A lot of copywriters these days not only are content writers, but SEO specialists as well. (Hi, remember me?)

What I mean by this- is a new term hitting the “web waves” called a content strategist. I won’t bother filling this blog with technical terms on what a “content strategist” is by dictionary definition; BUT, I will do my best to clearly explain why you need one. 

It’s one thing to know how to write, it’s another thing to know how to write in a marketable way that makes people want to take action.

I like to call a content strategist a “word ninja”. I will defend your site against spam, skillfully and effectively promote your business, slash pages of useless stuff (if necessary), and use my special powers (SEO skills) to lure your target audience to your site. A word ninja rises above enemy lines (competition) proving to visitors of your site they came to the right place to find what they were looking for. And maybe I’ll throw a few ninja stars in there to boost the traffic too. Ninja stars = shurikens = what I call your social media outlets.

CONTENT IS KING: My ultimate goal with every client is to make them MONEY. Money can’t come if awareness is absent. How do you make your company known? By drawing people to your website and keeping them there. I know a bunch of SEO (search engine optimization) tricks to tell the web crawlers that your site is the one that viewer is looking for. (The Word Ninja’s Mission)

You would be surprised how important it is that the right words come across in the right way when compiling the content for your site.  If it’s not done right, your business could suffer. This is why hiring a copywriter could very well mean the difference between success and failure. Word ninja’s often work alone on their mission, but they train (prep/brainstorm) with other ninjas (web designers<– I like to call them web wizards) all working together toward same goal – ultimate success of assigned mission.

Some businesses don’t realize that you can’t simply create a website and think that’s good enough. Just because you’re on the World Wide Web doesn’t mean that your potential customers are going to find you. A copywriter ensures they will.  We know the right words to use and how to use them with an advantage to your business in a very marketable way. We drive traffic to your site through back links, social media, keywords, and… content, content, content. Did I mention CONTENT? Ninja style.

Personally, I like to really get to know the company inside and out. I want to know all about you, why you’re doing what you do, where you’re from, who is your client base, how big is your staff, what do you want from your website, what do your clients want from you? No matter what kind of industry I am working with, language is a key element. Words are what drive interest in any business, and ultimately words are what drive people to your site.  We work closely with the clients and pick out– sometimes the smallest thing you may mention– and turn it into an entire marketing campaign, maybe even a slogan or logo.

Hopefully you get the idea of why it is important for you and your business to focus on content. Keep up to date with blogs for continued advice and links to tools that will help your business and drive sales to your website.

Til next time………..
NiNjA exiT —-

]]> http://www.keywebconcepts.com/blog/2011/09/content-is-king-hire-a-word-ninja/feed/ 0 http://www.keywebconcepts.com/blog/2011/09/new-addition-to-the-keyweb-team/ http://www.keywebconcepts.com/blog/2011/09/new-addition-to-the-keyweb-team/#comments Thu, 15 Sep 2011 20:42:55 +0000 Erin http://www.keywebconcepts.com/blog/?p=1107 Hey there, my name is Erin and I am very excited to join the KeyWeb team as their copywriter.

The welcome I received here is just what I needed to assure me I made the right choice in coming on board. To top it off, I received the phone call from our company president, Jim Thomas, on my birthday! (talk about a “happy birthday”)

@ebthatswho

Little background on me:

I am a Mass Comm graduate from VCU with a concentration in Public Relations, and a minor in Marketing and Business. I have worked for production companies in the past as an Account Executive, and have over 5 years experience in PR and Marketing.

I am also the Co-Director of Marketing and Public Relations for RVA Fashion Week and have been since 2008. My experience with account management and campaigns will prove that I am the right person to meet our clients needs, and help continue the success of all projects that come through our door.

I am very appreciative of this opportunity and look forward to many days to come! I hope to contribute more to our blog and post some interesting as well as fun information for business and for leisure.

Let’s start with a nice little blog about the “dying press release” , still debatable? (figured this was specifically appropriate coming from me)

See you soon!

PS- Go Redskins!

]]> http://www.keywebconcepts.com/blog/2011/09/new-addition-to-the-keyweb-team/feed/ 1 http://www.keywebconcepts.com/blog/2010/10/why-cant-you-guarantee-my-site-will-be-1-in-search-results/ http://www.keywebconcepts.com/blog/2010/10/why-cant-you-guarantee-my-site-will-be-1-in-search-results/#comments Wed, 20 Oct 2010 21:03:25 +0000 Shannon Sullivan http://www.keywebconcepts.com/blog/?p=759

In this Webmaster Video from October 19th, Matt Cutts from Google’s Web Spam team addresses a burning question:

As an SEO [search engine optimizer], how can I explain to clients that #1 rankings can’t be guaranteed?

This is an issue that SEO firms and consultants routinely face. A client wants to land a great position for his or her website…but how do you tell that person you can’t promise them a certain result? Or that being #1 may not be the best course of action? You don’t want people to think you can’t do your job, but you don’t want them to leave with false hope or unrealistic expectations.

Matt offers some great insights that you can share with your clients to help them better understand search engine optimization and why rankings can’t be guaranteed.

1. Google Says No Way, No How

Google has an SEO help article in Webmaster Tools that gives it to you straight:

“No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.”

The article goes on, stating: “Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, allege a ‘special relationship’ with Google or advertise a ‘priority submit’ to Google.”

In short: if an SEO promises you’ll be #1 or claims to be Google’s best friend, he or she is lying, and your best bet would be to run for the hills. (But not before you call them out on their shameless fibs!)

2. Being #1 May Not Be The Best Thing For You

Ranking #1 for a search phrase or keyword might not bring you the web traffic or customers you truly need.

Matt’s example is a plumber. Showing up #1 on Google for “plumber” wouldn’t be very helpful because you’d end up fielding calls from people all over the U.S. and across the globe, people who are not in your service area. You’d be much better served by having your website show up if someone searches “plumber in Sunnyvale California.” You want to make sure that you target a relevant audience.

3. Promises Lead to Deceptive Tactics

Sometimes, SEOs will deliver on their promise. They’ll make you #1 alright . . . but for something totally bogus and completely irrelevant.

Matt points out that it would be very easy to rank a website for a really long phrase like “change my default printer on Firefox using Linux Ubuntu.” Very few people (if any!) would use that phrase, so there’s not a lot of competition. You’re capitalizing on phrases that the everyday person isn’t very familiar with.

When an SEO firm promises that you’ll be #1, what that usually means is you’ll show up #1 for obscure terms and strange phrases that no one really uses.

4. Relevance + Quality > Being #1

A lot of times, people get caught up in the glow of being #1. They don’t stop to think, “Are these the words I want to rank for?”

Matt explains that ranking #3, #4 or #5 far outweighs ranking #1 if your website is showing up for a phrase that:

• converts well;
• gets a reasonable amount of traffic; and
• is relatively targeted to what you’re interested in.

Moral of the story: Don’t obsess about ranking #1 . . . especially if it’s for a phrase that isn’t very useful and doesn’t help you achieve your goals. Instead, go after results that “stand the test of time.” In the long run, being #3 could benefit you in more ways than #1 ever could.

Ultimately, quality traffic for relevant terms is what your focus should be.

Shannon
Director of Internet Marketing

Short for search engine optimization, the process of increasing the amount of visitors to a Web site by ranking high in the search results of a search engine. The higher a Web site ranks in the results of a search, the greater the chance that that site will be visited by a user. It is common practice for Internet users to not click through pages and pages of search results, so where a site ranks in a search is essential for directing more traffic toward the site.

SEO helps to ensure that a site is accessible to a search engine and improves the chances that the site will be found by the search engine.

How do Search Engines Rank Sites?

A search engine sends a “spider” (AKA “bot”) to crawl… the servers on the world wide web to find documents to bring back to its index or database. In the index, it filters documents according to the search engine’s rules (such as, to weed out duplicates) and stores those which meet its quality criteria.

When a searcher makes a request, the search engine evaluates the sites in its storehouse of indexed sites, assessing which are the most relevant to the requested information, based on area of expertise as evidenced by keywords in content, and references in the form of links from authoritative sites. Note that the links that count with search engines are the ones pointing to your site. Each search engine has it’s own set of rules that govern which sites rank higher (their “algorithm”). Some, like Google, change from time to time to continually improve the process and to make sure sites are keeping their sites “Fresh” with their Search engine optimization.

How Does SEO Help?

Search Engine Optimization clears and maintains a path for search engines in four ways:

1. Addressing the limitations of the “bots” with crawler-friendly site design, as well as addressing indexing filter issues. Proper site design and critical code elements are ESSENTIAL for a site to perform well.
2. Making the site accessible to searchers by identifying keywords most used by the target audience and writing the keywords — sensibly — into the text of the website.
3. Attracting inbound links from authoritative sites and targeting those links to searchers’ interests.
4. Analyzing visitor activity on the site — human and “bot” – to look for ways to improve the search experience for both.

When you do this right, you help the search engines do a better job providing their visitors the information they seek, and they display your site to the visitors you seek. Everybody wins.

“Google really does want to encourage appropriate SEO; we want to help you rank better if you follow our guidelines,” said Matt Cutts, Google’s senior software engineer on a radio interview last month. You’ll find those guidelines at http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html .

Why Is SEO Important to Your Site?

In the “everybody-knows-that” department, studies reveal that 70% of searchers click on natural or organic listings. But with Google, that jumps to 87%. Nearly 50% of all searches are done on Google — more than half, if you add in AOL, which displays Google search results. So, do the math. Of 1000 searchers, 555 (55.5%) will use Google or AOL, and 483 (87%) of these will click on links that are not “sponsored”. Of the remaining 445 non-Google searchers, 311 (70%) will choose organic listings over paid. Altogether that’s 794 out of 1000 searchers! Who wants to pass up that many visitors? What’s more, research last year showed that 60% of searchers click on one of the top three organic listings if it interests them. (Just how to capture their interest, well that’s a topic for another time.)

There you have it. Search engine optimization to get some of those top rankings is vital to website success. Fortunately, successful SEO rests on following through on some basic principles for your site. If you haven’t begun SEO already, now’s the time to begin.

Feel free to give me a call if you have any more questions or if you want to improve your SEO for your site.

~ Jim