Social Media

The fascination of
words and writing

7 Tips for Fine-Tuning Your Website for Search

Wednesday, April 11th, 2012

Spring cleaning! This is a good time to take stock of your website and consider making some tweaks to fine-tune for a number of considerations, and the one I’d like to look at more closely this week is conversion.

Search brings clients to your website, but how do you close the sale? Get them to buy your book, your freelance services?

All the usual SEO recommendations come into play here: make sure that the site is easily navigable, that all your internal (and external) links work, that the call to action is clear and present on every page. But conversion—getting visitors to become clients/customers—really is, mostly, about content.

What creates content that converts? How do you listen to your prospect, meet or exceed her expectations, and get her to do what you want her to do, all on a single web page? Here are some tips:

Make sure that keywords link to the correct landing page for that keyword, and not to the site’s main page. Let’s take an example from the world of commerce: if a prospective customer keys in “boots,” he doesn’t want to be taken to a shoestore’s main page and left to find his way to the boots section by himself. Too much work. Your goal is to make what you want the customer to do … the easiest thing for him to do. You can extrapolate this to your own website content.
“Click here” is so 90s, and it’s not even effective. “Buy now” or “sign up now” is better.
Be sure that you include incentives in your copy. Give people a good reason to buy, and a better reason to buy now. Remember the TV commercials where they used to say, “call in the next fifteen minutes and we’ll throw in an extra set of steak knives”? Make the purchase something they feel compelled to do now by offering something extra — free shipping, an extra two months’ subscription, an added-on element.
Revise your copy as often as you can, but keep your product names the same. This way you’ll get both name recognition for the product along with fresh copy that catches the eye and makes the customer feel there’s something different (i.e., better) being offered.
People who use search to find something have a goal in mind. They are looking for something specific. Relevancy is the keyword here: offer what they want, but make sure that you can. The bait-and-switch some companies use for search is nothing but legal false advertising: don’t do it.
Take advantage of local search if you have a brick-and-mortar venue, even if it’s just your local independent bookstore; update what is in stock and make it easy for shoppers to reserve their item online, pay online, and pick up locally if they prefer.
Take a moment to review your website. Does it look professional? Do the pages load quickly and easily? Is navigation easy? Is it updated regularly? Remember that your website is your handshake, and there’s never a second chance to make a first impression.

And there you have it. It’s not difficult to create and maintain a website that gets results. Use these tips, and you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

Tags: search engine optimization tips, search-enabled website, tips for SEO, tips for your website, website content, website copy
Posted in Content, Content consultation, Internet, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Words, Writing | No Comments »

Are You Using Twitter?

Thursday, February 9th, 2012

If you aren’t, you should be. Twitter may feel like a waste of time to those of us with supposedly more important things to do than tweet what we ate for breakfast (though I suspect that those who tweet their meal choices have substantial needs or reasons to do so), but it’s a great tool for promoting your books.

How can you best use Twitter? Here are a few quick ideas that can take literally only minutes a day:

Follow interesting people (especially authors, publishers, and booksellers)
Welcome anyone who chooses to follow you. It’s a great idea to have a page on your website that’s an introduction to you and your books; give out that URL when you’re welcoming a new follower.
Tweet often, but make sure your tweets aren’t all promotional. Include tips, teasers, and ideas others can use. At least one or two tweets every day!
Promote your book(s), but only in every eight to ten tweets, otherwise people’s eyes will glaze over and they’ll stop reading what you have to say.

Include some relevant quotations—amusing, inspirational, interesting—each day, because people like to retweet quotes, and you can gain new followers that way.
You cannot read the tweets of everyone you’re following, but scan them every day and choose two or three that look interesting. Follow those links and, if possible, leave a comment on their blogs.
Read more about authors and Twitter here.

And that’s it. Quick and easy, and a great way to use what’s become a ubiquitous tool. Do that, and you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

Tags: authors using twitter, tweets, twitter, writers using twitter, writing tweets
Posted in About Writing, Content, Internet, SMM, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Technology, Words, Writing | No Comments »

What’s In YOUR Schedule?

Tuesday, January 31st, 2012

My stepdaughter used to be one of the most disorganized people on the planet. I can remember going through binders with her in middle school, trying desperately to make some sense of them, and knowing that they were going to come back the next time with the same chaos. These days, however, she’s in all honors high school classes and is getting pretty much straight As, and you don’t do that without organization.

Her secret? It’s all in the scheduling.

These days, Anastasia charts out her free time so that blocks of it can be devoted to various projects and bring them to completion within her deadlines. Sounds a lot like the time issues that freelancers in general, and writers in particular, need to deal with every day!

Do you find yourself pulling an all-nighter when your deadlines are looming? Wasting time at the front end of a project and then scrambling to get caught up? Juggling several projects poorly so that none of them gets your full attention?

Scheduling may be your problem, too.

So let’s talk about creating a schedule that works for you … and your clients, as well!

The first step is recognizing when you work best. One of the freedoms of freelance work is the ability to choose your hours … so choose them! I’ve found that I am the most focused and the most energetic in the mornings, so I’m up early and at my desk before most people have even hit the first snooze. I have an artist friend who is starting to wind down and go to bed at about the time I’m waking up. We all have internal clocks that tell us when we’re at our bast: take advantage of that and schedule your most difficult, most intense work for when you’re at your best and brightest.

Block time out for social media. I’m serious. Facebook may keep you in touch with your virtual water cooler, but checking it all day is a time sink. On the other hand, social media is about the best marketing tool that many of us have, and using it consistently and correctly is a strong path to success. So block out some time and be armed with a list for what you want to accomplish during your social media marketing periods.

Speaking of periods, many people find it easier to work in increments, rather than all at once. There are a lot of good reasons to do this. It keeps your mind fresh and your body rested. It keeps you from developing tunnel vision around a project so that you’re less effective at it. Working in pre-determined blocks of time will allow you to step away from your work, do some stretches, drink some juice, and clear your head before continuing.

While you’re blocking time out, remember to reserve some for client interactions. Again, this can take up your whole day if you let it, so resolve to check your email once an hour, and set aside the next ten minutes for responding to those emails that need instant input. Put your telephone calls together, too, and let your clients know when you’re available to them … and, perhaps more importantly, unavailable!