SEO - Your Website's Best Friend

I met with a new client the other day to map out a marketing strategy for him. Really nice guy facing a huge learning curve as a new business owner. While we were chatting, I mentioned that the best, and probably only way to drive new clients to his website was through SEO. His eyes glazed over, then he looked a little panicked. “I don’t know what that is … is it some kind of new software?” he asked. Are you thinking the same thing right now as you read this article? If so, don’t worry – you’re not alone.

SEO stands for search engine optimization. Put simply, SEO just means that websites like Google and Dogpile (called search engines) pull up your website more often than thousands of others, resulting in more visits to your website. If you’re developing a new website or perhaps redesigning your existing site, this is a great time to think about search engine optimization. As a matter of fact, SEO needs to be a vital part of your marketing campaign plans.

So, how do you SEO? In search engine terms, content is the king and absolute ruler. Content is what the search engines need to index your site in their directories, and these directories are the wonderful little worker bees that can send huge volumes of new business your way. If you want your website to rank high in search engine results, your first step is to identify the keywords your content needs to contain. Keywords describe your company, your services or your products. Not the way you would necessarily describe them, but the way your potential customers would describe them. Most of the time, though, this isn’t quite as easy as it sounds. Put yourself in the shoes of your website visitor. Try to think like your visitor and imagine what search terms he might use to find you.

An incredibly cool online tool that you can plug into when deciding on your website’s keywords and phrases is Overture (http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion). This powerful little web tool lets you enter any keyword or phrase, and it will tell you how many times that keyword or phrase was queried in the past month and it even suggests other keywords you might want to consider.

Now that you’re armed with the keywords and phrases that are going to propel your website straight to the top of the search engine mountain, you need a great copywriter to craft them into your web content. Remember, your web copy isn’t just read by search engine computers. It’s also read by humans, so your keyword-rich content has to be well written and it has to make sense. Many a keyword-stuffed website has gone down in flames because of bad web copy. So remember, SEO is your website’s best friend but, and this is a gigantic “but,” the copy surrounding your SEO keywords and phrases has to be grammatically correct, interesting and easy to read.

Christine

Want the World to Know About Your Business?

If you're ready to tell the world, or even just a small part of it, about a new product or service, or perhaps even the joining of a new member to your team, then you need a press release that is packed with punch and grabs the attention of would-be clients. For in today's increasingly global marketplace, setting your business apart from a sea of look-alikes is a must! And a well-crafted press release can do just that, and so much more!

Generally a single page in length, a clear, concise, appropriately creative press release can be a strong marketing tool and when distributed to a targeted area via an electronic wire service, the results are nothing short of miraculous.

That's right. You can now share your most important happenings quickly and easily with nearly every print media (newspapers, magazines, trade journals), broadcast media (television, radio) and electronic media (the Internet) outlet in the world!

At Write Solutions, we are proud to be journalist members PR Newswire, one of the most reputable newswire services in the world. And, just as they trust in our writing capabilities and know our expertly written press releases are among the best in the business, we rely on them to shine the spotlight on our clients and what sets them apart from their competitors, creating a true win-win situation.

And, as the PR Newswire team will attest, crafting a compelling press release can be a bit trying. The trick is to start with a headline that grabs the reader's attention and to follow this with a strong first paragraph (called a lead) that holds the readers attention and, simply put, should leave them begging for more. In short, this part of the press release should tease the reader.

From there, write one to two paragraphs that explain in greater detail the information you wish to convey. To do this, ask yourself what the consumer or the reader is surely asking by this point, and that is: "What's in it for me?" or "What sets this business apart from its competitors?"

This is often referred to a "bottleneck," for it flows down from the opening teaser into information that the reader needs (information about the product, service, etc.) and ends with a strong call to action paragraph. This is followed by an "About Us" paragraph which provides a sentence or two about your business and ends with your contact information (website, email address, phone number, etc.).

Now, don't be intimidated by this process. Instead, log onto the Write Solutions website where you can take a look at press releases that have worked for our clients worldwide or you can simply ask for our help by sending us a quick email or responding to us via our blog.

Until then, best of luck and happy writing!

Kellie

When Do You Need A Writer?

There’s a plethora ($100 word, right?) of situations that call for the services of a professional writer. But let’s talk about a specific situation, shall we? Copy writing. You know, brochures, websites, flyers, ads … marketing tools.

A great copywriter does a lot more than just write. A great copywriter has the ability to persuade readers, to generate activity and spur sales, to create a buzz. Really creative, experienced copywriters focus in on benefits and persuade their target audience to suddenly realize that they simply must have whatever product or service is being presented. We’ve all, at one time or another, watched one of those late night infomercials, and the next thing we knew, were whipping out the credit card because we just had to have that set of knives. Now, that’s a great copywriter!

So, do you have a product or a service that’s the best thing since sliced bread? Then you need the copywriting specialists at Write Solutions, where our goal is to not only meet your needs, but to also exceed your expectations.

Look for insider industry secrets and tips for crafting your own top-shelf copy to follow. And, in the meantime, let us know what writing projects your working on and how we can help!

Christine