Advanced Media Productions Blog http://www.advmediaproductions.com/EmployeeBlog/ My site is cool! en-us dan@advmediaproductions.com dan@advmediaproductions.com Fri, 04 Jul 2008 07:47:51 CST Fri, 04 Jul 2008 07:47:51 CST 15 copyright (c) 2008 Advanced Media Productions Blog BlogFusion 4.0 - www.blogfusion.com Advanced Media Productions Blog http://www.advmediaproductions.com/EmployeeBlog/files/BFlogo.gif http://www.advmediaproductions.com/EmployeeBlog/ 88 31 My site is cool! PPC ad writing: whose job is it? http://www.advmediaproductions.com/EmployeeBlog/index.cfm?CommentID=40 Some people think PPC ads should be written by writers; others argue PPC people. Me, I’m on the fence. I can see both sides, but having had one particularly horrid experience writing PPC ads, I’m hesitant to throw my vote to the writers’ side. But, I realize that there is a personal reason behind my resistance to writing PPC ads, and the logical part of my brain can make the argument that ad writing, of any kind, should be done by a writer.

However, logic has never been my strong suit, so this underused part of my brain needs some help. I’ve outlinedSEO copywriting PPC advertising the situation as I see it, but what I really want is some outside-of-AMP opinions. Tell me I’m wrong, an idiot, a genius, whatever. If you have any idea what I’m talking about, please help. Thanks!

The ads

If you’re familiar with PPC ads, I apologize, and feel free to skip ahead to the good part, past my way simplified definition of paid search advertising. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, I’m not sure why you’re reading this, but please continue.

Pay-Per-Click ads are pretty much what they sound like: paid advertising. They are the little ads that appear on the right hand side of a search results page (SERP) under the heading of “Sponsored Links,” “Sponsored Sites” or “Sponsor Results,” depending on what browser you’re using. Bottom line, they all use the word “sponsored” because the site paid to have them placed there, unlike the results to the left. But that’s a discussion for a different day.

These ads have a very specific format and strict character limits. Last time I checked, headlines clocked in at about 25 characters and ad copy was 2 lines with a limit of 35 characters each. So you’re looking at a full ad in under 100 characters, including headline.

The problem

What makes PPC ad writing sound so easy is exactly what makes it so hard. The formatting and space limitations are such that anyone can do them, but far fewer can do them well. Any ad can be written to fit in that space, but to effectively get a message across and convince someone to click through in 70 characters? Far more difficult. That’s half a Tweet!

The writer argument

The argument for having writers write ads is fairly straightforward: writers write. Therefore, anything that entails writing should be handled by them. A copywriter has studied the English language and/or been trained in writing in at least some capacity. Many copywriters, this one included, studied traditional print advertising, and writing PPC ads is far closer to their traditional training than writing content for SEO.

A writer working on a site is also much more in tune with the product or service that the ads are for, the target audience they are aimed at and the page the ads are directing them too. The ads will be better written, more relevant to the user and more in line with the overall marketing and messaging of the site.

The PPC argument

I’m sure there is a more technical term for these guys and gals, as well as individual job titles, but I’m lumping you together for the purposes of this post. PPC peeps work much more closely with PPC ad programs and have spent a lot of time becoming familiar with the ins and outs of paid search advertising. They are comfortable with the PPC ad formula and can work more quickly than a copywriter can, at least at first. Since this is most, if not all, they do, it is easier for them and they can produce more ads in less time.

Writers may be trained to write, but it is often a print and traditional media-centric training that does not translate as well to the web. A PPC ad writer is more adept with the short copy web format.

In writing this post, I’ve almost figured out where I come down on all this, but I’d really like to know what other people think.

Who should be writing PPC ads, a copywriter or a PPC person?

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]]> alison@advmediaproductions.com (Alison) Thu, 26 Jun 2008 11:26:00 CST http://www.advmediaproductions.com/EmployeeBlog/index.cfm?CommentID=40#comments 4 simple grammar rules for dating this writer http://www.advmediaproductions.com/EmployeeBlog/index.cfm?CommentID=39 biatch with a red pen and a super-harsh critic, especially on myself. I hate to proofread, but when I do, look out; grammar will be corrected, and viciously!

But, I also like to express myself, so I’m starting my own grammar rules, writing etiquette, copy commandments…whatever you want to call them. They’re kind of my rules to live by.

You can totally start a sentence with and. It adds dramatic effect. And makes you look like a badass who laughs in the face of “traditional” grammar rules. Except most badasses don’t care so much about grammar anyway, so you’re kind of a dorky badass. Whatever.


Semi-colons are the new parentheses. Maybe it’s just me, a weird personal preference, but I hate parentheses. No offense, you’re nice and huggy looking, and I’ve used you for awhile, but I’m so over parentheses. I think that's exactly why: you’re safe and comfy, and I used you in middle school. Time to grow up.


The Harvard comma is optional; this is so that readers can discern if something was written by a pompous suck-up, a third grader or a writer with at least some level of talent. Use at your discretion.


 If you say “alot” when you mean “a great number of,” please don’t ever try to date me.
Ditto if you put punctuation outside of quotation marks. These things make my eyes hurt and do not bode well for our future.

The usual their/there/they’re and related conundrums also annoy me, but everyone’s heard of those so I’ll spare you from more ranting. And if you happen to know of any sites with grammar personality quizzes that could explain my love of semi-colons, I’d love to know.



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Comments (2)
(Martin on 04-Jul-08) My rule for dating:

1. Be Attractive.

You fail.

(Dijkie on 04-Jul-08) And semi-colons rule!

]]> alison@advmediaproductions.com (Alison) Fri, 13 Jun 2008 15:00:00 CST http://www.advmediaproductions.com/EmployeeBlog/index.cfm?CommentID=39#comments Get your business on the 'book http://www.advmediaproductions.com/EmployeeBlog/index.cfm?CommentID=38 Facebook has been around for awhile, first as a private, semi-exclusive site, then a more public college meet-and-greet spot and finally the global social network it is today. Quickly adopted by procrastination-prone college students, then privacy-phobic pre-teens, Facebook has now become both verb and noun and is used by all kinds of businesses and brands who share one common goal—reaching people in a way they will listen.

At first, being on Facebook was enough in itself for a brand to get attention and make people think they were “hip” and “in the know.” Then Facebook really took off and people like my mom joined. Now, you’ve got to use it effectively.

I’m not saying Facebook is the be-all, end-all of the internet, or online business, or even social media. But it is a very well known part of all three, so if you’re going to join, make sure you know what you’re getting into. There are enough Facebook groupies that while a boring, bland or badly thought out profile won’t ruin you, it will incur at least internal criticism from hardcore Facebook users. Who, if you didn’t know, are more important to make like you than the one who know less than you do anyway.

So, you’ve signed up. Now what? As a business, you have two choices of Facebook formats, a profile and a page. Businesses are encouraged to go the safe, standard route and create a page, because pages were designed for groups, brands, corporations, etc. In a word (or four), not a single entity. But I’m a rebel, and I say do both. And if you can only do one, I’d pick profile.

The great and powerful Facebook came up with pages later, after the site took off, as a “solution” to businesses who wanted to jump on the bandwagon. And it shows. They’re harder to find, less fun to look at, more difficult to play with and "pimp out." In a word (just one this time), boring.

Profiles allow a lot more interaction with your customers, current and potential. This is best summed up by the fact that a user can friend their favorite brand through a profile as opposed to merely supporting it on a page. A profile carries more weight than a page, and every friend request serves as an endorsement of your product, service or store.

One caveat: since Facebook technically says that businesses belong on pages, you may need to get creative to come up with a profile that adheres to the TOS. Think spokesperson or corporate Facebook "face." And make it fun!
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]]> alison@advmediaproductions.com (Alison) Fri, 30 May 2008 11:02:00 CST http://www.advmediaproductions.com/EmployeeBlog/index.cfm?CommentID=38#comments Video optimization takes words (but not a lot of work) http://www.advmediaproductions.com/EmployeeBlog/index.cfm?CommentID=37 YouTube Awards were just announced, and while I was watching…er, working, I realized I talked about optimizing images but never got around to video optimization. So here goes.

  We don’t have the technology to optimize the actual video yet per se (it kind of exists, but it’s not yet developed or mainstream enough to be worth talking about, in my opinion), so the key to optimizing video is in the elements associated with and around it.

 Let’s say you’ve got a video from your client that they want put on their site. You could just upload it to the video page on their website and consider the job done. Or, you could take the time to optimize the video and drastically improve their ranking in the search results, earn them more money, get a big promotion and marry the heir to the company fortune.

OK, maybe not all that, but it’s worth taking a few minutes to optimize, alright?

Optimize the file name
Rename the video file something descriptive that includes major keywords; you should know what the video is about from the file name alone. E.g. fizzy-cola-soda-commercial-video.mov, not 557346-video.mov.

Write a keyword-rich title
Use this both in a title card on the video, to introduce what the viewer is about to see, in the text of the video page on your site, as your site’s video page title and as the title on vide sharing sites. Fizzy Cola Spring ’08 Soda Commercial would work.

Add text to the video page on your site
Write a short paragraph that tells people what they’re about to watch. This is helpful for people who want to know what they are about to see before the invest the time to watch a video, but more importantly, it gives the search engines something to crawl for keywords and establish relevance. Include the word “video,” as well as your brand keywords.

Submit to video-sharing sites
YouTube is the big one, but every search engine has their own as well. Submit to as many as you can to spread your reach and take advantage of Google’s Universal search, which returns relevant video results in standard SERPs as well as video ones.

Include optimized descriptions with submissions
Similar to the optimized text on your video page, but much shorter. Most sharing sites have a character limit, so get as much information and as many keywords in as few words as possible.

Tag the video with keywords
Video-sharing sites let you “tag” a video to identify relevant categories it belongs to (think blog post categories). Brainstorm some stuff people might search for and then expect to find your video; these are your tags. Some sites only allow one word tags, so the “fizzy cola” tag would actually be “fizzycola” without the space; entering “fizzy cola” would make 2 separate tags of “fizzy” and “cola.”

If you know how to write copy for search engines or optimize an image, video optimization won’t be much of a stretch. Apply your SEO copywriting skills and watch your clients move up in the results. Literally.
Click here to drive more traffic and boost your ROI with a customized SEO copywriting plan.
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]]> alison@advmediaproductions.com (Alison) Fri, 21 Mar 2008 13:30:00 CST http://www.advmediaproductions.com/EmployeeBlog/index.cfm?CommentID=37#comments Why I still like newspapers...for now http://www.advmediaproductions.com/EmployeeBlog/index.cfm?CommentID=36 basics of what I do. But explaining to people outside the industry what social media and SEO are can be a challenge. Often, it’s an age thing; my friends’ parents or my mother’s colleagues just don’t quite “get” it. But I’ve had to explain what a lot of the social media and social networking “stuff” is to people only a few years older than me.

I used to fear that this was a sign than in just a few hundred days I, too, would be obsolete and utterly confused by people Tweeting and poking me. But it seems that a recent turn in the media as a whole has spared me…at least for the next few months.

Everyday, TV, radio and print mediums embrace the internet a little bit more, creating their own social network profiles, featuring internet segments, investing in more interactive sites. Face it; they had to. So now, you can friend a news station, stream a radio show and get exclusive content at the online versions of traditional media outlets.

This acceptance and embracing of the internet as a respected communications medium has improved the overall quality of the web and its offerings, and has allowed the less tech-savvy of our population to ease their way in through a channel they find more comfortable. So what does this mean for us web geeks? Only good stuff, at least for now.

Sure, it may be harder to explain things to someone largely unfamiliar with the working of the internet, but if you really like what you do, shouldn’t you be happy to take the time to help someone else appreciate all the web has to offer? I’m thinking yes, since I’ve noticed people grasp what I do much more quickly than I used to expect.

This also means that finally, finally, clients (and random acquaintances) can see value in what I do. I’ve fought many uphill battles over things because clients couldn’t understand or didn’t really believe in the power of the internet. With fewer barriers to break through and a lot more faith in online advertising and marketing endeavors, the quality of the finished product goes up because client and webmaster are both on the same page.

So I don’t resent the five o’clock news trying to get in on the internet action with some three minute web-corner segment, and I don’t begrudge the radio station their special after-hours web/radio show. They’ve been around longer, so if that’s what it takes to get some recognition for the web, so be it. We won’t be hearing much from them soon anyway.
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]]> alison@advmediaproductions.com (Alison) Thu, 28 Feb 2008 15:35:00 CST http://www.advmediaproductions.com/EmployeeBlog/index.cfm?CommentID=36#comments Less Than Thrilled... http://www.advmediaproductions.com/EmployeeBlog/index.cfm?CommentID=35

David DiMartino PPC expert. Recognizing trouble signs, writing revisions and ad variations, knowing what required immediate reaction and what could be ridden out—piece by piece, For the better part of a year I had been studying the ins and outs of running a pay-per-click account under the tutelage of David DiMartino, our resident Excel guru and account by account the various elements of a PPC campaign came together for me.

However, while I was starting to “get” it, the idea of number crunching, bid management, position placement, and ad copy writing didn’t scream “enjoyable 8-hour day” to me.

I was wrong.

I’ve come to thoroughly enjoy helping people with their accounts. And not only that, I’ve actually become pretty good at it (at least I think I have; check back to see if Dave’s posts tell a different story).

I’ve always been a slave to keeping things painfully organized (thanks, Mom, for the O.C.D.), and have found that it translates beautifully to account-proactivity. Self-help websites like PPC Hero help to solidify newly acquired knowledge and provide up-to-the-minute updates on what’s new, while tools like Google AdWords Editor (which I highly recommend you download if you’re running a PPC account of your own) are a lifesaver when it comes to user-friendly GUI for tinkering with the accounts.


As “the n00b,” I figured I could win over some readers with some free advice. I’m learning a lot as I go, but here are a few things I’ve already figured out can make a world of difference in a PPC campaign. Without further adieu I give you: Ken's Epic Tips

Patience really is a virtue
PPC campaigns need a few weeks to get to a point where you can see what they are truly capable of. Don’t give up or expect too much early on; the internet is fast, but not that fast. Gather a few months of data before making any major campaign changes or decisions.




Refrain from searching yourself on Google
 Every click costs money, so you are wasting it if you click through to your own site through one of your pay-per-click  ads. Deliberately searching for your ads interferes with the data being collected on impressions too SO if you must peek, use “Fake Google" — or Google Preview Search.




Develop an honest keyword list
Every phrase should be a product or service that you really offer, not something “sort of similar” that gets a lot of traffic. Your Quality Score will go down if you have a lot of irrelevant terms, causing you to pay more but get less. If you’re unsure, ask yourself if you would pay to have people find you by searching for that word or phrase. If the answer is no, toss it.


Comments (1)
(John - [URL] on 26-Feb-08) Hey Kenny,

Glad to hear that PPC Hero helped turn your less then thrilled opinion of PPC around!

]]> kenny@advmediaproductions.com (Kenny) Mon, 25 Feb 2008 14:38:00 CST http://www.advmediaproductions.com/EmployeeBlog/index.cfm?CommentID=35#comments Automatic and Adwords Don't Mix http://www.advmediaproductions.com/EmployeeBlog/index.cfm?CommentID=34 recently sent word out to some advertisers about a beta test for a new feature called "Automatic Matching."  The feature is designed to help you spend your extra ad budget should you be consistently under your daily spend:



Automatic Matching automatically extends your campaign's reach by using surplus budget to serve your ads on relevant search queries that are not already triggered by your keyword lists.  By analyzing the structure and content of your website and AdWords campaigns, we deliver more impressions and clicks while maintaining your current CTRs and CPCs.

The email announcement goes on to give an example of how the system works:

Automatic Matching would automatically crawl your landing page and target your campaigns to queries such as: "shoes" "adidas" "athletic", etc., and less obvious ones such as "slippers" that our system has determined will benefit you and likely lead to a conversion on your site.

So in the tradition of Broad Match and Campaign Optimizer, Google is once again offering a service that allows you to put your Adwords campaign on autopilot while they find the best way to spend your money.  Once again, this sounds great to the small advertiser who may not have the time or expertise to manage their Adwords campaign.  Unfortunately, these are exactly the people who shouldn't be automating their PPC account.  These are the small business owners who don't have the budget to compete, and need to optimize their campaign in order to turn a profit.  All too often these advertisers throw their hands up, having spent money on PPC, seen little return, eventually giving up on the medium altogether.

It's actually frustrating to see Google implement this program.  All to often I will find myself raising campaign budgets higher then some clients would like just to keep their ads appearing for most of the day.  Now, instead of having that extra budget as a backup to maintain some visibility, Automatic Matching will eat it away on keywords I wasn't prepared to bid on?  How will information about these clicks appear on Google's reports?  Will they be providing information on exactly which keywords Automatic Matching is generating traffic with?  Or will a click for an ad that appeared for "slippers" be attributed to your keyword "shoes" as if it were broad match?  This may leave you wondering why a keyword that once performed well is suddenly in the toilet.

The easy answer is keep an eye out for such automated features regularly and make sure they get turned off.  If you're a small business working with a restrained budget, maintaining tight control of your campaign and making sure your ads stay targeted is the best way to stay successful. 
Click here to learn more about creating a tailor-made Pay-Per-Click campaign for your business.
Comments (1)
(Neil Matthews - [URL] on 04-Mar-08) I cannot agree with you more, These so called tools are just ways to increase your spend.

If it is anything like the campaign optimiser the small campaign manger will be fleeced.

A bit off topic, but I am keen to see from other readers of your blog if they have ever had a recommendation from the campaign optimiser to reduce their max CPC

]]> david@advmediaproductions.com (David) Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:37:00 CST http://www.advmediaproductions.com/EmployeeBlog/index.cfm?CommentID=34#comments Political Marketing 101...or Creative Writing 102? http://www.advmediaproductions.com/EmployeeBlog/index.cfm?CommentID=33 what font choices say about a candidate caught my eye.Political Marketing on the Internet It talks about analyzing campaign materials to determine the best candidate based on his or her lettering preference. Kind of cute, definitely amusing, but how seriously should we take this stuff? Well, I’m not losing sleep over the font we use on our political candidate’s site, but the article did get me thinking about some other considerations that are unique to political marketing.

When you’re selling a product or service, there’s a concrete (well, maybe not with a service), or at least well-defined “item” you have to pitch. Not so when that item is a person. You can’t make any guarantees about what the candidate will or won’t do; you can’t afford to admit any negatives, show weakness or make a drawback into a selling point; you have to address, and appeal to, multiple targets of very different backgrounds and lifestyles. Basically, all formal copywriting and SEO training goes out the window.

The biggest obstacle in pitching a person as a political figure is that you can’t really say anything. This goes against every print and internet copywriting guide (TV might be the exception; they seem to say a lot of nothing pretty often). But on the web, where every wordPolitical Marketing Copywriting Guide serves (or should serve) a purpose, this can be very difficult to wrap your mouse around.

Your copy has to be a lot like a political speech—it needs to sound great, stir up emotion and inspire confidence, all while sounding smooth and effortless. But you cannot really dive too deep into any one subject or issue. Not because you are lying to the readers, but because your product is changing everyday and can make no absolute promises. After all, there’s no return policy on what you’re selling.

If nothing else, you’ll get some creative writing practice.


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]]> alison@advmediaproductions.com (Alison) Thu, 31 Jan 2008 13:36:00 CST http://www.advmediaproductions.com/EmployeeBlog/index.cfm?CommentID=33#comments Don't eliminate the negative http://www.advmediaproductions.com/EmployeeBlog/index.cfm?CommentID=32 One of the best ways you can sell something is to be honest—even if that means admitting some of the drawbacks of what you’re offering. Scratch that—especially if it means admitting some of the drawbacks of what you’re offering.

By addressing the negative, you reinforce the positive and make yourself much more believable, and credible. No one is perfect and your customers are not that naïve to think that there isn’t a catch. If you tell them what it is, you beat them to the punch and get all the facts out in the open. The imagined is often far worse than the reality.

In order to write good, believable copy that sells or converts or does whatever you want it to do, you need to give your prospects the full picture. By laying all your cards out, you eliminate the need for them to go searching somewhere else for more (potentially damaging) information.

One of the most common downsides to a product is a high price. But, consumers have come to accept that a higher price reflects higher quality. The opposite is true of discount stores—you pay less for somewhat irregular items which may not be up to the high standards set by their luxury (and pricey) brand.

The worst thing you can do when trying to convert your visitors to customers is gloss over the details and lapse into advertising-ese—you know, big bold claims and lots of adjectives that don’t really say anything. When writing copy for the web, honesty really is the best policy.
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]]> alison@advmediaproductions.com (Alison) Fri, 25 Jan 2008 14:25:00 CST http://www.advmediaproductions.com/EmployeeBlog/index.cfm?CommentID=32#comments How Facebook made me a better copywriter http://www.advmediaproductions.com/EmployeeBlog/index.cfm?CommentID=31 Facebook was going to be huge before I even knew what it took to be huge in internet terms. And now look at it. Facebook has taken off because people value and use it for what it is, but I still think it is being underused by a lot of webmasters.

I’ll admit that I’m a little Facebook happy right now, so I jump at the chance to come up with a Facebook Application for any new client we get, no matter how “boring” or “unsuited” to Facebook the project seems. And while I realize on the surface it sounds like I’m trying to squish a square peg in a round hole, these Facebook fitting sessions have actually helped me write better, more targeted and unique copy.

I was, perhaps, a little overzealous (and maybe overbearing) with the Facebook Application pushing when we first started offering Facebook Application and widget development services. But as I spent more time trying to find the perfect fit for each and every client that came through the door, two things happened.

First, I learned how to very quickly tell if the client’s service would work on Facebook, and whether or not the client would go for it. If either of those looked like a “no, I didn’t need to spend much time looking for a Facebook avenue. This saved me a lot of time, but paled in comparison to my second realization.

My intense Facebook searching was, more often than not, ending prematurely when the client balked at a Facebook App and therefore considered a waste of time by some, but I saw it as just the opposite: my understanding of the client, and therefore the copywriting for their site, was improving. Score one more for Facebook!

When I became engrossed in finding a way to figure in Facebook, I was inadvertently adding an incredible market research step I had been missing before. As I tried to think of what would make me want to add a Facebook App, I became the client’s target audience, instead of a detached voice talking at the target audience.

So again, my Facebook fanaticism shows through when I say that Facebook made me a better writer. But the research Facebook inspired me to do helped me better understand what I was writing about and who I was writing to. And isn’t that every copywriter’s goal? Maybe Facebook isn’t the best fit for you, but find a way that works for you to get in your target audience’s head (or shoes, or whatever), and I promise your writing—and conversion rates—will improve.
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]]> alison@advmediaproductions.com (Alison) Fri, 11 Jan 2008 13:37:00 CST http://www.advmediaproductions.com/EmployeeBlog/index.cfm?CommentID=31#comments A picture can be worth a thousand clicks http://www.advmediaproductions.com/EmployeeBlog/index.cfm?CommentID=30 the “write” way to sell online by writing ecommerce product descriptions for maximum search engine impact. But optimizing the text a customer reads is only part of a larger SEO effort that includes optimizing images for search engines.

My post gave specific copywriting examples for ecommerce product descriptions, but my major point of advice was to take the time to put a little extra effort into any search engine optimization job. So while this SEO tutorial is primarily about image optimization for product images, these SEO practices should be applied to any graphic, photo or image you place on a website.

Optimizing images for search engine increases your chances of ranking in Google Image Search and generates an alternate source of traffic to your website. There are 3 major places you can optimize an image: the file name,Sony handheld digital video recorder the Title and Alt attributes and the caption.

Write a descriptive and keyword rich file name
Instead of the default file name assigned to an image by a digital camera, such as IMG_023.jpg, rename the file something descriptive. This makes it easier for you to find, and for search engines to index.

number. Use a hyphen (-), not an underscore (_) between words for best results, and try to keep file namesThe optimized file name should include all the important product details, such as brand, product type and model between two and four words—no more than five.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
                                                                                                       DCR-HC28 MiniDV Digital Camcorder by Sony.
       Example    
            Sony MiniDV Digital Camcorder

            Model Number:                       DCR-HC28
            Product Name:                        DCR-HC28 MiniDV Handycam® Camcorder
            Default Camera Name:         IMG_023.jpg

            Optimized File Name:            sony-minidv-camera-dcrhc28.jpg

Write keyword rich titles and ALT tags
Take the time to attach a keyword rich description for both the ALT and TITLE attributes of the image tag descriptions should be about seven to eight words long. Try to make the ALT and TITLE attributes different to. These incorporate more keywords.

        Example
            Sony MiniDV Digital Camcorder
           
            Name:        sony-minidv-camera-dcrhc28.jpg
            ALT:            Sony handheld digital video recorder    
            TITLE:        Sony MiniDv DCR-HC28 camcorder

Place a short image description below the picture
Write a keyword rich caption of the image and place it directly below the product picture.

        Example
            Sony MiniDV Digital Camcorder
            DCR-HC28 MiniDV Digital Camcorder by Sony

And that’s it, an easy, painless, 10 minute SEO job that can dramatically improve search engine results when used consistently and correctly.
Click here to drive more traffic and boost your ROI with a customized SEO copywriting plan.
Comments (5)
(Gab Goldenberg - [URL] on 10-Jan-08) You optimized the hell out of this post, very nice job! I was just writing a report on this for a client and my summary was exactly what you've suggested. Plus I see the keyword rich headers, without being spammy about it. Awesome work!

(Eish - [URL] on 11-Jan-08) Nice idea! Its good to have all bases covered.

(Spare wheel - [URL] on 11-Jan-08) I limited my pictures at 3 words, now I think I'll make it with 4 words. thanks.

(Reynder - [URL] on 14-Jan-08) Nice clear and effective post!

(SEO Arnab - [URL] on 02-Feb-08) This is one area where most people get lost. Nice post. Keep up the good work.

]]> alison@advmediaproductions.com (Alison) Wed, 09 Jan 2008 11:20:00 CST http://www.advmediaproductions.com/EmployeeBlog/index.cfm?CommentID=30#comments Podcast? What's a podcast? http://www.advmediaproductions.com/EmployeeBlog/index.cfm?CommentID=29 Podcasting is an under-used but very effective tool for SEO. Some say that podcasts, like radio broadcasts, are a dying medium, but I disagree. Podcasting, like radio, fails in our eyes when we expect too much and want it to be something it simply is not. If we take it for what it is, we can capitalize on the intended experience and take advantage of the huge potential it possesses. It is when we demand more than it is capable of that a podcast falls short of our (and our audience's) expectations.

The phenomenal success of video sites like YouTube furthered the argument that podcasting’s time had come and gone. But the appeal and utility of a podcast is in its differences from video; it is not an inferior medium, just a different one. Many webmasters have espoused the virtues and benefits of podcasting; what follows are just a few of my major selling points:

Provides Additional Content for Search Engine Optimization
Done correctly, a podcast will merge print with audio to increase SEO benefits. Most commonly, a podcast is included in a blog and accompanied by show notes that provide an overview of the audio content for the listener—and text for the search engine crawler.

Delivers a Captive Audience
Podcasts can be downloaded to an iPod or other MP3 player and listened to on the go, or played online while at work. There’s a much greater chance of someone listening to a podcast as background noise while they do something else than there is of someone taking time out of their day to watch a video, especially a lengthy one.

Adds Personality and Interest to Your Site
A podcast allows you to show your strengths and position yourself as an authority, but it also makes you more accessible to potential customers. The human voice is a powerful force that is used to build trust, and a podcast delivered with confidence can be very persuasive.

Podcasting will take your website to the next level. Most of what I blog about is going the extra step, putting in a little more effort to achieve great results, and podcasting is just another step in that direction.


Click here to drive more traffic and boost your ROI with a customized SEO copywriting plan.
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]]> alison@advmediaproductions.com (Alison) Thu, 27 Dec 2007 20:56:00 CST http://www.advmediaproductions.com/EmployeeBlog/index.cfm?CommentID=29#comments The write way to sell online http://www.advmediaproductions.com/EmployeeBlog/index.cfm?CommentID=28 In a competitive industry, it’s the little things that matter, the make or break details that separate the big time players from the average Joe’s. This is especially true on the internet, where the web allows even less than mediocre ecommerce sites to “compete” with the big boys. Almost anyone can put up a web site, cluttering the search engines with broken or irrelevant sites. While frustrating for customers and annoying for webmasters, in some ways these sites allow serious etailers the chance to shine.

It’s easy to put a sub-par web site online, and there are lots of Black Hat SEO tricks to get an ecommerce site to rank, but these shortcuts will only take you so far. One of the things I always stress to clients is the value in putting in that little extra effort and making sure everything is optimized as best it can be. If there’s a way to make it better, do it.

One of the best examples of the varying degrees of a search engine optimization effort is ecommerce product entry. A lazy SEO can write an ecommerce product description in minutes; a thorough SEO professional will need at least 15 minutes, maybe more, but the difference in quality and results is so tremendous that the small time difference hardly seems a waste—more like an investment.

Take a look at the product description guide below to get a better idea of what an extra 15 minutes can mean for effective search engine optimization—and for your business:

Title
"Sony DCR-HC28 MiniDV Handycam Camcorder"

A good title includes the brand, model number (if applicable) and full factory name, as well as the kind of product (camcorder) in order to rank for shoppers looking for any combination of those terms.

Short Description
"Get close to the action while minimizing blur as you shoot high-quality video with the DCR-HC28 MiniDV Handycam® camcorder."

The short description repeats the name for SEO purposes and tells shoppers what it does without getting technical; it provides enough information to let them decide if that is or isn’t what they are looking for.

Long Description
The Sony long description is good—so good, in fact, that it’s too long to post. Check it out here.

The long description gives every nitty-gritty detail a potential buyer could possibly want. More information builds trust in the product and confidence in the web site, while providing enough information to rank high in the SERP and, most importantly, persuade a customer to buy an item—particularly an expensive one. The higher the price of the item, the longer the description should be.

Specifications
Again, too long, but check it out here.

Specifications are important for technological or pricey items; it’s much easier to organize information this way and there’s a lot more potential to use a keyword when you can put it in a bulleted list as opposed to having to write a full and complete sentence.

A longer, fuller product description allows for more keyword repetition, which ups the chances of ranking on the first page. Which brings more people to look at the item, and read that longer description, which is more likely to persuade them to buy it. Which means, a detailed product description that is properly optimized sells more stuff.

It’s a simple if A=B and B=C, then A=C equation. If you put a little more time (and possibly money) into search engine optimization efforts in in the beginning, you will save time having to rewrite underperforming descriptions, save money driving traffic through PPC ads, and make more money by having well-written ads that drive traffic naturally and sell themselves. Well worth the effort, don’t you think?


Click here to drive more traffic and boost your ROI with a customized SEO copywriting plan.
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]]> alison@advmediaproductions.com (Alison) Fri, 14 Dec 2007 15:26:00 CST http://www.advmediaproductions.com/EmployeeBlog/index.cfm?CommentID=28#comments The big SEO no-no http://www.advmediaproductions.com/EmployeeBlog/index.cfm?CommentID=27 I talk a lot about what you should do as an SEO copywriter, and I was starting to feel a little preachy. So in order to make it really preachy, I’d like to tell you what definitely not to do for a change. Probably not much of a real change, but sometimes I think it’s easier to understand what you could be better at when you see what’s flat-out wrong and decide how to improve on your own—you’re better able to recognize the good or bad in yourself when presented with it, so if I keep saying “do this, do that,” the natural tendency is to think “ I already do do that.”

So anyway, now that I’ve sufficiently explained away my reasons for tsk tsking my readers, on to some actual useful information: Don’t. Use. Advertisese. That's it, those are my big words of wisdom, stop reading now and take a nap or something. Unless you really want to get better at this, in which case, please read on.

What’s advertisese? The kiss of death, for starters. Advertisese is advertising doublespeak; big, lofty, empty claims that tell and potential customer with half a brain that you are not better, different, new, improved, better tasting or free at all; you are exactly the same as before and you know it, which is why you couldn’t come up with anything real to say.

One of my favorite SEO copywriting sources, The Grok put out a list of the “7 Deadly Claims” copy uses, and I think it’s dead on about what never to say in serious content that you actually hope sells anything:

  1. Superior/World-Class Customer Service
  2. Easy to Use
  3. Experienced Recruiters, Sales Reps, Consultants, Technicians, etc.
  4. Number 1 in Our Industry
  5. 100% Risk Free
  6. Next Generation / Cutting Edge
  7. Best Value, Highest Quality, Gourmet, Professional Grade, etc.

These are all empty promises or claims that do nothing to persuade or inform the customer; they are cop-outs when your product isn’t really good enough to warrant talking about but you have to do it anyway.

So here’s the “Do:” find the thing that makes your product/site/service/client stick out. What is unique about it? It may be small and seemingly insignificant, but it’s your job to make it a big deal. Figure out what their draw is, and who that appeals to. Then talk about the actual qualities and benefits of the product, not generalities that sound like they’ll sell.


Click here to drive more traffic and boost your ROI with a customized SEO copywriting plan.
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]]> alison@advmediaproductions.com (Alison) Wed, 05 Dec 2007 10:45:00 CST http://www.advmediaproductions.com/EmployeeBlog/index.cfm?CommentID=27#comments Blogs are the new beat http://www.advmediaproductions.com/EmployeeBlog/index.cfm?CommentID=26 The Arketi Group just released their 2007 Web Watch Survey, a website usability report that “seeks to understand the opinions of business-to-business journalists and their use of Web 2.0 technology. The survey reveals that when it comes to using blogs as primary or secondary sources for articles, 84 percent of journalists say they would or already have.”

More proof that the internet provides a wealth of free or low-cost publicity, provided you put in the time and effort in up front. Journalists are actively looking for topics and stories, pulling information off the internet, as opposed to the old days where PR agencies were pushing and feeding them news stories. This is a great opportunity for small yet web-savvy businesses to capitalize on their technological know-how and industry expertise to grab some free press—and the holy internet grail, free links.

When 84% of journalists say they use or would use blogs as sources for articles, your first thought better be “I need a blog.” If you have a limited budget and want to compete with the big boys, small but smart changes to your site can provide the boost you need to differentiate yourself. Blogs are great for all the virtues I’ve extolled in the past, but just when I thought they couldn’t get any better, journalists decide they’re great news resources. Are you convinced yet?

If you don’t have the time or the resources to blog yourself, consider hiring a blog ghostwriter. I’ve written several blogs for our clients, with great success. If that’s outside your budget, there are still some easy ways to fix up your website and make it more useful to journalists—and your customers.

Contact Information
Make sure your contact info is up-to-date and helpful. If you’re a larger company, list several different departments so journalists (and consumers) can find the right person to talk to, without getting the run around.

About Page
Update your About page to keep it relevant and fresh—there’s nothing worse than a site that makes it glaringly obvious that no one is maintaining it. As your business changes, make sure your website grows along with it. This helps journalists anticipate stories by knowing what’s going on, and what’s coming up.

Graphics and Images
Use publication-quality graphics, photos and images whenever possible, and optimize them so they’re easier to find. High quality photos are more likely to be used in an online or print article or contained within a blog post.

There are a lot poorly designed websites that are bouncing customers and journalists like trampolines. Catch some of these cast-offs with a website that sticks, and reap all the benefits of free press and maybe, just maybe, a few good links.
 

Click here to drive more traffic and boost your ROI with a customized SEO copywriting plan.
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]]> alison@advmediaproductions.com (Alison) Tue, 27 Nov 2007 15:02:00 CST http://www.advmediaproductions.com/EmployeeBlog/index.cfm?CommentID=26#comments A proactive approach to online reputation management http://www.advmediaproductions.com/EmployeeBlog/index.cfm?CommentID=24 Dan and I have worked on several online reputation management programs together, and I think they’re some of the more interesting and fun (in a work way) projects we’ve undertaken. He talks about reputation management a little bit, but here’s my rundown of how it works:

Someone says something bad about you on the internet, whether it be in the form of a blog, news story, Wikipedia article or compliant site. Whatever the media, there’s some bad press out there. And regardless of whether or not you did what your accusers say (innocent until proven guilty, right, so who am I to judge?), it’s not going away. In fact, it’s getting worse.

You can’t tear down the site like a slanderous billboard, and you can’t face your accuser in a debate. In fact, you can’t do anything to refute the claim without drawing more negative attention to it and hurting your own cause. So what do you do? Implement an Online Reputation Management Program to replace the bad with good and make it harder for people to drag up bad press.

But that’s after-the-fact, and retroactive solutions usually only come into play once some sort of damage has been done. To solidify yourself as a major player and credibly expert in your industry, you need to take a proactive approach that guards against false accusations and bad publicity.

Reputation link baiting can help you protect yourself by keeping negative search engine results from showing up on the first page. Start building links now, before there’s a problem, and get your company’s name out there. Tag videos and images correctly to better optimize for Google’s Universal Search; start a blog and add frequently indexed content to your site; keep up with the blogosphere and comment on other industry blogs; join a social networking site like Facebook and make your company look “cool.”

The point is, get yourself noticed for good stuff before anything bad shows up at all. Then, if you run into a problem down the line, you’re one step ahead of your detractors.

Click here to drive more traffic and boost your ROI with a customized SEO copywriting plan.
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]]> alison@advmediaproductions.com (Alison) Mon, 26 Nov 2007 15:35:00 CST http://www.advmediaproductions.com/EmployeeBlog/index.cfm?CommentID=24#comments Rudy Giuliani Can Rest Easy http://www.advmediaproductions.com/EmployeeBlog/index.cfm?CommentID=23 Reddit are conspiring against presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, who's currently using PPC ads to display on such keywords as "immigration," "tax cuts," and "ethanol fuel."  Realizing that Giuliani will have to pay for each click on his ads, the original poster is rallying users to begin clicking furiously in the hopes of racking up PPC costs and drain precious campaign funds.  Well, as much as I support such grassroots efforts to "participate" in the political process, I don't think Rudy has much to worry about.

Oh, I certainly expect clicks to spike for a little while.  But there are more than a few problems with making this work.  First of all, every Adwords campaign has a daily budget.  So maybe they'll see "thousands go down the drain" but it will never be any more than what the campaign was willing to spend anyway.  Also, those images of greedy Google executives who don't care about clicks without intent are a little innacurate.  Google's aware of click fraud and how it could do irreperable damage to the medium.  So your first click on Giuliani's ad might cost him something.  But repeated clicks?  Google will see right through you and filter a lot of those clicks right out.

If I were running Giuliani's PPC campaign right now I'd be keeping an eye out for keywords that are suddenly spiking in click traffic.  I can turn these keywords off, or use negative keywords to filter out some of the traffic.  In fact, the original poster links to a Google search for the word "giuliani" where, coincidentally, no PPC ads for the Giuliani campaign are currently showing.  While I'm sure some Reddit users are seeing this as a victory, to me, it looks like smart PPC management, since their ads are clearly still running elsewhere.  

I'm pretty sure I'd be running a serious analytics program on this campaign.  So I should have a lot of keyword data collected at this point.  I could bid on thousands of tail keywords and still get the traffic I need, and make it a lot harder for Reddit users to find us.  What about targeting content network ads?  AdSense publishers with presidential campaign coverage might be licking there lips about this right now, but I can counter efforts here even more easily.  I'd simply use a Site-Targeted campaign with CPM bids.  You can click on those ads all day long, and it won't cost the campaign a cent.  CPM ads are commonly used for branding campaigns that are looking to attract eyes to their message rather than visits to their sites.

Which brings us to the real point.  An election campaign using PPC ads is just another branding campaign.  Giuliani is using his PPC budget to promote his platform and spread the word about his message.  And because we're talking about it right now?  Mission Accomplished.  So click away.  For them it's money well spent.
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]]> david@advmediaproductions.com (David) Wed, 21 Nov 2007 13:02:00 CST http://www.advmediaproductions.com/EmployeeBlog/index.cfm?CommentID=23#comments Give thanks for SEO copywriting one-stop shopping http://www.advmediaproductions.com/EmployeeBlog/index.cfm?CommentID=22 It’s one of those off weeks where your body’s at work but your mind’s somewhere else—making shopping lists, Thanksgiving dinner menus and black Friday game plans. So please forgive today’s short, but very informative, post.

GrokDotCom just posted the second installment of a two-part series that is the ultimate SEO copywriting cheat sheet. In it, they provide 101 super valuable links and resources for every copywriting question, ambiguity and conundrum.

From writing headlines that get heard to crafting content for customers, drafting effective email marketing and banging out blogs, back around to the age old long vs. short copy debate and the beast that is branding, the persuasion experts at The Grok have it covered.

The Grok is known for the powers of persuasion and I highly recommend taking a look at the writers and blogs they back, whether you want to become a better SEO copywriter for yourself or a client, or just want to know what the heck we do to make a site read, and rank, well.

Click here to drive more traffic and boost your ROI with a customized SEO copywriting plan.
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]]> alison@advmediaproductions.com (Alison) Tue, 20 Nov 2007 15:21:00 CST http://www.advmediaproductions.com/EmployeeBlog/index.cfm?CommentID=22#comments Semantic SEO http://www.advmediaproductions.com/EmployeeBlog/index.cfm?CommentID=21 XHTML markup is becoming crucial to SEO

As of right now, you will probably never hear these comments from a client in an SEO contract: “ HEY! The most relevant information on my homepage is not in an <h1> tag!" Or, "HEY! You put the title of that section in a <span> tag; it should be in an <h2> tag.

Although it’s nice not to have to listen to clients making comments regarding how their web site is marked up, the subject of these comments is becoming progressively relevant to SEO, and who knows, may become common concerns for future clients. Semantic xhtml markup is something that cannot be ignored when optimizing a site for search.

Spiders are a lot like us

Behind all of the brains that go into search engine spiders, their primary goal is based on a very simple concept. They are tools set out to do what every single one of us does when we browse for a topics on the internet; find the most relevant and legitimate content that addresses a specific topic. And, based on what is found, “rank” (or for us, bookmark) each page based on how relevant the content is to our topic.

As humans, we make judgments of relevancy and legitimacy on the internet with our eyes by taking quick glances at websites. If a web page is initially very easy to read and the titles or highlighted content relates closely to the topic at hand, we’ll bookmark the page for further reading. After browsing the content we then figure out how legit the source is, by looking up on the reputation / popularity of the domain name.

The same is true for search engines, although, since search engine spiders don’t have eyes and can only interpret a page based on the code it reads, structure and readability on a web site is determined in large part, by xhtml markup. Just as we determine the content’s relevancy to our topic by looking at the titles or highlighted content on the page, and the general readability of the information, search engines do the same thing with code. The more organized and structured the markup is, the more relevant the page will appear to search engines. Organized, hierarchical markup that clearly describes what the content is, and how important it is, will help your site rank higher in the search engines.

As more and more sites adapt semantic web design principles, the more important clearly defined and structured xhtml markup will become in search engine marketing.

Clean it up or throw it away

Semantic markup is a fairly new concept, now being adapted by most web developers. As a result, while the number of semantic websites increases, non-semantic websites will begin to seem progressively out of date and irrelevant to the search engines. Just like when we throw out old clothes if they go out of style, search engines will begin to throw out sites that contain garbage, non-structured xhtml code. Well actually, it’s safe to say they won’t get thrown out because search engines are pack rats, but they will definitely get moved to the back of the closet.

Click here to learn more about our design services and start building your custom website.
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]]> rob@advmediaproductions.com (Rob) Mon, 19 Nov 2007 13:17:00 CST http://www.advmediaproductions.com/EmployeeBlog/index.cfm?CommentID=21#comments Now You See Me, Now You Don't http://www.advmediaproductions.com/EmployeeBlog/index.cfm?CommentID=20
Was that statement obvious?  Maybe.  But if so, then why are there people who keep looking for PPC ads as if they were print ads?  Nothing sends clients into a panic like not seeing their PPC ad on the Google or Yahoo results page whenever they search for one of their keywords.  "If my ad isn't showing up then what am I paying for?"  If you find yourself thinking about that then stop for a second.  Sometimes there's a bright side to your ad not appearing.  PPC isn't about showing your ad to everyone.  It's about showing it to the right people.

There are a couple of different reasons why your ad may not be showing.  It could be you've run up your budget for the day.  But that means you've been getting traffic!  You're paying for every click on your ad, so the only way your budget can run out is if you've been getting visitors.  So if the budget is the reason, you can at least feel good knowing you've gotten some targeted traffic for the amount of money you were willing to spend.

Another reason your ad isn't showing up could be related to geographic targeting.  Maybe you've targeted your campaign to a certain area, and when you're doing your search, Google can't determine what physical location you're doing your search from.  This could be a problem; you want your ad to show up for people in the target area.  Better safe than sorry though.  Geographic targeting isn't perfect, but it's better to feel secure that your ad is showing up only where it's supposed to.

And that's the point.  The great thing about paid advertising online is targeting, targeting, targeting.  Remember you're paying for every click, so you don't want the wrong people visiting.  There's always ways to get more traffic if you have to.  But sometimes just a little bit of the right traffic goes a long way.  So get used to not seeing your ads sometimes.  It might actually be a good thing.
Click here to learn more about creating a tailor-made Pay-Per-Click campaign for your business.
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]]> david@advmediaproductions.com (David) Fri, 16 Nov 2007 16:53:00 CST http://www.advmediaproductions.com/EmployeeBlog/index.cfm?CommentID=20#comments