SEO Hosting Blog

Hello. My name is Tyler, and this is the first post in my new, ongoing series: Back to Basics.

Our regular readers will be familiar with most of the information covered in this series. However, we have many first-time visitors who are just getting their feet wet. Although they are new, they are eager to learn. If you are a regular reader, you can help out the newbies by leaving a helpful comment.

(Image Credit: Robbie Ewing)

Because this is the SEO Hosting blog, the question we most frequently receive from first-time visitors is “what is SEO?”

Search engine optimization (SEO) consists of two parts: on-page and off-page.

On-page: The first purpose of on-page SEO is to ensure that search engines can access a website’s content. Because search engines use robots to crawl the pages of a website, websites need to be free of technical issues that could interfere with the robots’ ability to crawl.

The second purpose of on-page SEO is to optimize website pages to rank well in search engines. While this purpose of on-page SEO has aspects that are still relevant, the overall impact of this purpose has decreased as search engines have evolved.

Off-page: The primary purpose of off-page SEO is obtaining links to a website from other websites. Authority and relevance determine the value of a link.

SEO practices are commonly labeled with a hat color. The intent of labeling is to show whether a practice is ethical (white hat) or unethical (black hat). However, while some practices obviously fall into one category or the other, the majority of SEO practices fall somewhere in the middle.

Until recently, SEO was commonly viewed by the public as a dark art or magic. A lack of public education, as well as misinformation or negative experiences with fake SEO gurus who were only skilled at making a quick buck through deception, caused this perception.

However, over the past year, two factors have lead to a more public acceptance of SEO. The first is the mainstream media’s realization that the Internet is not simply going to disappear. As a result, the mainstream media has begun embracing SEO to attract more visitors to their websites.

The second factor is the media attention given to Demand Media. Demand Media is categorized as a mass content producer that relies heavily on SEO to attract visitors. While Demand Media is commonly vilified by the media, the attention they have received has shown the public that SEO is now viewed as a legitimate practice at the corporate level.

If you are a first-time visitor and have a question about SEO, please leave your question in a comment. You can also email your question to me at tyler@copymoz.com.

Recently, Adam Sherk did some research and came up with a list of the most overused buzzwords and marketing speak in press releases. For anyone who writes press releases or companies that use them, this list is an eye-opener and a definite must read. It’s a good reminder that marketing speak has no place in press releases, and it’s a handy checklist for making sure it hasn’t sneaked in without you realizing it.

But why doesn’t marketing speak have a place in your press releases? After all, isn’t the end goal of press release distribution to create a buzz and, you know, market your company?

Read the rest of this entry »

Whenever I interview a new client to help plan their copy, one of the questions I ask is this:

What are some common of your customers’ concerns and questions they have when talking to you? Objections, points of confusion, etc. How do you address these?

Why is this important? It’s simple. There are many roadblocks between your target audience and making the sale. If you don’t address these roadblocks and offer solutions in your marketing messages, guess what happens? They don’t buy from you.

It’s that simple. So, how can you destroy these roadblocks and make the sale? Let’s take these one at a time.

Common Objections

Objections are those things that make customers resist the purchase. Every company gets objections from customers when trying to sell their product or services. The key to overcoming these objections is to understand why the prospect objects, what you can do to negate their objection, and how you can turn that objection into the customer’s advantage.

Some common objections include:

• Price—This boils down to the customer having a problem justifying spending their money on your product. There are many things you can do to overcome pricing objections. Show customers why your product is a great value at its price point (no matter how expensive it might be), offer money-back guarantees, or show how the product is a worthwhile investment.
• Lack of understanding—Sometimes, customers just don’t understand what you’re selling. So, their kneejerk reaction is to say “no.” What can you do? Clarify your message. Make it as simple and to the point as possible. Write it so even your mom understands it.
• Lack of trust—Customers may not trust you. You can gain their trust by using testimonials, offering money-back guarantees, being easy to contact, sharing your expertise, and more.
• Questions—In some cases, the customer just needs to know more before they’ll give you the sale. Your copy needs to address the common questions your customers have. Pay attention to the questions you get asked most often, and find ways to answer them in your copy.

How do you overcome your customers’ objections?

I don’t know about you, but one of the things I do to become a better blogger and get inspiration is look for tips from other bloggers I trust and respect. Recently, I got in touch with 30 of my blogging friends and had each of them submit a unique blogging tip. The result is what I believe to be an excellent resource that bloggers of all stripes can really benefit from.

Check out these 30 tips from 30 bloggers, and add your best tip by leaving a comment!

1. Michael Abehsera, Eeden Labs:

Focus On Value Not Money. I think the biggest mistake amateur bloggers make is that they launch a blog in order to make money from the blog. Blogging’s main purpose is to show your creativity and new perspective on your industry or what you’re trying to promote. The goal should only be 2 things 1. building value to your readers by writing great content and 2. Seeing your blog as a new form of communication to help you communicate with your customers better. The More remarkable, creative, and Value you provide to your users the more traffic you will get which in turn could bring in new customers to your core business.

2. Ann Smarty, My Blog Guest:

The only way I use to promote any of my blogs is guest posting: both accepting guest contributions and writing as a guest author for others. A guest post published at an established blog and linking to my site gives me visibility and exposure to highly targeted audience: people who like my article are most likely to visit my site and get engaged (comment, subscribe, etc). Besides, this gives me a full control over the anchor text: as I can link from within my bio most often with the keyword text of my choice). Accepting guest posts allows me to keep my blog active and varied in terms of content, topics, styles, etc. Yes, I am picky when it comes to the quality of the guest post but I pay back by promoting the guest post as much as I can (and thus offer my guest author more exposure).

3. Gerald Weber, SEM Group:

Guest post, Guest post and then Guest post some more. This is the best way to expose yourself to a new audience (not in the naked sense but in the networking sense) and it also has the side benefits of helping you build keyword anchor text “one way” in bound links. However you shouldn’t guest post just for the sake of building links. The #1 reason you should guest post is to position yourself as an expert in your niche. If you are newer to the blogging/guest posting game a great way to find awesome guest blogging opportunities is  MyBlogGuest.com which is a community of guest bloggers. If you are still not convinced check out 7 Reasons Why Every Blogger Should Be Guest Posting.

4. AJ Wilcox, Orange Soda local internet marketing:

Be consistent. Decide how often you want to post. If it’s daily, weekly, or monthly, scheduling them predictably will help flourish your readership. If your readers know they can come back at a certain time (or even follow you over RSS, which is much better), they will start looking forward to your content.  When people look forward to it, they become loyal, and loyal readership is exactly what your blog needs more of.

5. Cindy Krum, Rank-Mobile:

Use bullets to make your post easier to understand when someone is in a hurry. Listing things in sequence in a paragraph makes the copy look bulky and hard to read. Bulleted lists make posts look more appealing because they are easier to skim and still understand what is going on. It also makes them look more like a “reference” which will garner more links.

Read the rest of this entry »

Recently, we discussed the importance of proving your claims by using facts. To recap, customers don’t buy into empty claims. By backing up your claims with actual facts, you can earn their trust and eventually their sale.

But is it really as easy as just peppering in a bunch of statistics into your copy? No. Facts are certainly important, but how you use the facts is even more important. In other words, it’s not just what you say, it’s how you say it.

How should you present your facts to get the best possible results?

• Start with facts your customers already know—You can’t expect a shopper who knows nothing about you to instantly believe you. That’s why you need to start with facts your customers already know and statements that ring true. Your goal is to have them nodding to themselves saying, “Yes, I know that’s true. That means the other facts are true too.” Start with familiarity, then bring them into the truly remarkable facts you have.
• Present your facts in a dramatic way—Let’s be honest, statistics can be a bit boring on their own. But when you present them in an exciting way, they resonate better with the customer. Duracell doesn’t just say their batteries are the most trusted. They show you how pilots trust them to power their goggles, paramedics trust them to power their medical equipment, etc. This adds drama to the facts.
• Let the customer know what’s in it for him—Customers are selfish. All they care about is how they’ll benefit from buying your products or services. With that in mind, the facts you present need to be delivered from a customer’s point of view. Technical specifications are meaningless if the customer can’t make the connection of how they help make his life better.
• Performance evidence is more effective—You can talk all you want about how your product is built better or designed to perform better, but that’s just talk. Performance evidence is where it’s really at. Performance evidence details how the product has worked in actual use.
• Use testimonials that further solidify your claims—Testimonials are a good way to get performance evidence. Your customers will share how the product actually performed for them. This lets the customer better understand how the product will work for them, and it builds trust through third-party endorsements.

Do you use facts to backup your claims?