skill. It feels very mechanical and laborious, and sometimes it can be very difficult to hold onto your inspiration at the same time. Don’t worry – like anything new, soon most of the process will become automatic and it will stop getting in the way of you sharing what is really important with your online audience. Aim to include something that excites, inspires or motivates on every page of your site.

That’s enough for now.

Knowing when to stop writing is part of the art form … so I think that is enough information for one session. More in my next post. Meantime, feel free to comment or share examples of sites you think are well written, easy to use, or simply full of passion and inspiration.

Thanks for reading me.

Karen


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21/07/2009

Welcome to my mind …

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , — proseotalk @ 9:58 am

Some of its inner workings at least.

For a long time I have been thinking about starting a blog that provides a chance to share some of the things I have learned along the way about marketing and communications.

For many years (I started in PR early in 1987) I struggled with the label PR consultant – and even after being their parent for 17 and 19 years, my sons still don’t really understand what a PR person actually does.

That’s because when a PR person is really doing their job well, they are invisible. Ironic really – biggest marketing problem you could ever have – no visibility. But, the fact that the industry survives and thrives is largely due to referrals between those businesspeople in the know. And these days, a lot more profile due to the fact that bloggers are now being exposed to the PR practitioners skills.

So one of the interesting things about transferring my skills to the world of SEO and online content is that to an extent, SEO is really the same. If you are doing it well, it is seamless and invisible to the casual viewer.

Ultimately, great SEO helps website owners create awesome content that naturally draws lots and lots of viewers, keeps them in the site for a while, encourages them to come back, and inspires them to recommend your site to other people.

That’s what works.

So what do you do as a business owner if you don’t have that kind of website?

My suggestion is to spend some time with yourself (and your business partner/s, senior staff, stakeholders) really thinking about what it is that inspires you about your business. What keeps you in the game, what do you have to offer your clients or customers on a daily basis?

Once you have worked that out – and you might record it in pictures (of happy, excited customers perhaps), words, video or audio … then it’s time to really get creative about how to instil that inspirational content into your website.

If you are excited about what you have to offer, then other people will pick up on that if you communicate it well.

Thing is, communicating something exciting is hard to do with words alone.  The more ways you can convey that excitement via your website, the better.

  • Think tangible.
  • Think interactive.
  • Think compelling images that are worth more than thousands of words.
  • Then find the right web maestros to help you make that happen.

Get it done, then keep feeding it with your personal source of excitement and inspiration. Don’t just put it out there and forget about it. Treat your website like your children – it needs your care and attention every day.

Whew!

So that’s it.

My first post in Stream of Consciousness SEO … and it was!

Look forward to streaming some more with you very soon.

Karen

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