Web Analytics and Conversion Optimization

 

15.1 Introduction

Picture the scene: you’ve opened up a new fashion retail outlet in the trendiest shopping center in town. You’ve spent a small fortune on advertising and branding. You’ve gone to great lengths to ensure that you’re stocking all the prestige brands. Come opening day, your store is inundated with visitors and potential customers. And yet, you are hardly making any sales. Could it be because you have one cashier for every hundred customers? Or maybe it’s the fact that the smell of your freshly painted walls is chasing customers away before they complete a purchase. While it can be difficult to isolate and track the factors affecting your revenue in this fictional store, move it online and you have a wealth of resources available to assist you with tracking, analyzing, and optimizing your performance.

To a marketer, the Internet offers more than new avenues of creativity. By its very nature, the Internet allows you to track each click to your site and through your site. It takes the guesswork out of pinpointing the successful elements of a campaign and can show you very quickly what’s not working. It all comes down to knowing where to look, knowing what to look for, and knowing what to do with the information you find.

History

Testing, analyzing, and optimizing are not new to marketing. Being able to gauge the success of any campaign is crucial to growth.

Early Web analytics packages came to the fore in the mid-1990s, a couple of years after the first Mosaic browser was launched. Early analysis reflected the nature of the early Web, focusing only on hits with some very basic click-stream analysis. With one-page Web sites being the norm, it was enough to know how many clicks came to the Web site. Traffic meant you were doing well. You can still see hit counters on some Web sites today. These Web sites usually look as sophisticated as this tool.

However, as Web sites became more complex, and as more people had access to the Internet, better analysis became more important. Measuring hits was, and is, not enough. In fact, measuring hits is a fairly meaningless task. Web analytics split into two types of tools: page tags and log files. Both continue to become more sophisticated, capturing information about visitors to a Web site, and recording detailed information related to their time on the site. There are several log-file analysis tools that cost nothing to use. Sophisticated page-tag Web analytics became available for free when Google bought Urchin in March 2005 and launched Google Analytics as a free service. Are you wondering what the difference is between page tagging and log-file analysis? Don’t worry, it’s coming!

15.2 How It Works

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. Learn the basic fundamentals of Web analytics and conversion optimization.
2. Understand why Web analytics are important to eMarketing.
3. Understand why conversion optimization is important to eMarketing.

When it comes to Web analytics and conversion optimization, it is all about preparation. It is not just about collecting data; you need to know what data you are going to use. Once data have been collected, you need to analyze them and let the numbers inform your optimization tasks.

Goals, Events, and Key Performance Indicators

The key to the success of any Web site or online campaign is that it is designed with clearly definedgoals in mind. These will be used to measure the success of the Web site or campaign and are crucial to maintaining focus within online activities.

The goal of a Web site or campaign may depend on the type of industry, but usually it will be an action that results in revenue for the company. The goal of a Web site is also intrinsically linked to the action that you want visitors to perform.

Although a Web site has an ultimate goal, the process of achieving that goal can be broken down into several steps. These are called events or microconversions. Analyzing each step in the process is calledfunnel analysis or path analysis and is critical to understanding where problems in the conversion process may lie. The clicks visitors make once landed on a site, whether they follow the desired steps or not, are referred to as a click path.

Figure 15.1 Funnel Analysis

For example, on a hotel Web site, the ultimate goal is that visitors to the site make a booking on the Web site with a credit card.

Each step in the process is an event that can be analyzed as a conversion point:

• Event 1. Perform a search for available dates for hotels in the desired area.
• Event 2. Check prices and amenities for available hotels.
• Event 3. Select a hotel and go to checkout.
• Event 4. Enter personal and payment details and confirm booking (conversion).

One expects fewer users at each step; that’s why it’s called a funnel. Increasing the number of visitors who progress from one step to the next will go a long way to improving the overall conversion rate of the site.

There are also other pointers, or indicators, that you are achieving your goals. These are factors that can be optimized to ensure that your ultimate goal is being met. In Web analytics, these are referred to askey performance indicators (KPIs). These need to be defined so you monitor the entire process to achieving your Web site goal. They can also give clues as to what factors you need to work on so as to reach your goal.

Note

Events and KPIs are not the same thing. Events can be seen as steps toward a goal and are usually an action performed by a visitor. KPIs are indicators that the Web site’s goals are being met.

Here are some example goals and KPIs for different Web sites:

For a hospitality e-commerce site, such as http://www.expedia.com, one would expect the following goals:

• Increase bookings
• Decrease marketing expenses

For the same site, one would expect the following KPIs:

• Conversion rate
• Cost per visitor
• Average order value

For news and content sites, such as http://www.news24.com, one would expect the following goals:

• Increase readership and level of interest
• Increase time visitors spend on Web site

For the same site, one would expect the following KPIs:

• Length of visit
• Average time spent on Web site
• Percentage of returning visitors

KPIs help you to look at the factors that you can influence. For example, if your goal is to increase revenue, you could look at ways of increasing your conversion rate (that is the number of visitors who purchase something). One way of increasing conversion rate could be to offer a discount. So you would have more sales but probably a lower average order value. Or you could look at ways of increasing the average order value, so the conversion rate would stay the same, but you increase the revenue from each conversion.

Once you have established your goals, events, and KPIs, you need to be able to track the data that will help you analyze how you are performing and how you can optimize your Web site or campaign.

KPIs and events break down the factors and steps that can be influences so as to achieve the goals of the Web site. They allow you to see on a micro level what is affecting performance on a macro level.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The trackability of the Internet allows for analysis at every level of an eMarketing campaign, which should lead to improved results over time.
• Analysis of a Web site has an ultimate goal, which can be broken down into several steps, which are called events or microconversions.
• Each step in the process is called funnel analysis. Each step in the process is an event that can be analyzed as a conversion point.
• Fewer users will engage at each step of the purchase funnel, which is why it’s called a funnel.
• The foundation of successful analysis and optimization is to determine campaign and business goals up front and use these to determine KPIs (key performance indicators) for that campaign. Analyzing metrics that are not indicators of success will detract from timely optimization.

EXERCISE

1. What is the difference between goals, events, and KPIs? Consider http://www.facebook.com andhttp://www.boingboing.net, and list what you think the goals of each Web site are and what events and KPIs would be used to measure these.

15.3 Tracking and Collecting Data

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

1. Understand why tracking and data collection are important to eMarketing.

Currently, there are two main technology approaches for collecting Web analytics data: log-file analysis and page tagging.

Log-file analysis software reads the records, called log files, on the Web server, which record all clicks that take place on the server. Web servers have always stored all the clicks that take place in a log file, so the software interprets data that have always been available. A new line is written in a log file with each new request. For example, clicking on a link, an Ajax call, or submitting a form will each result in a new line being written.

Page tagging, on the other hand, sends information to a third-party server, where statistics can be generated. The browser executes JavaScript code that communicates with the tracking software, creating page tags.

Pixel tracking can be used to track e-mail campaigns. Here, a tiny, transparent pixel is placed in the e-mail. When you load the images in the e-mail, you will also load the tiny image that tracks your activity.

Note

Caching is when a browser stores some of the information for a Web page so it can retrieve the page more quickly when you return to it. If a Web page is cached by your browser, when you look at the page again, it will not send a request to the Web server. This means that that particular visit will not show in the log files. Page tagging, however, would capture this visit. But some browsers do not support JavaScript, and page tagging would not capture those visits. This is why there is often a discrepancy in the numbers reported by the two services.

Log-File Analysis

In terms of log-file analysis, you should know the following:

• Log files are normally produced by Web servers, so the raw data are readily available. Page tagging, however, requires changes to the Web site.
• Log files are very accurate—they record every click. Page tagging can be less accurate. If a user’s browser does not support JavaScript, for example, no information will be captured.
• Log files are in a standard format, so it is possible to switch vendors and still be able to analyze historical data. Page tagging is proprietary to each vendor, so switching can mean losing historical data.
• Log files record visits from search engine spiders—useful for search engine optimization.
• Log files record failed requests, whereas page tagging only shows successful requests.

Page Tagging

In terms of page tagging, you should know the following:

• JavaScript makes it easier to capture more information (e.g., products purchased or screen size of a user’s browser). You can use log-file analysis to capture this information, but it will involve modifying the URLs (uniform resource locators).
• Page tagging can report on events, such as interactions with a Flash movie, that log-file analysis cannot.
• Page tagging can be used by companies that do not run their own Web servers.
• Page tagging service providers usually offer a greater level of support. This is because it is a third-party service, whereas log-file analysis software is often managed in-house.

Because of the different methods of collecting data, the raw figures produced by the two services will differ. Sometimes, both are used to analyze a Web site. However, raw figures not matching up should not be a problem. It is through interpreting these figures that you will be able to understand how effective your eMarketing efforts are.

Web site analytics packages can be used to measure most, if not all, eMarketing campaigns. Web site analysis should always account for the various campaigns being run. For example, generating high traffic volumes by employing various eMarketing tactics like SEO (search engine optimization), PPC (pay per click), and e-mail marketing can prove to be a pointless and costly exercise if the visitors are leaving your site without achieving one (or more) of your Web site’s goals. Conversion optimization aims to convert as many of a Web site’s visitors as possible into active customers.

What Information Is Captured

There are three types of Web analytics metrics:

1. Count. These are the raw figures captured that will be used for analysis.
2. Ratio. This is an interpretation of the data that are counted.
3. KPI (key performance indicator). Either a count or a ratio, these are the figures that help you to determine your success in reaching your goals.

Discussion

Why would you want to look at the activity of a single visitor? Why would you want to segment the traffic for analysis?

In analysis, metrics can be applied to three different universes:

1. Aggregate. All traffic to the Web site for a defined period of time.
2. Segmented. A subset of all traffic according to a specific filter, such as by campaign (PPC) or visitor type (new visitor vs. returning visitor).
3. Individual. The activity of a single visitor for a defined period of time.

Building Block Terms

Here are some of the key metrics you will need to get started on Web site analytics:

• Hit. A request to the server (and a fairly meaningless number on its own).
• Page. Unit of content (so downloads and Flash files can be defined as a page).
• Page views. The number of times a page was successfully requested.
• Visit or session. An interaction by an individual with a Web site consisting of one or more page views within a specified period of time.
• Unique visitors. The number of individual people visiting the Web site one or more times within a period of time. Each individual is only counted once. Types of visitors can be categorized as follows:
  • New visitor. A unique visitor who visits the Web site for the first time ever in the period of time being analyzed.
  • Repeat visitor. A unique visitor with two or more visits within the time period being analyzed.
  • Return visitor. A unique visitor who is not a new visitor.

Note

A repeat visitor may be either a new visitor or a return visitor, depending on the number of times he or she has visited the site within the time period being analyzed.

These are the most basic Web metrics. They tell you how much traffic your Web site is receiving. Looking at repeat and returning visitors can tell you about how your Web site creates loyalty. As well as growing overall visitor numbers, a Web site needs to grow the number of visitors who come back. An exception might be a support Web site—repeat visitors could indicate that the Web site has not been successful in solving the visitor’s problem. Each Web site needs to be analyzed based on its purpose.

Visit Characterization

The following help characterize the visit to a particular Web site:

• Entry page. The first page of a visit.
• Landing page. The page intended to identify the beginning of the user experience resulting from a defined marketing effort.
• Exit page. The last page of a visit.
• Visit duration. The length of time in a session.
• Referrer. The URL (uniform resource locator) that originally generated the request for the current page.
  • Internal referrer. A URL that is part of the same Web site.
  • External referrer. A URL that is outside of the Web site.
  • Search referrer. The URL has been generated by a search function.
  • Visit referrer. The URL that originated a particular visit.
  • Original referrer. The URL that sent a new visitor to the Web site.
• Click-through. The number of times a link was clicked by a visitor.
• Click-through rate. The number of times a link was clicked divided by the number of times it was seen (impressions).
• Page views per visit. The number of page views in a reporting period divided by the number of visits in that same period.

These are the terms that tell you how visitors reach your Web site and how they move through the Web site. The way that a visitor navigates a Web site is called a click path. Looking at the referrers, both internal and internal, allows you to gauge a click path that visitors take.

Content Characterization

The following help characterize how visitors move through the Web site:

• Page exit ratio. Number of exits from a page divided by total number of page views of that page.
• Single-page visits. Visits that consist of one page, even if that page was viewed a number of times.
• Bounces (single page-view visits). Visits consisting of a single page view.
• Bounce rate. Single page-view visits divided by entry pages.

When visitors view a page, they have two options: leave the Web site, or view another page on the Web site. These metrics tell you how visitors react to your content. Bounce rate can be one of the most important metrics that you measure! There are a few exceptions, but a high bounce rate usually means high dissatisfaction with a Web page.

Conversion Metrics

Other metrics that apply to eMarketing tactics include the following:

• Event. A recorded action that has a specific time assigned to it by the browser or the server.
• Conversion. A visitor completing a target action.
• Impression. Each time an advertisement or a page is served.
• Open. Each e-mail that is deemed open. Usually if the images are loaded, an e-mail is considered open.

Note

For the most up-to-date definitions, visit http://www.webanalyticsassociation.org to download the latest definitions in PDF (portable document format).

In order to test the success of your Web site, you need to remember the TAO of conversion optimization:

• Track
• Analyze
• Optimize

Using your goals and KPIs, you’ll know what metrics you will be tracking. You will then need to analyze these results and take appropriate actions. And the testing begins again!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Web analytics packages come in two flavors: log-file analysis and page-tagging analysis, although some packages combine both methods.
• Metrics use the following:
  • Counts
  • Ratios
  • KPIs (key performance indicators), which are either counts or ratios

EXERCISES

1. How can site search data be used to optimize a Web site?
2. Why is “hit” a meaningless measure of Web site success?

15.4 Analyzing Data

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

1. Gain an understanding of data analysis and why it is important to eMarketing.

A number is just a number until you can interpret it. Typically, it is not the raw figures that you will be looking at, but what they can tell you about how your users are interacting with your Web site.

How and What to Test

Avinash Kaushik, author of Web Analytics: An Hour a Day, recommends a three-prong approach to Web analytics:

• Analyze behavior data that infer the intent of a Web site’s visitors.
• Analyze outcome metrics that show how many visitors performed the goal actions on a Web site.
• Test and analyze data that tell us about the user experience.Avinash Kaushik, Web Analytics: An Hour a Day (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2007), 15–19.

Behavior Data: Intent

Web users’ behavior can indicate a lot about their intent. Looking at referral URLs (uniform resource locators) and search terms used to find the Web site can tell you a great deal about what problems visitors are expecting your site to solve.

Click density analysis, segmentation, metrics that define the visit, and content can all be used to gauge the intent of your visitors.

Figure 15.2 The Trinity Approach to Analytics

Source: Adapted from http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/wp-content/uploads/2006/08/trinity_strategy.jpg. Used by permission from Avinash Kaushik.

A crucial, and often overlooked, part of this analysis is that of internal search. Internal search refers to the searches that users perform on the Web site of the Web site’s content. While a great deal of time is spent analyzing and optimizing external search—using search engines to reach the Web site in question—analyzing internal search goes a long way toward determining how effective a Web site is in delivering solutions to visitors.

Internal and external search data are likely to be very different and can go a long way to exposing weaknesses in site navigation and the internal search itself and can expose gaps in inventory on which a Web site can capitalize.

For example, consider the keywords a user might use when searching for a hotel Web site and keywords that might be used by a the user when on the Web site.

Keywords to search for a hotel Web site might be the following:

• Cape Town hotel
• Bed and breakfast Cape Town

Once on the Web site, the user might use the site search function to find out further information. Keywords he or she might use include the following:

• Table Mountain
• Pets
• Babysitting service

Analytics tools can show what keywords users search for, what pages they visit after searching, and, of course, whether they search again with a variation of or different keywords.

Outcomes: Meeting Expectations

At the end of the day, you want people who visit your Web site to perform an action that increases the Web site’s revenue. Analysis of goals and KPIs (key performance indicators) indicate where there is room for improvement. Look at user intent to establish how your Web site meets the user’s goals and if they match with the Web site goals. Look at user experience to determine how outcomes can be influenced.

Figure 15.3 Analyzing Each Step in the Conversion Process

Figure 15.3 "Analyzing Each Step in the Conversion Process" shows how analyzing each event can show where the Web site is not meeting expectations.

After performing a search, one hundred visitors land on the home page of a Web site. From there, eighty visitors visit the first page toward the goal. This event has an 80 percent conversion rate. Twenty visitors take the next step. This event has a 25 percent conversion rate. Ten visitors convert into paying customers. This event has a 50 percent conversion rate. The conversion rate of all visitors who performed the search is 10 percent, but by breaking this up into events we can analyze and improve the conversion rate of each event.

Experience: Why Users Acted the Way They Did, and How That Can Be Influenced

Determining the factors that affect user experience involves testing to determine why users do what they do. Understanding why users behave in a certain way on your Web site will show you how that behavior can be influenced so as increase successful outcomes.

Testing can be performed in a number of ways:

• A/B split testing
• Multivariate testing
• Listening labs
• Single page heat maps

A/B Split Testing

A/B split testing measures one variable at a time to determine its effect on an outcome. Different versions are created for the variable you want to test. For example, consider the following tests:

• Two e-mail subject lines for the same e-mail to see which produces a superior open rate
• Different placements of the “buy now” on a product page to see which results in increased sales
• Different copy styles on PPC (pay-per-click) advertisements to see which gives a higher CTR (click-through rate)

In these cases, only one variable is tested at a time, and all other elements on the Web page, in the e-mail, or part of the PPC advertisement remain the same. You can test more than one version of the variable; it just means that you will need to test for longer.

Traffic is then randomly distributed to the different versions, and the outcomes are measured for each version of the variable. The results are then interpreted to see if there is a statistically significant difference between the variables. The version producing the best results can then be employed.

Remember studying statistics? It’s going to come in handy here. You don’t need to send huge amounts of traffic to a different version of a Web page to determine success. In fact, it can be risky to do so.

Multivariate Testing

Multivariate testing allows you to test many variables at once and still determine which version of each variable has a statistically significant effect on your outcomes. For Web sites, there are a number of vendors who will host pages that are being tested in this way remotely, if you do not have the technology to do this in-house.

Multivariate testing allows you to test, for example, the following:

• Subject lines and copy style for e-mails
• Color, font size, and image size for Web sites

The combinations are endless, and because of that, it is easy to get stuck analyzing every tiny detail. Successful testing relies on having clear objectives to begin with, and sufficient traffic to warrant such detail.

Listening Labs

A listening lab could also be called a watching lab, as this involves watching users interact with your site and listening to their comments. Professional listening labs can be hired, or as Steve Krug points out in his book Don’t Make Me Think! they can be set up fairly easily in a quiet part of an office.Steve Krug,Don’t Make Me Think! A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd ed. (Berkeley, CA: New Riders, 2005).

In a listening lab, a moderator asks users to perform tasks on a Web site and asks them to describe what they are thinking and doing. These exercises can provide important information that looking at data cannot.

Single-Page Heat Maps

Companies such as Crazy Egg (http://www.crazyegg.com) have software that can show you exactly where users click on a Web page, regardless of whether they are clicking on links or not.

Figure 15.4 A Heat Map on Crazy Egg

It produces information that helps you know what areas of a Web site are clickable but attract few or no clicks, and areas that are not clickable but have users attempting to click there. This can show you what visual clues on your Web page influence where your visitors click, and this can be used to optimize the click path of your visitors.

There are many factors that could be preventing your visitors from achieving specific end goals. From the tone of the copy to the color of the page, everything on your Web site may affect conversions. Possible factors are often so glaringly obvious that one tends to miss them or so small that they are dismissed as trivial. Changing one factor may result in other unforeseen consequences, and it is vital to ensure that we don’t jump to the wrong conclusions.

There are many techniques that can be used to improve conversion rates, depending on which area is being improved. A better landing page, for example, can reduce the drop-off between a PPC and adding a product to the shopping cart. And reducing that drop-off can go a long way to improving the cost per acquisition (CPA). Figure 15.5 shows how small changes in conversion rate can make a big difference to the CPA.

One of the most important aspects of conversion optimization is keeping visitors focused on their goals. To do this, it is important to maintain a highly visible and influential click path from the landing page to the goal or action page that is as short as possible. The more links and irrelevant distractions that are present on a site, the less likely visitors are to remain focused on achieving your desired objectives.

Figure 15.5

Find out if people are looking for something specifically and whether it can be tied to a source. Don’t take people to your home page by default if they’re looking for specific keywords and are clicking through on designated links or (more importantly) are coming through a PPC campaign. Again, keep them focused on the defined goal; rather, let them enter where they are most comfortable thereby keeping the path to conversion as short as possible.

Segmentation

Every visitor to a Web site is different, but there are some ways we can characterize groups of users and analyze metrics for each group. This is called segmentation. Some segments include the following:

Referral URL

Users who arrive at your site via search engines, those who type in the URL directly, and those who come from a link in an online newspaper article are all likely to behave differently. As well as conversion rates, click path and exit pages are important metrics to consider. Consider the page on which these visitors land to enter your Web site—can anything be done to improve their experience?

Landing Pages

Users who enter your Web site through different pages can behave very differently. What can you do to affect the page on which they are landing, or what elements of the landing page can be changed to influence outcomes?

Connection Speed, Operating System, and Browser

Consider the effects of technology on the behavior of your users. High bounce rate for low-bandwidth users, for example, could indicate that your site is taking too long to load. Visitors who use open-source technology might expect different things from your Web site to other visitors. Different browsers might show your Web site differently—how does this affect these visitors?

Geographical Location

Do users from different countries, provinces, or towns behave differently on your Web site? How can you optimize user experience for these different groups?

First-Time Visitors

How is the click path of a first-time visitor different from that of a returning visitor? What parts of the Web site are more important to first-time visitors?

Tools of the Trade

The very first thing you need when it comes to Web analytics is a Web analytics tool for gathering data. Some are free and some require a fee. You will need to determine which package best serves your needs. Bear in mind that it is possible to switch vendors with log-file analysis software without losing historical data, but it is not as easy to do so with page-tagging software.

The following are some leading providers:

• Google Analytics (page-tagging analysis). http://www.google.com/analytics
• Lyris HQ, formerly ClickTracks (log file and page tagging).http://www.lyris.com/solutions/lyris-hq/web-analytics
• AWStats (log-file analysis). http://awstats.sourceforge.net
• Webalizer (log-file analysis). http://www.mrunix.net/webalizer

When it comes to running split tests, if you don’t have the technical capacity to run these in-house, there are a number of third-party services that can host these for you. Google’s Web site Optimizer (http://www.google.com/websiteoptimizer) can help you do just that.

A basic split-test calculator is available at http://www.usereffect.com/split-test-calculator. Crazy Egg (http://www.crazyegg.com) is a strange-sounding name, but this tool can help you to see exactly where visitors are clicking on a Web page.

Pros and Cons

Tracking, analyzing, and optimizing are vital to the success of any marketing efforts, and even more so with online marketing efforts. eMarketing allows for easy and fast tracking and the ability to optimize frequently.

However, it can be easy to become fixated on figures instead of using them to optimize campaign growth. Generally, macro, or global, metrics should be looked at before starting to analyze micro elements of a Web site. Testing variables is vital to success. Results always need to be statistically analyzed, and marketers should let these numbers make the decisions. Never assume the outcome—wait for the numbers to inform you.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Data can be analyzed to infer user behavior and intent, outcomes achieved, and user experience. Testing to optimize user experience can demonstrate ways to influence user behavior so that more successful outcomes are achieved.
• Testing can be performed via the following:
  • Listening labs
  • A/B split testing
  • Multivariate testing
  • One-page analytics
• Segmenting the audience allows for analysis and optimizing for specific groups of users.

EXERCISE

1. Why should changes be tested with a small number of Web visitors before being rolled out?

15.5 Case Study: Firefox 3

Web sites with high volumes of traffic have the opportunity to test regularly and make sure that they are optimizing conversions. Online retailers such as Amazon.com make frequent small changes, hardly noticed by their visitors, to ensure that they are converting as many visitors into buyers as possible. Likewise, the high volume of traffic to Google’s home page allows it to test new features with a small percentage of visitors before rolling them out to all users.

Firefox is a free, open-source browser that is currently used by about 47 percent of the market, and it is gaining market share. When launching version 3 of the browser, Firefox 3, Firefox developer Mozilla (http://www.mozilla.org) aimed to enter the Guinness Book of Records for most software downloads in twenty-four hours starting June 17, 2008. The aim was 5 million downloads. Firefox 2.0 registered 1.6 million downloads on the first day it was made available on October 24, 2006.

Mozilla wanted visitors to the Web site to perform one action: download Firefox. With a publicized record attempt, it was necessary to make the process as smooth as possible. The landing page for Firefox 2 was already successful. FutureNow conversion analyst Josh Hay noted that “their Call to Action does so many things right. The non-standard shape stands out from the background of the page, and has been given a persuasive color that draws the eyes to it. They’ve even used it to reinforce their brand. Within the Call to Action, Firefox lists the benefit and tells the visitor exactly what he is getting.”Josh Hay, “Large Red Buttons? Oh My!” FutureNow, February 15, 2007,http://www.grokdotcom.com/2007/02/15/large-red-buttons-oh-my (accessed June 20, 2010).

Figure 15.6 Firefox 2 Download Available for Free from http://www.mozilla.com/firefox

Figure 15.7 Firefox 3 Download Available for Free from http://www.mozilla.com/firefox

So, with something that works, what can be done to make it work better?

With the new download page, the download button is in the same basic design, but with a few nuanced changes.

First, the name and version of the browser has changed position on the page. It has moved from a large on-page heading and onto the actual download button. The text on the button has also changed, from “Download Firefox—Free” to “Free Download.” There is also a little image on the Firefox 3 download button that was not used on the Firefox 2 landing page—an arrow to indicate the download action. The information about the version of the browser has also been split over two lines in the Firefox 3 download button.

The download button and the placement of the Firefox logo (the fox around the globe) have had a subtle revision. The logo is now clearly integrated into the download button. On the Firefox 3 page, the hyperlinks are not underlined, emphasizing the single purpose of the download button.

Did it work? Mozilla records that there were over 8 million downloads of Firefox 3 in its first twenty-four hours of release—over 5,500 downloads a minute! Mozilla’s commitment to optimizing the all-important Firefox 3 landing page paid off.

CASE STUDY QUESTIONS

1. Why do Web sites with high traffic volumes have the opportunity to test frequently?
2. The text on the download button was changed, as was the layout of the text. What do you think the effect was of each change?
3. What tests would you set up to decide how effective each change is? Describe how the tests would work.

15.6 References

Jason Burby, Angie Brown, and the WAA Standards Committee, “Web Analytics Definitions—Version 4.0,” Web Analytics Association, August 16, 2007,http://www.webanalyticsassociation.org/resource/resmgr/PDF_standards/WebAnalyticsDefinitionsVol1.pdf (accessed March 3, 2008).

Robert Gorell, “Firefox 3: How to Convert Seven Million Visitors in a Day,” GrokDotCom, June 18, 2008, http://www.grokdotcom.com/2008/06/18/mozilla-firefox-3-download (accessed March 3, 2008).

“Help Yourself to a KPI!” GrokDotCom, June 1, 2004,http://www.grokdotcom.com/topics/helpyourselftoakpi.htm (accessed March 3, 2008).

Avinash Kaushik, “Are You Into Internal Site Search Analysis? You Should Be,” Occam’s Razor, June 26, 2006, http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/2006/06/are-you-into-internal-site-search-analysis-you -should-be.html (accessed March 3, 2008).

Avinash Kaushik, “Kick Butt with Internal Site Search Analytics,” Occam’s Razor, October 20, 2007,http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/2007/10/kick-butt-with-internal-site-search -analytics.html(accessed March 3, 2008).

Avinash Kaushik, “Trinity: A Mindset and Strategic Approach,” Occam’s Razor, August 10, 2006,http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/2006/08/trinity-a-mindset-strategic-approach.html (accessed March 3, 2008).

Online Copywriting

14.1 Introduction

When it comes to writing copy on the Internet, content is king. The copy on a Web page is a hardworking multitasker. It needs to provide information to visitors, engage with them, and lead them to perform a desired action—all while conveying brand ethos. It also needs to provide context and relevance to search engines. And it needs to achieve all this fluidly without appearing to be trying too hard.

Copywriting is a fundamental element of effective online marketing. Whether writing an e-mail to a colleague or PPC (pay-per-click) advertisements for a new product launch, learning how to write effective online copy will make you a better communicator.

Online copywriting entails everything from the copy of Web site pages, to the content of an e-mail, and all written elements in between. From eight-hundred-word WebPR (Web public relations) articles to three-line PPC advertisements, if it’s being read on a screen, it’s online copy. Ultimately, you are writing on the Web to meet business objectives, so it is important to never sway from the strategic element and potential of your online copy.

Focus on writing in a strategic, persuasive, compelling manner.

14.2 How It Works

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

1. Understand how online copywriting works.

When writing for the Web, it does not mean that traditional approaches to copywriting need to be ditched. The foundations remain—they just need to be adapted to an online environment. The first step you need to take is to research your target audience, understand their needs, and write copy that solves their problems and answers their questions while engaging with them.

Understanding your audience will guide you in determining the topics that they want to read about and will help you to organize information in a way that makes sense to your audience. It will direct the tone of your copy as well as the content.

Tip

Sometimes it helps to write for just one person. Pick out someone you know who fits your audience, or make someone up, and write for that person. In copywriting, this person who fits your audience is a persona.

The Internet has led to an audience of one.Jonathan Price and Lisa Price, Hot Text: Web Writing That Works (Indianapolis: New Riders, 2002). What does this mean? While your audience is not literally one person (and if it is, thank your mom for reading your Web site, but spend some time on growing your readership), it is not a vast, vaguely defined crowd. Instead, online we have many niche audiences who are used to being addressed as individuals. Online, many of the individuals in our audience also exchange information via blogs, forums, and other forms of social media.

Holly Buchanan of FutureNow (http://www.futurenowinc.com) sums this up with three questions you should ask:

• Who is my audience?
• What actions do I want them to take?
• What information do they need in order to feel confident taking my desired action?Holly Buchanan, “What Is Web Copy and How Should I Use It?” FutureNow, March 17, 2008,http://www.grokdotcom.com/2008/03/17/what-is-web-copy (accessed June 17, 2008).

Personas

Personas are based on the profile of readers of your copy—the visitors to your Web site and potential customers. Creating a profile is all about considering the needs and desires of your Web site visitors and effectively meeting them. For example, How do they make purchase decisions? Do they compare lots of service providers before selecting one? Do they make lists of questions and call in for assistance with decision making? Or do they make purchase decisions spontaneously based on a special offer?

Web site copy can be structured in such a way that it caters for several personas, but you need to spend time understanding their needs before you are able to write copy that addresses these needs with conviction.

Understanding the profiles of your readers is an important element, and the best copy usually results from extensive time spent figuring out who your audience is.

When writing on behalf of clients, it is very important that you have clearly understood what their corporate “personality” is so that you can convey this in your copy without deviating from their corporate identity or diluting their brand ethos.

Writing an online copy—guidelines document will enable you to fall back on the styles, conventions, and voice that you are required to write for. Understanding and sticking to this corporate voice is just as important as the audience you are tailoring your content for. The two need to work together and draw from one another for direction.

By sticking to style conventions, you will assist the audience in familiarizing themselves with author personas. This way, they will know what bits of content go where in a document, and this allows for easier navigation.

Copy That Is Easy to Read

Online copy is judged first and foremost on its layout, regardless of the content. It needs to appear to be well structured and easy to read before a visitor will choose to read it.

A good online copywriter will also be able to use basic HTML (hypertext markup language), knowing that it is the appealing layout of the page that will get their words read. It should be easy for users to skip and skim the copy, effortlessly finding the parts that are most relevant to them.

Online copy should be pleasant to read and easy to scan. This means making use of the following:

• Bulleted and numbered lists
• Short paragraphs
• Clear and concise headings
• Bold and italic text
• Descriptive links
• Calls to action (CTAs) above the fold

It’s easy to see this in practice.

Figure 14.1 What Text Looks Like after It Has Been Edited for Online

Readers online are usually strapped for time and need to decide quickly whether or not to read a page. This means that the most important information needs to be at the top of the page. Start with the summary or conclusion—the main idea or gist of the article.

Figure 14.2 The Structure of Online Copy

While clever wordplay in headings and titles can attract some attention, online these need to be written as descriptively as possible. The copy is multitasking: not only is it informing visitors of what to expect, it is also telling search engine spiders what the page is about. Be creative, but keep it relevant.

Learning to Use HTML

HTML stands for hypertext markup language, and it’s the foundation of documents on the Internet. HTML tags tell browsers how to present content. HTML tags are in the brackets that look like arrows: < and >.

When writing online copy, you can use an HTML editor, where you insert the tags yourself, or a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor, which works in a similar way to a word processor.

Basic HTML is simple to implement and will help you to lay out your content in an easy-to-read way. Here are some basic HTML tags:

• Bold. <b>phrase you wish to bold</b>
• Italicize. <i>phrase you wish to italicize</i>
• Underline. <u>phrase you wish to underline</u>
• List. <li>lines you wish to list</li>
• Create a paragraph. <p>paragraph text</p>
• Insert a line break. <br/>
• Insert a link. <a href=“page url”>phrase you wish to link</a>

The tags also help search engines to identify how the content has been laid out on the page.

The best way to get to grips with HTML is to start using it online where you can see how the tags work.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Knowing your audience will guide you in determining the topics that they want.
• It can be helpful to develop a persona when writing for a site. Personas are based on the profile of readers of your copy. The best copy usually results from extensive time spent figuring out your audience.
• Online copy is judged not just on content but on its layout. It must appear easy to read before the user will choose to read it.
• It should be easy for users to skip and skim the copy so that it is easy for them to find the parts that are most relevant to them.
• Copy is informing visitors of what to expect and also telling the search engine spiders what the page is about.

EXERCISES

1. When writing for the Web, why are descriptive titles better than titles that play on words?
2. Why does Web copy need to be easy to read?

14.3 Short Copy

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

1. Know what short copy is and how it should be used in online copywriting.

Online copy often has only a limited amount of space and short amount of time to get a message across to visitors and entice them to take action. This is especially true of banner advertising and PPC (pay-per-click) advertisements on search engines, but it is also is important across all eMarketing disciplines. The most important short copy of online marketing is the call to action (CTA).

Call to Action: Telling People What to Do

A crucial element to online copywriting is the CTA. Users scan Web pages and look for clues as to what to do. Don’t make them think; tell them what action to perform.

A call to action is a short, descriptive instruction that explicitly tells a Web visitor what to do. Banner advertising usually involves a clear call to action, and it can also be used in paid search advertising. Call-to-action copy is not limited to short copy: e-mail newsletters and promotions should also make use of call to action, and we even see them all over Web pages. Calls to action should always be above the fold to drive action.

Note

Use active verbs for sentences in the active voice. This sentence is in the active voice. Passive verbs can be used but tend to make for less instructive copy. Passive voice is being used in this sentence.

Any time that there is an action that you want a Web visitor to take, a call to action should instruct the visitor what to do. This means using active verbs when you write and crafting hyperlinks to be clear instructions that resonate with your visitor at each step in the conversion process.

Passive Sentences

• When your e-mail has been received, an order number will be issued.
• A big difference can be made in a child’s life by donating today.
• By joining our database, great prizes can be won.

Active Sentences

• Send us an e-mail, and we will issue you an order number.
• Sign up to our newsletter and receive interesting marketing news!
• Donate today and make a difference in a child’s life!
• Join our database and win great prizes.

A strong call to action resonates with the action that the visitor needs to take, as opposed to the technical function that is performed. For example, if a user has entered an e-mail address to sign up to your e-mail newsletter, the action button should say “sign up” (which is what a user understands) and not “submit” (which is the database action).

Consider what actions mean offline:

• With e-mail newsletters, “sign up” can have very different connotations from “subscribe.”
• “Subscribe” is very different from “subscribe for free.”

Whereas subscriptions connote regularity as to the times when newsletters are sent (e.g., once a week, on a particular day at a particular time), “sign up” does not carry the same burden. There is only one way to know what call to action works best on a Web page, in an e-mail, on a banner, or in an advertisement: test, test, test. You could do this by performing A/B split tests to see which CTA drives the most clicks or actions.

Features and Benefits

Writing compelling copy means conveying to readers why they should perform an action. Whilefeatures may seem all-important, you need to communicate the benefits of the features to the user, as this is the ultimate driver of action. Features and benefits are described as follows:

• Feature. A prominent aspect of a product or service that can provide benefit to users. It describes what the product does.
• Benefit. The positive outcome for a user that a feature provides. It can be the emotional component of what the user gets out of the product.

Features and benefits are very different. Features are what are important to the company that provides the product or service. Benefits are what are important to those who decide to use the product or service. This part of the copy could be the make-or-break selling point, so be direct and illustrate why they should choose your product instead of your competitor’s.

For example, consider a home entertainment system. Features could include surround sound and a large flat-screen television. The benefit is a cinema-quality experience in your own home.

Persuasive writing makes use of features, benefits, and active verbs to create appealing messages for your personas: Enjoy cinema-quality movie nights in your own home with a surround sound home entertainment system.

Be personal, be descriptive, and illustrate that their needs will be met and even surpassed.

PPC Advertisements

PPC advertisements have a very limited space, and very limited time, to get a message across, as well as plenty of competition for an Internet user’s attention. These four lines of copy need to work hard to be convincing and compelling to ensure a top return on investment.

PPC advertisements follow the same basic structure:

Heading

A heading in PPC advertising looks like the following:

Two lines of advertisement copy,

Which can be displayed on one line

www.DisplayURL.com

Refer to Chapter 7 "Pay per Click Advertising" for Google’s editorial guidelines.

When the copy of the advertisement matches the user’s search term, those words are often displayed in bold in the advertisement. This makes the advertisement more prominent and can improve click-through rates. This is also why keyword research is very important.

For example, if the search term used was “roses,” an advertisement with “roses” in the copy might look like this:

Roses for Valentine’s

A dozen red roses for your love;

Fast, free delivery in RSA.

www.flowers.co.za/roses

Using keywords in the advertisement copy can help improve click-through rates. However, this can mean writing thousands of advertisements—one for each keyword in the PPC campaign! The paid search advertising platforms have a neat tool to bypass this problem: dynamic keyword insertion.

Dynamic keyword insertion allows for the search term used to be inserted into the advertisement copy. This means that you can write one advertisement, and every time it appears for a different search term, that search term will be inserted into the advertisement. In the copy for the advertisement, it looks like this:

{keyword:alternative word}

The brackets indicate that this is where the dynamic keyword should go. The copywriter also needs to select an alternative keyword to show if the search term used does not fit into the space available.

Google’s tutorial on dynamic keyword insertion has the following examples that explain this best.Google, “How Do I Use Keyword Insertion?” tutorial, Google AdWords Help Center,http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&query=dki&answer=74996&type=f(accessed June 17, 2008).

The following advertisement text is created:

Brand-New {KeyWord:Phones}

Huge selection of phones. Great prices.

{Keyword:phones} in stock. Free shipping!

www.BestDealer.com

The previous advertisement is then seen by searchers as the following:

Advertisement 1. Keyword: nokia n90

Brand-New Nokia N90

Huge selection of phones. Great prices.

Nokia n90 in stock. Free shipping!

www.BestDealer.com

Advertisement 2. Keyword: samsung d500

Brand-New Samsung D500

Huge selection of phones. Great prices.

Samsung D500 in stock. Free shipping!

www.BestDealer.com

Advertisement 3. Keyword: motorola razor silver

Brand-New Phones

Huge selection of phones. Great prices.

Phones in stock. Free shipping!

www.BestDealer.com

With limited word count available, it can seem a daunting task to communicate information that entices the right traffic to click through and that differentiates you from your competition. Testing variations of copy is the best way to determine what works best for your campaign.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The call to action is a short descriptive instruction that explicitly tells a Web visitor what to do.
• PPC advertisements have a very limited space to get a message across, so this copy must be effectively written.
• Dynamic keyword insertion will help make PPC copy more effective.
• Testing different variations of the copy is the best way to find out what works best for your campaign.

EXERCISE

1. Visit a search engine and find some examples of PPC advertisement copy. Evaluate the different types of copy and how they are written. Do you think they are effective for the keyword used? Find an example of one that may not be effective. Indicate how you would rewrite the copy so that it would perform better.

14.4 Long Copy

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

1. Know what long copy is and how it should be used in online copywriting.

Online copywriting is not just about short, sharp, call-to-action copy; however, Web users tend to scan pages quickly to determine whether or not they will read further. Even when writing longer copy, you need to take this into consideration.

Longer online copy allows you to foster a relationship with a reader, whether it is on a blog, through e-mail communications, or through articles and news releases. With more words and space available to use, you are able to establish a voice and a personality to make your copy more convincing and personal.

Getting Read: Titles and Subject Lines

Titles and subject lines are there for a very important reason: they inform readers whether or not they are likely to want to read further by giving a sneak preview into what is to come in the article. They are the gateway to your content.

Consider the following two titles:

• Guide to Online Copywriting
• Ten Steps to Writing Online Copy That Sells

The second title conveys more information to the reader that helps the reader decide to read further. Minor word manipulation that tells the reader how he or she will benefit from reading that content can make a huge difference.

Subject lines are like titles for e-mails and can make the difference between an e-mail being deleted instantly and being opened and read. Subject lines also work hand in hand with the “from” field of an e-mail. Both fields usually appear side by side in an in-box and are used to determine relevance, familiarity, and trust.

Use a consistent and easy-to-recognize sender alias—the “from” field—so that readers can recognize your e-mails easily. With familiarity and trust established using this field, the subject line can be used more creatively, allowing you to build on the already-established relationships with your readers.

As with a title, use the subject line to make clear what the e-mail is about. For example, if there is a promotion in the e-mail, consider putting it in the subject line as well.

Titles, headlines, and subject lines need to be both persuasive and enticing. Consider what need your copy is meeting for your readers and express that first. Be honest and straightforward and never misrepresent the content of an e-mail as this will prevent readers from opening them in the future.

Copywriting for Search Engine Optimization

As well as the copy on the Web page, HTML (hypertext markup language) tags and metadata are also used by a search engine optimization (SEO) copywriter. In addition to assisting you with structuring your content, these tags indicate relevancy and context to search engines. Some of the tags are used by screenreaders, and so they assist visitors with disabilities to access your content. The meta description can also be used by search engines on the search engine results pages (SERPs).

A keyword refers to the word or words that are used in a search query on a search engine. Multiword keywords are sometimes referred to as key phrases.

The first step in SEO copywriting is keyword research. Having identified the themes of your Web site and Web pages, keyword research should be used to identify what keywords your target audience uses when searching for you.

Each page should be optimized for a primary key phrase and can be optimized for a secondary and tertiary key phrase as well. Usually a Web page is optimized for three key phrases but can be optimized for up to five (though only if the page is very long). Any more than that and you are better off creating new, niche Web pages.

In Chapter 6 "Search Engine Optimization", there is more detail on the process of keyword discovery and keyword selection.

The following are guidelines for using key phrases on a Web page:

Remember that each page on a Web site must have a unique URL (uniform resource locator), title, meta keywords, and meta description.

Note

Each page on a Web site must have a unique URL, title, meta keywords, and meta description.

Page URL

The main key phrase for the page should be used in the URL for the page. Often, the URL is generated from the page title, so using the key phrase in the page title should ensure that it is in the URL as well. This also helps readers to glance at the URL and get an idea what they are reading about.

Page Title

The page title appears at the top of a user’s browser and should be able to tell the user (and the search engine spiders, of course) what the main theme of the page is. The page title is limited to sixty-six characters (including spaces). The key phrase should be used as close to the beginning of the title as possible—keeping it relevant and interesting.

Meta Description

The meta description is a short paragraph describing the page content. This summary is usually shown on the SERPs if it contains the search term searched for, which means that it needs to entice users to click through. The spiders use the meta description to deduce the topic of the page, and the use of targeted key phrases is important here. Copy is limited to no more than 166 characters (including spaces).

Note

Keyword stuffing refers to putting too many keywords into the meta keywords’ tagging and using keywords that are not relevant to the Web page. Search engines can penalize this as a spam practice.

Meta Keywords

The meta keywords are a list of the words and phrases that are important on a Web page. The use of targeted key phrases is important here, but remember: no keyword stuffing. The meta keywords are limited to two hundred characters (including spaces). Take time to consider how to make this relevant as well as convincing enough to get a searcher to click on your page instead of your competitor’s.

Headings and Subheadings

Spiders assign more relevance to the text used in headings, so it is important to use your key phrases in the headings on your page. It also helps to structure your content.

Heading structures include the following:

<h1>Page heading. What the page content is about</h1>

<h2>Subheadings. “Chapters” of content breakdown</h2>

<h3>Information under the subheadings. Elaboration of main headings and more detail</h3>

Having a good heading hierarchy is important as spiders use it to move through your page. The hierarchy indicates what is more important and how the content is broken up. It also makes it easier for the reader to take in your content if it is arranged in a way that makes sense to her.

Page Copy

The number of times you use the key phrases is entirely dependent on how long the page of copy is. You want to optimize the page for the key phrases without their use being overt.

For SEO effectiveness, a page of Web copy should not be less than 250 words. On a 250-word page you could use the primary key phrase eight times (this includes use in metadata, headings, title, and body copy) and the secondary key phrase four times.

Discussion

Why should you avoid requiring the user to scroll many times to read a page of content?

The average Web page should not be so long that the user needs to scroll and scroll to get to the end of it. If you find the page is getting exceptionally long, consider breaking it into different sections. This way you could add more pages of optimized copy focused on one theme, instead of one very long page. This also allows for you to optimize pages for more keywords, targeting various search queries.

Links to Your Optimized Page

The text used to link from one page to another is considered important by the search engine spiders, so try to ensure that your key phrase is used when linking to the optimized page. The anchor text of links should include the key phrase of the page being linked to and not the page being linked from.

Images: Alt Text and Title Tags

Alt text refers to the “alt” attribute for the IMG HTML (image HTML element) tag: this is the text that appears in the caption. It is used in HTML to attribute a text field to an image on a Web page, normally with a descriptive function, telling a user what an image is about and displaying the text in instances where the image is unable to load. While this is handy for readers, we also do it for another reason: search engine spiders can’t read images, but they can read the alt text. The image title tag is what shows when you hover with your mouse over an image and can also be read by the search engine spider. It also appears on a page where images may have been blocked or take time to load.

Neologisms and Buzzwords

Sometimes the World Wide Web is referred to as the “Wild Wild Web,” as it can seem to be an environment where anything goes. The ever-expanding numbers of social media participants play fast and loose with grammar.

With new services and products being developed daily, it can feel like the list of new words, and the new ways to use words, is building faster than you can keep up with it. Dictionaries and reference guides celebrate this regularly with a “word of the year,” usually one that has been in heavy use by the Internet audience for the three years preceding its entrance into a dictionary.

For example, in 2009, “unfriend” was voted the word of the year by the editors of the New Oxford American Dictionary, while “w00t” had its day in 2007 when it was featured on Merriam-Webster’s selection for word of the year.

Note

Firefox is a free, open-source browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation. As well as having improved and safer browsing, you can download extensions that let you customize your browser. You can download it for free from http://www.mozilla.org.

Online services can quickly become verbs in everyday language, so we talk of “googling something” instead of “searching on Google” and of “friending someone” on Facebook rather than “adding someone as a Facebook friend.”

Always remember to tailor your content to your target audience. If your content is aimed at cutting-edge early adopters, then litter it with the latest buzz words. If your audience does not know the difference between Firefox and Internet Explorer, then be cautious when using one of these new words.

Users dictate the direction and content of your copy. It’s up to you to make it worth the read!

A Brief Synopsis on the Process of Writing

The following is a brief list of the steps for writing online copy:

1. Research and understand your audience.
2. Establish your tone using copy guidelines.
3. Establish your business objectives (what your copy aims to achieve).
4. Conceptualize the angle you will take to get this across in your copy and meet your business objectives.
5. Write the framework, that is, the <h1> tags that will dictate the hierarchy of the content as well as a powerful title. Then elaborate in the body of the copy under the subheadings.

Things to Avoid

Even if you are a brilliant copywriter, the moment you stop sticking to online copy rules and regulations, your writing will hold very little weight on the search engine. These are some of the examples of bad practice that can have some very serious repercussions:

• Keyword stuffing. If you try to squash too many targeted phrases or keywords into a piece of copy, the search engine spiders will immediately pick this up, and you will stand the chance of being wiped right off the SERPs. Keyword stuffing makes copy sound forced and unnatural and is unpleasant to read. Stick to relevant content that offers the readers real value; this will naturally attract links and visitors.
• Misrepresented titles. Titles are often the first touch points that readers come across before deciding to pursue a page of copy. Therefore, they need to encompass what the page is about and get the gist of the content. Be sure to be true to your title; otherwise readers will feel cheated and taken advantage of and there is a strong chance that they will not want to visit again. Misrepresented titles breed mistrust—avoid this at all costs!
• Irrelevant content. No reader wants to go through the mission of searching a search engine only to land on a page that has no relevance to him. Your content will be seen as waffle, and you will lose authority as a credible source—in fact, you will probably chase many visitors away.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Copywriting for SEO involves optimizing copy for select key phrases in order to give context to search engines. A page can be optimized for up to five key phrases, but it is usually optimized for three of them. SEO copywriting involves the metadata and title tags, as well as the copy that is read on a page.
• The dynamic nature of the Internet means that new words are entering a user’s vocabulary every day. For best copywriting, know your audience and use the language that resonates most strongly with them.

EXERCISES

1. Why should users dictate your content? List some ways that users’ needs determine content.
2. For some real online copywriting practice, choose an article in a magazine or newspaper and rewrite it for an Internet audience.

14.5 Reference

Rand Fishkin, The Beginner’s Guide to SEO, SEOmoz, February 25, 2006,http://www.seomoz.org/article/beginners-guide-to-search-engine-optimization (accessed April 3, 2008).