Launching your new website
Sometimes, when I talk to clients about launching their new website, I get blank looks. Often, as far as the client is concerned, that hard work is done. They have had a lot of decisions to make and – sometimes – a lot of new information to take in. When the website is ready, what they really want to do is heave a sigh of relief and sit back and watch the leads come in. That’s not the real world.
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If you’re going to write online, it’s a good idea to be an online writer
Don’t tell me that title doesn’t make sense, because it does. It’s all the fault of Web 2.0 of course – they say – but there are so many people who write on the internet who can’t write effectively and … don’t understand the internet. Truly. Think of other walks of life. Can you be a doctor, a plumber, a pilot or a beautician without some sort of training? Nope.
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Yes, search engines do care about spelling and grammar
It seems that I’m on a ‘spelling and grammar’ roll at the moment because I see that was the subject of my last rant. And yes (I’m sighing) people frequently ask me how important these factors are in the eyes of search engines. (Actually, I love the mental image of all these googlebots running around with eyes on stalks). Look at it this way – what company is the largest publishing company in the world?
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‘Excuse the spelling and grammar….’
Actually, no I won’t. You see, I’m increasingly finding this phrase all over the place and it’s followed by ‘I’m using my phone / tablet’. Someone explain this to me,please? I use these devices regularly but nevertheless, that doesn’t mean that my ability to spell flies out of the window. When I’m writing on my laptop, PC, phone or iPad, I still know when and where to use an apostrophe or hyphen. Just because I’m using my phone, I still know the difference between ‘their’, ‘there’ and they’re’. Strange that, isn’t it?
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Content marketing is more than just ‘writing stuff’
Yep, that’s how I recently heard it described. As you might imagine, this came from a client who thinks that it might be an idea to have his secretary ‘write stuff’ for his website. Yes, secretary. This is about as daft as those business owners all those years ago who thought it was a good idea to put their secretaries or worse, their IT guy in charge of their social media (by which they invariably meant their ‘Facebook page)’. Well, the good news is that things have moved on from there and businesses realize that there’s just a little more to social media. But content marketing?
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Are backlinks now illegal?
I enjoy receiving emails with questions and this was the latest – do search engines now see it as ‘illegal’ to have backlinks pointing to your site? No of course not, that would be silly. The question came from a client who is ‘considering’ employing what she calls ‘SEO experts’. She has a website that wasn’t built with search engines in mind from day one – so not one created by us, obviously. Because her SEO company talked a lot about linking, and because she reads my rants regularly, she needed to know if this was wise.
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Content marketing isn’t for my company
Do you know how many times I’ve heard that? Usually this is from startups or small businesses. Which is a shame because content marketing levels the playing field. At one time, the startup or small business had no chance at all when it came to competing with the ‘big boys’. Now they do.
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Making the most of the news
In the UK – and beyond – most businesses are hoping to capitalize in some way from the birth of the two royal babies that are currently expected. One, will be third in line to the throne and therefore this is a highly significant world event. Yeah, yeah, there’s the usual commemorative stuff which will no doubt be overpriced but one UK business has had a remarkable success with a publicity stunt that has been reported far and wide as headline news.
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Then listen to Google
You’ve often heard me lament that people, when taking advice about internet presence and search engines, would actually rather believe a twenty five year old teckie rather than an old female hippie. I’ve never understood this because what we are talking about here is marketing using the best tool we have at our disposal. But, as I have moaned often, there are those who will take the advice of IT people rather than experienced internet marketers. Ho hum.
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Do you study Google trends?
We do – a lot. Why? Because anyone who writes online, runs a blog, or is a content marketer must know what people are looking for on the internet. That’s pretty obvious, isn’t it? I’m not saying that a real estate agent should write about Kim Whats-her-name because there are millions of results for that search term ( well, for her real name but I can’t spell it) but you should at least know what the popular search terms are in your field of expertise.
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A simple editorial calendar – so easy
Who wants old information? No-one. Who wants topical information? Everyone. OK, maybe that’s a bit simplistic but why so many content marketers and businesses don’t have an editorial calendar is totally beyond my comprehension. If ever there was an easy way to get attention – an easy way to give your customers what they are looking for – then an editorial calendar is that method. But how many companies completely ignore this?
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You still want to rely on Google?
Are you mad? Sorry but there is so much nonsense written on the internet about Penguin, Panda and no doubt we shall soon have a platypus or something, and I wonder so much about the amazing amount of energy that’s being spent debating, analyzing and generally moaning & groaning because your careful SEO (or worse, the amount of money you spent with an SEO company) was all a waste. I did warn you a long time ago…
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