~~~Writing for the Search Engines~~~
From: Carmine Cecere
Hi there,
I run my own small business as an internet consultant in Australia and
read the article regarding good copy as being vital to search engine
submissions and being ranked higher. My question is should the copy be
product related with specifics? Or more general in terms and be more
about site content and what offerings there are? e.g. specials,
discounts buy two get one free? etc.
Regards, Carmine Cecere
Internet Angels
~~~Heather's Response~~~
Hi, Carmine,
Good question!
You're smart to be concerned with your home page. Although people can
enter your site from any page (especially if you've optimized your
inner pages), your home page still needs to sell, shine and snatch
your prospect's attention.
Writing a successful home page is like walking a tightrope. On one
hand, you want to give your prospects enough information to tempt them
into learning more. Yet, if you tell them too much (and have an
ever-scrolling home page), you'll overwhelm your reader and give them
*no reason* to discover more information.
To illustrate this, imagine yourself at a networking get-together, and
you're sidling up to a possible prospect. If you immediately launch
into a 30-minute sales spiel with product manufacturing specifics,
you'll fry your prospect's circuits - and they'll run away. But, if
you briefly explain what you do (using benefit statements, of course),
mention your product or services, and touch upon what makes your
company unique, your prospect will be more apt to ask you questions.
Questions like "Tell me more about that new widget. I may need one."
If you translate to the Web, your home page *is* your quick (and more
general) marketing pitch - and "tell me more" would be clicking on a
hyperlink and discovering an information-rich product or service page.
These inner pages can be more specific, and give you an opportunity to
share, in depth, the wonders of your products or services.
Yes, your home page can (and should) accent your recent sales,
specials, et cetera - but watch out for the search engines. You'll
need some good, static, keyphrase-rich text *at the top* of your home
page to keep those spiders happy. Otherwise, all they'll spider is
your special sales text, which, because your sales text will
constantly change, does you no good (and you won't get the rankings
you want).
For a basic rundown on how to develop your homepage, you can jump to
my article, "How to Write a Persuasive Home Page That Gets Results." If you need some
"writing for keyphrases" help, check out "How to Write a Keyword-Rich Home Page the Search Engines Will Love."
Thanks for your question! Keep 'em coming!
- Heather
~~~Jill's unsolicited 2 cents~~~
One suggestion for your special sales information would be to put it
in a right-hand column. This area is the last section to be read by
the search engines. Therefore, as long as the rest of the text is
optimized and fairly static, it shouldn't hinder rankings if the last
column is ever changing.
- Jill
~~~Send Us Your Questions~~~
If you have questions about online copywriting or search engine optimization (or both!), just zip us an email to questions@rankwrite.com. We've had some folks ask if their question
was "too basic" to be printed - and you don't have to worry about
that! There are no "stupid" search engine optimization or copywriting
questions, so ask away!
