 Even the best website platforms have issues.
Too much code to text, not enough content per page, formatting issues causing errors in google and ranking to fall. When you pay good money to have a professionally written, SEO keyworded website, with forms and lead Autoresponders, you expect it to work perfectly. Most of the time it’s great...until it’s not. As the platform makes changes, the coding causes issues on the backend. Most people are not familiar enough with the dashboard of a website to make changes. They might have enough knowledge to write and publish a blog post. However, most don’t fill in the meta description, categorize and tag the article to boost SEO. Imagine, your website only being going on page 10 in a search for your main keyword string, worse yet page 16. Lost in the infinity of a Google search, is where two of my clients were when I started working with them. Now I don’t know about you, but who goes past page 2 in a search? I rarely do. So how are you supposed to get found on page 10 or 16? You’re not. However, you can improve it with a little work. Work you should delegate. A business owner should not do it. A jump in ranking is what happened when I was hired to help my clients improve their websites. More on that in a second. You may be thinking you can contact your service provider for support. However, not all platforms have the kind of support necessary to fix the backend problems without adding large costs. They may only explain it to the website owner and expect them to do the work. There are not many business owners comfortable in the backend of their website. So they need to hire help. That’s where I come in. By running a website audit, website functionality errors and content errors both affecting your Google ranking can found and fixed. Once you get the errors fixed and the audit is error-free, a writing plan can be made to improve the website’s content. The clients I’ve helped have moved from page 10 and 16 to page 3. With a little more work on better Copywriting and content, those results can be even better. The audit and plan will show you exactly what you need to do to improve your website. Pricing is included on the plan if you'd like me to help you or you can do it yourself. To see how a website audit can improve your Google ranking DM me, call me at 920-858-5105, or email me at [email protected] for your audit and writing plan for $199.
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 The algorithms change, but one thing stays the same…relevant, consistent content. 2019 is bringing a renewed focus to domain longevity, review weight, and original, relevant, content.
Most of the tactics being employed are not new: reviews, keywords, direct mail funnels, follow up autoresponders and videos have been used to increase website visibility for years. However, most companies, real estate agents, brokers, investors, builders, and property managers are still not utilizing these methods to boost their ranking. If you have a local business and are struggling to get found online here are some of the methods currently being employed to combat the slow slide from page one of Google. Claim your Google My Business listing-This seems obvious. Google wants you to be a player in their ranking games. Over time they want you to rank and pay for ads to drive more traffic. They offer every business a Google My Business listing. To optimize this listing, claim it, add a relevant, key- message in the description (similar if not the same as your website) and fill in all pertinent information. Google is where you’re going to want to start collecting reviews but more on that in a minute. SEO and keywords-If you’re a DIY company and didn’t pay for a platform to start your website on, you will probably be behind in keyboarding and search engine optimization. The longevity of your website also matters but you can create excellent website copy and content to help you rank better in google. There are some great tools to use to figure out keywords you should be adding to your website content. I prefer SEMrush.com, but you can find a list of free tools at ahrefs.com. Don’t forget to add meta descriptions to your pages and posts, categories and tags. SEO is not a one and done or a quick fix for ailing websites. However, over time with new, relevant and consistent content, good SEO practices will win out, (until the next algorithm change). Start using video-Video still holds weight in ranking. The use of video is severely underutilized as a way to create relevant content and get found. Your videos don’t have to be long, a couple minute video will produce 300-800 words of content you can pull and utilize in many ways. You can repurpose a video a minimum of nine times. Check out my repurposing guide for ideas on how. The more authentic your video, the more your clients will connect with you. Don’t be afraid to share your knowledge and educate your clients. Direct mail funnels-No direct mail is not dead. It would be best if you were changing up your outreach depending on what you see happening in the market. If you’re seeing more online ads, everyone else is too. The mailbox is always a direct option to contact your client. However, you want to make your letters not only relevant and persuasive, but you also want a couple of clear calls to action. Lead them to an opt-in form if you have a report or online giveaway. You can also lead them to your educational videos that explain more about why they should do business with you. Don’t give them calling you as the only option. Clients who are not yet ready to buy from you but want to learn more about you won’t call. They want to be able to do some research and find out more. Follow-up autoresponders-Do you have someone contact every prospect who calls you, emails you or fills out a form? You should! Think of all the money you’ve spent on acquiring the lead. Then to throw the lead out the window because you didn’t have a timely way to follow-up with them. Ouch! If you receive many phone calls but repeatedly miss them, you’ll want to hire an answering service. Give them someone to talk to who has a script and can answer simple questions about your company and services. Try to get an email address. If you have their email, keeping in touch is simple. You can set up segmented autoresponders which go out at scheduled intervals to keep in touch with your prospects. The key is still in the content. You don’t want to keep asking if they’re ready to buy. You want to give them small educational pieces on the benefits of working with you. An email campaign can stretch out as long as you want and as long as they stay subscribed to your list. There are some cold email systems out there as well which are still General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliant and won’t get you thrown into the spam folder or fined. I like Mailshake, but google cold email systems to find others. Reviews- We discussed getting Google reviews to help your ranking. It would help if you also were asking for reviews on Facebook and the Better Business Bureau. Especially for businesses who deal with the public and have a reputation to uphold. The Google algorithm is looking for reviews as a way businesses stay transparent with their clients. When you have satisfied clients, ask for a review and if possible have them enter it on all three websites. Social proof helps others to decide to work with you too. By utilizing these pieces together as a system will make all of your content and marketing more effective over more extended periods. If you’re looking for help to write your website, content marketing with blogs and social media posting, direct mail letters, marketing emails or autoresponders and video scripts contact me at Hatz Copywriting today. On my website, you can see some of the base packages that I customize for each client. Take advantage of online and offline marketing systems with content and marketing that speaks to your target audience and persuades them to do business with you.  Does your small business need marketing help without the cost of a big agency?
Are you tired of having everyone tell you what’s unique about your business and even you’re confused as to your key message? In 2019, accomplish taking back your key message and create compelling marketing on a shoestring budget. I’ll tell you how in a minute…but first, let’s look at why you need to get control of your marketing today. Imagine for 2018 you’d decided to tackle a few of your marketing and sales items, and on your list was to redo your website. You had a meeting with a few website companies, and they said they could help. They asked you a few questions and started designing your site. When you saw your final product, the website looked great, and it was faster, but there wasn’t much content on the home page. As you clicked through your site, you noticed the about page, your services, product pages, and contact page had almost no content at all. A paragraph about the company the address and phone number, no information to help a client decide to do business with you. There was no content explaining why you are different from your competitors. It’s unfortunate, but most websites are designed to look nice and yet say nothing at all. You paid for the new website design and forgot to ask about writing the copy. Most web designers don’t write, or if they do, they have a few questions to write about your company generically. They don’t take the time to write in a client-focused way that would emotionally connect with your clients. You paid them to design, not write copy. Now imagine, your focus for 2018 social media? You hire a company to set up a business page on each channel, and post. It was going well, and for a while, you were getting likes and shares. Your information was new, and people liked seeing your posts. However as the year went on, the posts and pictures started to look the same. You weren’t sharing anything about what your company stood for, what sets you apart, how you serve your clients. You started to sound like everyone else and got lost in the sea of content. Again you paid the company to set up your channels, start posting and get content on your pages, not to learn about you and write posts that would connect with your clients. Looking back, your approach to a new website was ok...but not great. You needed a faster site with current tools to help drive business. But without relevant content, you paid for it to look good. Your dive into social media was sudden and short. Social media is about consistency. Sharing educational and relevant information with your target audience so they learn more about you and how you can solve their problems. Yes, you probably needed to update your website, and you should have started social media a while ago, but better late than never. The problem is this type of marketing, the kind where you feel it’s time for a change, but you’re not sure what to start with, leads to fragmenting your business’s key message. More importantly, it doesn’t help you stay consistent, relevant and build your brand. Now for 2019, you’ve decided to really go for it. You start talking to big marketing agencies. These companies have worked with larger national brands, your thinking is the bigger, the better. However, when you receive their proposal, you realize it’s not a fit. What the large marketing agency is suggesting is way outside your budget. Now, you feel stuck. You know you need to be doing a better job marketing your business, sharing a consistent message and staying in contact with new, current and past clients. But you don’t know how to move forward. There are many options available to you. First, you could hire a full-time marketing manager to run all of your marketing for you. This comes with a high price tag when you add up salary, insurance, and benefits. Second, you can hire someone on a bid for work site to create some inexpensive ads, content, and emails to stay in contact with your current, new and past clients. The quality may be ok, but the message still breaks away from your company’s brand and voice. The third option is where you should be focusing. Hiring a contract copywriter trained in direct response copy, SEO, marketing and sales. This type of copywriter can help you with your key message, your print, and online marketing and content. Often a contract copywriter paid by project or on retainer has a smaller investment than a full-time employee. Most copywriters run their own small businesses. Reputation and quality of work are of the highest priority to a freelance copywriter. By doing the best possible job for their clients, you, the copywriter is hired again. The depth of client knowledge, the consistent client message, and all marketing pieces work together in sales funnels to lead the target audience to buy from you. By hiring a marketing and sales copywriter, you will control your key marketing message. By collaborating with your copywriter to dial in your key message, you’ll be explaining who you are, what you do, why your USP matters to your clients and how you can help them. Your key message should the focus on a longer content about page. This message should also be used across your social media platforms. Keep in mind, you need the keywords clients are using to search for you as part of your content. Once a copywriter has spent time with a client, learning about them, creating your key message, the move into writing all the marketing pieces and online content is second nature. Your copywriter is now able to develop sales emails, follow up autoresponders, promotional material for products and services, all the marketing you need to grow your business. You are able to rely on a marketing and content copywriter to keep your message consistent without the cost of hiring a large marketing agency. To see how you can take control of your marketing and get started with a consistent key message and social media management today, contact me through my contact form. The questions will help make a consultation call the most productive it can be. To get started today, give me a call at 920-858-5105. |
AuthorEva is a marketing copy and content writer. Her goal is to help businesses set themselves apart and grow! Archives
May 2024
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