All Entries Tagged With: "Website Content"

Article and Website Content Cheapskates

I see this everywhere and still cannot believe that people do not get it. Content is still king on the web.

Website Content

The most important thing you will ever do for your website is to put in good content. Great content will get you links and your position in the search engine results will be because of the content you put into your website.

Hundreds of back links will not get you ranked well with poor content. Great content will get you good keyword positioning with or without back links, therefore, content is still the most important aspect of your website. Great design, flash, graphics, and a cool banner will not get you ranked well for your keywords and phrases. Great content will!

Let’s first look at your website content. Images are great with alt tags. That helps. But it is the text on the pages that, when done correctly, will help your search engine results. This text is also what will convert your customers into sales.

This text is what your customers will read or not read based on it’s quality. This same text is what the search engines will analyze when they decide how relevant your WebPages are to the search phrase you wish them to send you visitors from.

Article Content

Now, let us talk about article marketing.  If you know about article marketing at all, you know you will be submitting articles all over the web. The links in the author bio at the bottom return visitors to your website if they read and like the articles, you write or have written for you.

Just having your articles in thousands of article directories is not the goal of article marketing, although there are article-marketing gurus out there who think it is. The goal is for webmasters to find those articles and place them in their blogs and websites. If they use your article, their website or blog is likely related to the same topic as your website.

You are looking for these quality links. The links for just being in the article directories do not hurt you, but they do not help nearly as much as those from related websites do.

Your other hope is that thousands of people read your articles. Do you really want people to read poorly written articles and associate that poor quality with your website? Well-written articles get people to read them all the way to the bottom where your links are located. Well-written articles reflect well on your website and your reputation.

If the articles are of great quality then likely your products and services must be great as well. The reverse is also true in the reader’s minds. If the articles are written poorly, then likely your products and services are of little or no value as well. It is not only about the number of keywords and phrases placed into the article folks.

With all of that being said, I still find all over the web, especially at freelancer websites, people going in and saying things like; “I need 400 articles written for SEO and I’m willing to pay $1.50 per article.” Or they say something like; “I need someone to write content for my website and I’m only willing to pay $10 per page.”

I really try to refrain from telling people they are, well . . . stupid, but I am finding it harder and harder each day when I read this stuff.

They will spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars to have their website designed so it looks really pretty, but the text, the stuff that will actually get good search engine results and sales, they go after cheap content.

Writers that know how to write text that not only is appealing to the reader, but that is also written with the keywords and phrases in mind, are worth being paid well. The moment you start hiring better writers and paying for text that converts sales, you will begin to be successful on the web. That cheap content is not going to make you any money.

A website that is beautiful but gets no traffic and sales may as well be an ugly website. An ugly website that ranks well in the search engine and that makes sales gets more beautiful by the dollar.

Is Optimizing Web Content The Same As Optimizing A Press Release?

Many business owners think that the process of optimizing a press release is the same process of optimizing a website. While there are some similarities, there are some differences as well.

Press releases, for instance, don’t need meta data. That is, unless you are also going to use them as website content. In other words, if you are going to write a press release and turn it into a page on your website then you should write meta tags for it. But if your press release is going to be submitted to press release directories then the meta tags will often be written by the directory managers. You won’t have to worry about it.

Also, with website content, design is very important for a page to look good and optimization is wrapped up in the design as much as in the content. With press releases, design is not so much a concern. But you might add additional elements like videos, photos, and other graphics. You might have to include those in your optimization efforts.

Both press releases and web pages need some level of optimization. How you go about it is slightly different for each, however.

What’s The Difference Between Articles And Web Content?

Is there a marked difference between an article for article marketing purposes and website content? It’s a question that we hear often enough that I thought I’d answer it here. While some of our clients use articles for website content, this is not the preferred method of building a website. Articles for article marketing purposes follow a specific pattern whereas website content is more free flow and open, custom-formatted to meet the needs of a specific client.

Of course, I’m not saying that articles are all “out of the box” and not customizable. They are customizable in terms of the content, but in terms of the format they generally follow the same structure. That’s not the case with website content.

When you write an article for article marketing purposes you are trying to give away your knowledge without giving away the farm. You aren’t trying to sell your services. Website content, on the other hand, is a direct sales pitch. You ARE trying to sell your services and you want a call to action on every page of your website where you expect your website visitor to interact with you. With articles, you just want your reader to click a link and visit your website. That’s the major difference.

So intent. Format and intent. Those are the two major differences between articles and website content. One is a sales tool and the other is a pre-sales tool. Articles tend to be a fixed length, but website content is as long as it needs to be to close the sale. Each page has its own necessary format and structure. You want your articles to interest your readers enough that they’ll visit your website, then you want them to buy something and you want your website content to close the sale.

For more information on articles or website content, contact us today.

Articles Vs. Website Content: Information Vs. Sales

Articles are information. Website content is sales. Many webmasters aren’t quite sure about this distinction. I often here new webmasters refer to website content as articles. But articles and website content serve different functions. There is one exception to this, however. If your website is an information publishing website and you rely on AdSense ads and other display advertising as your sole or primary revenue source then you can view your website content as articles. Otherwise, there’s a world of difference.

Most service companies have websites that sell their services. Companies that have products for sell use a website to sell product. You can have articles on your website, sure, but be sure to make a distinction between your articles, which are meant to convey useful information to your target audience, and your website content, which is meant to close sales. Is your website closing sales? Maybe it’s because you need to stop thinking about your content as articles.