Best of 2008: Web & SEO Copywriting

This content has been moved to Best of 2008: Web & SEO Copywriting on the Webbiquity blog.

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technorati tags: marketing copywriting, writing for the web, SEO copywriting, Jennifer Norene, WebProNews, Doug Caverly, Heather Lloyd-Martin, Small Business Marketing Unleashed conference, Search Engine Land, Galen DeYoung, B2B copywriting, Internet Marketing Blog, Frank Levert, Synonym.com, Rhymer, SiteProNews, Jennifer Horowitz, Copyblogger, Sonia Simone, Search Engine Guide, Stoney deGeyter, Conversation Marketing, Ian Lurie

del.icio.us tags: marketing copywriting, writing for the web, SEO copywriting, Jennifer Norene, WebProNews, Doug Caverly, Heather Lloyd-Martin, Small Business Marketing Unleashed conference, Search Engine Land, Galen DeYoung, B2B copywriting, Internet Marketing Blog, Frank Levert, Synonym.com, Rhymer, SiteProNews, Jennifer Horowitz, Copyblogger, Sonia Simone, Search Engine Guide, Stoney deGeyter, Conversation Marketing, Ian Lurie

icerocket tags: marketing copywriting, writing for the web, SEO copywriting, Jennifer Norene, WebProNews, Doug Caverly, Heather Lloyd-Martin, Small Business Marketing Unleashed conference, Search Engine Land, Galen DeYoung, B2B copywriting, Internet Marketing Blog, Frank Levert, Synonym.com, Rhymer, SiteProNews, Jennifer Horowitz, Copyblogger, Sonia Simone, Search Engine Guide, Stoney deGeyter, Conversation Marketing, Ian Lurie

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

Best of 2008: Sales & Marketing Copywriting

This content has been moved to Best of 2008: Sales & Marketing Copywriting on the Webbiquity blog.

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technorati tags: how to write more effective marketing and sales copy, copywriting, Self SEO, Lisa Packer, GrokDotCom, Jeff Sexton, Copyblogger, Brian Clark, Ford, Scott Monty, Inigo Montoya, StraightUpSearch, Marketing Tips Blog, Jenn Blanchard, Chris Garrett, Angela Booth

del.icio.us tags: how to write more effective marketing and sales copy, copywriting, Self SEO, Lisa Packer, GrokDotCom, Jeff Sexton, Copyblogger, Brian Clark, Ford, Scott Monty, Inigo Montoya, StraightUpSearch, Marketing Tips Blog, Jenn Blanchard, Chris Garrett, Angela Booth

icerocket tags: how to write more effective marketing and sales copy, copywriting, Self SEO, Lisa Packer, GrokDotCom, Jeff Sexton, Copyblogger, Brian Clark, Ford, Scott Monty, Inigo Montoya, StraightUpSearch, Marketing Tips Blog, Jenn Blanchard, Chris Garrett, Angela Booth

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

The Importance of Proofreading

From John Andrews at johnon.com today, this is priceless:

First, let me highlight an amusing snippet of text from a creative agency that claims to include SEO in their client work:

“Many of our clients have spent countless marketing dollars with little success.”

You have to love the irony. That is the “copy” on the website of an agency looking to earn your business. Beautiful.

(It's real; you can find the original by clicking on "Search Engine Positioning" here.)

That brought to mind a poster that my eighth grade English teacher had hanging in her room (really odd how the brain works sometimes on a Friday afternoon, no?). It was a poster about using words and punctuation carefully, and while I certainly can't remember the whole thing now, I remember that among the example sentences were:

Never break your bread or roll in your soup.

Abraham Lincoln wrote the Gettysburg address while traveling to Gettysburg on the back of an envelope.

Joe likes seafood better than his wife.

And of course, the classic "I shot an elephant in my pajamas." Strange that the poster doesn't seem to be available anywhere online, but my junior high days were just a bit before Internet time.

Author Lynne Truss even managed with Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation to write a best seller on this sort of thing.

So be careful out there. Enjoy your weekend. That's all I got.

*****

technorati tags: John Andrews, johnon.com, Never break your bread or roll in your soup, Abraham Lincoln Gettysburg address back of an envelope, I shot an elephant in my pajamas, Lynne Truss, Eats Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation

del.icio.us tags: John Andrews, johnon.com, Never break your bread or roll in your soup, Abraham Lincoln Gettysburg address back of an envelope, I shot an elephant in my pajamas, Lynne Truss, Eats Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation

icerocket tags: John Andrews, johnon.com, Never break your bread or roll in your soup, Abraham Lincoln Gettysburg address back of an envelope, I shot an elephant in my pajamas, Lynne Truss, Eats Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

Best of 2007: Website Design

Before embarking on a serious search engine marketing (SEM) program, it's critical that your website is designed to take full advantage of the increased traffic. Landing pages are important of course, but not every SEM visitor will convert immediately—some will want to check out your site to learn more about your company, products and/or services first. Intuitive navigation, relevant visitor-focused content, and SEO all need to be built-in to your site from the outset.

With that in mind, here are some of the best articles and blog posts from 2007 on website design considerations and action items.

20 Ways to NAVIGATE to Higher Conversions by Internet Search Engine Database

Writer Stoney deGeyter details how elements such as the location of navigation bars, site search functionality, contact information, image alt text and clickable links are critical to designing a user-friendly website. "Site wide navigation, including top, bottom and side navigation, should be as user-friendly as possible, ensuring that what is "expected" is implemented just as much as much what should be obvious."


Color Schemer Online

This very cool color selection tool lets you easily translate RGB color values to hex and vice versa. It's very useful for finding just the right colors for a new site or website redesign.


12 Website Design Decisions Your Business or Organization Will Need to Make (PDF) by Ralph F. Wilson

Web marketing expert Ralph Wilson provides a 12-step guide to developing an effective website in this 32-page paper. It's designed to be printed out and "serve as a worksheet to clarify your thinking and provide direction at various stages of the project. If you decide to outsource the project, you'll want to share a copy of your marked-up copy of this document with your website designer."


5 Easy Ways to Make Your About Us Page More About Your Customers by Internet Search Engine Database

This brief but insightful articles shows how to make your "About Us" page more about what your site visitors need to know in order to have confidence in doing business with you. "The About Us page can play an important functional role in the process of providing visitors comfort and assurances in your company and your ability to meet their needs. Here you can provide specific information that visitors both expect to find and that will help them feel "safe" with the offerings you provide."


SEO for New Web Site Launch by Search Engine Watch

Mark Jackson of VIZION Interactive shows how to build in onsite SEO practices from the outset of a website design to optimize search position for new domains that are not yet "trusted" by the search engines. "Search engines need to go through a courting process...They need to get to know you and your friends (external links to your site). Over time, they'll come to trust you and like you, or decide you're a flake who deserves no attention whatsoever."


Small business branding; Developing a FAQ page for your website by Smart Marketing

Marketing consultant and author Jay Lipe shows how to use the FAQ page on your site to establish credibility with prospects and help the most qualified visitors to self select. "A FAQ page is actually a sales and marketing tool that can help qualify your website visitors and move them closer to doing business with you."


Four Quick Ways to Improve Your HELP and FAQ Pages by E-Marketing Performance

Echoing Jay Lipe's contention above, stating that "comprehensive Help and FAQ pages gives your visitors confidence that you’re there to provide them the information and help they need to be comfortable purchasing from you," Stoney deGeyter offers helpful guidance on making these pages as helpful and effective as possible.


Online shoppers quick to leave retail sites: study by DMNews

Ellen Keohane reports on research supporting the importance of accurate and well-designed site search functionality. Online visitors have short attention spans, so making it easy for them to find exactly what they are seeking is critical. "73% of respondents said they would leave an e-commerce site within one to two minutes if they could not find what they were looking for."


12 Product Page Conversion Strategies That Shant Be Ignored by Internet Search Engine Database

Pointing out that "Your visitors enter your product pages...to learn, research and compare what you have against a competitor. In addition to this, product pages also help buyers find relevant pricing information, delivery costs, warranty and/or return policies and a whole lot more. To be effective, your website must implement product pages that are able to satisfy each of your visitor's needs...but (also) be convincing enough to entice your visitors to move through the purchase process—on your site rather than on a competitor's website," this article provides 12 valuable tips for developing effective product pages.


The Top 10 Dumbest Web Site Decisions by SiteProNews

Writer Kalena Jordan details 10 "ouch!" mistakes that should never be made when planning, developing and promoting a website—but sometime are.


6 Ways to Get Your Visitors To Contact You From Your Contact Us Page by Search Engine Guide

And finally, one more article by the ubiquitous Stoney deGeyter (is there any site this guy doesn't write for?!) offers six techniques to make your Contact Us page ("one of the most important and crucial pages on your site") as effective as possible.


Previous articles in this series:

Best of 2007: SEO Analysis Tools
Best of 2007: SEO Keyword Research Tools
Best of 2007: News Articles on Social Media Marketing
Best of 2007: Blog Posts on Social Media Marketing
Best of 2007: Articles and Blog Posts on SEM
Best of 2007: Articles and Blog Posts on Google AdWords
Best of 2007: Articles and Blog Posts on SEO (Part 1)
Best of 2007: Articles and Blog Posts on SEO (Part 2)

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technorati tags: search engine marketing, SEM, website design, Internet Search Engine Database, Stoney deGeyter, website redesign, Ralph F. Wilson, Search Engine Watch, Mark Jackson, VIZION Interactive, Smart Marketing, Jay Lipe, E-Marketing Performance, DMNews, Ellen Keohane, Page Conversion Strategies, SiteProNews, Kalena Jordan, Search Engine Guide

del.icio.us tags: search engine marketing, SEM, website design, Internet Search Engine Database, Stoney deGeyter, website redesign, Ralph F. Wilson, Search Engine Watch, Mark Jackson, VIZION Interactive, Smart Marketing, Jay Lipe, E-Marketing Performance, DMNews, Ellen Keohane, Page Conversion Strategies, SiteProNews, Kalena Jordan, Search Engine Guide

icerocket tags: search engine marketing, SEM, website design, Internet Search Engine Database, Stoney deGeyter, website redesign, Ralph F. Wilson, Search Engine Watch, Mark Jackson, VIZION Interactive, Smart Marketing, Jay Lipe, E-Marketing Performance, DMNews, Ellen Keohane, Page Conversion Strategies, SiteProNews, Kalena Jordan, Search Engine Guide

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

The Last Word on E-Words and Ewords

In response to this comment to my previous post on web writing standards (capitalizing "Internet," "web site" vs. "website," etc.), here is the consensus (such as it is) on e-words.

According to Google Fight, "e-mail" wins over "email" by roughly a 5-3 margin. Spellweb also uses Google searches as the authority, favoring "e-mail" over "email" by a 3-2 margin. Meryl's Notes Blog comes down firmly in the middle ("It's a toss up!"), though she insists that "web site" is two words.

However, Professor Donald Knuth of Stanford argues for "email" - "Newly coined words of English are often spelled with a hyphen, but the hyphen disappears when the words become widely used." http://openmap.bbn.com/~tomlinso/ray/hyphen.html agrees, citing Google searches as the authority. Slashdot had an incredibly active forum discussion on the topic that seemed to settle on "email," referencing a Wired article -- back in 2000. A current Google search makes "email" the winner by nearly a 2-t0-1 margin.

So what about "e-commerce" vs. "ecommerce"? Freelancers Network argues for the latter (on the basis that "email" is more accepted than "e-mail"). But in this case, the hyphenated form wins in a Google search by about a 5-2 margin. Google Fight pegs this margin as closer to 4-1, and SpellWeb has "e-commerce" winning by nearly 3-1. The UCI Style Guide favors the e-hyphen form for all e-words. The Oxford Dictionary confusingly favors "email" but "e-commerce." Is all of that clear?
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Finally, a manual Google search has "e-business" beating "ebusiness" by a 5-1 margin. Google Fight puts this ratio at more than 10-1, while SpellWeb has the hyphenated form winning by about 8-1.

There you have it. If you sell or market online, you definitely engaged in e-commerce or e-business. But you might communicate to your customers using either email or e-mail. Enough.

*****

Terms: email, e-mail, ecommerce, e-commerce, e-business, ebusiness, GoogleFight, SpellWeb, web writing standards, Donald Knuth

The online marketing business portal: WebMarketCentral.com

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentral.com

A Consensus for Inconsistency

Writing in standardized language -- terms that we can all agree on -- is important for effective communication, as well as to avoid looking like an idiot. Over time, standards are defined that enable us to communicate in a consistent fashion. For example, we'd all agree that "playhouse" is a noun while "play house" is a verb. Some standards in our language seem eminently sensible, while others are absurd to the point of becoming one-liners, such as "Why isn't phonetic spelled like it sounds?"

The Internet (internet?) has introduced a boatload of new terms into our language, many of which still aren't standardized. Since we've been online (not "on line" or "on-line") for over a decade now, I thought I might be able to discover and share some proper web writing standards. But it turns out there is still considerable disagreement over the correct way to capitalize and abbreviate several common terms, so the following is merely my contribution to the ongoing debate.

Should "Internet" be capitalized?

Research indicates that Wired News is losing its battle to make "internet" lowercase. Most sources favor "Internet." For example, as pointed out here, Ziff-Davis produces a number of technology-oriented publications and never uses "internet." The Tech Liberation blog agrees. So does EDUCAUSE, Webopedia, Western Michigan University, and numerous other sources. The basic logic is: there is only one Internet, which makes the word a proper noun, which means it should be capitalized. Settled?

Should "web" be capitalized?

One might think that the same logic for "Internet" applies to "Web;" there is only one, so it's a proper noun, so it should be capitalized, right? Indeed, there is some support for that argument, including sources like the Mac Web Style Guide and, again, EDUCAUSE. But in this instance, lowercase seems to win out. According to Gadgetotpia, "the first letter of the word ‘Web’ is to be capitalized ONLY when reference is made to the World Wide Web. Webs on private networks are to be referred to as ‘webs,’ with a lowercase ‘w.’” Emmanuel College agrees, stating "Web should be capitalized when referring to the World Wide Web, but lower case when used as an adjective." Other sources merely reflect widespread confusion. The best argument I've heard for non-capitalization of "web" is that the web is a medium for distributing information; we don't capitalize "mail," "phone," or "fax," so we shouldn't capitalize "web."

That said, at this point, you can still get away with either.
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Is it "web site" or "website"?

Definitely "website." I think. Since neither the AP Stylebook nor the Chicago Manual of Style are really clear on this point, I consulted the ultimate authority: Google. "Web site" produces only 1.5 billion hits, while "website" results in 2.2 billion. Still, that's not an overwhelming difference, so if you are really stuck on "web site" (or even "Web site") as two words, you're in agreement with a significant minority.

Is it "B2B" or "b2b"?

Although there is some support for writing the abbreviation for "business-to-business" in lowercase, an informal survey of usage indicates that B2B is far more common.

Presumably, there will come a time when the proper form of these terms will become standardized. Probably about the time when the next technology revolution makes the words and phrases above seem as obsolete as "buggy whip" (which is definitely two words).

*****

Terms: Internet, internet, Web site, web site, website, b2b, B2B, online, on-line, on line, Internet writing style, proper use of web terms

The Internet marketing online portal: WebMarketCentral.com

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentral.com