The key to compelling content is to write for your perfect customer.  Who are they? What age group? How much money do they make? To discover this information I often use Quantcast.com and enter in my competitor’s sites into the search was well as my own. Try to use your largest competitor to get the most data from this search.

You will get information like related sites and demographics including education, income, age groups and gender of the average customer for that site.

Once you have your perfect customer in mind you need to write copy for them not for yourself or the search engines. Remember it is the customer that puts money in your pocket not the search engines.

To start you need to make a list of what problems your customer faces and how your product can solve those problems. It is important to understand the need for a product to be able to write about it. As you go through this exercise you will find you have multiple content ideas and this will open new keyword channels for you to get traffic.

For example think of pet owners. What problems will the average pet owner face?

• Excessive Barking
• Potty training
• Chewing issues
• Vet care

Lets take Excessive Barking as our topic. Our customer wants to “Stop dog from barking” and to go even further in our customer research we check out the AKC.org site and see the ten most popular breeds. So now we can create content for long tail searches for specific breeds.

When writing for your customer use the five senses and put your website visitor into the action. How will they feel using your product? In our case” Savor the Peaceful quiet of your home with a well mannered dog”. When describing products you want to put the customer “behind the wheel” or behind the leash in our case.  Don’t assume the customer knows anything about your product. Be as descriptive as possible.

What else could our customer want to know?

Product comparison: compares the different types of bark collars and bark prevention devices on the market. Product comparison content is great because it is part of the buying process. You are more likely to get a buying customer with this type of content.

Best Practices: A how to guide for using the bark collar is content that would be easy to research and write. Can you write a how to guide for your product or even a how to video? What questions do your customers ask you? How can you better explain the need for your product?

Research your competitor’s websites. What headlines and copy do you like what stands out. I like to print out the landing pages of my competition and lay them all out on my table. I then use colored markers to mark up the pages I printed out I use a yellow highlighter to mark up all of the copy I like and a red marker to X out the things I find distracting or don’t like.

Next I want you to really read over the copy you liked on the pages. What words are repeatedly used in each of the pages? Is there a common set of terms that are on most of the landing pages if not all? Keep a list of these words and be sure to include them in your own copy.

What elements on the pages are similar that you liked. By elements we mean:

• Headlines
• Bullet points
• Guarantees
• Calls to action
• Testimonials

Look at the elements of the pages and take the best from each to create your own layout.  I will actually draw this on a regular blank sheet of paper. Once you have a layout of your site or page it is easy to start adding content to fill in the elements.

Search Networks for Google examples include AOL.com, Ask.com, CNN. your ads will appear in search result pages on those networks.

Partner/Publisher Network examples for Yahoo! include iVilliage, USA Today, NBC your ads will appear in search result pages on those networks.

The advantages of having your PPC ads appear in the partner networks is the immediate increase in reach for your ads.

Content partners usually offer contextual ads. Your ads appear on a page with a story or content, not search results.  In this setting the search engine determines if the content of the page is relevant to your ad and keywords.  The user is not necessarily in “shop mode” when viewing contextual ads.

The worst example of this type of advertising gone wrong was where an advertisement for a fast food chain appeared on the same page as an article about an e.coli meat recall. When shown to a room full of internet users for 30 seconds they all thought the meat recall had something to do with the fast food chain. This is where negative words in your ppc campaigns can save you a lot of PR headaches.

Contextual/Content partner ads and Search Network Partner ads should be turned off  when starting a new campaign. Until you have a defined set of keywords producing a positive return on investment for your ppc campaign keep your testing limited to the search engine page results.

When you are ready to expand your ads, set up separate campaigns.

Keyword research is the foundation for good SEO. If you target the wrong keywords all of your efforts are for nothing. Targeting the right keyword that brings in customers and that is what it is really all about. Long gone are the days when you could expect customers to just type in your name and voila you had a customer. Instead you have to cater more toward your customers search behavior. Studies have show that searchers enter in as many as six word phrases to narrow down their search to find the right product or service.  The advantage in SEO is that it is easier to optimize pages and create content for these “long tail” keywords.

1. Write a list of your customer’s most frequent questions. You can bet they are typing in those queries in the Search Engines
2. Check out what key phrases your competition is buying. We recommend SpyFu.com for this.
3. Think more about your customer and what they need from you.  What problems do you solve for them?
4. Don’t focus on one word or two word phrases, consider three of more word phrases to develop more focused keywords you can go after that will result in a buying customer.
5. Use Google Insights to give you more information on demand for specific keywords and trends. You will be able to see things like: seasonal trends, geographic demand, and new keywords that are related but increasing in demand. www.google.com/insights/search
6. Research your root keyword with descriptive verbs like: “new” “reconditioned” “limited” or any descriptive verb that fits with your business.
7. Consider common acronyms related to your industry. Also realize that some acronyms may have different meanings so you will need to put them in proper context. Which is where you will find additional keyword ideas
8. What topics of interest will your potential customers have and how can you relate it to your business? Finding key phrases that serve as content ideas to expand your customer reach and satisfaction will produce excellent results driving traffic to your site.
9. Do colors relate to your business? Explore the root terms with the colors: “Blue Widget” Green Widget” you will be amazed at how specific people can get when searching.

10. Use Google Suggest through: http://www.UberSuggest.org – It is a Google Suggest Scraper it produces results with additional keyword phrases from one root word or phrase

11. http://www.Soovle.com – Enter in a  root keyword and get phrases back from Wikipedia, Google, Amazon, YouTube, Yahoo, Answers and Bing

“Blended”  Search results pages can be identified when the engines display different media, within their normal results.  With  each new query, users may discover on average five different type of results for their query but can expand search results to more than 13 different channels

Video for example has some of the highest view and search rates online. Adding that channel to your search engine marketing campaign is key to attracting new customers. Set up a company YouTube channel for this purpose. Create “How TO” videos or even slide show presentations as videos using Camtasia.

Discussion Groups like: Google Groups, Linked in Groups, Answers.com, Yahoo Groups, Facebook Groups. Can increase your reach through the search engines and directly engage your potential customers.

Shopping -If you have a product to sell the shopping channels are the best places to be. You can create feeds of your products and submit them through your Google account. Bing also has a shopping channel, however they are not currently accepting new feeds.. Submitting your feed is free right now you just need a Google account.

Mobile- With the use of Moblie phones and tablet devices growing in search it is easy to see how mobile search results will over take searches done by home computers in the very near future. It is critical that you know what your website looks like on a mobile device and ensure the important information is easy to locate. You can create mobile versions of your website to ensure that customers can easily find the important information – like how to contact you.

News results come from current press releases and news stories.  Press Releases are an important part of any search engine marketing campaign. The link value is great but the goal is to get people talking about your product or service. That is why it is important to write compelling news releases that relate to current events or topics of interest to your customers.

Images-The image Search channel is easy to optimize for. You can embed the important information like titles and descriptions into each of your images using Photoshop or Aperture . Use accurate descriptions of the images and always optimize your images for web viewing.

The Local Search channel is one of the key components to your SEM campaign. Out of the estimated ten billion searches each month, 20% have local intent according to Google. Bing estimates that 53% of all mobile device searches have local intent. Claim your local business listing or create one in Google Places, Yahoo Local, and Yelp.

2. Post about your services at Craigslist.org . Craigslist ads usually remain for 45 days. Always use best practices for posting on any classified website. Post your ad where it is most relevant and do not abuse the service by cross posting.

3. Write an article or product review add it to your site and submit it to Article Databases. The article resource box contains your links and can help build traffic and your image as an expert. You can expect to see the search engines spider your site more often the more you update your own pages with fresh content. Places to Submit your Articles: AffSphere Article Announce Article Sender

4. Submit your site to Directories.

5. Join the Better Business Bureau or other local organizations relevant to your products or services. Most organizations will list your services and your web site address on their web sites. You could even offer to write an article or helpful tips or consumer guide to put on their site.

6. Do Radio Interviews. While most listeners are either in their car or at work, the number of listeners that utilize their computers to listen to streaming content is growing. Contact your local radio stations, find out if they would be interested in doing an interview with you. What tips could you give their listeners? The radio show should be informative and not a sales pitch. Be prepared with facts and even a list of questions and answers. Check out World Talk Radio they are always looking for new content for their shows. Contact the producer of the most appropriate show or suggest one.

7. Blog IT. Blogs are a simple way for you to write content for your site and have absolutely no knowledge of HTML or web coding. Blogs are also set up so that anyone can subscribe to them, comment on them or get the blog’s information fed via an RSS feed. Write your thoughts, an opinion or a review. Think of a Blog as your own little soap box, add in links to your site, and you are bound to see some nice search engine spidering as well as visitor traffic. I knew a real estate agent who wrote about his bathroom remodeling and pictures of the remodel were the most visited parts of his site. Get a Free one here: Blogger

8. Use Sequential Auto responders to set up a system of constant contact with your customers or visitors. A series of emails that give one tip or focused information per email. Keep it short and simple but most importantly make sure it is of value to your audience. Be sure to direct the reader back to your site for more extensive resources. Recommended tools/services: AWeber

9. Video Clips- Today creating a video clip is as easy as using a digital camera ( most do video and still pictures now) that fits in the palm of your hand and uploading the video file to places like YouTube , Blip.tv , UStream.tv and LiveVideo . Clips and links that get passed around repeatedly like a virus- ( Viral Marketing) and seem to take on a life of their own. Creating video clips of how to install a product, the proper form for an exercise, or just something funny you happened to capture are all excellent ways to use video to increase traffic to your site.

10. Participate in Online Communities. I refer to forums and other chat or message boards. You can ask questions, provide helpful advice or participate in discussions. Most boards allow you to use a signature file to add in links to your website and contact info if you choose. This helps you to expand your reach and becoming a more active participant in the online community is good for business just like participating in your own community. Places like Google Groups or Yahoo Groups which are more like news groups or industry specific forums are the best places to stay active.

• Top level navigation carries more authority or weight with the Search Engines
• Pages that take 3 or more clicks to get to have less authority

Most sites will have top and side navigation. The side navigation is where you would put the important category pages of your website which as part of your template is linked on every pages of your site. From a usability standpoint set up your categories in blocks of no more than ten per section. Any more than that and the user will have a difficult time navigating your site.

Category heading
• Widget Reviews
• Widget Buyers Guide
• Widget FAQ

Category heading 2
• Blue Widgets
• Green Widgets
• Widgets on Sale
• Widget Coupons

Good keyword research will help you uncover the best categories to use for your site. This is where you will find what people are searching for in the engines and be able to give them exactly what they want from any page of your site. Tools like Market Samurai are excellent for discovering which terms are more searched and Tools like WordTracker to discover additional keywords related to your product or service.

• Use Keyword research to determine your categories
• Separate your categories by headings
• Use no more than ten in a single block

The navigation you place on the bottom of your template is usually text navigation and gives you the opportunity to link to pages using keywords. For example instead of “home” you would say “blue widgets” if that was your main keyword for the index page. The anchor text “blue widgets” tells the search engines your home page is about “blue widgets” and lends more authority throughout your site for that page’s main keyword.
It is important to focus each page on a specific keyword phrase as you build out your site. The best way to keep track of this and build out your navigation is a spreadsheet or mind-mapping tool. In the spreadsheet you can start listing your keywords and their number of searches to put them in order of highest searches to lowest.