While more business owners are recognizing the benefits of hiring professionals to compose copy for websites, confusion remains on what the following three types of writers can deliver. Here’s a brief breakdown: 

Copywriters
“A copywriter is a salesperson behind a typewriter,” wrote Bob Bly, a celebrated American poet. Typically writing for ads, articles and brochures, copywriters aim to persuade an action by tapping into an individual’s greed, need or fear. While professional copywriters are able to craft compelling copy, keywords and search engine optimization (SEO) is normally not a part of the equation.

SEO copywriters
An SEO copywriter strategically weaves keywords in web content to achieve higher search engine rankings. With more than 500 million searches made daily, and search engines accounting for over 85 per cent of all new visitors to websites, SEO is a very effective marketing strategy to gain online presence. SEO copywriters often have technical SEO-related backgrounds versus writing or marketing backgrounds. 

Web copywriters
Professional web copywriters write for two audiences: humans and search engine spiders. Keywords are used to satisfy logical needs of search engine spiders in a bid to boost search engine rankings and drive traffic to websites. The web writing also caters to the emotional needs of visitors to engage them and ultimately convert sales. Top web copywriters usually have communication and marketing backgrounds with subsequent SEO training.

Quality web copywriting is key

While keyword count and placement are important to improve search engine rankings, there are several other elements required to promote online presence and readability. Regardless who writes for you, ensure your web content is:

• Concise

• Objective

• Fresh

• Informative

• Scannable

Following these basics will make our website appealing to humans and search engine spiders alike. In time, both will reward you.

During a coffee break at a Small Business BC web writing course I was delivering this week, an entrepreneur approached me for some advice specific to his business. After discussing a couple of solutions, he sighed and said, “things take forever to set up on the Internet.”

I grinned. Just a few short decades ago, business ventures required products to be built by hand, marketing opportunities were limited and distribution could involve railroads and steamships. Such vast operations would call for huge sums of manpower and money.

Today, a new idea can get out to market within weeks, and by a single entrepreneur.

There are countless entrepreneurs with blogs, forums, affiliate sites, software solutions, e-commerce sites, dating sites and so on making significant incomes, several boasting they work just a couple of hours a day.

That’s the typical workday of one individual who is taking full advantage of the Web. Consider the resources it would have taken not too long ago to connect more than 600,000 people daily and initiate over 500,000 relationships a year. Today, it’s done by one man, Markus Frind, from his 900-square-foot apartment in Vancouver, B.C. He created

www.plentyoffish.com in 2003, which brings in more than $5 million annually.

Absolutely, website development can be a nuisance. But it’s a small deed compared to the logistical challenges that businesses faced in the past. Delivering a package not even 20 years ago across New York City would involve a lot of people, steps, time and dollars. Today, that delivery is made in a matter of seconds with just a few quick clicks.

There’s no denying the Internet has rapidly changed the landscape of business. So fast, it’s sometimes difficult to keep in perspective.

Why do so many businesses lack respect for online customers? 

It’s bizarre, especially in this day and age with Internet usage and spending relentlessly on the rise. Perhaps with so many suspect websites hovering in cyberspace, even credible companies tend to lose perspective. 

Maybe it’s time to start thinking of visitors as online guests. It’s a simple ‘mind shift’ that might get companies to better recognize how their websites communicate with those they intend to serve. 

For instance, consider promotionally-driven pop-up windows. Would any credible company have a salesman jump out of nowhere and shove signage in front of a customer’s face? 

Or there’s the all-too-common self-centric web content going on and on about how marvelous a business is, and not paying heed to what it is the customer actually wants or needs. It’s like having a loud, obnoxious salesman greet you in a showroom by endlessly boasting how great he is. 

It’s time to pay your online guests the same respect you grant people in your stores and offices. Here’s a checklist to ensure your business website provides your guests the respect they deserve:

1. Spam – Are you boring or irritating your guests with marketing hype? Your web content should be informative and objective. Be sure to back any statements up with facts and figures.
   
   
2. Approach – Don’t be arrogant and bore guests with self-absorbed web content. Put your guests first with customer-centered messages. You’ll enjoy greater success by focusing on what they want versus what you sell.
   
   
3. Style – Speak to your guests, not at them. It’s effective to demonstrate authority with insightful, useful information, but never talk down to your audience.
   
   
4. Pop-ups – In almost every situation, pop-up ads will only frustrate guests and turn them against you and your advertisers. That’s why the vast majority of Internet users now employ pop-up blocking software.
   
   
5. Deceitful ads – Disguised ads and misleading links confuse and frustrate guests, prompting them to leave your site. Clearly identify ads and plainly tell guests where a link will take them. Get too cute and you’ll hinder your site’s ease of use.
   
   
6. Content that flashes or moves – It’s amateur from a design perspective and distracting from a usability standpoint.
   
   
7. Slow-loading web content – Again and again, Internet users state slow-loading web content is one of the main reasons they abandon websites. Streamline and optimize your site, and eliminate those unnecessary intros.
   
   
8. Automatic sounds and music – If music is necessary due to your business or industry, give your guests full control. Otherwise, it’s best to keep it quiet so you don’t annoy your guests and cheapen your brand.

There’s no denying the way you treat your online guests directly impacts your bottom line. So drill it into your culture: old-fashioned respect goes a long way, cyberspace included.

Businesses are continuing to push more of their marketing budgets online.

Not too long ago, PricewaterhouseCoopers reported online advertising spending will grow faster in Canada than anywhere in the world over the next four years. Meanwhile, in the UK last year, Internet expenditures overtook traditional advertising in national newspapers. And in the US, Forrester forecasts companies will spend upwards of $26 billion on Internet marketing per annum by 2010 – approximately eight per cent of all advertising spending.

Webcopyplus conducted a poll to determine what entrepreneurs and small business owners spend to gain presence on the Web. Of the 60 polled, more than 38 per cent of businesses spend between $500 and $6,000 on online marketing annually, only five per cent spend more than $12,000, and the remaining 57 per cent spend less than $500 or less per year.

We were surprised that so many small businesses fell in the $500 or less category given the Internet’s one of the few areas where small businesses can compete with larger, more established companies. In fact, 10 per cent of poll participants indicated they don’t have an online marketing budget of any sort. It’s a case of small business missing big opportunities.

While Canada is expected to maintain the greatest growth in online spending during the next four years, PricewaterhouseCoopers reports countries in Asia and Latin America will fill the gap soon after.

“Latin America is an emerging market due to major middle class growth in Chile and Mexico, with Venezuela and Columbia not too far behind,” explained Rene Quijada, Founder of award-winning Kihada Works Design, a Canada-based design firm with artist and association affiliations throughout Latin America.  

“These countries are working hard to bring their technology and Web accessibility to US and UK standards,” added Quijada. “It’ll allow their businesses to better market themselves locally and to the rest of the world, especially North America.” 

Google will begin issuing its users cookies in coming months that will be set to auto-expire after two years, while auto-renewing the cookies of active users so preferences are not lost. This change is in response to pressure from users and privacy advocates. Google notes that users will continue to have control over cookies via their browsers.

Google will soon be introducing a new ‘unavailable_after’ meta tag to allow web masters to advise Google when a particular page will no longer be available for crawling. For example, if you have a promotion on your website that expires on a specific date, you could use the unavailable_after tag to tell Google when to stop indexing it. The new Google tags are designed to help maintain relevant, up-to-date listings, especially for sites like eBay, so closed auction pages are eliminated from search results.

Online traffic is useless unless your website content is able to connect with visitors. If it doesn’t, there’s probably little chance they’ll return. 

Relevant website content is essential to engage your visitors in a bid to turn them into customers. Here are the basics steps you need to cover to connect with your target market: 

• Make sure your website content is scan-friendly and intuitively accessible to make it easy for visitors to find what they want. Lean web copy and well-planned site architecture can make or break your website.

• Charm those hearts! You need to appeal to a visitor’s emotional needs to get the sales process going. While weighing your integrity, the individual considers how you’ll make or save him money, save time, avoid effort, gain comfort and so on. The best way to do this is to promote benefits.

• Be objective. During the sales process, your visitor will weigh your integrity and decide if he or she considers you to be credible. So stay away from marketing hype. Would you want to do business with a business that screams: “We’ve got the magic SEO secret that will make you millions!!!!! Yes, we’re the best in the website promotion world!!!!!!” And when you do make a statement about your product or service, always back it up with facts and figures. 

If you provide visitors website content relevant to their needs and wants, you’ll increase your chances of opening their hearts, minds and wallets.

European online marketing budgets will more than double from around €7.5 billion in 2006 to more than €16 billion in 2012, 18 per cent of total media budgets, reports Forrester. 

Businesses will raise their online budgets on everything from email to search engine optimization to display advertising to better reach the growing Internet audience that relies on the Web for a widening range of products and services.

“After five years of dipping their toes into the online marketing waters, firms have come to realize that the Net is a valuable medium for client acquisition, retention, and market expansion,” reported Rebecca Jennings in Forrester’s Business View Trends.

Just over a year ago, I had coffee with a pleasant couple planning the opening of a pastry shop in the Greater Vancouver area. I asked about the basics: 

Branding? A friend helped them design a logo, which was printed at home on perforated business cards. Signage? A small, plastic banner was on order. Online presence? They planned to use a free template and “throw something together.” 

After explaining the need to delegate, build a professional brand and get an informative website up so vendors, such as coffee shop owners, could conveniently peruse their product offerings, they politely nodded. It was obvious they saw such costs to be unnecessary. 

The business was launched, the products were delicious, and business was carried out focusing only on minimizing costs rather than looking at ways to build revenue. 

Things got tighter and tighter, to the point the husband decided to get a job ‘on the side’. That was the beginning of the end. Various parts of the business became neglected, and there was little, if any, chance of growth. 

Sadly, despite a fantastic product, the couple recently announced they are closing their shop. 

It goes to reinforce some basic rules of business. 

1. Delegate or die. Business owners need to focus on their core business and make an effort to hand off everything else.

2. Perception is everything. You can have a great product, but if you don’t back it with proper branding, its image and perceived value will suffer. Moreover, if they were not willing to invest in their business (i.e. professional business cards and a website), why should others?

3. Understand and accept your strengths and limitations. With today’s rapid pace and cut-throat competition, you must choose what activities it makes sense for you to do, and what tasks you should delegate to specialists. 

Clever business types recognize the fact that it takes less time, effort and money to retain customers rather than finding new ones. The same goes for website traffic.

Here are two strategies to keep visitors coming back for more, which establishes relationships and builds loyalty:

1/ Offer a free tool or service on your website. This will keep visitors coming back, and when they’re ready to invest, you’ll be top of mind.

2/ Build an e-mail list. By turning your visitors into newsletter subscribers, you’ll maintain contact and be able to highlight certain aspects of your website or business with every mail-out.

While it’s important to reach new visitors, never overlook opportunities to hold on to your existing website traffic.