Content Writer Micky’s Blog

Archive for the ‘Content Writing & SEO Tips’ Category

Sometimes, website owners want their website (read: their homepage) to rank well for so many different SEO keyword phrases that there is no focus and in the end, the website doesn’t rank well for any of them.

My tips for focusing your SEO keywords so they’re more effective:

• Start out with a long list of all possible keyword phrases and combinations you think are relevant for your website.
• Do your keyword research so you can put them in order of the best ones to target and delete the ones that won’t be worth your trouble.
• Don’t forget to check out the competition. If your desired keyword is very generic and very popular, there will be millions of sites you’ll be competing with, so choose your keywords wisely – often keyword phrases of 2, 3 or even 4 words are most effective.
• Choose no more than about 3  keyword phrases per web page to really focus on – different ones for each page. If you target the exact same keyword phrase with different pages, you’ll dilute the strength of each of them. (OK, 3 is an average – sometimes it will be just 2 and sometimes there can be 4 short keyword phrases.)
• Reserve the most important keywords for your Homepage. These should cover your main or most popular products/services and if you’re a local business, your general location as well (using the location terms people tend to use for a local search in your area).
• Keep a list of all your targeted keyword phrases and the corresponding pages on your site you have optimised for those keywords.
• Optimise each of your pages for their different targeted keyword phrases.
• Get quality backlinks to your most important pages (not just your homepage), with the SEO keywords in the text link matching the targeted keywords of the page it links to.

One example of a website that I’ve recently helped by creating more focused website content for the homepage is a Phoenix real estate company in the US that lists lots of Arizona homes for sale. In a market that is incredibly competitive, it’s important to really focus your keywords. With Phoenix and Tucson real estate being the company’s major offerings, these are the phrases the homepage has been optimised for. Other keywords and real estate locations can be left to the site’s inside pages.

Bottom line: it’s important not to try to optimise one web page for too many different keywords. Because Title tags are so important and they can’t be long, it’s impossible to include too many exact keyword phrases anyway.

So focus on about 3 SEO keyword phases per page and then really optimise each page for their targeted terms (but don’t OVER-optimise it either - keyword spamming is an absolute no-no!)

I can help you if you’ve lost focus – or if you’re just not sure about the SEO keywords to target, or how to best optimise your website for your keywords. Find out more on my SEO content page of my website or contact me with your enquiry.

If your company or brand name is commonly misspelled, you may miss out on targeted visitors to your website.

Why don’t you try it out?

Go to Google, Bing or Yahoo and type the common misspelling of your name into the search box. What results do you get?

Don’t worry: If your site is still right there as the top result because there is simply nothing else out there that has that misspelled word in it and outranks you, then you don’t have to worry about it – for the moment.

Worry: But what if other websites come up instead of yours and your site is nowhere to be seen? We already know that most people are either impatient or lazy online, so those are visitors – yes: potential paying customers – that you have lost, perhaps forever. Especially if there are competing sites above yours in the results.

Remember, these people are searching for your brand or company name. That means they are already highly qualified visitors who know about you and want to find out more about you. You can be sure you’re losing money if these people cannot find you easily.

So what can you do?

You have to try to catch these people somehow. Depending on the quantity and quality of the websites that come up when you type in your misspelled name, you can do a number of things:

• Add the misspellings to your META Keywords tag.
  You can always do this anyway, just in case, but if there is even ANY competition for those words, it won’t do you much good if this is the only place where those words will appear because the META Keywords tag is mostly ignored when it comes to ranking websites in search results.
• Use the words in the content of one of your web pages.
  That is a good start because the search engines will be able to ‘read’ it but again, if there are other websites that come up in the results for the misspelling above your site, then this isn’t likely to help very much either.
• Optimise a page on your website for the misspelling.
  You can create a web page on your site and really optimise it for the misspelled word or words by using it in the page name (yourdomain.com.au/misspelled-brandname.html), at the start of the all-important Title tag and several times within the content of the page. Submit the page to search engines or link to it from somewhere to ensure it is indexed and give it some time to see if the optimised page ranks well so people will be able to find you via the misspelled name this way.
• Buy & redirect domain name with misspelling.
  If you know or think that people are typing your domain name directly into the address bar, you can purchase the domain names with your misspelled brand or company name in it and arrange an automatic redirect to your website. That way you’re also ensuring nobody else can take advantage of your commonly misspelled name. But it won’t help with ranking for those misspelled words. A redirected domain name with no website on it doesn’t show up in search results.
• Buy misspelled domain name and put a simple web page up with links to your site.
  If you think people are likely to type in your brand or company name wrongly and other sites come up in the search results that may be similar or competing to yours (which will either just confuse people or cause them to buy from someone else), it may be a good idea to buy the domain name with the common misspelling and put a page up that is optimised for that term. You now have a mini-site with the misspelled word or words as the actual domain name and prominently appearing in the Title tag and the content of the page as well. Submit it to search engines or link to it from somewhere, wait a while until it’s indexed and see if that now ranks first for your misspelled name. If not, you may also want to spend some time to get incoming links to the page with the misspelled terms in the link text.
  IMPORTANT: Don’t forget to link prominently from this domain to your actual site so you are getting those qualified visitors onto your own website, which is the whole point of the exercise!

Real-life example:

A client of mine is called Lintan Health. They do radio commercials and apparently there’s a good number of people who hear, and then search for, Linton Health. Unfortunately, the Lintan Health website doesn’t rank well in those search results because there are several companies that are called Linton and some of them are even active in the health sector.

To ensure that the company doesn’t lose out on potential customers, I bought lintonhealth.com.au and the cheapest hosting package available and put a one-page website up that is optimised for Linton Health. After some time, I think that this website should be able to rank #1 for Linton Health within Australia. On the page, there are several very prominent links to the real Lintan Health website. [Post-script: 3 days later the new Linton Health web page is indexed and ranks #1 in Google.com.au, so mission accomplished!]

The best thing is, this doesn’t need to cost more than $50 per year for the domain name and hosting plus an hour or so of someone’s time to set it all up. That small investment is likely to pay itself off quickly when people who couldn’t find the company before can now easily find it and go on to sign up as a customer.

If you have any questions about SEO for your website, I may be able to help you. Find out more about my services on my Content Writer website or contact me, Micky Stuivenberg, to discuss your needs.

Are you frustrated with your website and how it performs? You’re not alone. Many website owners (often people running a small business) are disappointed that their website isn’t very successful.

Even if your website was created by a professional web designer, there are still countless things that can be wrong with it. But perhaps they’re easily fixed – as long as you know what is actually causing the problems.

Let’s do some troubleshooting!

Here are some typical website problems with possible reasons & solutions:

Problem 1: Nobody can find the site and you get no visitors

What could be wrong? 

• SEO: Maybe your site isn’t optimised for search engines.
  You should be using the exact terms on your website (in your title tag, headings and content) that people who are looking for your types of products or services would type into search engines. If your title tag says “Homepage of ABCD Ltd” and your heading says “Welcome to our website”, it’s really time to apply some SEO.
• Accessibility: Search engines may have trouble accessing your site or seeing the content.
  Check if your web pages are indexed by the major search engines. If not, you’ll need to dig deeper to find the reason for this. Also make sure that your content is presented as plain HTML text and not as part of graphics or animations, which search engines can’t ‘read’.

Problem 2: People leave your website immediately after arriving

 What could be wrong? 

• Coding/Design: This could be a technical or design issue.
  Is your site compatible with all operating systems and browsers and does it look OK using different screen resolutions? Older sites in particular may be incompatible with modern browsers. Your website may look weird and completely distorted on different systems. Or you may have gone overboard with colours and animations, sending people running for cover. Time for a health check, makeover or new website maybe?
• Content/Writing: Perhaps it’s the copy on your site that’s driving people away.
  The problem may be that your content is vague, boring or incomprehensible and doesn’t address your visitors’ needs. Everyone is in a hurry nowadays. You have a few seconds to make people decide to stay on your website. If they can’t see what they need right away, they may leave and try another site from the search results instead.
• Usability: Is the layout and structure of your site logical and the navigation easy to use?
  Most people are lazy when it comes to websites. They expect certain things in certain places and if your website uses a very unconventional structure, presentation or navigation, people may be confused and give up, opting for an easier alternative somewhere else.
• SEO: This could also be a search engine optimisation issue again.
  If you’re not targeting the right keywords with your web pages, you may be attracting people to your site who are actually looking for something else. Use descriptive and meaningful words in your page title tags and content that matches people’s search queries, so you get qualified traffic rather than random clicks and a high ‘bounce rate’ (people leaving your site immediately).

Problem 3: Nobody contacts you or buys your products

What could be wrong? 

• Call to Action: Are you  making it easy enough for people to take the action you want them to take?
  Is there a big “buy now” or “request a quote” button right beside or below the content? Every web page needs a strong call to action. Don’t just explain what you do and leave it at that, hoping people will click on the button to your contact page in the navigation menu. Guide your visitors to the page you want them to end up on.
• Dead Links/Payment Service: Have you checked your links lately? Do they all still work correctly? How about your payment service, is that reliable? Go through the steps yourself and critically look at whether the process is smooth and error-free. There may be a stumbling block somewhere that you’re unaware of.
• Marketing: Could the problem lie in your marketing and promotion or your business model?
  Have you actually done any market research? Do you know whether there is even a market for what you’re offering? If only 50 people per year are in the market for what you offer, you can’t expect hundreds to be checking out your website every month. And how about your USPs (unique selling propositions)? Are you highlighting the reasons people should use your services or buy from you? You should know what makes you unique and emphasise that.

Of course, there could be many other things wrong with your website, but these are some of the common issues that I wanted to highlight. The good thing is, they can be easily remedied and your website CAN be turned around to become a success.

If you still have trouble knowing why your website isn’t performing, I can help. For a fixed low price, I will carry out a professional website analysis for you and send you an evaluation report that shows you problem areas and suggestions for solutions.

I can also help you out with quality web content by rewriting or editing your existing copy or writing new copy for your site. I specialise in SEO web content and am happy to help you with your search engine optimisation needs.

Please contact me, Micky Stuivenberg of Content Writer (part of Triple W Communications Pty Ltd), if you have any questions or want to discuss your website.

Want to learn more about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Writing for the Web (Content Writing)?

Here are some SEO and Web Copywriting courses I recommend. These courses can be taken online, in your own time and at your own pace, making it very convenient.

I have taken courses myself in the past with both Search Engine College and Sydney Writers’ Centre, and I personally vouch for the standards of these course providers, while SEO Book is a known leader in the SEO industry.

All organisations are run professionally by experts and you’ll get true value for your money.

Course Provider: Search Engine College
Who are they? International online SEO/SEM course provider (one of the very first), run by Kalena Jordan, an Australian SEO expert now based in New Zealand, with students in nearly 50 countries.
Courses: Basic & Advanced SEO, Basic & Advanced PPC, Website Copywriting, Website Usability, Link Building, Article Marketing & Distribution and more
Study Method: Tutor-supervised online self-study or certification courses

Download a free sample SEO lesson or see all courses and/or sign up with Search Engine College now.

Course Provider: Sydney Writers’ Centre
Who are they? Australia’s leading centre for writing training, run by journalist, editor and author Valerie Khoo, where you learn directly from the best in the business.
Courses: Writing for the Web, Professional Business Writing, Blogging for Business, Magazine Writing, Creative Writing and more
Study Method: Some are online courses, others are courses and seminars held in Sydney.

See details of all writing courses and sign up online at Sydney Writers’ Centre now.

Course Provider: SEO Book
Who are they? International provider of online SEO/SEM tools and training headed by Aaron Wall, a leader in the SEO industry, based in the US.
Courses: Over 100 training modules and access to lots of SEO tools and resources
Study Method: Self-study

See details of this SEO Training Package or join SEO Book online now.

I know there must be countless of other online SEO courses and web copywriting courses available if you search the web but I just wanted to give some personal recommendations.

I have really enjoyed taking courses at both Search Engine College and Sydney Writers’ Centre. Because I live in a regional area of Australia, I found it very convenient that I could simply sign up online and take the courses online, while still being just an email or forum post away from the expert tutors in each course for guidance when needed.

The courses have definitely helped me become a successful SEO Content Writer. I have since gone on to become an Assistant Tutor for the SEO courses at Search Engine College.

If you take any of these courses, I’m sure you too will become an SEO or Web Content Writing expert yourself in no time at all. Good luck!

Keyword research can be vital to the success of your website.

If you operate in a market with no or few competitors, it doesn’t really matter. People should be able to find your site if you just use common sense and let your website describe what you do.

However, in more competitive markets, it can be incredibly difficult to rank well for the keywords you think describe your products or services best – particularly if your website is still new. 

You could be competing against hundreds, if not thousands, of other websites that are targeting the exact same keyword phrases as you. And it will be hard to outrank your competitors, because they may have many advantages over yours, such as:

• those websites may have been up for years and have ‘proven’ their worth;
• they may have many more pages of content than you do;
• they probably have a lot more incoming links to their site than you do.

Google and other search engines are bound to rank those websites higher than yours, which is only new, doesn’t have a lot of content yet and no or few incoming links – no matter how good your content is or how well you have optimised your site for those keywords. 

If you start a new website, you have to be realistic with your expectations of SEO.

• The more general and popular a search term, the harder it will be to be able to rank for that phrase.
• Single keywords are way harder to rank for than keyword combinations of 2, 3 or 4 words.

What can you do to still get your website found?

1. Find out what people type into search engines. Do keyword research (or have someone do the research for you) using a keyword research tool, so it’s not a guessing game but you actually KNOW what people are searching for. You can also ask people you know what they would type into a search engine if they were looking for your kinds of products or services.
2. Check out the competition. Type some of the relevant search phrases you have found into Google (within Australia, Google accounts for about 95% of all online searches) and see how many results you get. Decide whether it’s worth it or even possible to compete on those phrases.
3. Think of alternative keyword phrases. Many keyword research tools give suggestions for related words. You may hit upon a slightly different description that people use as well, but not many other websites are targeting. That’s your opportunity to optimise your site for that phrase and rank well for it.
4. Target so-called ’long tail keywords’. These are longer and quite specific keyword phrases that maybe only a handful of people search for each month but have very little competition because nobody else has thought of targeting them. Blogs are great for targeting long tail keywords because you can keep adding new pages that each target a different long tail keyword phrase. The good thing is that because the keyword phrases are more specific, they often attract very targeted traffic so your conversion rate will be higher.
5. Start small: Go local. Rather than immediately trying to capture the market in the entire country or world, consider starting small. Focus on your town, city, region or state. You’d be surprised how many people type in their location after a search phrase because they are looking for a business in their area. Targeting “web designer Newcastle”, for example, may get you more traffic than trying to rank well for just “web designer”, which has way too much competition. Remember to claim your Google Local Business Centre listing and submit your site to local and regional directories. Once you are successful locally, it’s a natural progression to target a wider audience. Of course, this option may depend on the type of products or services you offer, but it’s often a good way to start.

Example of SEO keyword research

A client of mine offers home staging services in the Newcastle/Central Coast/Sydney area. I recently optimised some of the pages of their website.

Keyword research revealed that ‘home staging’ is a popular search term but there are more than 6,000 other web pages competing for that keyword phrase when you search on google.com.au (6,000 Australian pages and even 1.6 million results worldwide!). That would make it very difficult to rank well for that phrase. However, I found out that roughly the same number of people search for house makeover, but the search results show only about 400 other Australian web pages for that term. That makes it a good alternative keyword phrase to target and I have optimised their homepage for that term.

Also, by more obviously targeting some of the locations of the company’s service area, the website will be found better for location-specific search phrases such as home staging Newcastle and house staging Sydney for instance.

So don’t despair if you can’t seem to outrank your competitors in the search results. Think of alternative ways to attract traffic. Add more pages (a blog is useful in that regard) and target more specific keyword combinations with each of them.

Need help optimising your website? I can do keyword research for you and help you target the most effective SEO keyword combinations. I can then optimise your pages for you. You should also consider these SEO ranking factors in addition to optimising your page content.

Visit my SEO Content Writer website for further information about my services and feel free to contact me to discuss your web content & SEO needs.

Sometimes people mix up SEO and SEM.  They are actually two entirely different things. so I will clarify both terms below. We are basically talking about organic search engine optimisation versus paid search engine marketing.

SEO = Search Engine Optimisation (Optimization in US spelling)

When you do SEO for your website, you optimise it for the search terms (SEO keywords) you want to rank for in the search engines, so that people will be able to find your site better in the ‘normal’ (organic) search results.

If you know how to optimise your website and do it yourself, SEO doesn’t need to cost any money, only time and knowledge are needed. Hundreds of factors are at play in SEO, but to name just a few – it’s very important to have:

• a well-structured website with descriptive internal links and page names
• good, interesting and optimised content on your pages that includes the right SEO keywords
• optimised Page Titles
• optimised META descriptions
• a number of quality back links from reputable websites to your website with important keywords in the link text.

SEM = Search Engine Marketing

Technically, Search Engine Marketing encompasses paid search methods as well as organic SEO. But most people use the term SEM when they are referring to the use of programs such as Google Adwords to be included in the paid results / sponsored listings in search engines.

The most common paid SEM methods are pay-per-click (PPC) arrangements whereby you place little ads that will appear at the top or on the right-hand side of the normal/organic search results. Every time someone searches for the term you have specified, your sponsored listing will appear. And each time someone clicks on your listing to go to your site, you pay the search engine (Google, Bing or Yahoo) a certain amount of money. You can set a limit so that you ad stops appearing when your budget has been spent.

Should you use SEO or SEM/PPC, or both?

The good thing about SEO is that, once your website has been optimised, you will continue to benefit from it without having to spend any money.

It is crucial for anyone with a website that it ranks well in the normal (organic/unpaid) search engine results for the keywords used by their target market to find their type of products or services. It can be the difference between having a successful and an unsuccessful website.

There are a few common reasons why people decide to use SEM/PPC methods such as Adwords for their site (although often in combination with SEO). These include:

• When you have just launched a new website that doesn’t rank well yet in the normal/organic search results
• When you have added a new product or service page/category that doesn’t perform well yet in search engines
• When you have a temporary/seasonal product or service offering you want to promote heavily for a short period
• When you are in a very competitive field and find it impossible to rank on the first page for certain highly competitive search terms 

The downside of SEM/PPC is that you have to keep spending money in order to continue to appear on the search engine results page with your sponsored listing.

If you do use a PPC SEM program, it’s important to set it up correctly, target the best keyword phrases and to continually monitor the effectiveness of your campaign. If you pay $50 every day, or every week, for people to click on your listing and come to your website, you would want to make sure a good proportion of those people buy or sign up for something, or at least contact you with an enquiry. This is called ROI (return on investment). You’re obviously doing something wrong  and throwing away money if you just get clicks but no new customers or leads.

The Importance of Keywords

For both SEO and SEM/PPC, keywords are very important. How do you know which terms and phrases to use to effectively target your potential customers? You’ll have to do some keyword research, or pay an SEO or SEM expert to do the research for you.

Here are 3 of the Biggest Mistakes people make when using SEM (e.g. Adwords):

1. Wrong: Targeting keywords you already rank well for in organic search results. If you are #1 or #2 on Google.com.au for “Italian restaurant Sydney” for example, you would be crazy to target that phrase with your ads. That is obviously a waste of your money.
   Right: Go for the keywords that are important to your business but that you don’t rank highly for (yet). Once your website performs better in the organic results for a certain phrase, you can drop that keyword phrase from your PPC campaign.    

2. Wrong: Targeting very broad and extremely competitive keywords. These are very expensive and you may still end up on the second page of the search results. They also may not give you the best ROI as people may be looking for something different.
   Right: Find a larger variety of more niche and very specific keyword combinations. They are less expensive and may give you very targeted, qualified traffic by people who are looking for the exact thing you are offering – resulting in a high ROI.    

3. Wrong: Setting your campaign and letting it run without monitoring it. What if every click you paid for resulted in a bounce (people leaving your website again right away) and you didn’t know about it? Or what if competition became so fierce your ad hardly ever appears anywhere? You can’t ever forget about your PPC campaign.
   Right: Use the available program features such as goals and alerts to monitor the effectiveness of your PPC campaign and make changes when needed for the best ROI.

Conclusion

If you were confused about the difference between SEO and SEM, or wasn’t sure which to use when, I hope this post has helped clear that up a bit.

My Content Writer business focuses on quality content and SEO, ensuring my clients’ websites have professional, informative, persuasive and search engine optimised content to perform well in the organic search results.

It really pays to invest in having a well-optimised website, because if you don’t, you may need to keep throwing money at SEM/PPC to appear on search engine results pages and get anyone to visit your website.

I have optimised my own website to perform well in organic search results. Because of that, I get a good amount of targeted visitors (people looking for my kinds of services) and I am always getting new clients through my website. I have NEVER had to spend any money on PPC or any other type of online or offline advertising. SEO is all I do and it works great for me!

If you need help optimising your website, contact me, SEO Content Writer Micky Stuivenberg, to discuss what I can do for you.

In this post, I’ll try to take away some of the mystery that surrounds Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and give you some tips on what you can do to further optimise your website and get better rankings in Google and other search engines.

As an SEO web content writer, I specialise in creating clear, professional, persuasive and search engine friendly content for websites.

What I usually provide for my clients is:

• Optimised Page Title
• Optimised META Description
• Optimised Page Content – including headings, subheadings and links to other pages

I will make sure to include the important SEO keywords for that particular page in the page title, META description, heading, subheadings, internal links and several times throughout the body copy, particularly in the first few paragraphs. These are important factors for SEO success.

However, it doesn’t stop there. You can do more to optimise your website!

Here are 5 further SEO tips:

• Domain name: If possible, register a domain name that includes some of your important keywords (e.g. my domain name is www.contentwriter.com.au and that helps with my SEO).
• Page names: Give your pages descriptive names by including the important words for that page (e.g. my page about web design is not called /page6.html or anything but http://www.contentwriter.com.au/web-design.html)
• Hosting: Use a web host in the country where you mainly provide your services. If you mostly target Australians, use a web host in Australia. Search engines tend to mostly show sites that are hosted in the country where the searcher is located.
• Images: You can optimise your page further through the photos and graphics on your page: Include keywords in the file names (e.g. metal-roof-repairs.jpg rather than picture4.jpg) and the ALT tag.
• Back links: It’s good to have some incoming links to your site from other websites. However, NEVER use automatic link submission services and NEVER submit your site in bulk to random websites, portals and link farms. This is almost guaranteed to actually HURT your website rankings. Instead, spend some time to find reliable websites with a related theme and try to get a link from there, ask your customers or suppliers to link to you or get listings from authoritative business directories. It’s crucial that the link to your website includes important SEO keywords in the anchor text. Having a link to your site that looks like this - Please visit www.contentwriter.com.au – won’t do you any good (well, you may get some visitors from it but it does nothing for your SEO). Much better would be: Please visit the SEO Web Content Writer website.

This is not a conclusive list of SEO factors but they are some of the major points to take in to account.

Good luck getting better rankings for your important keyword combinations! If you need help with the search engine optimisation of your website or with your web content, please contact me – Content Writer Micky Stuivenberg for a quote or to discuss what I can do for you.

NB – Also don’t forget the potential power of Social Media. Set up a Twitter account and a Facebook page. You can use good keyword combinations in your Twitter account if your company or brand name is not that well known. For instance, I have just set up  http://twitter.com/weightlossnsw for a client.

I wrote an article for the ETC Business Club’s ‘Doing Business’ column about getting your local business online for free. It was published in today’s Coffs Coast Advocate (Friday 29 May).

See a copy of the newspaper article here.

The article is an abridged version of my earlier blog post for Local Business to Get more exposure in Google for free, with the addition of some tips on using Twitter as part of your company’s marketing communications strategy.

Say what you like and think what you will about Twitter, it can really be a useful tool for local businesses if used right. It’s not difficult and doesn’t have to take up much time at all. See for example my own Content Writer Twitter page or the relatively new Coffs Coast Twitter page for official visitor information about Coffs Harbour attractions and events.

If you have any questions or would like my help in getting your business effective exposure online and making it more successful, check out some other pages on my SEO & copywriting website or get in touch with me, Micky Stuivenberg of Triple W Communications Pty Ltd.

As a professional Website Copywriter, I get almost daily emails from people asking me if I can write clear, persuasive and optimised content for their business website.  Sure I can. But what is involved? What do I need from you and what can you expect of me?

Here are 10 Steps in Hiring Me to Write or Rewrite and Optimise your Website Content:

1.  Send me an email & tell me exactly what you need.
Include as much information as possible, such as answers to these questions: 

• What website is it for (URL and/or explanation)?
• How many pages do you need me to write (if possible with the page names/topics)?
• Roughly how long do you want the pages to be?
• Is it writing from scratch or rewriting/editing existing content?
• Will you give me enough information to base the content on or do you expect me to do research?
• Who is your target market and where are they located?
• Do you know what SEO keywords you want me to use or do you want me to do keyword research?
• What is your timeframe?

2.  I will email you a quote.
The quote will briefly set out what I will do and what’s included. If I don’t have enough information to prepare a quote, I will email you back with questions and I’ll send you a quote once I have the answers.

3.  You accept the quote.
Send me an email to say you would like to hire me for your project.

4.  I email you my Terms & Conditions and an Invoice for the deposit.
My standard Terms & Conditions document sets out what is included and protects both you and me in case of any misunderstanding. I require a 50% deposit of the estimated total fee before starting the project. I will also give you an indication of when I can start and how long I think the job will approximately take.

5.  You accept the T&Cs and pay the deposit. 
You can scan and email the signed Terms & Conditions document or simply confirm in an email you accept them. For the 50% down payment, I prefer a direct deposit into my bank account. However, I also accept payment by cheque, PayPal or credit card (also via PayPal).

6.  I confirm receipt and request further input from you. 
You would have already emailed me some information in order to give you a quote, but I may require further input at this point to actually do the writing. Please send me everything you think may help me to understand your business, products and services and to help me write good content for your website. 

Things that may be useful could include:
(not everything may be relevant for all projects)

• Link to your current website, draft new website on a test server or screenshot of your web design.
• Overview of all pages you need written with dot points of what each page should cover.
• What your USP (unique selling proposition) is, i.e. your ‘competitive edge’, and what your most important or most popular services/products are that you want me to highlight.
• Copies of relevant marketing materials, company brochures or publications.
• List of SEO keywords and phrases you want to target (word combinations you would like to be found on when people type them in search engines such as Google).
• If you know your direct competitors in your area, please give me links to their websites. 

7.  I start writing your web content. 
I will consider how best to present your company. I’ll write clear, professional and persuasive web copy in chunks that are easy to digest, and use important SEO keywords throughout the content and in suggested META page titles. Throughout the process, I will remain in touch with you and I will ask you questions if anything is not entirely clear. I will not write content based on assumptions but will always clarify things with you to ensure I get it right the first time.
 
8.  I will email you the draft content.
Depending on our arrangements, I normally send people the content in a Word document.

9.  You email me your feedback and I make revisions if needed.
All my clients so far have been very happy with the copy I have written for them, but sometimes I’m asked to change or tweak a couple of paragraphs. One round of revision is included in my services, and I’m more than happy to make changes where needed based on your feedback. You need to provide your feedback within 7 days, or with large projects within 14 days, for me to make the changes, so that the subject matter is still reasonably fresh in my mind.

10.  Final step: I close the project and send you the final invoice. 
I will close the project and send you the final invoice 7 days (small projects) or 14 days (larger projects) after sending you the content, or earlier if you don’t need changes or any changes are done sooner than that. Payment of the outstanding amount is due 7 days after the date of the final invoice.
 
What’s next? This is usually where you give the final content to your webmaster and they incorporate it into your website. I love it when clients alert me when the new content is up so I can see the final result. I also often write about finished projects on my blog and link to client websites using SEO keywords, which helps with their search engine rankings.

Want to know more?

If you think you may be interested in hiring me to write your SEO Website Content, please email me, Content Writer Micky Stuivenberg, with as much information you can give me as per item no. 1 above.

For more information about my services, visit my Content Writer website, refer to my standard hourly rates, see my SEO copywriting portfolio or read some client testimonials.

Writing content for websites is never the same. I deal with completely different clients with completely different requirements and preferences and write about completely different subject matters. What I like about my job is that I learn so much about such a varied range of topics and industries.

One thing that all my website copywriting projects have in common, is that I approach things as if I were my client’s customer, the visitor to their website. I think “If I came to this website, what would I want to know, do,  buy or find out?” 

Then I make sure I write clear and concise copy that answers the most important questions and highlights the main benefits of the company’s products or services to the customer. This is especially important on the homepage or other main landing pages that people may come to straight from search engines or online ads.

Most people who click on a website take just a couple of seconds to see if they can find what they’re looking for. If not, they leave. And you lose a potential client.

One of my recent clients is RosterPortal.com, a new service that lets company managers and supervisors create staff rosters and shift schedules online. All employees get a log-in and enter their availability for the coming week or weeks. The software automatically sorts it and presents it in an easy format for the supervisor, who only needs to shuffle things around a bit to create a new staff roster – in just a few minutes.

RosterPortal also acts as an internal communication tool, like a staff intranet. To make things even easier, the online staff roster software can send email and SMS alerts to staff with new rosters.

“Why would people be interested in something like this?” I asked myself and my client. Because they’re going crazy doing things manually, trying to sort out everyone’s availabity and creating a roster that suits everyone. Staff forgetting to say they’re away. Spending another hour or so shifting things around. People not being aware of a new roster. Basically, their main problems are: 1) they’re not being efficient, 2) they’re losing valuable time (and time is money), and 3) a lot of people are constantly annoyed.

So I made sure the website content clearly explains that using RosterPortal solves those problems. Hopefully people reading it will think – “I need this program! Where do I sign up?” And to make that task as easy as possible, there are various obvious links to a free 1-month trial. 

I wrote search engine optimised content for RosterPortal’s five main pages, while the client himself will be adding further information such as FAQs, help files and tutorials.

That brings me to this point: Some people may think they need to hire me to write or edit the content of their entire website. Although that is ideal (for maximum success, consistency, continuity and individually optimised pages), you can hire me as your SEO website copywriter for as few or as many pages as you like or your budget allows. Or do things in stages, starting with just your Home and About us pages, for instance.

Need professional, persuasive website content for your website? Written not from YOUR point of view but from that of your potential customers – so they like (and understand) what they read and ultimately buy from you or get in touch with you?

Contact me, SEO Web Copywriter Micky Stuivenberg, via my Content Writer website to discuss what you need and get a cost estimate for your project.

Is your small business easy to find in Google? No, I don’t mean by typing in your exact business name, that’s easy. Does your business come up on the first search results page when you type in the kinds of products or services you offer, perhaps in combination with the town or city you’re located in or your service area?

Not only are more people going online to search for certain products, services, shops and restaurants, Google is also increasingly moving towards a more locally oriented search engine. You may have noticed getting more and more search results targeted at your local area, lately often even without entering your location in the search box. Google seems to recognise that many people are actually searching for a business or service in their local area.

What do people type into the search box? 

A very common way that people search is by typing the general service or product they’re after into the Google search box, followed by their city or town. Example: “sports physiotherapists Coffs Harbour” or “Italian restaurants in Sydney”.

What can you do if you are a local business and have a website?

Make sure that those common search terms for your kinds of products or services plus your location or service area (these important terms are referred to as the SEO keywords you target) appear on your website. That way Google can make that match and your website comes up in the search results.

You should know that search engines can only understand actual words in the HTML code, they cannot interpret the meaning of images, graphics, video or Flash files. That’s why it is very important to use all the keywords that people may use to look for your services liberally throughout the text on your website and in your page titles and headings, among many other things. If your business is local, also make sure you include your full address and telephone number on your website, possibly even on every page.

Bottom line: Optimise your website for search engines and you’ll rank well in the free search results and won’t have to spend money on Google Adwords.

What if you have a business but DON’T have a website?

Don’t worry. Although you’ll always perform better online if you do have your own website, there are still many things you can do to appear in the search results in the categories your business is active in. There are dozens of websites where you can list your business for free, often with a description of your products and services, location, contact details and a link to your website if you have one. Even if you don’t offer online transactions, many people do their research online and select a business before picking up the phone or visiting the outlet.

Where to list your business?

If you only have time to list your business on 1 website, make it Google Places (a listing on Google Maps that was previously known as the Google Local Business Center) Sign up for a free account and you can add a description, contact details, opening hours and even images and video.

Very importantly, in Google Places, you can select up to 5 categories you wish to appear under, and place your business on the map. So now, when people search for your type of business in Google (the search engine that accounts for about 90% of all online searches), your company will be included in the search results and your location will even be shown on a map! To include your business, go to http://www.google.com/local/add

But wait, there’s more. Once your business appears in Google Places/Maps, people can also leave reviews. Ask your loyal customers to spend a few minutes online to leave a good review, and not only does your business show up, but it will appear higher in the list, and potential customers will get a good impression of your business too!

Other local online directories where you can submit your business details for FREE – whether you have a website or not – and that may show up (and sometimes even rank well) in search engine results pages, include: AussieWeb, HotFrog, StartLocal and TrueLocal. These are some of the major ones for the Australian market. Other countries will have other popular local, regional or national directories. Also look out for major local and regional directories. And if you do have your own website, make sure to add a link to it, and if possible include some keywords within the link.

Be aware that after adding your free listing, you may get a call from a sales rep who will try to sell you a premium, advanced listing. Just be firm and resist if you’re not interested. Your free listing has no strings attached.

So take advantage of the free listing opportunities available on the Internet and you’ll see that more people will find you, even if they had no idea you existed. And if you have a website, make sure it is optimised for search engines so it will show up in relevant search results.

If you need help optimising your website, you can contact me, Micky Stuivenberg, a certified Search Engine Optimiser and Website Copywriter, for advice and rewriting of your content and page titles or making any other changes needed to rank higher for your targeted SEO keywords.

For the wide range of SEO, web design, copywriting and editing services I provide, please refer to my website at www.contentwriter.com.au.

A copywriter is a copywriter… right? Wrong! A copywriter specialising in print copywriting such as brochures doesn’t necessarily have the skills and knowledge needed to be a good copywriter for websites.

Sure, a ‘normal’ copywriter knows how to write a good piece of text that’s engaging and persuasive. But website copywriting involves a lot more than that.

A good website copywriter (in addition to writing good copy and understanding marketing):

• knows all the tricks to writing specifically for the web,
• knows how people behave online and how best to target and engage them,
• stays up to date with the latest best practices for websites and web content,
• is skilled and experienced in SEO and how to optimise web content in a natural way,
• ideally is also able to advise you on other matters relating to your website, such as design and usability.

These are just a few of the things you should expect from your web copywriter.

My name is Micky Stuivenberg. I’m an experienced website copywriter and content specialist. I’m also a web content editor, website consultant and certified Search Engine Optimiser.

Are you not getting many people on your website? Or are they leaving as soon as they arrive? Or maybe you have a new website but aren’t sure about the content.

Let me help you write your website content to make sure you’re using the right words and formats to get found in search engines, attract visitors, give them the information they want and convert them into customers.

I have been writing for the web since 2000 (see about me or portfolio) and know exactly what’s involved.

Don’t spend any more time struggling, let’s discuss what I can do for you. Let’s get you some structured, logical, optimised, well-written and easy to read website content! Contact me.