Yeah, me too.

Once upon a time, it felt like I wrote copy for every cosmetic dentist in North America. At the drop of a hat, I could talk about veneers, teeth whitening and “laser gum surgery.”  Yeah, I was great fun at cocktail parties.

I was also bored too. So very, very bored.

I’ve seen this happen to in-house and freelance copywriters. Every day feels exactly like the day before. Your writing no longer energizes and excites you.  Everything you write starts to sound exactly the same.

If you’re being really honest with yourself, you know that your writing is starting to suck.

Here’s a reality check: This is very common.

And here’s another: You need to get a handle on this and stop suffering behind the scenes. Fast.

Here’s what to do:

Take some time off. Have you been working some heavy-duty deadlines? Is it hard to remember your last vacation? Your lack of creativity is a big red flag with “You’re burning out” in big, block letters. If you’re thinking, “I can’t afford the time. My clients/employer needs me,” consider this: They hired you for your writing ability. If your writing quality is dropping, you owe it to your client to take a break.

Give yourself some space.  Is a short-term holiday not possible right away? Start giving yourself “writing breaks.” I’ve found that scheduling one or two non-writing days during the week makes an incredible difference – and what I do write is sharp, flows easily and is even fun to write.

Take on a new challenge. Consider taking on a new client that’s not in your current niche. Or writing a short story just for fun. The key is to break out of your writing rut and stretch your wings. It’s amazing how focusing on something else for awhile can help us regain passion for our current gig.

Split up the work. Do you have 100 pages of personal injury law copy staring you in the face? Are you wondering how you’re going to write all those product descriptions without losing it? Sometimes, the best way to give yourself a break is by letting someone else do the work. If you’re still feeling the burnout blues, see if another writer can take some pages off of your plate. Not only will you get a break, but reading someone else’s copywriting approach may spark some new ideas.

Let it go. Does another type of writing (or client) excite you ? There’s no law that says that you have to keep working with the same niche group – or writing about the same topic. Slowly phase out the work that’s making you suffer and make room for your new profit center. Sometimes, a new direction is all it takes – and you’ll finally remember what you love about copywriting.

What about you? What do you do when you’re “suffering in silence?”

Do you have too much content to write, and no time to write it? My Certified SEO Copywriting team can write blog posts, product descriptions sales pages and more. Contact me for details – I’m happy to help!

These are all great posts. But here’s the thing…

…I’ve read these “write more quality content” resolutions before. For about 14 years now.

And you know what? Very, very few companies follow through. They want to. They mean to. But then, content marketing gets pushed to the back burner. Or, even worse – someone does a half-assed job just to get it off their plate – and the results (and writing) shows it.

To me, putting something on a “resolutions” list is the same as saying, “Here’s what I’d like to have happen. But I don’t have a plan to get there.” It’s a fuzzy goal – and I can’t get invested in a fuzzy goal. As soon as the next shiny thing comes along, I’m more apt to focus on that and ignore whatever resolution I created.

But here’s what does work: Taking action. Don’t just say, “I’m going to write more content in 2012.” Get off your butt and do something.

You’ve probably heard of creating S.M.A.R.T goals:

• Specific

• Measurable

• Attainable

• Realistic

• Timely

The S.M.A.R.T framework gives you an easy way to bring your resolutions into reality. The next step is breaking down the goal into action steps.

For instance, maybe you want to revamp your site’s copy. You know that sales have been slow for awhile, and you suspect that the writing may not “hit the mark” anymore. Action steps could be:

• Reviewing your analytics – what pages are doing well? Where are you losing your readers?
• Contemplate your customer persona – is your target market the same as when the content was last written? Are the benefits still relevant?
• Review your SEO effectiveness – are the search engines driving qualified traffic? Are you positioning for your main keyphrases?
• Review your sales copy – does it match your customer persona? Does the copy pop, or is it flat?
• Consider your resources – who would rewrite your content? Do you have the resources to do it in-house, or would you need to outsource?
• Do you need to find qualified vendors? If so, how would you find them?
• What’s your drop-dead, deadline for all content to be on the site? Make sure you give your team plenty of time to complete everything necessary. My recommendation: Figure out how many months you’d need to finish the job, and then double that amount.

See? That’s much more specific than “I resolve to revamp my site’s sales copy.”

If you’re a freelance copywriter, one of the most popular resolutions is to “make more money.” Unfortunately, that won’t magically happen without you making some business changes. For instance, some action steps could be:

• Contact old clients and see if there’s anything that you can help with.
• Research a new marketing technique (such as Twitter) to help get the word out.
• Go to a local business networking meeting.
• Expand your skills and specialize in a new niche (for instance, going through the SEO Copywriting Certification training.)
• Raise your prices (I know it’s scary. But you need to do it.)
• Get a handle on your taxes (Eva Rosenberg developed a module for my Copywriting Business Boot Camp that discusses tax issues for copywriters.)
• Find a mentor and get expert guidance.

The key is: all of these action steps will move you forward rather than leaving you stuck. Instead of “resolving” to do something, you’re actually doing it and making progress.  Before you know it, you’ll have a SEO content marketing plan that rocks – or a freelance career that gives you the lifestyle you want.

It’s all about taking action.

Now, what are you going to do right now to improve your business and personal life? Leave a comment and let me know!

Photo thanks to Acererak

Guest Author, Nick Stamoulis

I was working with one of my social SEO clients on their blog. My SEO company, Brick Marketing, was responsible for writing two blog posts each week, which we would then promote through the client’s various social networks as they went live.

We were specifically instructed to make sure the blog posts were “SEO friendly” and would do well in the search engines. However, before we even scheduled the blog posts I would send the new posts over to my client for their approval. If they had any changes or comments about the post, they just had to email me back and I would have my writing staff change the post as directed.

One day, they sent back a blog post with so many edits, changes and corrections that you could hardly discern the original article. When I asked them what they didn’t like about the original post, my client responded “Oh no, we really liked the post. We just didn’t understand why you had put those links in there. The blue text is really weird looking. And we thought we should only focus on the same keyword through the whole post, so we removed the variations so as to not confuse our readers.”

They essentially threw the SEO component of the blog post out the window!

I’ll be the first to say that any content, whether it is a blog post, article or webpage, should be written for the reader first and the search engines second. But even great content needs a little help getting found and read by your target audience. That’s where SEO and content optimization come into play.

Here are 4 ways to balance content optimization and traditional copywriting:

1. Don’t dumb it down.

Have a little faith in your readers. Writing generic and generalized content so you can target broad keywords won’t do anyone (you or your readers) any good. Don’t be afraid to target long-tail keywords that someone further along in their research process might be using to find related information. The most specific audience you can write your content for is the best chance you’ll have of earning their business.

2. Incorporate keyword variations.

Speaking of specific keywords, there is no rule that says you have to target the exact same keyword throughout the entire blog post. Obviously you want to stick with keywords that accurately reflect the theme and messaging of the content, but don’t be afraid to throw some variations in there. This not only makes your content much more natural sounding, it also helps your content appeal to more searches. Not everyone searches for the same thing in the same way, so variations help ensure you aren’t accidentally alienating a segment of your target audience.

3. Use anchor text to get the link.

Interlinking your blog posts is a great way to keep your readers engaged, educate them further on related topics and show off your industry savvy. No blog post is an island! Obviously you don’t want to pepper your blog posts with dozens of links (it can get a little distracting for your reader) but incorporating 2-3 links via anchor text is a great way to beef up your blog’s SEO! By using anchor text instead of the full URL to direct readers to another blog post (or even a page on your site) you are keeping the flow of your content intact and spreading the link juice from more popular posts across your blog, lending more value to other posts.

4. Write first, optimize second.

Getting the words down on paper is probably the hardest part about writing a blog post. Yet some site owners seem like gluttons for punishment and think that every word has be to perfect for SEO before they can move onto the next. You don’t have to sacrifice great content in order to make a blog “SEO friendly!” In fact, site owners should write the post first and THEN go back in and see how you can tweak it for SEO. If you can’t make a keyword fit, then don’t force it in. If you can’t find a reason to link, don’t bother. Trying to stuff SEO into a blog post is only going to ruin the integrity of the post.

About the Author – Nick Stamoulis

Nick Stamoulis is an SEO consultant and President of Brick Marketing. With over 12 years of B2B SEO experience, Nick Stamoulis shares his knowledge by posting daily SEO tips to his blog, the Search Engine Optimization Journal, and publishing the Brick Marketing SEO Newsletter, read by over 160,000 opt-in subscribers.

Give yourself the gift of a more prosperous new year! Get your certification in SEO Copywriting by the recognized founder of SEO, Heather Lloyd-Martin.

…And that means that it’s time for the “Most popular posts of the year” roundup (cue applause!)

2011 was a big year for Google updates – and a big year for SEO copywriting. Most of the top-10 post topics aren’t overly surprising (Panda, anyone?) Other top ten posts surprised me – and showed that many folks are still mastering the “writing for search engines and social” balance.

Without further ado, here are the top 10 hottest SEO copywriting posts of this year. Enjoy!

#10: Did Panda kill SEO copywriting?  Did Google’s Panda update mean the death of SEO copywriting? Not just “no” but “hell no!” Quality SEO copywriting is here to stay – and always has been. If you’ve thought “Why bother with a SEO content campaign,” read this before you give up.

#9: 3 skills every SEO copywriter should have.   2011 was the year of the freelance SEO copywriter. I received more questions than ever about how to launch an SEO copywriting career, how to get an in-house job and how to build a writing brand. Whew!  It’s nice to know that more folks are entering the wild and wooly world of SEO copywriting. Welcome!

#8: The trouble with SEO copywriting. The Panda update taught some folks a lesson: What they thought was “SEO copywriting” was nothing but keyword-stuffed crap. This great guest post by Eric Enge shows how to mix keywords with your value proposition to create tasty, high-converting copy.

#7: “How to write for Google’s Panda update. In the Brady Bunch, the keyword is “Marsha, Marsha, Marsha.” In the SEO industry, it’s “Panda, Panda, Panda.” “Panda” was certainly the SEO buzzword of 2011.  It’s no surprise that this two Panda-themed posts made it into this year’s top ten.

#6: Keyword density: Lose this relic and adopt best practices  Confused about keyphrase density? Apparently, you’re not alone. I’m a little surprised that this post made it into the top 10. My thought: Folks are scrambling post-Panda to figure out what quality copy means. And that’s a wonderful thing. (Side note: I can’t help but notice that Matt uses my “read the copy out loud” tip in his most recent video.)

#5: 5 sure-fire ways to create a killer home page  Yet another “back to basics” post (and the third video post) makes it into the top 10!  If you’re wondering what information is great to have on your home page – and what’s not so hot (hint: don’t shove every keyword you have into the footer) – this one is a must-read.

#4:  How to be an SEO copywriter: The ultimate guide for beginners  I wrote this post a few weeks ago, but it’s already zoomed to the top 10 list.  If you know someone who is feeling “stuck” in their in-house writing job – or someone who is thinking about being an SEO copywriter – send them this post.

#3: How many words should be on your home page? Is your boss (or client) insisting that your home page have a certain word count “for SEO reasons.” Or worse – no words at all?  In this post, I build upon a video post by Google’s Matt Cutts and add my own SEO copywriting spin.

#2: Why social media is good for SEO.  Yes, SEO and social DO play nicely together. In fact, they can definitely help you build exposure, brand – and yes, search positions, too. In the second guest post to break the top-10 list, PRWeb’s Stacey Acevero explains why social media is yummy for SEO. If you’re wondering how the two dovetail, check out this post. It’s a good one!

And the #1 most popular post of 2011 is…..(drumroll please)

Wow. This one was a surprise. I expected a “sexier” topic to be the #1 most popular post. Instead, the post answered an age-old question: How to turn a boring FAQ page into a sales star!

Looks like basic SEO copywriting information is always in style.

Happy holidays to you and yours! We’ll be taking next week off for the holidays – and we’re back in the blogging world on January 3rd. Thank you for reading the posts and sharing them with your friends and colleagues.  I smile every time I see a retweet. Really.

Here’s hoping that 2012 is your best year ever! Happy New Year!

I took one look and resisted the urge to say, “Um, how much did you pay for this?” The writing was…bad.  Picture a 500-word, below-the-fold paragraph with no hyperlinks, no call-to-action…and what’s worse…

All of the copy was italicized. All of it.

Imagine reading that on a mobile device.

The prospect knew that something seemed “off.”  But he thought, “I hired someone who specializes in SEO copy. Well, maybe the copy should be that way.”

Not by a long shot.

Life is too short to pay for bad copy. If your SEO copy sucks, that means that it’s time to send it back to the writer and get her to fix it.

Here’s how to separate the stupendous from the sucky:

• Read the copy out loud and hear how it “sounds.” If your content sounds clunky – or if the keyphrases stand out like a sore thumb – send it back to the writer. Over-optimized copy will not do you any favors – and you don’t want your readers bouncing out of your site the second that they arrive.

• Do you have the urge to bring out your red pen and slice unnecessary words? Smart SEO copywriting is tight – which means that the writer is using as few words as possible to bring the point home. If you feel like the content is “fluffy,” send it back for editing.

• Does the copy make your company’s benefits “pop?” Or is it all focused around features? One tip: Review how many times the writer used the words “we” and “our company.” If you find that it’s focusing too much on features and not enough on benefits, send it back.  If the page is live, try out this fun “We-We Calculator” for feedback.

• Is the copy focused around one single keyword? Good SEO copywriting focused on two-to-three keyphrase variations. If you’re seeing the same word repeated over and over, have the writer rewrite it.

• Are there spelling or grammatical errors? Granted, your writer is human – and things happen. But if you are seeing multiple errors and you’re finding yourself correcting the document, stop. That’s what your writer is supposed to do for you.

• Is there a call-to-action? This could mean linking to a sales page, another blog post, or encouraging folks to sign up for a newsletter. Your writer needs to weave your site’s (and your page’s) conversion goal into the copy. If they haven’t, it’s time for a rewrite.

• How is your page Title (what appears as the clickable link on the search engine results page.) Does it include the page keywords? Is it enticing? Or is it a bunch of keyphrases separated by pipes? If you’re thinking, “Hmm, I don’t think I’d click on this result,” send it back to the writer.

• Is the page easy to read? Long, scrolling paragraphs are visually overwhelming – especially on a mobile device.  If the paragraphs are long – and you’re not seeing any subheadlines that break up the text – have your writer check out these Web writing tips before they rewrite the copy.

What happens if your writer revises the content – yet your SEO copy is still crap? It may be time to let the writer go and find someone else who better suits your needs. Better to take the loss now and move on, then upload crappy copy and suffer the consequences.

Want to drive highly qualified traffic?

Do you want to reach readers at all phases of the purchase cycle?

You got it. All you have to do is learn how to leverage the long tail.

Google just announced another algorithm tweak, and this time, it’s targeting long-tail documents. According to the Google Inside Search blog:

“More comprehensive indexing: This change makes more long-tail documents available in our index, so they are more likely to rank for relevant queries.”

What does this mean to you (and your clients?) Plenty.

Long tail search queries are hidden nuggets of search engine gold.  These multi-word search queries are highly specific and incredibly targeted. If you know exactly what you want – you type in a long-tail search query like “Portland Beaumont condo walk to Starbucks.”

What’s more, they make up around 70 percent of Web searches. According to Rand Fiskin:

“There’s so much traffic in the tail it is hard to even comprehend. To illustrate, if search were represented by a tiny lizard with a one-inch head, the tail of that lizard would stretch for 221 miles.”

Wow. That’s one heck of a visual.

From an SEO perspective, these search terms don’t have much competition. If you’re working in a competitive environment, optimizing for the long tail can give you more exposure for less stress.

Or, in the brilliant words of Ian Lurie from Conversation Marketing, “Long tail phrases are the blue collar workers of the search world. They make it happen. Ignore them and your whole internet marketing economy may fall apart.”

So, let’s see how the long tail works.

Imagine that you’re looking for a vacation home in Manhattan. You may start by searching for “Manhattan vacation rental” – and these may be the results you’d see:

But let’s say that you have other requirements than just find a Manhattan vacation rental. Maybe you’re attending a conference – and you’d need wifi, too.  To save time, you’d narrow your query to:

“Manhattan vacation rental wifi close to Javits center”

(I actually typed in this search query when I was looking for lodging during SMX East.)

Here are the search results:

See the difference? The results are highly specific. Heck, you may not have even known about these places without performing a super-specific search.

And that’s where the power of SEO content creation comes into play. The more content you have, the more opportunity you have to position for random long tail search queries.

These queries can drive brand new, laser-targeted readers who are more likely to convert.

(Did I mention that they reflect 70% of Web searches. So, this isn’t something to ignore…)

By now, you should be saying, “I need me more of that long tail! How do I do it?”

Here are some tips:

 - Look beyond your head search terms. If you think that your site is only relevant for a few main keyterms (such as “Manhattan vacation rental,” think again. Then read this great post by Rand that explains why you are so, so wrong.

 - Check your analytics to see how you’re currently benefiting from the long tail. Notice any content trends that may help you plan future articles. Plus, this post in Search News Central can help you create a directional long tail keyword list.

- Determine what your readers want to learn more about. Keyphrase research can help you discover long tail terms. Ask your customer service department what questions they frequently hear – you can develop content that answers these questions. Plus, you can explore other content opportunities, too – this blog post by Hubspot talks about how to handle your “content holes.”

- Don’t worry about “traditionally” optimizing for long-tail terms. You may be thinking, “Heather, how in the heck am I going to exact match a phrase like “Manhattan vacation rental wifi close to Javits center?” You don’t need to. You’ll notice that the search results in the second example aren’t “optimized” for those terms. But, those terms are on the landing page – and that’s why the listings position for that term.

Granted, if there’s an entire page that you can write that reflects a long tail phrase – go for it. But just know that the more         content you have – the more possibilities that you can position for a variety of searches.

 - Be prepared to build more (quality) content. Resist the temptation to kick out fast, cheap content just to capture long tail keyphrases. If you do, Panda may bite you in the butt.  Plus, you want readers to actually stay on your site once they’ve clicked through, so quality is crucial.

If you’re working as a freelance copywriter, share with your clients why long tail optimization is so important to their bottom line. And if you’re writing content in-house, help your team understand why more content is a good thing – and can help drive more traffic and make more money.

- Know that a little progress is better than none at all. Can you only blog once a week? Fine. Your marketing team will only commit to three articles a month? OK. Some progress is better than none -  and once folks start seeing some long tail success, they’ll feel better about creating more content, more often.

I would agree with these statements. Shutting down your external thoughts – even for a short time – can lead to transformative results.

The challenge is, the word “meditation” means different things to different people. For some people, meditation is like “coming home” and an important part of their day. Others may have tried meditation and found it frustrating – after all, sitting still for 20 minutes can be hard. Instead of sticking with it, they figured that they weren’t cut out for this meditation stuff, got frustrated and stopped trying.

If the second scenario sounds familiar, then this blog post is for you.

Taking time to be quiet is crucial in today’s online marketing space. We are bombarded by news, ads and “stuff” every second that we’re online. Our brains are trying to process what we see, plus keep track of what we’re supposed to do. Is it any wonder that we’re so exhausted at the end of the day (yet sometimes, we have a hard time sleeping?). It’s like our minds are constantly running on a high-speed treadmill.

Rather than forcing yourself to spend 20+ minutes a day meditating, why not spend some “percolation time” instead?

For instance, before I start writing for a client, I spend about 10-15 minutes thinking about the project. If a really fantastic sentence pops into my brain, I write it down. If I think of an interesting angle or tone and feel tweak, I write that down too. I’m not at my computer when I do this. I’m usually somewhere else (typically my couch or a cafe) far away from my laptop.

I may initially think that “I don’t have percolation time to spare.” And heck, it can be hard to come down from a go-go-go mindset some days. But the more I sit, the more I relax – and the creative solutions start flowing.

I’ll spend entire days in percolation mode. When my brain gets too jammed up with “stuff,” I take the day off. I don’t check email or respond to Tweets. Instead, I find things to do that are quiet and relaxing, like getting a massage or going to a museum (or both!). I may start the day by telling myself, “I would like to figure out the solution to X issue,” but I don’t really think about work.

I let whatever is going on in my brain percolate. And at the end of the day – or the next morning – I have my answer. It’s a form of meditation for me (and, oddly, I’ve found that the more “percolation time” I have, the easier it is for me to meditate. Go figure.)

This is something that you can easily try before your next writing assignment.  Simply spend a little bit of time away from your computer and allow your mind to drift. Write down whatever comes to mind without analyzing it. Then, when you feel that the process is “done” (yes, you’ll know,) check out your notes and see what you find.

I can guarantee that you’ll find some gems that will give you new perspective on your writing – and sometimes, even your life. I took yesterday off and came up with a  business insight that slapped me across the face, hard. But in a good way.

Percolation is powerful like that.

Try it and let me know how it goes. I guarantee that it will become part of your ongoing process.

Photo thanks goes to antmoose

Bad sales copy that sucks the life out of your conversions.

You may say, “Well, our sales copy is performing OK – I check our analytics.” And that’s good. But I want to teach you how to transform your “good” sale copy into “great” – and turn your sales up to a Spinal Tap 11.

And all it’s going to take is a little bit of time.

It’s easy to develop a blind spot around our Websites. Although we may see it every day, we probably aren’t looking at it very closely. Spending some time reviewing your site can uncover a huge list of opportunities – and help you decide what to tweak.

So let’s get started!

For the purposes of this initial review, focus on your top sales pages first. Then, you can repeat the exercise around other site sections (for instance, your blog or resource pages.)

First, you’ll want to read your copy as if you were a prospect.  Ask yourself:

• Does the copy adequately explain what you do? If you were talking to someone in person, would you provide the same information in the same way?
• Is it so stuffed with keyphrases that it detracts from the flow?
• What if your prospects have questions? Is it easy for them to contact you?
• Does the content address common prospect questions (Note: If you keep hearing the same questions from prospects after they’ve read the content, the answer to this would be “no.”)
• Does the copy pop off the page? Or is it so-so?
• Is your sales copy the same as other sites (this is especially important if you’ve been using content provided by the manufacturer.
• Are the benefits still important to your prospects? Or, are your prospects responding to different benefit statements now?
• Does your content even have benefit statements?

Next, you’ll want to go through the ordering process as if you were a prospect. Here are some things to consider:

• How easy is it to take the next conversion step (usually making a purchase, or contacting someone for more information?) Do you have to hunt for a “contact us” or “order now” button?
• When you place an order or make contact, is there a confirmation email or page? What does it say? Does it manage expectations (when the order will ship and/or when you will contact the prospect.)
• Does your follow-up information help or hurt your brand? Is it written well, or was the copy quickly thrown together?  (Here’s more information on why your marketing collateral is so important.)

Finally, it’s time to look at your page from an SEO perspective:

• Is the content optimized for keyphrases? Or was it written without them?
• If your copy does include keyphrases, when is the last time you conducted keyphrase research? A keyphrase focus that was applicable one or two years ago may not be applicable today.
• Does the copy read like it was overoptimized? If you’re not sure, try reading your copy out loud. If it sounds like “keyphrase, keyphrase, keyphrase,” your answer is “yes.”
• How are your pages ranking in Google currently?
• Do your pages have original, keyphrase-rich Titles? Consider if you need to rewrite them for better positions and click-through.
• How are your meta descriptions (this is a HUGE opportunity for many sites.) Consider if you need to rewrite them for Google’s new sitelinks format.

If you’re feeling stuck, see if another team member can review your content and make suggestions. Or, if your internal team is “too close” to the content, consider hiring an expert consultant to help. An SEO content consultant can quickly point out your successes and challenges – and then your team can make all the necessary tweaks. It may cost your company a little bit of cash, but the results (and the improved sales) will be well, well worth it!

Photo gratitude goes to mollystevens

Maybe you should make your product or service less available.

In today’s “I can get anything I want anytime I want it world,” an approach like that seems counter-intuitive. Yet, the psychological principle of scarcity is alive and well online – and many top retailers are making lots of money from it every single day.

What’s the principle of scarcity? According to Robert Cialindi, author of Influence: Science and Practice, we are more sensitive to potential losses than potential gains.  That is, if an opportunity is less available to us, we want it much, much more.

(If you’ve ever turned down someone for a date – and then found that person more attractive when they started dating someone else -  surprise! That’s scarcity in action.)

Online retailers use this all the time. For instance, I was searching for comforters online. I surfed to Overstock and saw that they were featuring something similar to what I wanted! Joy! Here’s the picture:

Here’s what was going through my head the second I saw the picture: “Wow, this is only available for a limited time. Maybe I should snap it up now.”

I was primed to make a purchase even before I read the ad copy. Wow.

I almost fell for the principle of scarcity.

And yes, you fall for this too. Ever snap up a Groupon because buying it tomorrow would be too late? Or a pair of shoes from Zappos because there were only two pairs left in stock? Some retailer business-models, like Gilt.com and Wines Til Sold off, completely revolve around the principle of scarcity.

Now, let’s talk about how you can make it work for you.

• Are you running a sale? Make sure that you clearly state the sale’s expiration date. This helps build a sense of urgency. Otherwise, your prospects may think, “Well, I’m not ready to buy now, but I will. Soon.” And they’ll completely forget.

• Are you offering a Webinar with limited seating? Consider including something in your ad copy like, “Over 75% sold already! Sign up now so you don’t miss your spot.” You may even want to get more specific, and share that there are only “10 seats left.” Just make sure that you update the page to reflect the new signups.

• Are you a popular consultant that offers very limited consulting hours? Mention that you only work with X consulting clients a week, and you’re already booked Y weeks in advance. When prospects read this, they’ll be more apt to sign up now – after all, for every day they wait, it could be another month before they get to talk to you.

• Do you sell products?  Take a cue from Zappos and warn customers when there are just a few items left. If someone was on the fence about making a purchase, knowing that they may not be able to buy it at all can help them pull the trigger.

The report discusses three different content scenarios – category landing pages for eBeanstalk.com, a new blog network (Link Orbit,) and new and rewritten blog posts on Jay Baer’s Convince & Convert. Users were provided InboundWriter’s tool to help them optimize Web content, and the results were measured over a certain period of time (the report outlines the exact methodology and study steps.)

The results were impressive…

Just a quick snapshot of a few statistics from the report shows some impressive results. ebeanstalk.com saw a 29 percent increase in their search engine rankings, and their time on page increased 153 percent. Link Orbit’s readers spent 112 percent more time on the content-optimized domains. Even Jay Baer’s posts got higher search engine rankings and an average 33 percent traffic increase. It’s important to note that none of these pages were optimized prior to the report, so the users were starting the optimization process from scratch.

…but were the results that surprising?

Well, no. If you’ve been in SEO for more than five seconds, the results make perfect sense. Adding keyphrases to content is a basic SEO step. Of course the pages saw higher rankings (and more search engine positions.) That’s exactly what good SEO content optimization is supposed to provide. The tool just facilitated the process.

Additionally, the time on site increase didn’t surprise me either. SEOs have been talking about “search scent” for a number of years. The concept of search scent grows out of information scent, which was developed by scientists at Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center (PARC.) Kevin Lee says in a 2007 ClickZ article:

The research illustrates that humans forage for information on the Internet in much the same way animals follow scent and visual cues to find food. Scent is essentially an application of user interface optimization best practices, and search scent is a specific niche based on the fact searchers are even more wedded to a particular information-gathering mission than surfers or casual browsers.

Say a searcher is looking for blue widgets. If the landing page has the words “blue widgets” in the copy, as well as pictures of “blue widgets,” searchers should engage with the page for a longer period of time.  If a page doesn’t have this “search scent,” readers will hit the back button and boogie out. Shari Thurow wrote about this in a 2009 Search Engine Land article.

On a website, orientation is a behavior where searchers determine their position with reference to another point, establishing a “sense of place.” In other words, searchers quickly establish whose website they are visiting, and what section of the site (if any) they are viewing. If searchers do not believe they have “landed” in the right place, they will leave the website. Web searchers orient very quickly, sometimes within 1 second after a page loads.

Landing pages should always validate searchers’ scent of information, both textually and graphically. For example, if an online shopper wants to purchase a pink Burberry cashmere scarf, then the product landing page should contain a product photo of a pink Burberry cashmere scarf. The product page’s title-tag content should contain those keywords as well as other on-the-page text.

So, does this study tell us something we don’t already know? Not really. Does it help validate how important content optimization is to a site’s success? Definitely.

SEO copywriting isn’t just knowing how to write well

There’s one thing I love about this study. For folks who still don’t “get it,” or who don’t want to “ruin the content with keywords,” this is a fantastic wake-up call. If your company has held off on SEO content optimization, this study proves that you should jump in with both feet – and jump quickly. Otherwise, your unoptimized content is costing you money, no matter how fantastic your content is. After all, If Jay Baer saw a rankings and engagement improvement when he “SEO’ed” his blog posts, so will you.

As one of the authors of the study said:

“Good writing is a necessary but not sufficient ingredient for increasing content reach and engagement,” said Pelin Thorogood, managing partner at Schulman + Thorogood Group, a business consulting group. “What we observed is structuring an article or webpage around the words readers use while searching and sharing increases content relevance for both search engines and target audience – resulting in significantly higher online visibility and reader engagement for the writers who participated in our study.”

This makes perfect sense. Think about all of the fantastic sites out there with great content – but those sites are almost “invisible” in the engines. If you want to play the SEO game, that means optimizing your content. It’s as simple as that.

Here are some things to consider…

Of course, InboundWriter’s angle is that their content optimization tool is simple to use – so writers can produce the content faster and easier. At the same time, I would argue that any writer with access to reliable keyphrase research (and who understands the SEO copywriting fundamentals.) can achieve the same (or better) results without a real-time content optimization tool. Having said that, if InboundWriter helps you optimize your content, cool. I’m all for it. I’ve checked out the tool, and I can certainly see how it could help someone master the basics – especially someone who doesn’t know much about SEO.

Secondly, any tool – even one that’s easy to use – isn’t going to suddenly transform bad content into high-performing content. Or a so-so sales page into a top-converting superstar. It’s still important to work with talented writers who can make your site shine.  If your copy doesn’t connect with your readers before the optimization process, adding keyphrases isn’t going to make it any better. Or, as my father used to say, “you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.”  A recent Vertical Measures blog post by Barry Feldman discusses this very point:

Forgoing copywriters is not the answer. It’s a formula for failure. Copywriters specialize in persuasion. You can make the case (as many spectacular authors have) that in the inbound era effective marketers wisely choose not to cram their content full of product-centric messages. However, if building a relationship or connecting with the customer trumps generating an immediate sale, you’d be crazy to suggest persuasion is disposable. Or at least you’d be wrong.

At the end of the day, it’s all about providing your readers high-quality, relevant content. If using a tool like InboundWriter makes sense to you and your team – go for it. At the same time, a tool will only get you so far. If you want to rock the search engines and get people talking about your content, you need good writers, engaging content and an air-tight strategy. It’s as simple as that.