The Small Business Marketing Unleashed conference may be over, but we still have some information from it to share with you in case you missed it.
Our reporter Abby Prince was in attendance and among the video interviews she came away with was one with SuccessWorks Search Marketing Solutions President and CEO Heather Lloyd-Martin.
Be sure to check out that video on our sister site WebProNews to hear some discussion from an expert on content and keyphrases.
Naturally, Heather spoke at the session titled Keywords and Content.
Keywords and content. These things are perhaps more important to the Small Business than even the larger enterprises. Where the big boys tend to already have that brand recognition, people will search specifically for their sites, but for the small business, SEO tactics are ever so important for getting found.
SEO Copywriting
When it comes to copywriting for SEO purposes, Heather says you don't want to overdo the content. Cramming it too full of keywords can actually hurt you.
"Search engines don't pay your bills, but your prospects and customers do," Heather said.
Content that is too obviously laced with keywords for keywords' sake can be a major turn-off for a customer, and it will be hard for them to take your site seriously.
Heather notes that people really buy based on their emotions and decision-making. "People don't buy with the reality, but with a fantasy."
Tapping into those emotions is going to be a little difficult if you are to fixated on keyword cramming.
Before you look into keywords, ask yourself, "What does my product/service really offer?"
List your benefit statements. Think emotional benefits. Need ideas? Watch infomercials!
Keyphrase Research
When conducting keyphrase or keyword research, think of ways to get into your customer's head.
"It's about reaching people at all phases of the buying cycle," says Heather.
This includes the awareness, research, and purchasing phases.
- Awareness - general overarching keyphrases
- Research - reviews, blog posts, brand/features comparison
- Purchase - make/model search
Pages that Heather suggests writing for your site include:
- FAQ pages
- Designer/Manufacturer info pages
- General, "how-to" info (how to choose furniture, how to buy digital camera, etc.)
- Articles
- Blog posts
- Newsletters
I would also like to point out that archiving your newsletter on your site is also a good idea.
Heather suggests using 2-3 keyphrases per page with around 250 words per page depending on the page and content.
Place keyphrases in headlines, subheadlines and hyperlinks, and sprinkle the keyphrases through the copy where they fit and make sense (from a natural writing perspective).
As far as titles, make them read like a compelling headline, create a unique one for every page, and include main keyphrases you are targeting for each page.
Stay tuned to SmallBusinessNewz for yet more helpful tips straight from Small Business Marketing Unleashed.
Video anchor Abby Prince contributed to this report.
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Comments
Content is King
Content has always been king, the search engines love it, providing its done in a responsible manner. Any one whose writing about a subject should really think about writing organically, I.E. no stuffing keywords in every paragraph, if your writing about blue widgets its bound to be in the content, the algorithms of top search engines now look for LSI, latent semantic indexing, this in its simplest form means a relationship with other words on the page, so its obvious stuffing a page with keywords which are not related to other parts of the content is a waste of time.
Re: Content is King
 Great Stuff Chris.  Â
Great Stuff Chris. As I have stated in previous comments I'm relatively new at Internet marketing so any advise is great as I have a lot to learn, and one thing I was told/taught was that most of our audience go to the Internet in search of information without intentions to purchase anything (although this may be changing as more and more people do shop online). So make sure your content is informative and fresh in comparison to other sites in your catagory as well as SEO friendly as per comments by SEO Consultant.
What is found
Researching or buying?
Hi Sherman.
You are indeed correctly informed that most people go surfing for information. I read somewhere on a webmasters forum, that people looking for accurate information use google, but buyers use MSN search. From the buyers who come to us, we found that most actually googled exactly what they were looking to buy. This may be an isolated case as our business is not exactly mainstream, but targeted at a specific market in the UK which seems now also to attract buyers from other Countries.
I have never used keyword research for any of my websites, just written compelling copy. Heathers two to three keyphrases I agree with entirely.
Good luck to everyone.
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