Author: Darrell Cuthbert

Author: Darrell Cuthbert

Author: Darrell Cuthbert

Author: Darrell Cuthbert

Author: Darrell Cuthbert

Author: Darrell Cuthbert

Lockdown is a great time to reassess your business and decide what, if any, changes will need to be made to your business model or product/service offering.
 
Use this period to upgrade your website copy, create some new content, generate some new marketing materials or improve your existing collateral (company profile, case studies, white papers, email marketing/drip campaigns, brochures, flyers, posters, social media publishing calendars and content, etc.)
 
Make sure you come out of lockdown ready to roll – while many of your competitors are still trying to find their feet (and get over their Netflix addiction 😊).
 
Please feel free to contact me if you have any current copywriting, content writing, or content marketing needs.

 
Darrell
 
+27 72 225 8074 (call/WhatsApp)
[email protected]
Skype: darrell.cuthbert 

By: Darrell Cuthbert

One of the most successful and efficient ways to use SEO Target Pages is in support of product and service pages, but without being directly promotional.
 
For example, a good structure for an SEO Target Page would be:
 

• First, identify a problem that customers experience or a challenge they face that is solved by one or more of the products/services that your business supplies. Initially, discuss the problem, especially how it has the potential to impact the business in terms of profitability, productivity, safety, risk, etc.

 

• Secondly, discuss possible solutions to the problem, mentioning a type of equipment or specialised service that could be a solution – preferably without mentioning your company name yet or specific products.

 

• Finally, show how the product or service you provide is a definite solution and explain why it is a better choice than other, competing, products (assuming it is not unique and there are competitive products available).

 

• At the bottom of the article, link out to the relevant product page(s), for example, using a tagline like “Click Here to find out more about the Widget XYZ1000 and why it is the best choice for <restate the problem that the product/service solves>

 
NB: Target keywords/key phrases should be based on the problem or solution (or both), with geotargeting if applicable, not on your business name. So, for example:
 
 
Choosing Target Keywords and Key Phrases
 
XZY1000 lawn mower is not a great target key phrase, even though it contains a good keyword, i.e. “lawn mower”. Having a model name too prominent will probably result in Google (or other search engines) classifying the text as promotional/sales material, rather than useful content.
 
Instead of the product name/model number, rather use a benefit. So, some better choices of key phrase would be:
 

• Affordable lawn mower
• Efficient lawn mower
• Easy to operate lawn mower
• Easy to use the lawn mower

 
or even terms that rephrase a common problem or concern for potential buyers and users, e.g. breakdowns due to poor design or sub-standard materials, or downtime and high maintenance costs. Examples of this type of target keyword/phrase could be:
 

• Rugged lawn mower
• Durable lawn mower
• Low-maintenance lawnmower

 
If the business targets a specific area, or the product is only distributed in certain areas, geotargeting can be introduced by adding a town name, suburb, or region as a secondary keyword, e.g.
 

• Efficient lawn mower Durban
• Easy to use lawn mower LaLucia
• Durable lawn mower KwaZulu-Natal
• Low-maintenance lawn mower South Africa

 
Of course, main keywords can also be paired with multiple secondary keywords, e.g.
 

• Low-maintenance lawn mower Johannesburg
• Low-maintenance lawn mower Durban
• Low-maintenance lawn mower Cape Town

 
 
How to use Keywords/Phrases
 
With some thought, it should be possible to come up with at least 2-10 keyword ideas for each product or service. Once you have done this, either:

• Write a dedicated SEO Target Page for each keyword and link back to the relevant product/service page
• Write an SEO page that combines several similar keywords into a single piece of content, e.g. one listing all the benefits rather than each in a separate article, or a single article that simultaneously geotargets multiple locations

 
Neither of these choices is automatically right or wrong. The strategy chosen will depend on the circumstances, keywords, budget, client requirements etc.
 
By following this technique, you are surrounding each product or service page, that is by nature promotional, with a “net” of primarily non-promotional content focused on gathering search traffic, engaging website visitors, and then sending them over to a sales page – after they have already been interested or “primed”.
 
 
Topics and Intent
 
Before settling on the actual keywords/phrases you will use, do some research into keywords, e.g. search volumes, competition etc. (the Google AdWords tool is good for this), and also think about the intent of users, i.e. how potential customers think and search. Instead of simply targeting a bunch of random, obscure keywords, group them logically into topics or themes that reflect the needs and interests of potential clients.
 
SEO Target Pages are generally kept off-menu:
 

1. To avoid cluttering up your site’s navigation bars/tabs
2. Because their primary function is to find people that aren’t already familiar with your business, product, or service, and attract them to your website, rather than to distract people already on the site and interested in purchasing from the product and service pages that are, hopefully, constructed and written in a way that encourages conversion

 
Please note that these are simply some general ideas, SEO Target Pages can be used in many ways, and writing them properly can be quite intricate. If done well, they play a big role in adding more quality content to your website.

By: Darrell Cuthbert

Give the search engines what they want, and they will reward you with what you want:
 

• Better search-engine ranking positions (SERPs) – i.e. on which page, and how far down the page, your website pages appear

 

• More traffic to your website. More traffic = more people looking for the products or services you offer. More website visitors = more potential leads/prospects, that you can convert into customers

 
Improve Your Content
 
Some of the ways you can improve the amount and quality of the content on your website are.
 

• Rewrite, and expand where appropriate, the content on your website’s exiting static pages (home, about, products/services/offering etc.). Focus on the needs/problems of your customers and how you can solve them rather than being too salesy. Tell the story of your product, brand and business. (If you are starting up a new website, have your initial content professionally written)

 

• Add extra, detailed product and services pages, e.g. one per product or product line, grouped together under category pages if required

 

• Create a series of off-menu SEO target pages to “hook” people searching the internet and send them to your website. (Click Here to find out more about what these pages are and how they work)

 

• Add more posts to your company blog, especially those that contain non-promotional, useful content. If you don’t have a company blog, start one ASAP. Regularly publishing new blog posts is one of the best ways to keep your business’s website fresh and growing. Over time, this will do wonders for the value of your website, from a Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) perspective, and in terms of making your website more useful and valuable to website visitors/potential customers​

By Darrell Cuthbert

​However, many back-office functions and B2B operations come to a virtual standstill at this time of year. This does not mean, though, that your website and social media channels should do likewise.
 
A lot of consumers have more time on their hands than usual, either because they are on vacation or just because things are quiet at work – and for a lot of people that means more time spent online.
 
Aside from consumers, many business owners and managers use the Christmas and New Year holiday season to strategize and think about the year ahead, and this often includes internet searches to see what the competition is up to industry news, and to find information about products and services that the business can make use of to operate more efficiently in 2018.
 
But what if your company website, blog, and social media channels all observe complete radio-silence from mid-December to mid-January? 
 
This type of gap where nothing new is posted can really cause your content marketing program to lose momentum – and lead to customers and potential customers losing interest and moving on to other sites and pages, including those of your competitors.
 
However, keeping a website, blog, and social media accounts up to date seems an impossible task in many businesses, with employees starting to go on leave.
 
Two simple strategies can help though:

1. Plan Ahead
2. Automate Content distribution 

 
If this sounds complicated, it really isn’t.
 
Plan Ahead

• Think about subjects and themes that are topical at this time of year, and an angle that opens up the door for you to link your product or service offering to the subject or theme (in a natural, subtle way – not a spammy, hard-sell, in-your-face way).

 

• Write a couple of blog posts/articles for your company website using the above

 

• Write a series of social media posts on the same theme as the blog articles (varying lengths and styles for use on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ etc.), using the articles as inspiration and source material

 

• Put together some more social media posts that are non-promotional, but also topical where possible (e.g. fun facts about the season, interesting information about general industry trends, comment on relevant third party articles or other material spotted online (Google alerts are a great way to keep in touch with this and find topic ideas).

 
 
Automate Content Distribution

• Pre-schedule blog posts to go out on relevant dates, assuming your content management system (CMS) allows for this. If it doesn’t, you can either:
  • Save the posts as drafts and diarise the correct publication date. It should only take a minute or two for you, or a staff member) to log in on the relevant day and release the post
  • Publish all the posts before going away, and possibly forward-date some of them manually if your CMS allows for this (it’s a bit of a con as the post will appear online with a date a few days, or weeks, ahead of time – but generally very few people check blog post dates, so it will probably go unnoticed)

 

• Use a service like Hootsuite or Buffer to pre-schedule social media posts (I use Hootsuite, but that’s a matter of personal preference. I have friends and colleagues that are die-hard Buffer fans, use whichever works best for you)

 

• Link social media posts to your blog posts or the third-party content you are referring to as relevant.

 
By taking the actions suggested above, you can make sure that your company website and social media accounts keep working right throughout the holiday season – even if there is nobody in the office.
​

© D Cuthbert 2017