When creating e-commerce websites, always write copy that keeps in mind how customers read online and how search engines find your site for successful online marketing.
As part of your online marketing strategy, using two simple contextual marketing using content methods can boost search engine rankings, improve internet marketing, and turn visits into sales. Most copywriters utilize these techniques, but small business owners doing their own marketing must know and use these techniques to improve internet marketing response rates.
Write for Search Engine Marketing
Most business people following the latest marketing trends know that keywords are important, but using keywords effectively in website copywriting can add to or detract from the readers enjoyment and understanding as well as search engine rankings.
What are keywords? Keywords are words and phrases that people naturally use to search for information on the internet. By finding, understanding and using keywords in the copy of an e-commerce site, companies help customers find their products more easily.
To create a list of keywords, begin by brainstorming natural concepts related to the products sold on the site. An e-commerce site dedicated to selling art, for example, may want to begin using a free source like Keyword Tracker to see how many people are searching for keywords related to art. Explore additional product subcategories to see how many people are searching for sculpture, paintings, prints. Look into searches for specific artists whose work is carried by the store Subject matter, such as equine art, landscape paintings, and more may also yield keywords. Keywords attracting 100 or more hits per day are worth testing.
Keywords must be naturally embedded into the website for effective search engine marketing. Never incorporate artificial keywords, and change copy frequently for maximum search engine marketing exposure.
Write for How People Read on the Internet
Study after study demonstrates that people read websites differently from how they read print materials, and effective internet marketing must begin with writing copy for how people read and absorb information online. Headlines must be succinct, packed with keywords, and focused on benefits, the whats in it for me idea that lurks behind every customers visit. Next, copy should be short, focused, and specific. Avoid hyperbole in the body copy of e-commerce sites and focus on specific product features, the exact specifications that will persuade the reader that the benefit of using the product is worth the purchase. Bullet point lists, short declarative sentences, and short paragraphs are preferred.
People scan websites for information. They do not read internet sites the way they read a print catalog. Online e-commerce sites need to fuse strong graphic design, skilled web layout, and excellent copywriting to convert visitors to buyers.
E-Commerce Sites: How People Shop
New studies sited in major publications such as Multichannel Merchant and Direct, the magazine of direct marketing, indicate that people use print catalogs to choose purchases, but look to e-commerce sites for more product specifics and to complete the transaction. Be sure that all parts of an e-commerce site make it easy for customers to find and purchase products. Alternate search terms, such as by word and item number, and natural navigation make it easier for customers to say yes and buy products through an e-commerce site. Complicated navigation, dead links, and cumbersome copy turn away customers.