Content Category

Web Content vs. Web Copy – what’s the difference and which is the best for your website?

2014-09-22T13:58:51+12:00

Do you have a website that despite being a thing of beauty born out of hours, days, weeks of effort and careful planning is failing to live up to expectations?

It could be your content – and your copy. As web developers and optimisers, we can’t do our job without having something to put on the pages we’re building – in other words, content. And it’s one of the hardest and most time consuming parts of a web development project. This is understandable, because quality content is hard work for most people who don’t do it for a living.

Although it may seem like splitting hairs, if you understand the difference between ‘content’ and ‘copy’, it can make the whole process simpler and faster.

Content vs Copy So what is the difference?

It’s easy to be confused. Content is often used to mean everything on a site – text, images, audio and video. Copy is often used to mean all written material.

So this is our take on it. Content tends to be factual information and include:

Product use instructions
FAQ’s (though if carefully written you can include copy in your answers)
News items and press releases
Manufacturers specifications
Blogs

Good content will solve a problem, answer a question and add value.

Content informs, educates or entertains.

Copy, on the other hand has to persuade the reader to take some kind of action or change the way they think. It has to motivate them to do something. Right then and there.

Copy will appear:

On your homepage
In calls to action
On Services, About Us and Landing pages

There is a nice simple saying that goes “Content tells, copy sells”.

Which is more important?

People go through a series of steps when buying. They don’t just suddenly buy something without doing some research and making decisions.

From a sales perspective , the process is known as the sales funnel and it includes four key steps:

Lead generation or attraction
Opportunity identification, familiarisation and building trust
Engagement - nurturing the lead or prospect, overcoming objections
Conversion – ie the sale

Content and copy support different steps in this process, and because people go through all the steps, then if you fail at any one you won’t get the sale. So – they both have a role to play. You need both.

How to create great content and persuasive copy

Although many content marketers might object - content, in my view, is easier to create than copy.

It is relatively easy to write a step by step instruction on how to do something. I say relatively, because it still needs to be clear, articulate and well structured.

But it takes a particular skill to write in a way that tells a story that can change people’s mind and persuade them to take action.

As our associate Cara from Copy Carats explains:

"Back in the day, there were ‘hunters’ and ‘farmers’ when it came to sales. While we live in an age where people (78-97%) research online before they reach a decision, it’s still a very human process.

We’re motivated by the same elements we always have been; saving time and /or money are key drivers of course… but fundamentally our feelings drive sales and that’s what good copy taps into.

Think about any recent purchase you’ve made… I guarantee price was only a part of your decision… What really drives us is value. “I get more for my money”, “this will be easier to use”, “it’s less likely to fail me”, “I deserve it”, etc…

These days, understanding your buyer’s aspirations has never been easier – we have detailed data and statistics that gives us unrivalled insights into what turns our prospect on and off, in the online world.

Where content is your online ‘farmer’; copy is your online ‘hunter’. Good copy speaks to the nerve centre of the buyer - soothing or exciting, rationalising or indulging, inspiring or resolving their future aspirations.

A good copywriter knows how to tap into that human psyche and make your value not just explicit, but compelling… and that’s what closes sales."

How’s yours?

When reviewing a website, particularly from a conversion perspective, it more common to find that the copy is either poorly written or it is absent all together.

So if your website looks good, has plenty of content, and gets visits but no sales - then you probably need help with your sales copy.

If a website does not rank well in the search engines, gets few visits and/or low engagement rates, then a lack of content could be a contributing factor. Fortunately there’s a way forward, and that is to get an expert to help you sort your website.

So if you want your website to do more and need help with your content or copy get in touch.

Image: Just2shutter via FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Get more out of your website: a dozen ideas for making your business more efficient.

2014-09-01T09:19:10+12:00

If your website is busily attracting new customers, that's fantastic - but did you know it can do even more to increase the profitability of your business?

This is something I talk about when I hear a very common statement from businesses that goes "Our website doesn't really contribute to sales - it all comes word of mouth"

Wait, you're kidding, right?

Even if all your business does come this way – it's true of our business as it is for many NZ businesses - your website plays a role in supporting referrals by demonstrating that you are helpful, professional and capable. In fact, all the things that the person recommending you has said about you. It won't do this if it's hard to use, confused in it's communication or lacking any proof that you are worth getting in touch with.

But this is not what this article is about.

Let's say your business does come via word of mouth and/or other marketing that doesn't involve search, social marketing or online advertising.

What could your website be doing to improve other areas of your business bottom line?

How can your website do more?

Your website can help your business in many more ways – saving you money by handling some of the many enquiries that tie up your receptionist, customer service or account reps. Or helping with those things that frustrate your customers so much they decide to take their business elsewhere.

This includes frequent forms and applications, answers to frequently asked questions, how tos, directions to your office, information about specials, sales and new products - and more.

Let's have a look at a few in detail.

1. Frequently Asked Questions

Most businesses will get a few questions that they are asked over and over again. And most FAQs focus on the ones that are involved with making a sale.

But after the sale, your customers could still have more questions - it might be about important dates – like school terms, tax payment dates, public holiday delivery times, or 'do you handle xyz'.

Add all these to FAQ, let your customers know you have one and ask for suggestions on additions. Next time they want to know how long your delivery times are, they might check the website first.

If you have a support forum, regularly check for questions that are getting asked all the time and add them to your FAQ.

2. Where on earth are you?

If you have a physical office or are a retail business – make sure you have a readable map on the site. Please don't use one a graphic artist has created – this is almost inevitably too simple to be useful for people who don't know the area well..

Use Google maps and include information like which motorway off-ramp to use and where the nearest (plentiful) parking is. There is nothing more frustrating than being late for an appointment because the single customer car park outside an office is gone.

It's stating the obvious to say have your contact details easy to find. If there is a different number for existing clients as opposed to sales, or different departments - tell them what it is.

3. Common forms

If you have a couple of forms that 80% of people are going to have to fill out – put them on your site as a PDF, or if it's simple - as an interactive form.

4. Complaints and feedback process

It might sound like you are inviting trouble, but a clear complaints procedure communicates to your customers that you are serious about resolving problems.

For ECommerce sites, this includes your returns policy. For service businesses this could be a complaints form and the process for resolving them.

5. Bookings and appointments

Do you run events, tours or schedule appointments?

Several of our clients use online calendars and booking systems to save them the time and effort in organising appointment times. And saves a lot of time!

But if you do move to an online appointment booking system, choose one that you can use for all your bookings so you aren't juggling multiple calenders.

6. What to expect.

Once people say 'yes' to you – then what?

What will they have to do? Is there information that they will need to collect for you? If so, let them know in advance. Even if it is slightly different for each person, there may be some common things like savings history, credit records or testimonials they might need.

If there is nothing specific they need to do, include a brief step-by-step process of what you'll be doing for them and when.

7. How To's

If you sell or support equipment or technology, include how-to's and guides for acheiving the most common tasks.

In some cases this might seem like giving away your IP and missing an opportunity to offer training to your client. But some questions involve a five or ten minute conversation with your staff and will never turn into a serious business opportunity for you – so why not give it away for free? It creates a postive impression for your business (and can help with SEO).

Include technical specs and configuration instructions that come up as part of your after-sales process. It can be very frustrating to purchase something and then not be able to get it working properly.

8. Project information

If you are a builder or other project-based business, you could have a client-only section of your website where clients login to see progress on their particular job.

This can save a LOT of time on the phone keeping people up to date, and is a real customer service win. It could even be a feature/benefit that helps you win the job in the first place

9. Prices.

It astounds me how many sites don't have prices on them. There are lots of reasons not to do this – like each customer is different, for example. But price is a huge factor in people's decision making process. And that goes for existing customers as well - every time they come back to you they are making the buying decision all over again.

The argument that the cost is based on the 'value something adds' drives me nuts.

If you really can't tell them how much – at least tell them the kinds of things that will influence or impact on price so they are a little prepared.

10. New products, sales and specials

This sounds a bit obvious, but in a retail shop recently I was asked if I wanted to be part of their loyalty scheme. They asked for my email but said "don't worry we won't pester you, in fact we've never sent an email out to anyone, I suppose we should – we could let them know when we're having a sale".

I just said diplomatically – yes, you really should do that. But at the very least make sure it's on your website.

11. Troubleshooting tips

From tips about maintenance to common issues and solutions, including the problems that are most often experienced by your customers will save them and your staff time and effort in sorting them out. And it could be a deciding factor in whether a customer switches to another company.

If you have a forum as 'support' - please don't leave it unattended - this can lead to intense and public frustration with your service, and put off perspective new customers.

The personal touch is not always the best - especially when they are having trouble at 11 o'clock at night and your business is closed.

12. Your latest newsletter

Are you sending out an email newsletter? Each of the articles in the newsletter should consist of an introducton, and then a link back to your website for the whole story.

Why? It keeps your newsletter short and skimable - it also encourages people to go to your website from where they can be reminded of the other products and/or services you offer - in other words up-sells and cross-sells.

And links from your newsletter can be tagged so that the clicks are measured properly (it will tell you what people found interesting - or not!)

Your mission: Save a phone call or email a day

At the end of the day, these are ideas for businesses of any size with the intention that it will save a phone call, email or social media enquiry that someone has to respond to – and time is money.

So, if you think your website's 'only' purpose is to attract new business – you could be missing out on a big opportunity to improve the efficiency and therefore the profitability of your venture.

Image by Stuart Miles via FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Why Blogging is essential for getting people to visit your website

2014-07-02T10:11:14+12:00

You'll see it mentioned in many online marketing articles:

Thou Shalt Blog!

Sadly, many people in small business' don't. Which is sad because they are missing out on a really good way to attract visitors to their website.

A blog is a useful, flexible mechanism for adding new content to your site without having to shoe-horn it somewhere into an existing site structure. You can call it 'articles', 'resources' or something similar if you want to. The ability to comment and/or share your posts makes it easier to promote your content and engage with people on the topic.

So, Why don't businesses blog?

1. They don't know what to blog about

The idea isn't to share your views on politics, your frustration about slow drivers or views on how the economy should be run (unless it's relevant to your business of course!).

When people think 'Blog' they often think it's an opinion piece – and it is, but the idea is that you are sharing your professional opinion in order to demonstrate that you know what you're talking about.

And the simple way to find out what your customers want to know is talk to them. Take a survey, hold a focus group, ask your sales team or simply take note of the questions that come up time and time again.

2. Lack of time, skills or resources

This will always be an issue for small businesses, but writing a blog post once in a while shouldn't be a big ask and if you can't do it – pay a writer to do it for you.

And if you want to do it but are worrried about the quality of your writing there is only one way to get better – practise. Then practise some more.

Get some feedback from people you know so you can hone those writing skills. There is a lot of good advice out there that you can read up on for free and incorporate – try CopyBlogger as a place to start.

3. Thinking it doesn't work

I've heard comments along the lines of “I wrote an article for my website once, and it didn't do anything”.

This is probably a case of the content not being targeted correctly or promoted enough. Or maybe it simply wasn't very good.

If your target audience (ie your potential customers) have needs, then you have something to tell them – you just have to find out what that need is. And from there it is simple - you will most likely have the answer to the question already - if you have any expertise in your field.

If you answer a question that other people in your field don't - then it's an opportunity to give people something that other companies aren't, and impress them in the process.

It reflects well on your business and encourages your audience to think you will be equally helpful if they work with you.

4. What won't work so well

A quick mention of what to avoid when blogging - because there are things bloggers can do that, while may be fun, is less likely to contribute to the business:

Write about irrelevant topics - they came to your website for a reason. If you are an accountant why would you talk about the colour of socks. It might be funny but it won't add to your business' reputation
Be mean, demeaning, sarcastic. Even if someone or something deserves it. People will just think you will treat them the same way.
Be boring. It's hard to make dry subjects entertaining, but if you stick with giving people information you know they want, then dry might just become useful. And it doesn't have to be witty to be exactly what people are looking for.
Write about things you don't know anything about. Not only do you risk some pretty pointed comments about your lack of knowledge, you can damage your reputation. You are probaby not fooling anyone.

A case study from our own website.

One of the most common questions we get asked – in fact EVERYONE will ask us this at some point and in some form is “How much will it cost”.

So, about in early 2013 I wrote a post “How much will that website cost?”.

I mostly wrote it so I could point people to it instead of explaining it all in another email or in conversation – I could just send people to it and we could get on with talking abot what is really important (ie how to make that website really HUM...!)

There are no particularly insightful industry secrets, little known insider intell or in fact all that much detail in the article. It's not even a subject I find particularly interesting, and the answer to the question is always the same...ie 'it depends'.

At first only few people looked at it and admittedly I didn't really promote it. So the page view numbers remained small. But if you look at what has happened over time things get a lot more interesting:

Without much promotion of the content at all (only a couple of tweets), the page was viewed by more than 500 visitors last month. The average time spent on the page was three times the site average.

Pretty good for content that has been left to it's own devices – imagine what it could do if we shared it more agressively? Or used as the basis for a guest post. Added an infographic even!

Why does it get all these visitors?

Because it answers a question people ask all the time.

And the content is 'evergreen' – ie it won't go out of date. I only have to tweak the figures and perhaps add features as they become common.

Why has visitor numbers been increasing?

This is harder to answer. 90% of the visits to this page come via search. But most SEO-ers will tell you that you have to promote content and get other people to link to it before it will get a high ranking.

I haven't been tracking historic ranking for this particular page, but if you Google (in NZ) 'website cost' or variations on the phrase, this post is in the first few results. But the number of people searching isn't high for NZ based searches. And there are a lot of other web companies blogging and writing on various topics who rank higher than we do for more general phrases.

In Google.com the search volume is a lot higher, and increasing over the last couple of months. Here the post is on the second page - typically people will tell you if you're not on the front page you're no-where. But clearly this isn't the case. Engagement can't be a factor because there are no comments.

However, a page like this can appear for a whole variety of long-tail (low volume, mult-word phrases) searches that cumulatively can add up to quite a few people and visitors. And if the question is a common one, you don't need to get a high percentage of people clicking on the search result for it to add up to hundreds of visitors.

It could be a case of time – although the content isn't 'fresh' it's still a) there and b) getting visits. The slow increase in visits could also be self-fulfilling because the click through rate on the search results would be increasing (CTR being a SEO ranking factor).

So what does this all mean?

Regardless of why, I think it shows that if you create quality content – ie content that people want, content that solves a problem for people, a problem in the form of a question, it will attract visitors to your site.

It might take a while, but it will happen.

The next challenge is of course turning those visits into sales!

15 ideas for website content

2013-11-03T15:05:30+13:00

If you didn't already know, updating your website regularly is important.

But in case you have a sneaking sense of cynicism about whether it's worth all the effort, here's a summary of exactly why it is important:

It shows your business is active and takes an interest in communicating with your customers in a way that helps them and keeps them informed
It can answer a whole lot of questions potential customers may have about you and your business
You can demonstrate your expertise and knowledge
It makes it easier for potential customers to choose you (over your competitors)
Google likes regular content – so it is absolutely imperative for search optimisation
Google also likes sites with lots of helpful, unique content – the more pages you have, the more 'hooks' you have in the search engine sea
Sales lead times can be long – regular content encourages people to return because they know they will find something new, or you can use it to fill your email newsletters
You are increasing the likelihood that people will find something that they are willing to share, comment on or link to.

Google have changed the way search works to improve results for 'natural language' information search phrases. What this means that instead of focusing on single keywords your website (and it's content) needs to focus on what the searcher wants to know.

This tends to be questions like 'What is the best type of wool to use for knitting socks', instead of what you want to sell them, like 'Wool Supplies”.

If you want to read more about this change in detail, here is a great explanation by our friend Mike Morgan.

Ok, so now you know it's important, here is some inspiration for content you can add to your site.

Here are the 15 content ideas for your website

1. Industry news

You know more than most other people about what is happening in your industry – whether it be property, finance, building, technology, tourism or whichever market niche you occupy.

Link to news items about the lastest buzz in your industry. But for real impact, add your ten cents worth on top to demonstrate that you are connected to the latest trends and can provide insight into what's happening.

You could also do a weekly/monthly round-up of what's been happening or write a review or roundup of a recent industry event.

2. Your own company news

If you have just won an award, partnered with a charity or completed a big project – let people know. It gives you an opportunity to show case your skills and the kind of businesses that you work with.

New product (or version of one)? New colours? New features? Put a brief article about it on your site!

Do work in the community? Sponsor and event? Tell people about it!

As an alternative, this kind of content makes for good Public Relations articles which helps with SEO.

3. Case studies and testimonials

These can take some time to write, but are another great way to show case your company's skills and expertise. Include a description of the scenario or problem the customer had, how you fixed it and what happened as a result.

The idea is that a potential customer will relate to the problem, and want the solution!

Testimonials tend to be short, so don't add an awful lot of value but keep adding them to your site and you will build up a nice story about how fabulous you are in the eyes of your customers.

4. Opinion pieces

A blog can be a bit more conversational than other types of content, although it doesn't make posts easier to write! Blog posts can be opinon pieces, helpful how-to's, or industry insights. Think of who in your organisation has something to say about a topic related to what your business does.

You can also invite outside experts to contribute blog posts if they can provide something relevant to or of interest to your audience. An often used tactic is to comment on someone elses blog, then add your own experience as a comment to back up or illustrate the main points. Or, you could disagree with the author altogether.

If you are an avid reader of other people's blogs - create a list of blogs that are the definitive go-to resource on a topic.

5. Resources

Create content that is useful to people:

Calculators
Reviews – of products, tools and other websites. Include what you liked, didn't like and wehther you would recommend it to others
Checklists – for people to print out and use
How to's
Templates

6. FAQs

Everytime your staff gets a question via email or the phone, it is a potential opportunity or inspiration for content to be added to your website – whether in FAQ form or as a blog post or article. Get your customer service or sales reps or even the receptionist to note down the most common questions they get asked and create content that answers these questions. They may already have an FAQ list that can be used and adapted to suit.

FAQs are very useful in helping your site visitors find information they need, phrased in the way they would ask for it.

7. Training materials, how to's and guides

If you have any guides that you frequently print out and send or email to your customers – these are great sources of material to convert to website content.

If you have a product that needs instructions – put them on your website. Be sure to include troubleshooting tips. Or include inventive ways your customers have used that product.

This information could be in the form of text, pictures or infographics or video – whichever is the best way to communicate what you are trying to tell them.

8. Look to your competitors

If you've run out of ideas, check out what your competition is doing – but DONT COPY! Use it as a way of seeing your industry through a fresh pair of eyes. You may realise that there is something missing from your site, or something you can do better or in a slightly different/unique way.

9. Interview an expert

It may be that within your own team, you have a resident expert in some aspect of your business, your wider industry or even something completely unique and different.

Interview them to get the answer and unique view on common questions about their area of expertise.

You may have a partner that you work with regularly or customer that would be happy to be interviewed – this raises their profile and they can publish the content on their own website (with a link to yours – this is helpful for SEO as well!)

10. Survey's and statistics

If you gather a lot of research in the course of your business, or have access to data you could report it as an infographic to make it interesting, or just as plain content.

If you don't you could go to publically available data from the government and pull it together in a way that most people wouldn't think of (or bother to).

11. A day in the life of...

A day in the life of a web developer? Hmm...there are probably more glamorous jobs to read about! Whatever your job or industry there may be a role within your organisation that would make interesting reading to someone else.

Use it as a way to describe what you or your staff do for your customers.

12. Something nearly everyone disagrees with you about

In an industry, you may have an idea or perspective that is out of line with the 'accepted' view or position. For example:

Many web companies say a content magement system (CMS) means website owners can update the site themselves and don't having to know any HTML. The last bit may be true, and a CMS makes a website easier to update, sure – but just because you can it doesn't mean you should.

CMS's are responsible for a lot of the badly written, irrelevant, outdated, unfocused and otherwise poor quality content on websites. Commonly it's left to someone that has no idea about web marketing, content writing, usability or at times, simple grammar!

Ok, I'll quit before I get carried away on that one!

13. Myths and Misconceptions

For every accepted wisdom about something, there is a misconception.

For years I thought that a retailer HAD to sell me something at the advertised price. Turns out, they can simply choose not to enter into the sale agreement on that basis. Although, that belief allowed me to talk my way into getting a few cheap items that had been mis-labelled at the wrong price!

If you find yourself shaking your head and saying "I lot of people make that mistake" then you have the beginnings of some content there.

Alternatively you can pull a few together as a topic such as "10 design mistakes people make on websites", although positive lists such as "10 ways to grow your website visitors" are more useful in the long run.

14. Famous people and culture themes

You can get creative in how you illustrate a point starting with the formula heading 'What x can teach you about y”. For example:

What my ginger cat taught me about managing expectations
What you can learn about branding from Lady Gaga
What Steve Jobs taught us about design

You can be tongue in cheek or quite controversial with this one!

15 Lists

Just like this one

5 ways to increase followers on Twitter
Top 3 movie review sites
4 apps for your iPhone to make your day easier
10 best image editing tools

Get the idea?

Ok, hopefully you are now brimming with inspiration! This list should give you a virtually endless supply of content ideas for your website. And once you get going, you can start mixing it up with video, images and infographics.

All you have to do is start.

8 cheats you can use to create irresistible headlines

2012-08-18T14:05:28+12:00

Headlines are the first thing people see. It's what will make them open your email or read your content – or not.

Because it's not your readers job to work out what you are trying to say, you've got to instantly grab their attention.

Write your headline first, before you write your content so you focus on delivering on the promise in the headline. This can be a bit tricky – lots of people prefer to write the content first but you can start with a 'rough' version of the headline and fine tune it once you've finished the copy.

Great headlines tend to:

Include benefits – one per headline
Include key search phrases so the search engines can find it
Be clear – don't try and be tricky, you don't want people to guess what your content is about. You can leave a little mystery but readers want to know what they are getting
Build curiosity – questions are good for this
Be about them – "How you can earn money while you sleep", not "How I can help make money". Focus on your target audiences needs, fears and desires.

But writing headlines that do all that can be hard.

So we've made it easy for you!

Here is a list of very effective headlines types. You can save yourself hours of effort by deciding which type of headline you are going to use before you write it.

1. Feel the fear – headlines that threaten:

Your 13 year old neighbour just stole your identity to buy alchohol
9 Lies internet marketers will tell you
The shocking truth about what Crox shoes do to your social credibility
5 warning signs your teenager is high on drugs at the dinner table
Is watching too much TV making you dumb

2. Sell the benefit of a simpler, easier life:

11 ways to make room in your closet for more clothes and shoes
10 short cuts to turn housekeeping hell into home maker heaven
How to take charge of your out of control finances without getting a second job
Be ready for your beach holiday as soon as you step off the plane
Spend more time in your garden without getting your hands dirty

3. Ride on the coat tails of a famous person or brand

What McDonalds can teach us about social media fails
How to copy Lady Gaga's strategy for world domination
The golfers guide to marital harmony – what I learnt from Tiger Woods

4. Simple How To's

How to dominate Google search results
How to beat your brother at backgammon
How to make money while you sleep
How to lose 10 kilos in 5 weeks without dieting
How smart home owners save thousands on their mortgage
How to win friends and influence people

5. Double barrelled benefit statements.

Link one benefit to another implies doing or getting the first will get you the second:

How to get a better job and make more money
How to work less but have more job satisfaction
Improve your eating habits for more energy and lose that belly fat

6. Numbered lists

5 tips to get your website working better
7 things you should know about internet dating
5 secrets every website owner should know
50 ways to beat the Master Chefs at their own game

7. Ask a question

Question type headlines can be used in combination with benefit statements or an appeal to common concerns. fears or emotions

How would you like to be paid to lose weight
Who wants more fun and less stress in their lives?
Are you tired of working the 9 to 5 work day treadmill?
Which of these budgeting mistakes are you making?
Are you suffering these symptoms of stress?
Are your cleaning products killing you slowly?
Are you guilty of these ten social media faux-pas?

8. Include a bit of mystery

The secret to doubling your investment in 5 years
The secret to getting a second mortgage approved
What you don't know about stain removal that is making you sick
Little know ways to reduce your electricity bill

And don't forget, the purpose of a headline is to get people to read it – and then keep reading!

6 reasons to update your website regularly

2012-06-28T11:24:00+12:00

There are very good reasons why you should update your website on a regular basis.

Here's six of them.

Interesting = traffic

People will keep coming back to your site if there is going to be something new and interesting on it.

It doesn't have to be brand new different ideas or products, but variations such as reviews, latest industry news or buzz - or even things more personal to the business.

More traffic = more customers.
SEO

It helps with search engine optimisation. Google likes websites that are updated on a regular basis.
Shows you're open

New content like news and industry updates let's people know your business is active and communicating with it's customers. There is nothing worse than a news section or blog that hasn't been updated for six months. People will think you are either on holiday, the business has closed or worse – you don't care.

But you really want to show people you are on top of your game, right?
Building your content

It demonstrates knowledge of industry and topic. Adding guides tips or commentary will, over time, grow your website into a body of work that show off the depth of knowledge, range of products or expertise available to customers.

It can make small businesses look bigger than they really are.
Marketing

It encourages back-links and mentions. Fresh, on-topic content encourages people to link back to your site from their websites, blogs, Twitter stream or Facebook page. You get a social media marketing and search optimisation boost in one go.
Inspiration

It gives you something to tweet about. Wondering what to put on your Facebook business page or what to tweet about ? Link back to your latest content – easy as!

How often should I update my site?

Some search engine or blogging (so-called) guru's will tell you that it should be everyday. While some businesses can update their site all day each day with new product material, news and other updates this is not feasible for some. At the end of the day, it depends on your business.

If you have a large range of products that change frequently, then we'd recommend that you update the site at least weekly if not every few days.

If you are service oriented, then we'd recommend every week. Industry sector's such as health, finance, IT and other professional industries tend to have a continuous stream of news, industry updates and trends available that can be reported and commented on.

If you can't update your own site, consider placing content on other sites in the form of articles, commentary, blogs, tweets, diggs etc.

But - quality matters more than quantity so if it means a blog post once a month that is kick-arse and get's people talking and linking to you then this is obviously better than a continuous stream of low quality, copied junk.

How content contributes to your search engine visibility

2012-04-25T12:41:16+12:00

While you should create content for your audience, it pays to think of how you can maximise your content creation efforts so it benefits your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) efforts.

What does Google want

Google loves good quality, fresh and unique content. That's it. Honest

Give Google what it wants and your place in the search results will benefit as a result.

How does Google know?

To work out whether your content is any good, Google uses a complex formula (or algorithm) to give each page on your site a score. The better your score, the higher your site (or page) will rank in Google. No one actually knows what the formula is, and Google changes it all the time anyway, but there is agreement that you need to pay attention to the following:

Use keyword phrases in title tags and make them different for each page
Use keyword phrases in your headings
Use keywords and synonyms in the body of your content
Use keywords in image alt tags and file names

When planning what content to create, do some reseach so you can match topics that people are actually interested in.

For example, on the Esssentee site our blog post about how much a website costs is one of the most popular. It's a question many people want an answer to. And it is something that web designers and developers are a bit coy about answering - (with good reason).

The more content you have on your site the better, and you can target those long tail keywords that don't get used as much as more generic phrases, but also doesn't have as much competing with it. And the people using them are looking for something very specific so it's often more qualified traffic.

Don't be tempted to copy and paste content from other sources, as duplicate content is penalised.

Sadly, that's not enough

Well written, insightful content on it's own isn't quite enough, sadly. In Google's eyes, if content is really good, it will get shared.

By this, it means people will link to it - from their own sites, blogs and social sites.

So also think about what you could tell or show people that is so darn valuable that they will want to share it with everyone else.

Now ask yourself - does your mission statement or company history qualify?

Using Persona's to guide content development

2012-01-21T16:06:00+13:00

What is a persona?

A persona is a fictional profile used to describe a specific target audience, and made from average or typical characteristics and demographics. You are likely to have more than one buyer person for your business.

Once you have your user persona's, you can use them for:

User testing
SEO
Case studies
Product descriptions
Navigation

Example

Sarah is 37 years old and works for a global accounting services company.
She is a member of a team of 12 key account managers. She is responsible for three industry verticals with her country.
Sarah is divorced with two school aged children, sharing custody with their father. She lives in a spacious, up market apartment in the city. This suits Sarah who is passionate about her job, often working at the weekend when she doesn't have her children with her. What spare time she does have will be spent at the gym or playing tennis.
Sarah is ambitious and as a high achiever, rarely fails to meet her targets. Because she is impatient and time-poor, struggling to balance career and family obligations, she is very interested in gadgets and software tools to speed up mudane work tasks. She is very internet savvy, having no issues purchasing online, participating in social media or other online activities, and so she often participates in the evaluation of new tools for the business.

On visiting an automation software site, Sarah will be looking for factual, quantifiable information about the features and benefits of a tool. She can be distracted by the user interface and will pick something that looks cool even if isn't the cheapest solution (as long as it does what it needs to).

You can use this persona to answer the question "How will this person approach and buy my product (or service)?"

By analysing this persona you would see that Sarah would want simple information about how something will help her get things done faster. She will have little tolerance for sloppy design or lengthy sign up/registration processes. She will be familiar with some of the more techical terms.

You can go on to decide what language would most suit Sarah's personality and what you need to get that person to buy your product or service .
What would be her goals and motivations – think both Emotional and Logical needs
What information would she need or what action would she take?
How would the site be structured and what functionality would help persuade her to help her?

How to create personas

Brainstorm you major audience groups as you know them and group them into types of people (these will be the same as your market segments)
Get together as much information as you can about each group. You can do this via interviews, email conversations, surveys, your customer database etc
List the major characteristics of each group – the ones that are common in the group including demographics, buying behaviours, motivators, skill level and goals – whatever is relevant
Create a few make-believe personas using these major characteristics. Photo's can help and you can even give them names
List the tasks these people will want to do on your website, what obstacles would stop them doing it and any questions they may have

Use this as input to the design and later for testing.