Is SEO A Long Term Traffic Solution?

Here is an Article by Andy MacDonald called "Top Ten SEo Myths". I found this article to be informative and true. For instance:

1. SEO is a long term solution for your website-- with a PPC as a short term solution to getting money in your pocket (which isn't a bad thing).

2. SEO is not that expensive. If you do it yourself and learn by trial and error (it free, just your labor and time, that it will cost you), or you get a firm to help you in the beginning.

3. Try for the competitive words, but also the less competitive to get your website listed by the search engines.

SEO may be time consuming to learn -- but it can benefit your website and web-based business. With that being said, take a look at the article below.

Top Ten SEO Myths

By Andy MacDonald

Ever wonder what the biggest SEO myths are? I have taken the most prevalent myths that seem to be constantly resurfacing and examined them for you. This is a must read for anyone looking to hire an SEO firm or someone looking to do SEO for themselves.

Myth # 1: All Meta Tags Are Of Equal Importance

Some Meta tags are useful while others are not. I have stated this many times. Search engines are relying more and more about what is on the website than what the tags are telling them. The description tag is used by some (but not all) search engines. The same goes for the keyword tag. Keyword tags are used more by spammers and people using software to find you as a link partner than the search engines. In my opinion, the only tags you should concentrate your efforts on are the robot tag and the description tags.

Myth # 2: You Should Submit Your Site to Search Engines Weekly or Monthly

Honestly, I nevër submit any site more than 1 time and sometimes I don't even do that. If you submit your site once, you're good. The engines will come back on their own. You can sometimes speed up the process of getting your site indexed by linking it to a high traffïc or high PR site. The search engines will find the URL to your site and index it automatically.

Myth # 3: SEO is Too Expensive

Actually, SEO is probably the most cost effective förm of online marketing. Organic SEO is cheaper to set up and maintain than a PPC campaign or banner advertising. With PPC and banner advertising, you pay for clicks or impressions. With SEO, all clicks are Frëe. You simply pay for the set up and monitoring of your site's pages.

Myth # 4: PPC Is More Effective Than Natural SEO

In the short term...true. In the long term...false. Why, you ask? Organic SEO is preferred by searchers over 5 to 1 to PPC. People trust organic searches to return relevant results. People also know that the ads to the right of the page are sponsored ads. They have long ago figured out that anyone can bid on any term they want, as many often do, without even a hint of relevance. So, long term SEO structuring can indeed be more effective than PPC, especially when considering the preferences of search traffïc. A top 5 ranking may take some time to get, but once you are there (and provided you can maintain it), you will get better results than from a PPC ad.

Myth # 5: Hiring an SEO Specialist "In House" is Cheaper

The problem with hiring someone in house is that they are paid hourly or by salary. Most SEO firms charge per item or project. It doesn't matter how long it takes us, you pay a one tíme charge. When you hire a firm, it's like having a team of SEO experts on your payroll. Paying a flat rate saves you monëy and speeds up the time it takes to complete a job. Additionally, most SEO firms have specialists who write, submit, redesign sites, post pages, etc... Hiring one person who can do all these things competently is highly unlikely.

Myth # 6: I Can Only Optimize My Homepage for Key Terms

You can and should optimize every page on your site. Each page should have its own key terms, with no more than three phrases per page (preferably one).

Myth # 7: All I Need to do is Write Content with the correct Keyword Density and My Site Will Rank Well

Wrong...especially if you want to rank on Google. You will need off-site SEO as well as on-site SEO. Keyword density may work on MSN (for now), but it will take more than that to rank well for all search engines.

Myth # 8: I Shouldn't Aim for the Most Competitive Keywords and Phrases

If the keywords you are competing for are very competitive, should you optimize your site for them? Of Course! I would optimize for some high, medium and low competitive key terms. Cover all your bases. The worst case is that you won't rank well for the high competitive key terms and that's ok. You can always work to improve them. Don't shy away from top key terms just because they are competitive. You may nevër know how close you could rank for them unless you try.

Myth # 9: Only Work With Companies That Give You A Guarantee

Guarantees would be nice if they were worth the paper they are printed on. In fact, most guarantees from SEO firms have the same stipulation in them. This stipulation usually states that as long as they get one of your key phrases to the top of any major search engines, they have fulfilled their end of the agreement. This is irrelevant to the competition of the term. In other words...it's easy to be number one for terms no one is competing for. Don't be deceived by high rankings listed on SEO sites as they can be misleading.

Myth # 10: SEO Requires a 1 Year Commitment on My Part

It certainly shouldn't. Don't lock yourself into a year contract with any company unless you already have an established, favourable business relationship. SEO, in most cases, should be performed on a month to month basis with a mutual understanding of the objectives and relative timetable. Often, both the long and short term maintenance contracts that many firms insist on including with each job are unnecessary. As an example...If you have a new site optimized, especially right after an update, you may not see results for three months. Why pay for maintenance in the interim time?

Additionally, you may not be happy with the results of an SEO firm or even the level of service. A long term contract may only ensure that you receive a full year of bad service. So, don't lock yourself in with a year contract, at least until you are comfortable with whom you are dealing with.

Hopefully, I put a few common SEO myths to rest. Feel frëe to contact me with questíons you may have regarding these or other SEO myths you want more information on.

About The Author: Andy MacDonald owns and runs his own custom website design company called Swift Media UK which also incorporates ecommerce development, affordable web hostíng , and logo design.
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Computer Maintenance Important to Your Online Business and Computer

Securing and Maintaining Your Computer is important to those that surf the net and for the online business. For those new to Internet Marketing, or for those that just do online transactions, protecting your data is a necessity and a major priority. There are very skilled hackers that can create havoc for you and your business if you don't cover all your basis. Thus my article on Securing and Maintaining Your Computer and Online Business. This is by no means, an exhaustive list -- but just a beginning for you.



Securing and Maintaining Your Computer
and Online Business

By Vickie J. Scanlon

Keeping your computer in top shape is an important aspect to an online business. Why? Without it, you are not in business, or your business will come to a complete halt. There are simple things that you can do to keep your computer safe and running at top-notch speed.

Your Computer

You can keep your computer in top shape if you maintain it properly. Clean the inside of the unit and make sure that your have enough fans in your unit to keep the components cool. Fans can help extend the life of your computer.


Operating System

If you are going to be doing business on-line, I would recommend XP Professional, this operating system is more robust than the home version.


Utility Software

AntiVirus software is a necessity if you work online. You can go with the free AntiVirus software, although there is no guarantee that they will always be diligent in keeping the antivirus definitions current. Or you can go with the paid AntiVirus, such as Norton antivirus, Trend Micro Antivirus. Whatever you choose, no protection is definitely online suicide whether you have an online business or you surf the net.

Without any security, I would not do any personal transactions online. Why? You would be a sitting duck for keyloggers -- which are hackers that attach a program to catch your log-in info.

I would also run an Adware Program along with your anti-virus software, such as Ad-Aware SE Personal, which is free. This will hold you for awhile, but later you may want to move up to the paid version.



Daily Computer Maintenance

You can manually keep your computer clean and running by doing the following:

Open up your Internet Explorer, hit Tools, hit Internet Options, and go to the Temporary Internet Files. Here you can delete cookies and files online and offline. In addition, go into History, right under the Temporary Internet Files, and clean that as well.

Or you can get a neat program that does a lot of window washing for you. It's called "Free Internet Window Washer", and as the name implies it is free. However, they do accept donations to keep their expenses down. This little program washes system files, MS Office programs, Internet Temporary Files for Mozilla FireFox, Internet Explorer, Netscape and Opera, and more. You can grab a free copy by going to my tools section and hitting the "Internet Tools Section".


Hard-Drive

You know your hard-drive will not last forever (in most cases, it can last about 5 years if you are lucky), so it is always wise to have a back-up hard-drive piggy-backed to the main if the main drive fails. Or, you can have all the information on another computer and run Norton Ghost to upload the info from one computer to the new hard-drive.


Back-up Data

It is always wise to backup your data and software programs, in the event your computer crashes and you have to reload everything from start to finish again. Your back-up data will save you time.

Important data, such as transactions should not sit on your desktop. You should keep them offline to protect yourself from hackers, should one get through to your computer.

It can happen. It's scary to see a search box pop up in front of you, and it ask's "what do you want to look at next"! If you see something on that order, shut down your computer to get them off-line, and increase your security -- or find out where the hole is in your security system. Such as, turning off a portion of your security and forgetting to turn it back on? Trust me, it may happen once, but after that, it will not happen again.

These tips, though simple, should give you a beginning to protecting your computer and keeping you aware and secure whether you are online or offline.


Vickie J Scanlon -- Visit her site at: My Affiliate Place for tools, articles, ebooks, affiliate information, software, web host providers, computers for the Affiliate/Internet Marketing person online.
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SEO and Your Targeted Market

SEO -- you may be getting tired of hearing it, but SEO is a vital facet of your Internet Business. In fact, I seen one local company advertising for individuals who were well versed in SEO -- salary plus a commission, if they were able to get their designated page in the top 10 of the big 3.
SEO helps people to find you, and hopefully, the ones that want to buy. I've written an article on some of the issues you should look at, to get to your targeted market.

SEO and Your Targeted Market

SEO is a continuing process and one that should not be ignored. As you know, or will soon realize, is that the search engines are the main entry point at which your customers will find your website. But there are other issues you must be aware of to get the targeted customers that you want.

Keywords
You may have optimized your webpages and people are coming -- but not many. Why? It could be the keywords you are choosing.

Choosing the right keywords take time and effort, and it is an important factor to consider. When choosing keywords you should be asking yourself -

1.) What are the exact words people are using to find the product or service that you are offering. For example: Is it refurbished tools, cheap tools, free tools, red, ugly tools -- you get my meaning.

2.) Are my keywords too general, or overused. If the keywords are too general, you may receive visitors that are not buyers, just browsers. If the keywords are overused, you may be so far down in the search engine rankings that your site will never be seen.

3.) Do you have your keywords or keyword phases in your "Title Tag". Your keywords in the Title Page should be relevant to what your web copy relates too. If it doesn't, you've just wasted an important keyword tool that the Search Engines utilize.

4. Meta Keywords Tag -- Some people use the meta keywords Tag and others say that the search engines no longer use them. And still others, claim that it gives their competition an unfair advantage. I personally will continue to use them, because I don't believe all the search engines ignore this tag.

Finding the correct keywords is no easy task. However, did you think of asking the people around you what keywords or phases they would use to get to one of your web pages. You might be surprised -- it may not have been a keyword or phase that you even considered.

Popularity
Even though a keyword may be popular to the masses, you also must consider if it is targeting your specific market. Why? You may begin to get the traffic, but not the specific target market that will buy your products. And that is the bottom line, not so much the popularity of the word, as the quality of the traffic that the keyword brings.

And if the keyword is popular, you may find your web page competing with established websites -- which translates into poor positioning. Thus, you could consider other smaller niche words, and still get the ranking you seek.

Experiment
You will have to experiment with the keywords that you use on your webpage/website, to determine if the keywords you are using is giving you the sales you want.

I have found testing, evaluating and re-evaluating is the name of the game of SEO. If you keep that in mind, you will begin to see the results you want.

However, once you are in the top ten of the search engines, do not think your job is done. You must continue to monitor -- because the Internet is not a static environment -- and people can come online that can slide your web page or website down the line in the search engines.

Vickie J Scanlon -- Visit her site at: My Affiliate Place for tools, articles, ebooks, how to info on SEO, affiliate marketing, where to report scams, software, computers and more.

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Web Copy, SEO and Your Audience

For people who’s business is on-line, copywriting is important -- 1) for driving traffic to your website through the search engines and; 2) for your audience.

Repetition of the message can help your audience feel warm and cuddly inside—a safe feeling. If an audience feels warm and cuddly inside, or safe, they are more apt to buy.

For the skimmer, repetition of the message allows them to get your message.

This same message will not make the search engines feel warm and cuddly, but it can increase your keyword density and help to raise your ranking.

As you can see, every facet, be it search engine optimization, sales copy, -- is intertwined around the words you use, and how you use them.

What I am finding is that the “Word” or “Words” you use are important, from the title, subtitle, and to the positioning of the copy on the web page. When you are selling to someone in person, you have the body language, facial expressions that can push you forward in your sell, or if you are selling by phone -- you have the voice inflections to guide you. But when you are on the Internet, you have to blindly rely on your words.


Paul Matthews article on “Website Copywriter Tips: Web Copy 101” can help you learn about copywriting, but also, about how to sell to your audience without them even realizing it. Enjoy his article and learn as I did.





Website Copywriter Tips: Web Copy 101

You already know how to create great web copy. Just remember your childhood nursery rhymes. As silly as it sounds, “3 Blind Mice” will show you the way.

For some reason, “3 Blind Mice” paid me a visit. As I heard the 100th replay, it hit me – this would make great web copy. As a matter of fact, this simple little ditty contains 10 elements of Web Copy 101.

In case you’ve forgotten, here’s how it goes.

3 Blind Mice; 3 Blind Mice.See how they run; see how they run.They all ran up to the farmer’s wife;She cut off their tails with a carving knifeHave you ever seen such a sight in your life As 3 Blind Mice?”

Let’s see how this children’s nursery rhyme is a model of Web Copy 101.

Web Copy 101 #1, 2, 3 …3 Blind Mice (title or heading)

1) Try singing “A trio of visually impaired rodents, A trio of visually impaired rodents.” Catchy? Formal writing doesn’t sell. Write the way people speak and you will be heard. The title does something else for this song.

2) If you had to choose between songs entitled “Cows,” “Ducks,” or “3 Blind Mice,” which one would you choose? The title in all web copy has to grab the attention the reader. There’s more.

3) This alluring title makes the content clear right away. How many times do you stumble on a website only to find you’re not sure what they are selling or how it relates to you? Be sure your web copy uses the title or headline to set the table for the visitor.

Web Copy 101 #4 …3 Blind Mice, 3 Blind Mice (first line)

4) This song is going to be about little rodents, not geese. Does the first line of your web copy highlight what you offer, or at least whom your site is for? Good web copy is not mystery writing. Instead it says, “We’re here to sell you something and here’s why you need it today.”

Web Copy 101 #5, 6 … See how they run, See how they run

5) Repetition is the key to any message track and a staple of effective web copy. From a psychological point of view it lets your message become familiar and safe. From a search engine point of view repetition builds your keyword density and raises your search results. From a net reader perspective repetition in your web copy reinforces your message for the superficial reader who is scanning your site quickly. Repetition works on many levels. Let me say that again – repetition works on many levels.

6) The invitation to watch how the mice run around is also a clever way to involve the readers by getting them to do something. Does your site invite some kind of reader activity in the body of the web copy?

Web Copy 101 #7 … They all ran up to the farmer’s wife; she cut off their tails with a carving knife

7) A good way to stitch your ideas together and build more active involvement in your copy is to use pronouns (they, she). By forcing the readers to build connections between previous and current information pronouns keep your site visitors more engaged.



8) Do you know the best way to keep someone interested in what you are writing? What is 3 times 3? If you thought “nine” you proved my point. If you thought “eight” try night school. If you thought anything at all, you demonstrated the power of questions to generate reader participation. Everybody loves and needs to answer questions. Does your web copy provide thought provoking questions that get your reader thinking and involved?

Web Copy 101 #9, 10 … As 3 Blind Mice

9) Brilliant web copy. More repetition. Plus, the story ends where it started. One of the advantages of writing with search engines in mind is that keyword focus helps you stay on topic. The glancing reader needs this controlling idea to get the essence of why they need what you have, now. Is your site's central idea consistently expressed all the way through your web copy?

10) True, the song is written for children, but notice the use of short, crisp sentences to tell the tale. How are you telling your tale? You want your web copy to be clear, smart and direct.

I hope they get stuck in your head – the 10 lessons that is, not the lyrics. By the way, no animals were hurt during the writing of the article about web copy 101.

About This Author: Website copywriter, SEO Copywriter Paul Matthews gets business. Receive your FREE website copy analysis and view more FREE articles in the series Web Copy Tips.
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SEO and Ethics

Doing my research, as well as, the continuation of my learning the SEO process. I came across an article by Mark Hochhaus, regarding Search Engine Marketing Ethics. It gives you an insight as to what you need to be alert too. Such as: 1. your competition's ethics and how they can effect your website; 2. SEO firms ethics and the consequences of unethical practices. 3. And the temptation of following in some webmaster's unethical footsteps, and the consequences that can cause.

I guess, with anything of value, you must be ever viligant, and stay informed.




Search Engine Marketing Ethics: Don't Believe The Hype

Getting to the top of the search engines, and staying there, is an ongoing process. This does not mean it is expensive to stay at the top. In fact, in most cases, it's rather affordable. But beware, there are pitfalls along the way to search engine Zen.

The old adage, "If it sounds too good to be true", applies to SEO (search engine optimization). There are many companies that will promise top results using less than ethical methods. Including slick salesmen that will convince you that all the top sites cheat the search engines in order to stay on top. You will run into web site owners that mask keywords to get top positions making it sound very tempting to follow in their foot steps.

Don't be fooled by such hype. These are short term solutions that can lead to a permanent ban in the top engines. Once you are banned in Google, Yahoo, MSN or ASK, you may as well dump your site and start over. If you're looking for long term success on the internet, don't cheat the search engines.

One of the cheats I have been seeing lately is masking content with "noscript tags". The noscript tags are used to define an alternate content (text) if a script is NOT executed. People have been taking advantage of this and filling it with content that visitors don't see, but the search engines do. While this does work, it is short term and believe me when I say, you will be caught. You will have no warning, no second chances. You will wake up one day and your site will not be found.

There is no phone number to call, your emails go unanswered, and traffic to your site drops off overnight. Your income dries up and it's all over. It can take six months or more to undo the damage and, in some cases, it's permanent. The major search engines are always on the lookout for new cheats. When found, they will program the search engines to drop the sites using these methods. Without warning, you're gone. Also, don't forget, your competition watches your site and is looking for ways to rank higher than you. Your competition may report your unethical methods to the search engines.

If you're planning to be around for the long haul and want some success on the internet, then you need to be ethical in your promotion. Unless you have daily time dedicated to studying SEO and making the needed changes, you should contract with a reputable SEO company. You need a company that studies the SEO industry on a daily basis to keep on top of what it takes to rank at the top for the long run. A company that is above cheats and quick fixes. A company that offers solid optimization that can keep you on top of the search engine results. A company that will take the time to target your specific audience to get you visitors that are interested in your product or service.

Many SEO companies will promise thousands of visitors a day. Unless those visitors are interested in what you have to offer or ended up at your site and did not find what they searched for, they will remember you. They will remember that you did not have what they wanted. They may leave disappointed and your good name will have a black mark next to it. Don't get sucked into damaging your image by slick salesmen.

When looking for a company to handle your SEO, first and foremost, be comfortable with the people you will be directly working with. They will need total access to your web site and server to make the needed changes. At times, the verbiage of your site may need minor changes. A word or two may need to be changed to improve keyword density. You need a company you can trust with your company's image.

In today's business world, you must have a web site. After all, your competition does. Your site must be marketed ethically and monitored daily. Changes must be made ASAP when conditions change. Hire a professional to handle SEO. When your business is booming, it's too easy to put SEO on the back burner. Before you know it, your rankings will have dropped from top to bottom, as well as your bottom line.

About the Author: Mark Hochhaus co-owner of Technet Internet Marketing has been developing web sites and optimizing for search engines since the early days of the Internet. To keep abreast of his lastest articles, visit: Technet's SEO News Blog: The Optimizer.


Check out my web pages on SEO and Keyword Search on My Affiliate Place

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Adsense -- Adsense Site Basics

I found this article by Darren Yates on Adsense Basics -- or as he says a Blueprint on creating an Adsense Site. The Article is rather informative if you are looking to build an Adsense Site.

The Adsense Site Blue Print
By: Darren Yates

A good money making Adsense site needs a number of elements in place before it will succeed.

In the article below I discuss technical assets and techniques you should be using. You should also consider the site design, but that's a whole other article.

I've broken down the basics below -


1: Regular Content Updates
Ideally you are adding fresh, unique, keyword targeted content to you site on a regular basis. Every few days at a minimum, daily if possible.

The search engines will come back to your site more often, rank it higher and in turn provide more traffic if you consistently add fresh unique content.

A naturally growing site gets the search engines interested and keeps them interested.

If you don't like to write or can't write then you can outsource this chore to a third party.

On the other hand you can also use freely available articles from the numerous article directories out there. This is not ideal because the content is not unique and will most likely be found on hundreds of other sites.

Another option is to use 'Private Label Rights' articles. These are articles that you buy and use as starting point for your own unique article. Essentially you re-write the PLR article. Don't be tempted to use these as is, otherwise you may as well use the article directories as your article source instead.

Which ever route you choose you should start with a good number of pages on which to build.

You need to place your Adsense directly into the body copy of each of your articles for the highest CTR (Click Through Rate).


2: Rotate Your Content
It's fine consistently adding new content but if your homepage stays the same you're seriously missing out.

You should endeavour to have content rotate on a daily basis on your homepage. This gives the impression of a site update. You can do this by hand or you can have a script on your site rotate content. I know which I would choose. :)

In fact I have a script that chooses a random article from the hundreds on my site and posts it automatically to my homepage for 24hrs before selecting a new article and doing the same again for the next 24hrs.

In essence to both visitors and the search engines my site is updated daily. :)


3: RSS Feeds
To further make you site appear to update regularly you should introduce a relevant RSS feed. I won't go into the details of exactly what RSS is here. If you're not sure do a Google. :)

Basically you will get fresh relevant links appearing on your site at regular intervals.

There are numerous site scripts available now to allow you to show RSS feeds on your site. When you choose one make sure it is either PHP, CGI or ASP. Don't use javascript!

The reason for this is that the above mentioned languages will display the RSS feeds as HTML which the search engines read as content.

Javascript will be ignored! It does not convert the feed to a search engine friendly format which the above languages will do.

If you are interested in a free RSS feed converter for your site email me at the site below.


4: Place Your Adsense Ads
You must place your Adsense ads within the body of your article. It's a proven fact that the area to the top right of the content receives the highest CTR.
Beyond the body copy the next two hotspots are across the top of the page and down the left hand side. The two areas that Net users naturally look to for a sites navigation.


5: Place Your Ad Links Ads
The Google Ad Links ads have been found to work best when placed either above or below the site navigation, again either across the top or down the left hand side.

A further boost can be had by 'blending' the look of the ads with your site navigation. By that I simply mean having your navigation match the ads in both font type, size and colour.

Many Adsense publishers have experienced a large boost in revenue after blending all there navigation to match their ads.


6: A Site Map
This is very important. Without a good site map to which you can add your newly uploaded content the search engines will never know you are updating your site. They'll never be able to find the new content without a link going to it.

Be sure not to forget to update your site map each time you add new site content.

There you have it. That's a general overview of a working Adsense site. Of course I haven't the space to go in to much detail but I hope you found what I have revealed of use. ;)

Darren Yates is the developer of Ad Injector. Software designed to boost your Adsense profits and speed up Adsense site creation. Sign up for the f.ree Adsense Mini Guide for more Adsense tips - http://www.ad-injector.com/

Information on getting started with Adsense check out my web page on My Affiliate Place
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Online Marketing --Your Customers Comfort Zone

When creating a homepage have you ever thought of it as the Transition Zone. Well, Paul Matthews makes the point that if your homepage creates a sales zone and not a transition zone, you could lose sales. It's like walking into a regular retail store -- if you feel comfortable you stay, if you don't you leave.

He states, acknowledge your visitor, don't begin selling to them at the get go -- give them time to look around and decide for themselves. Sometimes you, the webmaster, may be to close to the copy. If you're at a lost, have a friend or family member look over your copy -- and then ask them for their opinion on how your home copy presentation made them feel. And be sure to tell them, what they say will not hurt your feelings -- at least for very long, anyway.

Think about it, how do you feel when salespeople, jump in front of your face the minute you step on the premises. But then again, how do you feel, when you can't find a salesperson when you need the help. Either case, anger or frustration can cause the individual to click away.

With that being said, take a little time, and read the article below, and after reading the article see if you can improve your homepage -- or if you're one of the lucky one's, it's perfect already.



Website Copywriter Tips: Homepage Copy – The Transition Zone

Have you read Paco Underhill’s fascinating book, "Why We Buy," about the psychology of retail store shopping? One of his major tenets about brick and mortar shopping holds the key to effective homepage copy – something he calls the “transition zone.” If your homepage copy creates a sales zone not a transition zone, you could be losing sales.


The Transition Zone Explained

Think about the last time you visited a brick and mortar store… Maybe it’s raining or snowing outside. Maybe you just left the dry cleaner before arriving at the electronics store. As you first enter the store you constantly make adjustments to changes in lighting, temperature, sounds, and visual stimulation. You need to get your bearings. Underhill calls this part of the store the “transition zone,” a place for adjusting from outside to inside, not selling. Selling attempts in this early stage are lost. When does your homepage copy start selling? Unless your answer is never, it is too soon.


The Trade Show Lesson

I remember that the worst trade show booth to have was just inside the front door of the trade center. Instead of making sales I was giving directions, demoted from VP Sales to greeter, gopher. You would think that being first was an advantage. This position might be true in search engine ranking but not in trade shows booths. The fact is many people don’t even notice the first booth until they have completed their adjustment process. By that time they are well past the first booth and buying from booth number 4.

Most website visitors behave like trade show guests. Is your web site copy trying to close business in booth one or giving the visitor time to adjust to the new digs? Why not put your actual sales copy in booth two or three or four? Better still distribute the message across all three. After all, that’s where the customers are headed anyway once they have transitioned to your site.


Cushion Don't Convince

So if selling is inappropriate what can you do to make your homepage copy sell without selling? Effective homepage copy cushions the hard landing strangers feel when they first arrive at your site. A soft landing is a receptive landing. Why not use your homepage copy to give visitors what they need:

• Acknowledgement• Anticipation• Acclimatization

Acknowledge Your Visitors

Let’s go back to your recent store visit… You’re barely inside the door and the overly friendly sales clerk asks, “Can I help you find what you are looking for?” Most times this clumsy sales attempt is made too early in your transition to the store from your previous location. For most people shopping is an experience not a mission. Instead of being sold during their time of transition, most customers simply want to be acknowledged – greeted, recognized.

• How does your website copy acknowledge visitors to your site? • Does your homepage copy confirm that your visitors are in the right place? • Does your copy welcome them? • Does your web copy make demands of these shaky travellers too soon? • How does your homepage copy help them adjust to the change in environment?


Build Anticipation

You’re standing ten feet inside the store. And there it is, way over there - the outline of that gorgeous HD TV you’ve been after. As you walk towards this target your heart races a little as you anticipate getting up close and personal with your quarry. The closer you get, the more you notice the details of your treasure.

By putting products a little off in the distance smart retailers build anticipation. You know what it’s like. Details come into focus over time. Expectation increases.

• Where could you put your best offerings to heighten anticipation without killing transition?

• How can you replace assertiveness with anticipation?

• Wouldn’t it be a good idea to introduce your value proposition in your homepage copy, without demanding customer action right away?

• Where could you place the copy that supports this value proposition?

• Shouldn’t the remaining pages build expectancy and familiarity at the same time?

• How about making your web site copy one integrated “time release capsule”?


Deepen Acclimatization

Whenever copy goes against the customer’s natural order, it becomes a threat, losing credibility and any chance of influence. It doesn’t make sense to challenge the site visitor’s natural need for transition. Why not embrace this idea? Remember the old ABC’s of selling? Instead of “always be closing,” why not use the transition zone strategy “always be comforting.”

Think of ways your homepage copy can help your customers acclimatize to your site.

• Do you repeat your key ideas to build familiarity? • Is the look and feel of your copy consistent?• Does your copy give a snapshot of what’s possible on your site? • Is your navigation system explained? • Has your homepage copy briefly highlighted your content? • How can your visitors gain quick control of their journey?

That’s acclimatization. Now you’re ready to sell. YES!

Effective homepage copy smoothes the transition from stranger to guest using acknowledgement, anticipation, and acclimatization. Done well and it’s sales zone time for the customer. Done poorly and it’s cortisone time for you.


About This Author:
Website copywriter, SEO Copywriter Paul Matthews gets business. Receive your FREE website copy analysis and view more FREE articles in the series Web Copy Tips.
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