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It
happens more frequently than you might think. People spend a lot of
time and money getting their sites ranked highly in the search engines,
but give little or no attention to converting their visitors into
paying customers. What's their logic? From what copywriting prospects
tell me, "I wanted to get my rankings in place before working
on my conversions."
It may look as though I'm sitting firmly on the
fence; however, I don't think SEO and conversions are separate entities.
I believe you need to work on them together. Let me tell you why
from a copywriting and marketing standpoint.
People mistakenly think search engine optimization
is the one-step process of getting ranked highly on search engines.
You "do" SEO and when you're finished *poof* your site
is ranked highly. In reality, SEO has numerous steps, all of which
intertwine with the foundation of your marketing plan. For instance,
if you were creating an online marketing plan for a new site you
wanted to launch, what would the process include? Certainly there
are numerous steps, but let's focus on the three below for now.
>
> > Creating An Attractive, User-Friendly Design
A recent study by MarketingExperiments.com found that using eight
particular elements in your site design can improve conversions
by more than 70%. You would want a design that instills trust
and confidence while reducing anxiety.
>
> > Organizing An Effective Navigation Structure
Obviously, you want it to be as easy as possible for visitors
to find what they're looking for. If they aren't able to navigate
the site quickly, they'll get frustrated and leave.
>
> > Writing Persuasive Copy That Informs and Sells
Just having words on your pages isn't enough to connect with your
visitors. You want specific copywriting about each product or
service that entices, explains, convinces and converts.
Amazingly, these
same three steps are fundamental to developing a solid search engine
optimization strategy. So what's the problem? If you complete the
steps with SEO tunnel vision - without giving any thought to your
visitors along the way -- you may be doomed to repeat everything
you've already finished. Here's why:
>
> > Creating An Attractive, User-Friendly Design
Many times, sites designed strictly to rank highly in the engines
neglect the design process. You can have a site that's at the
top of the search engine results pages (SERPs) and gets a ton
of traffic, but causes visitors to immediately click away due
to lack of trust. If this is the case, you'll need to change some
or all of your design elements, which could possibly have a bearing
on your rankings.
>
> > Organizing An Effective Navigation Structure
I've read about companies who develop navigational structures
specifically for the engines. They tell their clients to avoid
cross-linking between certain pages or areas of the site so as
not to "confuse" the search engines. Whether it confuses
the search engines or not, if you want to make more sales, cross-linking
and up-selling are excellent strategies that make it easier for
your visitors to find -- and buy -- what they need. If you're
ranking highly but not making sales, it may mean you need to radically
improve your navigation, which could change your rankings.
>
> > Writing Persuasive Copy That Informs and Sells
Keyword-stuffed, third-grade-level copy that is repetitive and
boring won't make sales. If you've slapped up any old copy thinking
you would improve it later, you're probably in for a rude awakening.
Copywriting is a pivotal element in search engine optimization.
Unless you're having great success with a massive linking campaign,
copywriting will play a major part in your rankings. Changing
copy can (and almost always will) cause either a negative or positive
change in positioning. Oftentimes, pages fall, then return with
higher placement -- but not always. If your copy is preventing
your site from converting, it needs to be changed immediately
even if that means a temporary drop in positioning.
The search engines
do not make your site successful. The search engines don't buy anything
from you. All they do is send traffic your way. Although there is
no discounting the value of free traffic from the engines, you can
get traffic from countless other online and offline sources. Your
site is what makes you money and it needs to be developed for your
visitors. But by focusing strictly on SEO, it is highly likely you'll
be forced to change most of what you've built in order to improve
conversions later on. That means spending more time and money on
something that could have been turning a profit by now.
Copy not getting
results? Learn to write SEO and online copywriting that impresses
the engines and your visitors at http://www.copywritingcourse.com.
Already know how to write, but need help using keywords? Get Karon's
report "Writing With Keywords" at http://www.writingwithkeywords.com.
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