Many websites obviously rank well for their own business name, brand or product names. Unless your branded names are incredibly common, it’s not hard at all to rank well for these, particularly if they are in your domain name or page URLs.

It’s the more generic keyword phrases your target market may be using that you want to know about, so you can optimise your pages for them and get new people (potential customers) who don’t yet know about you to find your website. You want to find the search terms people use when looking for the type of products/services you offer and target those.

Google’s free Keyword Tool is mainly intended for finding good keywords to bid on in AdWords, but is also incredibly useful for uncovering effective organic keywords to optimise your pages for.

When using the Google Keyword Tool, always remember to:

• select the country (and language, if not English) you want to see results for, e.g. Australia
• select the [Exact] match type in the left sidebar (and un-tick Broad) to see numbers for an exact phrase
• type a range of keyword variations and combinations in the search box (don’t forget trying both the singular and plural versions of words, and putting words in reverse order)

Although the numbers you see aren’t all that accurate, they do give you a good idea of which terms are much more popular than others, or find out if the phrases you had in mind don’t get searched for at all – before you spend (waste) time optimising your pages for them.

You should also check out the competition for any phrase you want to use. If 10 million web pages are optimised for that same phrase already, there’s absolutely no use trying to get on page 1 of Google for it – unless you’re willing to spend gazillions of dollars and hire a dedicated SEO to try to get you there over time. It’s more effective to optimise for search phrases that are less competitive (often a bit more specific) so they are more achievable.

I offer keyword research as part of my web copywriting services. Writing web content without knowing what sort of search terms the target market might use to find that kind of information is a waste of a good opportunity to get found online by new potential customers.

A project I recently completed involved keyword research and rewriting/optimising existing copy for a Wooli accommodation provider. They ranked well for their business name but not that well for a range of other search phrases used by their target market.

By optimising other pages on the site for different phrases, we’re trying to get people who are not yet specifically looking for Wooli holiday accommodation to eventually find the website as well, for example if they are searching for weekend escapes NSW and some other terms.

The great thing about keyword research in SEO is that you can uncover excellent opportunities in search terms you might not have considered and to maximise the ‘findability’ of web pages by your target audience. Or at the very least – to get confirmation (or otherwise) that the search terms you were thinking of optimising a page for are indeed logical.

If you need help with your SEO, for instance keyword research and editing/optimising your web pages, feel free to get in touch and ask for a quote. I would be happy to help you.

Micky Stuivenberg of Triple W Communications (trading online as Content Writer) is an experienced Web Copywriter and SEO Consultant.

Some people offering SEO services hammer on about making sure your text has a certain keyword density (e.g. that 3% or 10% or whatever of your text should consist of your targeted keywords).

Well, guess what? That’s nonsense. (And don’t just take it from me, listen to Google. See Matt Cutt’s webmaster video below.)

There is NO magic number when it comes to keyword density in SEO.

Yes, you need to make sure you DO actually mention the keyword phrases you want the page to be found for. Obviously. Preferably a few times. But generally:

You don’t need more than four

Including a targeted keyword phrase in your page content 3 or 4 times is good. If your page is quite long, it’s OK if you mention it once or twice more, but much more than that (e.g. 7 or 8 times or more) and search engines may start to see it as keyword stuffing. And that’s definitely not good for your SEO. In fact, it can hurt your rankings because you may be seen as a spammer.

Keep it natural: read it out loud

I am an SEO tutor at Search Engine College and what we’ve been teaching our SEO students for years is to read web copy you have written out loud to make sure it sounds natural. If you mention your keyword phrase three times in two consecutive sentences, that’s likely to sound stilted and unnatural. So change it.

Remember: if you wouldn’t say it that way, don’t write it that way.

Here’s a webmaster video by Matt Cutt, head of webspam at Google, dispelling the keyword density myth and giving some sound advice on including your keywords in your website content:

So there you have it, straight from the horse’s mouth.

Are you finding it hard to write web content that naturally incorporates your targeted keyword phrases? I’m a professional SEO web copywriter and I can help you. Find out more on my website.

Because at the time of writing (30 November 2011), not much information is out there yet about this group, I decided to write this blog post about it, so maybe a few more people on the Coffs Coast will become aware of it.

“We want the Mid North Coast to be a first class digital hot spot for talent and digital content,” says Christina Hyde, one of the people behind Short Sharp Digital.

Apparently a big reason behind the launch of the new network is the arrival of super-fast internet in Coffs Harbour next year, or in the words of the organisers: “the NBN is coming and we are getting ready to be part of this expanding digital future.”

Short Sharp Digital says the new industry/networking group will be for digital industry practitioners in the fields of:

• Web
• TV
• Mobile
• Audio production
• Animation
• Education
• Game design
• Writing
• Production
• App development

Now this is quite a wide and varied field and I am unsure exactly what the industry group is going to be doing. But I guess the launch event on Tuesday 6 December should make that a bit clearer.

I also have no idea how the organisers are reaching out to potential members to join the network, or even to just be aware of and come along to the launch event. However, they are asking people who do know about it to forward the invite to any “digital screen practitioners” (what an awkward term…) on the Mid North Coast who may be interested in this. So that’s what I’m doing.

• When: Tuesday 6 December, 6-8pm
• Where: 1/10 GDT Seccombe Close, Coffs Harbour (off Orlando St)
• RSVP: 0412 016 870 or christina@christinahydeconsulting.com

I for one am planning to go to the launch event, just to hear what it’s all about. It would be good to meet some fellow Coffs Coast/Mid North Coast web professionals there.

There’s no destination I know better and have written more about than Coffs Harbour and the surrounding Coffs Coast on the beautiful North Coast of New South Wales. This is where I’ve lived since 2005 and it’s a wonderful part of the world.

The Coffs Harbour Jetty is the city’s most popular suburb and encompasses the harbour, marina and the historic jetty (pier) it’s named after.

This suburb is currently being rebranded as an urban village with the name “Jetty Harbourside”. It really is like a seaside village but it has everything you need plus it’s just 3 minutes by car from the Coffs Harbour City Centre and 5 minutes from the airport.

I love “my” Jetty suburb and I was thrilled to be given the opportunity to write the copy for a new brochure promoting the Jetty Harbourside village to both visitors and locals.

My personal top 3 of favourite things about the Jetty Harbourside: Great walks, gorgeous views and plenty of cafés.

The brochure/guide will be made available at shops, businesses, hotels and tourist attractions around Coffs Harbour, but I’ve uploaded the PDF of the brochure here for you to have a look.

• Coffs Harbour Jetty Harbourside brochure (guide/map/directory)

For more information about the destination, visit CoffsCoast.com.au, the official Coffs Harbour visitor information website.

If you need a professional copywriter for your project (e.g. brochure or website, not just travel-related!), check out my print copywriting and web copwriting services and contact me, Micky Stuivenberg, for a quote.

My business has enjoyed steady success right from the start and I’m still really happy doing what I do. There has never been a moment that I have been without work – but luckily enough I have been able to take a few short breaks while putting new projects on hold for a while.

I have however also sacrificed quite a few evenings and weekends to work and my goal for year 4 is to plan my work better and not to agree to deadlines that are too tight, so that there is enough time to finish work during normal business hours.

Because my website continues to perform very well in search engines, more clients than I can take on find me via Google and I have never needed to advertise my business.

Some quick stats about Content Writer’s 3rd year in business:

• Total number of clients I worked for between August 2010 and August 2011: 54

• Breakdown of clients:
  • 30% local (Coffs Coast NSW)
  • 50% rest of Australia (Mostly NSW, VIC, QLD)
  • 20% overseas (6 different countries)

Projects I’ve worked on over the last year include:

• researching and writing the complete content for new websites
• writing persuasive and optimised content for individual pages (often homepages)
• rewriting and optimising existing web content that didn’t perform
• creating effective small business websites (WordPress and HTML sites)
• setting up social media profiles and managing Facebook and Twitter accounts
• regular updating and maintaining of client websites
• consulting clients about their websites, usability and SEO
• grading SEO students’ assignments for Search Engine College
• rewriting and editing printed marketing materials.

Here’s to going after what you want, doing what you love, and never stopping the learning process.

Cheers – and bring on year 4, I’m ready for it!

NB – Want to know more about what I do? Check out my Content Writer website.

Social media marketing plays an increasingly large role in marketing your business online.

Unfortunately, there are still many people in business that don’t quite know where to start with Facebook, Twitter and other social media marketing channels. Or they’ve started and are stuck – not knowing how to make the most of social media for their business.

On 4 August 2011, I gave a presentation about social media marketing for businesses to about 100 women at an event organised by the Coffs Coast Business Women’s Network in Coffs Harbour NSW, Australia.

I had so much information to share but was only able to scratch the surface in the half an hour that I had.

But for everyone who was there and want to view the full presentation in their own time – and for everyone who couldn’t be there – I’ve now made the slides available online.

The presentation includes some useful links to websites and tools to make social media marketing a bit easier for you and your business.

My presentation is available here:

• Social Media Marketing Presentation

Of course, these tips don’t go into too much detail either as they’re only the slides with the main points from my presentation.

Need help with your social media marketing?

I offer a range of social media consulting, management & training services as part of Triple W Communications.

If you think you may need some help to set things up properly or to help you manage your social media marketing, please get in touch. I’ll be happy to discuss your requirements and goals and send you a customised quote to suit your needs.

Then you should come to the next Coffs Coast Business Women’s Network event on 4 August 2011, where I’ll talk about the best ways to use social media for small businesses.

Details of event:

• Coffs Coast Business Women’s Network 
  Monthly networking event
• Social Media Marketing
  Presentation by Micky Stuivenberg
• Date: Thursday 4 August 2011
• Time: 7.00am – 8.30am
• Venue: Opal Cove Resort, Pacific Highway, Coffs Harbour NSW 2450
• Tickets: $35.00 includes breakfast and all money raised goes to charity

GET YOUR TICKET HERE by close of business Tuesday 2 August 2011.

Ask yourself these questions:

• Are you taking full advantage yet of the power of social media marketing for your business?
• Do you blog?
• Is your business on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn?
• Should it be?
• If so, which networks should you choose?
• And how do you get the most out of it in as little time as possible (because everyone is busy)?

I think it’s disappointing to see that so many local businesses aren’t clued in yet to social media marketing and are simply ignoring it. I welcome the opportunity to clear up some misconceptions and share some good ways of using social media to benefit your business.

In my presentation, I will take you through the ins and outs of social media marketing for business using real-life examples. I’ll share valuable tips on the best ways of getting maximum exposure to your target audience on Twitter and Facebook in particular.

The talk will only be short but there will be an opportunity to ask questions. If you are interested in learning more, please let me know after the talk or send me an email, as I may be conducting more in-depth workhops soon. I am also available for one-on-one social media consulting and training.

Find out more about me, Micky Stuivenberg, on my Content Writer website. If you’re on Twitter or Facebook, I look forward to connecting with you there! Follow me on Twitter or Like my business (Triple W Communications/Content Writer) on Facebook.

What do most blog readers prefer? I asked myself this question recently and some quick online research didn’t give me a definitive answer.

I asked around on Twitter, but got mixed responses. So I set up a survey (in the form of a quick poll question, with an optional field for comments) to try to get a better idea of what blog readers prefer.

The outcome may surprise some. And the comments help remind us that everyone has different habits and preferences and that includes the way people like to read blogs.

Recommendations are at the end of this post.

Blog Survey Question 1:
How do you want blog posts to be displayed on a blog homepage?

Recap of survey result:

• 67.3% of blog readers prefer to see only extracts of posts on a blog homepage
• 17.3% of blog readers prefer to see the latest few posts in full, then extracts of older posts
• 15.4% of blog readers prefer to see full posts on a blog homepage (e.g. the last 10 posts)

Right from the start of the poll, the percentage of blog readers preferring just excerpts of posts on a blog homepage settled on 65-70%, with the other two groups staying neck and neck at between 15% and 20% of the votes each.

Even though just over 50 people answered the survey (81% from Australia), I hope the steadiness of that distribution indicates these numbers are quite representative of all blog readers out there.

But now for the interesting bit – the comments!

Blog Survey Question 2 [optional]:
Reasons for preferring extracts or full posts on the homepage

Not surprisingly, the main reasons quoted by those preferring post extracts on blog homepages were:

• Quick & Easy
  Different variations of comments along the lines of: “Lets me quickly scan the posts to find something worth reading”, “I like to see the big picture first”, “Easier to capture the ‘essence’ of a blog”, “I’m lazy and don’t want to have to scroll too much”, “I might miss interesting content if I first have to scroll past an uninteresting post, which I simply won’t do” and “Less overwhelming”.

And here are some reasons several people preferred full posts on blog homepages:

• Convenient
  A few people posted comments like this one: “I don’t like having to click to read more”. There was also an “I find it time saving” and an “Extracts are for archives not homepages”.

No particular reasons were given by those preferring the last few posts in full and then extracts, except for one person saying they then preferred links only to other posts after that, not extracts. That sounds like a very particular preference and it’s not representative of the majority of blog readers.

The RSS Reader issue

Although the survey question asked how people preferred posts to be presented on blog homepages, some answers revealed readers actually read posts in RSS readers and they did not like only seeing a short extract of a post there, because they were not going to bother visiting the website to read the full post.

This may have skewed the results a bit, with a few votes for “full posts” actually referring to the way a post is presented via RSS and not on the blog’s own homepage.

Biggest takeaways from this survey

Although the majority may not be as overwhelming as some had expected, it’s safe to say most people prefer to see post extracts on a blog homepage rather than full posts.

Benefits of using post excerpts/extracts:

• Better scannability means lower bounce rate. You’ll lose fewer visitors because there’s a better chance they’ll find a post of their interest when they can easily see a number of extracts.
• Less confusion about pages. Your blog homepage won’t look the same at first glance as the page with your last blog post so you’ll get fewer people linking to the wrong page.
• Better tracking & SEO. There’s no duplicate content issue to consider and it’s easier to see which posts are the most popular. If full posts are available on your homepage, you won’t know which posts on that page have been seen or read.

However… Yes, there’s a big however. If there’s one thing that has become very clear from this survey and the comments received, it’s this:

Blog extracts need to be very well written, capture the essence of the post and be enticing enough to get people to click on the link to read the full post.

Just using the first paragraph of the post as your standard extract may not always be effective. Providing a complete synopsis of the main points and conclusions in your extracts won’t help either in getting people to read your full posts. So think about your post extract and spend a few minutes more to craft individual extracts that will help draw people in.

3 Recommendations: How to present your posts on your blog

1. Show extracts of your latest blog posts on your blog homepage rather than full posts.
2. Make your excerpts as descriptive and enticing as possible to ensure high click-through rates.
3. Set your blog’s RSS settings to full posts as most blog readers via RSS do want to see the full post.

OK – it’s obvious my next blog design (coming in a few months’ time) will show manually written excerpts on the homepage rather than full posts, which it currently does.

NB – I’ve left the survey online so if you haven’t yet taken part, you can still do so. If the numbers change dramatically, I will update them!

Have I left anything out that you think is important in this issue? Please leave a comment below.

Thanks!
Micky Stuivenberg – Content Writer
Triple W Communications

Hardly a day goes by without seeing another story about the importance of social media and the need for businesses to be active on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

Almost all speakers at business networking events tell their audience they would be fools to ignore the power of social media. In fact, I went to an ETC Business Leaders event in Coffs Harbour just yesterday (17 May 2011) where David Koch (“Kochie”) reminded the more than 300 business people in the room they needed to be on Twitter and Facebook if they’re serious about their business.

And I agree. Most businesses can benefit greatly from social media interaction. But only if you know what you’re doing, otherwise it can be a waste of your time.

Social Media Marketing: Helping businesses make the most of it

As a web consultant assisting small businesses and organisations with their online marketing and communications (as well as copywriting and SEO), I have been helping businesses get started on Facebook and Twitter for a few years now.

After joining Twitter myself in early 2009, I quickly embraced it and now can’t imagine not being a part of that wonderful network. For me, it’s the perfect and easiest way to follow industry leaders, to interact and socialise with peers and very importantly: to learn, discover and stay up to date.

Although I’ve offered social media consultancy/marketing/management services for a while, it wasn’t mentioned specifically on my website before. It is now: Social Media Consulting.

SOCIAL MEDIA SERVICES: I offer social media consulting, training and workshops, social media strategies, setting up of professional Facebook Pages and Twitter profiles, getting targeted followers and if required, full management of your social media accounts.

Although I am based in Coffs Harbour on the NSW North Coast, Australia, I offer social media consulting and management to clients around Australia and anywhere else in the world.

If you want professional advice or training to learn how to effectively use Twitter and/or Facebook for your business, you can find out more here: Social Media Marketing & Consultancy and if you’d like my help, please get in touch with me, Micky Stuivenberg of Triple W Communications, to discuss your social media goals and requirements.

I was wondering if there’s a clear preference among blog readers. Asking around on Twitter resulted in a mixed bag of results, so I decided to put up a poll and ask more people.

Let’s try to get a clear answer to this question. Other people are wondering too. Once we know what people prefer on blog homepages, we can give our blog readers what they want.

To help me get to the bottom of this, please take a few seconds to answer my poll question:


I will blog about the results next week.

Thanks!