Over Optimizing Your Site: Just Say No - Writing to Convert
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Writing to score high in the search engine results pages might seem like the right goal, but that misses the point. Why do you want to score high in the SERPs? You want to attract visitors to your site. And even that is only part of the answer; truth is, you want to make them convert – buy whatever you’re selling, sign up for your newsletter, seek more information, take your pick. Heather Lloyd-Martin, president of Successworks, drove that point home a few months ago at an SEO conference. On a panel called “SEO Overkill,” she reminded everyone that “We’re in business to make money, and the search engines are not paying our bills…Whenever you put the computer first, you’re leaving customers out.”
What does it mean to write for conversion? Some of it involves considering things that affect customers, but search engines won’t pay attention to one way or the other. Or they could be things that search engines reward but cause customers to become confused. And some of them might seem a little surprising.
Lloyd-Martin refers to one of these problems as “conversion confusion.” It happens when a website actually starts with something good – lots of excellent content on the page that gives visitors all the information they need about a particular product and then some. It could even be really well organized. So the visitor decides to buy…and that’s where the site comes up short, because “there’s no conversion step or way for people to take action,” explains Lloyd-Martin. “People need to be told what to do. If you do not ask for the sale, they won’t take action.” A “contact us” button is not enough.
I’m pleased to say that another practice you don’t want to engage in, according to Lloyd-Martin, is misspellings. You might be convinced that customers will misspell your name or whatever it is that you sell, but Google tends to compensate for that with its “Did you mean…?” function. Plus, it hurts your brand. “Customers will notice misspellings pretty easily,” Lloyd-Martin points out, “which make your company look unprofessional, like you can’t spell, and like you don’t care.” It will make your customers think “if they can’t get their site right, why can they get my order right?” she added.
Michael Murray, vice president of Fathom SEO, participated on the same “SEO Overkill” panel as Heather Lloyd-Martin. He had some great general advice for anyone trying to build up a permanent web presence: go slow. “Even sound practices may fail if they’re rushed,” he warned. You need to measure every link and think carefully about everything you are doing to your site, and how it will affect things overall.
Next: Practices to Avoid >>
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