Organic SEO. How Dense are You?
Settle down, I’m not questioning your IQ.
In the world of organic SEO ‘How dense are you’ isn’t an insult, it’s a crucial analysis of how effective your site will be with the search engines. Plenty of SEO copywriting services will imbed chosen keywords or keyword phrases into your web content, and then bill you for organic SEO optimization. Ripple dissolve to a few months down the road — you’re left holding a site with no web lift – and your so-called SEO copywriting service is MIA.
Density is the skill of incorporating not only the most effective keywords into your web content, but at the most effective ratio of static content to new content. Every website is different. In fact, every page is different. There are formulas, but they can change depending on how many words you have in your content, tags and meta tags.
An SEO guru I know likes to say that SEO density is a range. Still, we need to fall into that range. Too few keywords and you’ve missed the mark, wasted your money, and wasted time.
What happens if you have too many keywords? You get pinged by Google indexing for stuffing keywords. This is not good either, and can set your efforts to lift your web ranking back a long way.
Either way, the trouble with a lot of SEO copywriting is that by the time you find out it’s not working, you’ve lost months of valuable time. Plus you lose the site hits, customers and worst of all, the profits that go with them.
There are lots of easy to use tools for measuring the density of the keywords on each page of your site. A great place to start is with the SEO Quake plug-in for Firefox.
SEO copywriting services either rely on the more logical left side of their brain, or their right brain, the creative side. I’d bet my Organic SEO budget on the creative right-brained thinkers any day – the best will put effective keywords into lively copy that engages and sells. But make sure they know their density.
Which brings me full circle to ask: how dense are you? Does your website have the optimal length of content – with the optimal keywords for your product or service – imbedded at a density level that gives you the ranking you’re looking for? If not…how dense are you?
© 2009 Phibnax LLC
The Dirty Secret Most SEO Services Won’t Tell You
OK, you did your research, filled your copy with powerful keywords and beefed up your metatags. Thanks to strong organic SEO results, more people are starting to find your website. But they’re not buying your product or service.
Why? Because you forgot who your web site was written for. At the same time the copy on your site was optimized for your first audience – the search engines, you made it less effective (and probably a lot less interesting) to your most important audience – the human beings who buy your product or service.
Heres the dirty little secret most SEO services wont tell you: Keywords don’t sell anything. Keywords drive traffic to your site – that’s it. The problem is if the web copywriting that contains your keywords is dull, poorly written or filled with confusing jargon your clients will take one glance and move on. Studies show you have their attention for 8 seconds at the most. Powerful web copywriting will help you make the most of this tiny window of opportunity.
Putting good keywords in bad web copy is a brand new way to commit the cardinal sin of marketing: over promising and under delivering. Remember, clicks are people, living breathing people looking for something they need. Truly powerful web copywriting, web copywriting that generates clicks and sales, has to be relevant to them and speak to their needs in a way they understand. People forget this simple fact over and over again.
If you want to write powerful web copy that generates a high level of organic SEO, the first step is to look at your web copywriting through the eyes of your clients. They’ll be reading it for the first time, so try and look at it that way. Is it clear and simple, or filled with jargon? Does it read like a real person talks? Do you make too many assumptions about what your reader knows? Does your copy have a voice that sets your business above your competition? And most importantly, does the writing on your site clearly address the needs of your customers and show them how you can meet them better than anyone else out there? If it doesn’t, it’s time to do some rewriting to make sure your keyword traffic doesn’t go to waste.
Another thing to keep in mind: Using keywords in effective copy can be intimidating for anyone. So if you don’t feel you’re up to the task, hire a professional SEO copywriting service. Unlike article mills, a professional SEO copywriter will take the time to learn the unique strengths of your business. The best SEO copywriting services will wrap your keywords in effective web copy that puts a human face on your company, and sells you in the best possible light.
You could start out optimizing your site with great web copy, and end up redefining your whole company. Thats what great SEO copy writing does. There is cost involved in this approach, but the money you’ll spend is nothing compared to the profits you’ll make by taking full advantage of your keyword traffic with organic SEO.
Don’t waste another day of keyword traffic with badly written, or even worse, boring web writing. Write for yourself, write something you would want to read. Or look into professional SEO copywriting services who can help you. When your site is filled with effective keywords and SEO copy writing that captures your clients interests and speaks directly to their needs — that’s when your website will be truly optimized.
But Wait, Theres More! Even More Powerful Techniques Medical Marketing can Learn from DRTV.
Do your medical marketing materials feel a little sickly? Do they lack energy, urgency and most importantly: effectiveness? Maybe its time you considered a few more powerful tips from the rough-and-tumble world of Direct Response advertising.
That doesn’t mean you have to make obnoxious commercials for Ginsu Surgery (“But Wait! There’s More! Well also throw in a free rhinoplasty!”). What you need to do is try to forget about the response of the Head of Cardiology, the Head Nurse or any other Administrative Head in your hospital. Before you create a healthcare organization marketing plan, medical marketing kit or any medical marketing materials, you really need to focus on the only people who can make your marketing a success: your patients, and what they really want. Not what YOU want them to want, but what they really really want. Use any means to find it out, from in-room interviews to telephone surveys and mall intercepts, but find out. Knowing what your patients want is the critical first step to medical marketing that gets results.
OK, here’s another crucial technique – sometimes size really does matter. By that I mean that the wonders of medicine and the unique selling proposition of your hospital are too complicated for a 30 second spot. If you have important news that’s too complicated for a short commercial, consider a commercial that runs for a half hour! Nothing gets across the subtle advantages of a new procedure or product better than a long format commercial.
The biggest hurdle of a long format commercial is production. But non-prime DR media costs are so affordable that cost of production soon fades away. And there’s another hidden fact that can make your long format commercial the hero of your healthcare organization marketing plan: longer commercials always get better response – always. Response that supercharges your ROI.
Since there aren’t many people who respond to medical marketing materials by asking the ambulance driver to turn around and take them to that hospital they heard about on TV, most medical marketing is about relationship building. Nothing kick-starts a relationship like giving folks something for free. Free stuff (you can call it by its fancy marketing name: a Value Added Offer) gets people’s attention.
What should you offer? It can be anything from free screening for heart disease or high blood pressure, to a Free Guide on preventing or treating a common killer like diabetes. A large regional health system I work with offered women free tests for indicators of heart disease. The women who received them were almost twice as likely to come to this hospital for heart treatment. That program was so successful that they’re expanding it to include men.
Another killer idea Direct Response marketing can teach medical marketing: What gets measured gets improved. Here’s a hot news flash: Direct Response is set up to measure…response. You know in24 hours whether your commercial is working like it should be. There are affordable and easy ways to measure response. One of the easiest: put a different phone number in every commercial, of every length, on every station, and measure call volume. Then you’ll know that people are responding to your :120 second commercial on Fox News at twice the rate as the same commercial on MSNBC.
Most people who slave over healthcare organization marketing plans don’t ever really know if anyone is responding to their medical marketing materials. Most medical marketing gets thrown out onto the airwaves, and if forced to answer truthfully, most hospital marketing directors only have a vague idea whether their medical marketing is working. Don’t let that be you.
Ask for the Order. What Medical Marketing can Learn from DRTV.
We live in a world of flaccid me-too medical marketing, where doctors and corporate health care systems trade bragging rights over the latest amazing treatment or device. A world where TV and radio stations are more than happy to empty your wallet running ineffectual medical marketing that leaves ordinary people (you know, those people you’d like to get as new patients) unconvinced. Or even worse, apathetic.
Are you searching for new ways to take your medical marketing materials to a new level? Maybe even prove to your administration that advertising really works? Incorporating a few ideas from late night infomercials might be just what you need. I’m not suggesting your healthcare system or medical practice start making commercials with giant flashing phone numbers and an announcer shouting “Call collect! Call direct!”. But if you want your next healthcare organization marketing plan to deliver results, it won’t hurt to take a few hints from marketers who live and die by results.
Time for a little honesty: none of these tips are the holy grail of marketing. If you’re a student of advertising, you’re aware of many, and maybe all of them. They are truly fundamental. But that’s what you do when your game is off — you go back and study the fundamentals. Take note of these tips, and think about how you could use them to make your medical marketing more effective.
First of all, your patients only listen to one station: WIIFM. If you want new patients to pay attention and respond to your message, you’ve got to play it on their favorite station, WIIFM – What’s In It For Me. You’ve got to showcase the main advantage of your medical practice or healthcare system quickly, and just as quickly explain why it matters to them.
Less We, More You. Take out as much of the ‘WE’ as you can (as in “WE now offer Cyborg Knife Laser Beam Surgery, the most technologically advanced surgery known to modern man.”) and put in more ‘YOU’ (as in “YOU will have less pain, a smaller incision, and shorter recovery time with Advanced Cyborg Knife Laser Beam Surgery.”). When you get potential new patients to imagine how your health care system will make their life better, you’re on your way to having a patient for life.
Words Matter. Keep your unique selling proposition short and powerful, use language that’s easy for regular people to swallow. Then repeat as necessary until maximum results are achieved. This tip alone will help you stand out from your competition.
Harness the Unbeatable Power of a Dramatic Demonstration. You see it over and over again in infomercials and DRTV – a man soaking up a liter of cola with a a high tech cloth, a duffer who can now drive a golf ball straight and true, even the before and after pictures for weight loss products. The power of a dramatic demonstration can’t be overstated.
If the advantage of the Amazing New Cyborg Knife Gamma-Ray Surgery is a smaller incision and a virtually unnoticeable scar – show us how insignificant the scar will be. If it helps people recover more quickly so they can get back to their normal life, show a patient bowling only a few days after surgery. Every successful Direct Marketer understands this simple fact: In the battle for mindshare, a dramatic demonstration is the ultimate weapon. In this case, seeing really is believing.
In future articles I’ll share more Direct Response tips you can use to beef up your healthcare organization marketing plan. Right now I’ll leave you with a critical one: Don’t forget to tell people how you want them to respond – they’re going to want to respond, and you need to make it easy for them. If you want them to call and sign up for a free guide, or a no obligation health screening, tell them, and make sure they can read your phone number! Don’t try and hide it – make it easy to read, and leave it on screen long enough for Grandpa to walk to his desk, get a pencil and write it down. You know how you want people to respond to your advertising – make sure you they know. You’ve worked hard to make medical marketing materials with real impact, don’t lose it in the inches here.
Phibnax + Blue Sky Thinking = Results
OK, stick with me for a second here, this really is relevant to your business! Remember learning about clouds in grade school science class? Well, its not exactly crystal clear to me either, but there’s one thing I remember: Clouds fly around like an ethereal vacuum cleaner – picking up element particles as they float along. Phibnax is a little like that. We’ve been absorbing trends, culture, communication mediums, sales knowledge – and adding these elements to the vast marketing experience we’ve enjoyed with an incredible group of clients over a few decades. What does this mean to you? It means we always have great ideas. “I don’t need a great idea, Steve, I need some original content to optimize my website and boost my Google search ranking!” Hold on…any writing shlub can give you reams of copy to post on the web, and you will be none the wiser until your site cycles for a few months, and you realize you’ve wasted both time and money.
At Phibnax we fully understand that writing, design and marketing only exist to help you reach your goals. We also understand that every one of us is bombarded by thousands of advertising messages a day. There’s a lot of noise out there, and we’ve all become extremely good at blocking it out. If you want to increase your sales, build your brand, or just get your message heard, you have to be more relevant and imaginative than ever before. That’s where Blue Sky Thinking comes in. Its thinking without boundaries, and ideas that work in real and measurable ways. Phibnax is always original, always strategic and we’re not that expensive. That’s what Blue Sky Thinking means: Great writing, backed by a foundation of strategy, ideas and experience. Why would you call anyone else for your creative and writing needs?
Lets Get Started – Call Steve at 248-648-3099, or email steve@phibnax.com
Phibnax: Built on Effective Writing
There are plenty of writers who can capably compose a spellchecked paragraph.
Here’s what makes our writing stand out: thought.
We write copy that is an extension of solid strategy. More than words on paper, our writing reflects a measurable concept, awareness of audience, and our vast and varied experience. Phibnax always writes clear, uncluttered copy that people actually want to read and respond to. When I wrote ‘Your Car is Waiting’ for Autotrader.com, online traffic increased 500%. When Kathy wrote a 148 page website for an international BPO provider, then optimized it for search, service pages began climbing in rank results almost immediately. A custom publication generated 8 million new business dollars.
Phibnax has many writing success stories that revolve around television and radio commercials, DRTV, video scripts, consumer generated content, even business proposals – and we’ll be happy to chat about them when you call us at 248-648-3099
Phibnax writes: Annual Reports, Marketing Publications and Brochures, Custom Publications, Business Proposals, TV Scripts, Radio Scripts, DRTV Scripts, Per-Inquiry Radio Scripts, Website copy, Ancillary Web Content, Branding, Theme Lines, Print Ads, Newsletters, Email Marketing and Videos. Phibnax also designs, directs, video edits, storyboards and produces. But everything we do at Phibnax has one common thread: a solid idea, and great writing.
Custom Pubs Supercharge Client Loyalty
If your client loyalty program isn’t all that you’d like it to be, maybe you ought to try adding a few coffee tables.
Let me explain. It’s no secret that client loyalty programs are all about relationships. You give your clients something they can use, and it deepens their ongoing relationship with you. That came into sharp focus for us when we were working on Quicken Loan’s client loyalty newsletter, Home Advantage.
When we took it over, it was little more than a self mailing brochure filled with transparently self serving blurbs. People would thumb through it for any offers that were in there, then promptly throw it away. We decided to transform it into a true custom magazine, specifically a full color glossy home magazine, filled with articles on improving and making the most of your home, as well as helpful articles on real estate trends and home financing. We wrote all original articles, we shot all original photography. We gave it a high end look and feel to see if we could get our clients to keep it around instead of dumping it in the circular file. We put a unique phone number in it, so we could see if any calls came from it. And we did it without increasing the budget for anything but postage.
How did it work? For months after each issue the phones rang with the unique number, and enough loans were written to give Home Advantage an ROI of 2000%. What was even better – a small but significant portion of those loans were from new clients, which meant that some of our clients valued our custom publication so much they passed it along to friends or family.
So if you’re looking to beef up your client loyalty program (an especially smart thing to do in a challenging economy) you might want to consider throwing a few coffee tables into the mix!
We can help, just give us a call! 248-648-3099, or email steve@phibnax.com