September
14, 2005
In This Issue:
1. Excess Voice on "The Rule of One"
2. In the News - Yahoo hires, Cheap logos, Battelle
book
3. More News Headlines
4. This Week's Q&A - Not ranking for product
name?
5. Wrapping It Up
_________________
Excess Voice on "The Rule of
One"
I'm not usually one to gush too much, but this
is really good. Let me set the stage first.
Whatever your web site does -- sell products,
sell services, pitch to donors, etc. -- you need
words to do it. You cannot post a photo of your
purple widget on a web site, with no words describing
it, and expect anyone to buy it. Maybe you also
send out regular emails to customers or other
interested parties. Ultimately, my point is that
you have to write words.
Here's the problem: In my experience, the No.
1 failing of business owners, webmasters, and
anyone involved in overseeing a business web site
is the inability to write effectively. Most companies
go wrong like this: "We need to create/upgrade/advertise
our web site. Who's the computer expert in our
company? S/He can do it." In reality, the
question should be "Who's the best communicator/writer
in our company?" Too many companies focus
on the tech side, and not the message side.
Okay, end of setup. Here's the delivery: Several
newsletters ago, I plugged Nick Usborne's "Excess
Voice" newsletter, which Nick says is for
"online copywriters," but really it's
for everyone with a web site. Since I'm certain
that not all of you signed up for Excess Voice
when I suggested it, I need to point you toward
his current newsletter; specifically, to an article
called "The Rule of One for Copywriters."
A quick recap, in Nick's words:
"The Rule of One falls into two areas...what
you write about, and who you write to.
1.) Confine each communication to a single
topic
Very few people arrive at your site wanting
to hear about all of your different products
or services. Most will have used a search
engine to find information on a single, clearly
defined topic.
2.) Write to one person at a time
No “group” will ever read your
page. No “industry” will ever
read your page. The web pages you write will
always be read by individuals, one at a time."
Okay, that hardly does the whole article justice
so please go read it all, and even bookmark it.
It's one of the best articles about copywriting
I've come across.
Excess Voice: The
Rule of One for Copywriters
_________________
In The News
Yahoo vs. Mass Media
As if they're not already deep in a fight with
Google, MSN, etc., in the search industry, now
Yahoo wants to take on TV news, newspapers, magazines,
you-name-it. Yahoo has hired its first news-gatherer
-- Kevin Sites -- who will spend the next year
reporting original content from war zones across
the globe. You might say, "Geez, Matt, what
does this have to do with me running a business
on the web?", to which I'd reply: Anything
that the search engines do to attract more eyeballs
and more searchers to their own site(s) should
matter. You can read more about it in the LA Times:
LA Times: Chat
From the War Zone
Cheap Logos ... or not
Have you seen those spam emails from companies
wanting to help you revolutionize your company
and improve your image with a new logo? I have,
and I've also seen my share of web sites offering
incredibly inexpensive logo design. Before you
take them up such an amazing offer, check out
Bad Design Kills, which has spotted some rip-off
jobs from one such company.
Bad Design Kills: Logoworks.com
Rip-offs
Battelle book reviews
I've been linking to excerpts from John Battelle's
new book, The Search, in recent newsletters. The
book is now out, and is getting very favorable
press reviews. But what do the people on the inside
think? Google employee Matt Cutts ("GoogleGuy")
posted his review recently, and he has some interesting
thoughts, as you might expect.
Matt
Cutts on The Search
_________________
More News Headlines
Here are a few news headlines worth your time
to read. These are just some of the headlines
we've posted to OWTweb.com in recent days.
Google
launches blog search
September 14, 2005 - News.com
Gates
on Google
September 13, 2005 - News.com
Chasing
search engine algorithms: Wisdom or folly?
September 08, 2005 - Search Engine Watch
Properly optimized web sites can achieve top rankings
in web search results. But when search engines
change, should you follow suit? Even the experts
disagree.
More headlines: http://www.owtweb.com/news/
_________________
This Week's Q&A
Hi Matt,
We can't seem to rank well for the exact name
of our products. For example, we sell a product
with a 3 word name, like "red electronic
widget." But when you do a search for that
product name, we're nowhere to be found. Our product
page for that one and the others are all optimized
to get high rankings, but what we're doing just
isn't working. Can you help?
Thank you,
Jeff
Hi Jeff --
Your product pages are pretty good overall. I
think the problem here comes down to semantics,
and how search engines work. When a user searches
for [red electronic widget], the default search
engine behavior is to look for pages that have
those three words in any combination. So the search
results will include pages that discuss other
red electronic things. But, when you search for
["red electronic widget"] in quotes,
your page comes up first. That's because the search
with quotes is an exact phrase search.
You're being hurt by the fact that your product
names have some very common words that apply to
many more things than just your widget. Assuming
you can't rename your products, you may want to
consider paid advertising to get some visibility
on search phrases where you don't rank well.
[Note: product name has been made generic for
this newsletter.]
(Have a question? Email questions@owtweb.com)
_________________
Wrapping it Up
The post-vacation backlog awaits, so I'm back
to work. Thanks for reading. See you next week.
Thanks for reading,
Matt McGee
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