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Archive for the 'How to' category

How to choose an SEO company or SEO consultant. (Read this before parting with a penny.)

17th
Aug
by Sarah Turner

Let me come right out and say it: there are a lot of SEO companies out there that are full of bull.

I had such a company email me out of the blue last week. They advised me that they had studied my website (yeah, right) and were concerned that I was not ‘appearing on the major search engines’. Not only that, but apparently, I had ‘very few inbound links’. Utter baloney.

A different company contacted a client of mine to tell him that Google had only cached 9 pages of his website which would adversely affect his search engine position. His website only has 9 pages! And he’s on page 1 of Google for every keyphrase we optimised his web pages for!

It seems that even Google can’t avoid these scammers.

“Dear google.com,
I visited your website and noticed that you are not listed in most of the major search engines and directories…”

Hilarious!

So if you get approached by an SEO company, or you’re in the process of interviewing an SEO company or consultant, this is what you need to know.

1. What other companies have they worked with? How are those websites performing? What keywords are they getting found for? What position do those sites achieve on Google? Ask for a contact at the company they’ve worked for and call them for a testimonial.

2. What search engines are their clients’ sites getting found on? Sure, Bing (formerly MSN) has recently purchased Yahoo Search in a bid to increase its market share. But let’s be honest, Google is the one you want to get found on. Being top of AltaVista, Excite or Lycos is all very well but collectively they have about 0.1% of the global market. Probably not enough to influence your bottom line much.

3. Ask to see a copy of the keyword research they’ve done for you and ask them why they’ve recommended the keywords they have. Remember, you want keywords or keyphrases which are searched for but are not so competitive that there are 1.5 million other sites with that phrase in their page title. Nor do you want to be found at the top of Google for a really offbeat phrase that absolutely no-one is searching for. It’s somewhere in the middle.

4. How are they going to include the keywords or phrases in your copy? Are they going to employ a copywriter to weave the keywords magically into the copy? Or is someone in the office just going to plonk the keywords any old how into the text? (Tip: you want the first one.)

5. Insist your SEO company sign an agreement not to do any work for your competitors. Why should you pay for keyword research and have your competitors benefit?

6. Make sure they give detailed monthly reports and stats. And ones that are easy to understand. You want to see a steady month on month improvement in your search engine rankings. And you want to know what keywords or keyphrases people are using to find your site.

7. Ask them if they actually monitor and analyse your stats? What are they going to do if the site isn’t performing well for the chosen keywords? What’s plan B?

8. Are they going to run a link campaign? Inbound links (links coming into your site) are as equally important for SEO as content. Google assesses a site by the content of the site and the number of quality inbound links there are. And if they are going to run a link campaign, what type of links do they hope to obtain?

 

SEO is not smoke and mirrors. Any SEO bods worth their salt are going to tell you exactly what they’re doing and what they hope to achieve. Remember, no-one can guarantee you top of page 1 of Google.  

A client told me last week that they’re paying £300 a month to an SEO company but they’re not sure what they’re getting for that. That’s £3600 a year and they’re not sure what they’re paying for? Before handing over a penny ask the questions above. If the SEO company or consultant starts muttering and getting all weird, run for the hills. Your money is better spent elsewhere.

Shameless plug: For keyword research, PPC, competitor analysis, link building campaigns and a bunch of other cool stuff, I can highly recommend Rob Dobson at SEM London. (Please note: he’s really good which means he’s always stupidly busy. I have to book him in two months in advance to work with my clients!)

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Tags: seo company, seo writing
Posted in How to, Marketing, Website & SEO copywriting | comments icon 1 Comment »

How to get going on Twitter (or I’ve just opened an account, now what?)

13th
Jul
by Sarah Turner

During the last six months Twitter has gone crazy. In fact 75% of the tweeps now using Twitter have only joined this year. There are loads of articles, blog posts and forums all writing about Twitter and how great it is for business.  

But this post is a quick and practical guide to actually using Twitter. And follows a call I had from a friend and colleague this week who said ‘I’ve just opened a Twitter account. Now what?’  

So. You’ve opened your account. And I’m assuming you’ve used your real name where it says name and your company name where it says username. Your username will be the name that shows in all your tweets so it’s worth not choosing something daft.

Stage 1 Do all the admin bits
Click on Settings and under Account make sure
1. You’ve got a link to your website (you want potential followers to see what you’re all about, don’t you?)
2. You say where you are in the world. This will make it easier for people to find you by location.
3. You’ve got a great bio. Explain in as few words as possible what you do, what you’re offering or what you can do to help. Don’t be all serious and corporaey here. But give it some thought. This is the first time someone is meeting you on Twitter. So don’t sound like a loon.

Click on Picture and make sure
4. You have a great picture. Of you. And not the company logo. People want to chat to a real person, not a brand. Your pic should be face on and ideally make you not look like a felon.

Click on Design and
5. Choose something other than the standard blue. See Twitip’s excellent post on creating custom Twitter backgrounds. 

Click on Notices and
6. Choose whether you want to be notified by email every time someone follows you or sends a direct message. This is your call. (I have them all ticked so I don’t miss anything.)

Right. What next. Write tweets with no followers? Or start following people in the hope they follow you even though you have no tweets?

Aaaah. The proverbial chicken and egg. I’m going with following first. But get some tweets on there pretty darn quick as well.

Stage 2 Start following
Start following people you know pretty well. They will probably take pity on you and follow you back. So click on Find people and search for their name or email address.

Also look for people in your industry or community. And see who they’re following. Anyone interesting? Click the follow button. You might want to follow some big ‘uns. I follow BBC Click, Guardian Tech and Google, as Turner Ink is into that sort of thing.  

Remember you can easily unfollow at some point in the future.

Note on following: Quite oddly you’ll get people following you almost straight away. But before you get excited, there are bits of software that automatically follow people. Bah. So before you follow back, take a look at their Twitter bio and their profile page. What are they tweeting about? Anything good? Or useful? Or to do with your industry? If so follow them. If not ignore them. If they look like they’re porn stars, sellers of dodgy medicines or claim they can earn you a $1 million in five minutes, block them. Just click on followers, click the actions button next to their name and click block. You don’t want these tweeps in your community.

Stage 3 Get tweeting
Ok get tweeting. About what though? You might want to think about your Twitter strategy before you set up your account. And decide how many hours a day you can commit to Twitter. Just kidding. But be aware that Twitter can be more addictive than crack. So be strict with your time.

Now, if you’re using Twitter for business you might want to avoid tweeting ‘I’ve just got up.’ Especially if it’s midday. Or ‘It’s a beautiful day.’ Or ‘I’m really hungover.’ Do people really want to know this? I think not. You can show your personality or course. And you should. But try and make it work related or useful and interesting to your followers.  

And don’t forget: Once you start tweeting don’t give up! Don’t write heaps of tweets in the first week and then abandon it. You gotta keep going with it. It’s the law.  

Stage 4 Get TweetDeck
Right. Next step. Abandon the Twitter website and download TweetDeck. This is a cool application which makes it really easy to see all your tweets, mentions and direct messages.

Note: There are a few other apps so have a play around and see which one you like best.  

tweet-deck-screenshot

Ok, if you’ve picked TweetDeck, take a look at the far left column. This shows all the tweets from people you’re following. If you hover above a picture you’ll see four little buttons come up. If you want to send a reply to a tweet just click on the top left button (the backward arrow).

tweet-deck-image-2

So @kevgibbo would appear at the beginning of my tweet in the message box. Now in the old days an @reply could been by all the people following Turner Ink. It was public. This has changed quite recently (it may well change again so keep an eye out on the Twitter website) and now @replies can only be seen by people who are following both me and Kevin. Phew confusing or what? It just means people can follow a conversation more easily and not see half of it.  

Click on the bottom left button (the arrow) and RT @kevgibbo now appears in the message box. This is a retweet. It’s a bit like forwarding an email from a friend to all your other friends. So if someone you’re following writes a good tweet or includes a really interesting link, and you want to share it, just click the retweet button.

Note on retweeting: Retweeting is a great way of building relationships and someone is more likely to retweet your stuff if you retweet theirs.

A retweet can be seen by all the people that are following you. If someone retweets one of your tweets (RT @TurnerInk ), or replies (@TurnerInk) or mentions you in a tweet (Ha ha @TurnerInk is hilarious) these will all appear in the Mentions column, so you can see at a glance who’s sharing your stuff or tweeting about you.

Click on the top right button (the envelope) to send a direct message. So the tweet would now start D @kebgibbo and only Kevin would see the message. The message would appear in my Direct Messages column. And it would appear in Kevin’s Direct Messages column. 

The bottom right button is other actions. These include looking at someone’s profile, unfollowing and adding to a group.

If your tweet includes a link to a blog post you’ve found, or a news article you’ve enjoyed, just chuck the URL into the box where it says shorten URL and click the double arrows box to the right. This will – guess what? – shorten the URL so you don’t use all your 140 characters up in one go.

For more on using Tweetdeck check out 1st Web Designer’s brilliant blog. Note that the Replies column is now called Mentions on the latest version of TweetDeck.  

Stage 5 Be nice
Share information. Have conversations. Enjoy a bit of banter. Ask questions. But don’t try and sell. Trying to flog your wares straight away on Twitter is a turn-off.

If someone retweets (RT) you say thank you. If someone direct messages you (D) tweet them back. If someone puts out a question, answer it.

Take a look at Tec N’ Marketing’s blog post, 11 things to avoid on Twitter for more on Twitter etiquette.    

And most of all have fun. Twitter is a handy little tool. Enjoy it.   

More reading:
Grab yourself a copy of Paul Chaney’s Complete Guide to Twitter for Business which is now free to download. 

Also check out immediate future’s Guide to Twitter for PR and Marketing Professionals. Also free to download.

And finally, a mighty long list of Twitter terms and tools from Sitemasher. 

Are you already using Twitter for business? How’s it going?  Share your success stories or tips in the comments section.

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Tags: twitter
Posted in How to, Marketing, Social media | comments icon 6 Comments »

How to proofread. 12 steps to perfect copy

7th
May
by Sarah Turner

You’ve planned, done an outline, written a first draft and edited. Are you done? Not quite. The last thing you need to do is proofread. And here’s the easiest way to do it.  

1. Take a break
Preferably not a three hour one down the pub. But even a 15 minute break will refresh your eyeballs and help you spot errors more easily.

2. Print out your work 
Yeah, I know it doesn’t do much for your carbon footprint. But it’s essential you print out a hard copy. It’s just so much easier to find errors reading from paper than a screen. It just is. Dunno why.  

3. Read out loud
Read your work out loud. And slow-ly. This will make you read each word individually, and make it easier to find mistakes and poor sentence structure. Remember, if you’re stumbling over the words, chances are your reader will too. Warning: you may have to stand in the corridor or board room for this one. 

4. Read backwards  
Your brain is really clever. No, really it is. So it will always try and make sense of what you’re reading. So take the word out of context by reading your document from the bottom backwards. This will confuse your poor ol’ grey matter and make it easier to spot errors.

5. Work with a ruler
Keeping the ruler just below the line you’re reading will force you to slow down and focus on each word individually. Good news: you’ll find mistakes. Bad news: you’ll look like a six year old. But who cares if you produce perfect copy.

6. Touch each word
By touching each word with a tip of a pencil you’ll have to read really really slowly. Again, this will make it easier to find those pesky typos.

7. Check dates
PCs have an annoying habit of autocorrecting dates when you’re not looking. So make sure you check your dates carefully for consistency.

                        28th July 1972
                        28 July 1972  
                        28.7.72  
                        7.28.72 (US)

8. Check names and titles
Check the spelling of people’s names. And check titles. Is a person doing the same job throughout your document? And remember, titles shouldn’t have capitals unless they’re before the person’s name.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown spoke today about the economic crisis
Gordon Brown is the prime minister of the UK
Jeff Turner, vice president of sales, spoke at the conference

Titles should be lower case if there’s no name attached.

The president of the company is an Oxford graduate
The managing director is on holiday

9. Check for abbreviated company names
At the beginning of a document, a company name should be spelt out in its entirety followed by its abbreviated form in brackets.

Structural Analysis Service Solutions (SASS) had a £100,000 turnover in August

The company can then be referred to in its abbreviated form throughout the rest of the document. 

Unless it’s something well known like the UN or the BBC. 

Watch out for odd brand names like Harrods, Currys and Boots (which are now all ‘apostropheless’)

10. Check for the second brackets or quotes 
If you’ve “quoted” somebody or put something in (brackets) make sure the final speech mark or bracket is there.

11. Check formatting
Check your spacing between paragraphs, between lines (single or 1.5?) and between sentences. Old school typists leave a space between sentences.  Like this. You shouldn’t.

Check headers and sub heads. Are they all in bold, same colour, same font?

Check fonts. Size, type and colour. Are they all the same?

12. Get someone else to read it
And finally, if you can, right before your document ‘goes to press’, get someone else to read through your work. Annoyingly, they’ll probably spot an error straight away. But it does mean you’ll get perfect copy.

Got any tips on proofreading? Let Turner Ink know.

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Tags: proofreading
Posted in Business writing, How to | comments icon 2 Comments »

How to improve your writing technique in 7 simple steps

26th
Mar
by Sarah Turner

We’ve all been there. It’s called blank page syndrome. It’s that feeling you get when you’ve been asked to write a report, a press release, a case study or a sales letter. But after 20 minutes you’ve only typed two words on the page; and that was your name. 

So where do you start? What technique can you use to get the creative juices flowing? What plan can you use to ensure you include all the information you need? What system can you use to make sure your writing is sharp, concise and error free?  

I’ll tell you. It’s called The Process. And it consists of 7 simple steps. Check it out.

Think about your audience  
Ask yourself: Who am I writing this for? What do they do for a living? What do they want to read? What do they worry about? What makes them happy? Type a description of this person at the top of your page. Give them a name. This is the person you’re going to write for. 

Think about your objectives   
Ask yourself: What do I want this document to do? What’s its purpose? To inform? To get somebody excited? Create a buzz? Convince?

What you want your document to do is known as the ‘function statement’. Type at the top of your page: ‘I want this piece to confirm/identify/highlight/announce/compare/clarify/ summarise/notify/recommend’.

Brainstorm
Ok, I know the word brainstorm is not PC. But you get the drift. What’s the one thing you absolutely must include? What do you need to tell your reader to convince, persuade, reassure them? This is your key message. Type it on your page.

Then write anything that comes into your head: ideas, words, sentences, false starts. This helps you get in the ‘zone’.

Write an outline
Once you’ve got all your information, start to organise and evaluate. Write your headings and number them. Be logical about this. Remember you need to make your document as easy as possible for your reader to understand. Your headings might not be used in the final document, but they’ll help you with your planning.

Write the first draft
Ok, get writing. Take a look at your outline and notes and start to write a first draft. It’s sometimes easier to write the summary and conclusion or the introduction and call to action first, and then fill in the middle chunk afterwards. Don’t agonise over grammar and punctuation at this stage. Just get it down. Let the words flow.

Edit your draft  
This is the fun bit. And probably the most important part of the process. Firstly, take a break. Ideally overnight. But certainly a couple of hours if you can. This will help you look at what you’ve written with a critical eye. 

Print out your document; it’s easy to miss something on screen. Read carefully through your work. Really read it. Does it do the job? Remember the objective you typed at the top of the page earlier.  

Check your structure. Have you got the information in the right order? Is it logical? Does the story flow? Move sentences and paragraphs around so your points are made more clearly. 

Check your sentence length. Can that sentence be shorter? Shorter still? (On average your sentences should be 15-20 words.) Make sure there’s only one idea per sentence. Remember the message you’re trying to communicate. Remember the people you’re talking to.

Check your punctuation. Check your grammar. Check your facts. Make sure you’ve used an active voice. Use plain English.

How’s it looking? Print it out, check it, and edit again.

And finally…proofread your work
You’re nearly done. The last part of The Process is proofreading. Here are a few ways to proofread what you’ve written.

Print out your document and read it out loud. This is a good way to catch missing words or double words.

Read from the bottom of the page backwards. And read paragraphs out of order. This technique stops you being distracted by the meaning of the words and is a good way of spotting typos.   

Work with a ruler, keeping it just below the line you’re reading. This forces you to slow down and focus on each word.  

Touch each word with the tip of a pencil. This will make you read more slowly and will help you spot mistakes.

Remember to make sure your formatting is consistent. And if you’ve used speech marks or brackets make sure they’re in pairs. And finally, check dates, people and companies. Are they right? Are they spelt correctly? 

Phew. Done? Print it out and check it again.

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Tags: writing technique
Posted in Business writing, How to | comments icon 3 Comments »

How to write successful website copy. A beginner’s guide

17th
Mar
by Sarah Turner

You’ve decided you need a website. You’ve briefed a whizz-bang designer and you’ve found yourself agreeing to write the copy. It can’t be that difficult right? Wrong!

Writing successful website copy can be tough. But here are a few tips to get you started. 

Who’s calling?
Have a clear idea of who will be visiting your website. Will they already know about your product or service? What are they looking for? Are they going to order from your site? Know your visitor – and write punchy copy that will appeal to them.

Look at me!
Headlines and sub headings should grab your visitor’s attention. Once you’ve got ‘em hooked – keeping them on your site should be easy.

Size matters
Visitors will scan a page rather than read every word. Keep your sentences and paragraphs short and snappy.
• And use
• bullet points
• where you can.

What’s in it for me?
The history of your company may be of interest to you but your visitor just wants to know the benefits. Remember to tell them on the first page.

And………action!
Get your visitor involved by including Calls to Action: ‘download free information’, ‘call us now’ and ‘click here for more details’.

Eeeek! Be spider friendly
Use relevant keywords or phrases to ensure the search engine spiders know exactly what you site is all about. Don’t forget spiders also love clear, relevant copy so don’t drown your copy in search terms.

That’s so last year
Keep your website copy fresh and current by updating it regularly. Have a news page with company news, employee achievements or new product information. If you don’t care about your site – why will your visitor?

Don’t want to try this yourself? Call Turner Ink

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Tags: web writing
Posted in How to, Website & SEO copywriting | comments icon No comments yet »

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