by Mark Bloom | Jan 12, 2014 | Content Marketing
Website Trends to Watch in the Coming Year
Like we’ve always said: it’s no longer enough to have a website. Everyone and her brother have websites. To gain a competitive advantage, you now need an active website. If your website isn’t offering useful information to your clients and potential clients, it’s not reaching them.
Your website should be doing marketing work for you, attracting readers who turn into customers. If your website isn’t part of your marketing budget, with a constant investment, then you’ve wasted the money you’ve already spent on the site. It has to stay active to be effective.
Adding Content Isn’t Enough
In the past, we’ve said time and again that you need to keep adding to your website — such as with regular blog posts — to keep attracting readers to your business. The newest trend, however, suggests that simply adding content isn’t enough. You have to add useful content.
Useful content means answers to your clients’ questions. It means tips that can help your customers make better, more informed decisions. Your website content, as well as your blog post topics, should focus less on you and your company and more on your customers. Delivering useful content will help you stand out from your competition and pique the interest of search engines.
“Content Marketing” Is the New Buzzword Phrase
Search engines are refining how they rank pages. If you can deliver quality content, your site will be recognized, both by human readers and robotic search engines. Quality in 2014 will trump quantity.
Keywords will remain important, but if they are forced into the text unnaturally, Google and other search engines may penalize you. Instead, deliver clear, readable English that assists the people who are seeking solutions. Help these people, and they may become loyal customers.
Building Your Reputation, One Page at a Time
As you add useful information to your website, you are building value. That value will gain an audience, which will simultaneously build your company’s online reputation. If you are offering content that’s interesting, provocative, timely, and — most importantly — useful, then you are building value into your website.
Value, over the long haul, increases your online presence and your website page rank. Useful content delivered consistently over time ultimately translates into authority. So if you want to be seen as the authority in your field, your active website is the perfect vehicle to achieve that goal.
Quality Content Equals Good Marketing
To get ahead in 2014, think of your website as a marketing tool. Budget accordingly. If you don’t have the personnel to devote to this effort, outsource it. Ray Access specializes in content marketing. Let us turn your website into a marketing engine. You could say your company’s reputation depends on it.
Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.
by Mark Bloom | Nov 29, 2013 | Content Marketing
And Is Content Still the Way to SEO Results?
Back in February, on Mark’s birthday no less, we published a blog post pronouncing that Content Is King. Here we are, some 10 months later, and we have to ask the question: Is content still king (or queen) when it comes to SEO and best practices for your website?
Our initial response is: Yes, of course content still rules the roost. After all, it’s content that draws readers to your website. It’s content that delivers SEO keywords. It’s content — useful, valuable information — that makes any site worthwhile.
We’ve always said that quality content is what will win the SEO wars, that Google and other search engines will eventually figure out how to recognize useful information from keyword-loaded crap. That’s still in the future, apparently.
Content Is Evolving
The definition of content is changing. Infographics are the current rage. Video is getting a lot of attention these days. Where does this leave the lonely word?
Words will never disappear. They are the foundation of language, even online. Infographics need words. Videos need scripts. And how often do you look for the pop-up “tooltips” that explain exactly what that little button or icon means?
The concept of content may change, but the goal has always been the same: to provide useful information people will want to read or watch and then share. If your content doesn’t reach that goal, then I don’t care how much SEO you’re buying, your website isn’t working.
Rethinking SEO
We came across an interesting article from CopyPress.com that talks about this idea. Basically, the article says:
To be good at SEO, you need to stop thinking about SEO.
In other words, the goal of SEO is to get beyond it. A local SEO expert told me once his idea of SEO was “creating community.” Not much about keywords in that sentence.
So, when you’re ready to treat SEO as a means to an end instead of as an end unto itself, contact us.
Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.
by Elle Ray | Jul 12, 2013 | Website Content
Ray Access’ Secret Service: Website Content
When we say that we’re “content providers,” most people — even some technical people — give us the deer-in-the-headlights look. We’re never upset or surprised. Providing content is a reasonably new field, and we’re always eager to explain what it is we actually do.
Fewer people hear “content providers” and immediately make the association that we write blog posts. They understand that businessmen and women usually don’t write their own blog posts, even if they do come up with the topic.
Providing Content Means More
But as content providers, we’re proud of all the services we perform. One of the most popular at the moment, in a trend that even took us by surprise, is writing — or more frequently, rewriting — website content.
The words on your website have a lot of work to do. They have to positively influence search engines to help deliver a high page rank for the keywords that are important to your business. Website content also has to attract the attention of those real people who find your site, either accidentally or on purpose. Perhaps most importantly, they have to tell your story.
Put Website Content to Work
If you find your website slipping in page rank, all the signs indicate that updating your content should be a first step. It’s certainly less expensive and longer-lasting than an all-out pay-per-click marketing blitz. Remember, the best traffic to your site is organic — that is, the people who find you through a search or a referral, not through an ad.
Revising your website content, checking for the keywords you need, even redesigning the site are all ways to freshen up a stale site and reinvigorate your online presence. Every time you change or add content to your website, whether through a rewrite or a blog, you force the search engines to re-index your site. And that’s usually a good thing.
Gradual Change for Best Results
So think about what you want from your website in the next year. Then start putting the pieces together to make it happen. You don’t need to complete this project overnight. In fact, it may be best to approach it piecemeal, making small changes over time, keeping those search engines busy.
When you’re ready to start work on improving your website content, consider turning to the pros. That would be us, here at Ray Access. Contact us for a free estimate for your site. Join the many other satisfied clients who have seen positive change just by updating the text on their website pages. It works!
Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.
by Mark Bloom | Jun 28, 2013 | Content Marketing
Ray Access and Search Engine Optimization
First, let us state that we are not in the SEO business. Our core business, however — writing blog posts, press releases, and especially website copy — can directly effect a website’s page rank. The problem for many online marketing professionals, SEO firms included, is that Google continues to tweak its algorithms for what it values … and what it punishes.
Past SEO Practices
It used to be that you could load up on backlinks — essentially, links back to your site from other sites, reputable or not — and enjoy a high page rank. No more. So here are some SEO tips. As CopyPress.com recommends, “create a compelling site (i.e., engaging content)” and “use social platforms to increase [your] visibility organically.”
At Ray Access, we see the new paradigm as a positive development. What is SEO after all except the process of positioning truly useful websites at the top of applicable search results? Google wants you to use its search engine, and so it works hard (too hard, say some) to deliver useful results every time.
Creating a Compelling Site
Again, advice from CopyPress.com, so you know it’s not just us making things up:
With so much content created everyday online, it’s not enough for a company to mass-produce dull copy and then push it heavily on every social site with a heavy paid social campaign. If you’re satisfied with a quick spike in your social traffic that will disappear as soon as your budget does, then by all means you should continue.”
Indeed, as we’ve been saying since Day 1, quality content will eventually win the SEO wars. Quality content attracts both search engines and potential customers. Quality content — without tricks or hidden costs — increases your website’s page rank organically.
Increasing Your Visibility
How does quality content do all that? People online often want answers. If you can deliver those answers in your particular field, people will find you, learn to trust you, and share your content. Yes, Virginia, quality content has “shareability,” and it’s a trait every business wants.
“Shareability” means that your content can go viral. It increases your reach on social media outlets as well as in search engine results. “Shareability,” in other words, increases your website’s visibility. And it all starts with quality content.
To learn more about how your company can benefit from the kind of quality content that we develop at Ray Access, contact us. We’re always happy to discuss our passion: clear communication.
Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.
by Elle Ray | Mar 7, 2013 | Content Marketing
Why Your Page Rank Matters to Your Business
Creating a website can be cheaper than printing tons of brochures… and it doesn’t destroy any trees. You can update your website much easier than you can update your brochure, too. Best of all, you can save on mailing costs. Instead of mailing your brochure to customers and potential customers, you can email, text, chat, or post your website address (or URL) to whomever you want in any number of different ways. You can even put your URL on your car doors. Try doing that with a brochure.
The question is: Are websites more effective than brochures?
In this day and age, you can be confident that nearly everyone is online or can get online (thank you public libraries). If someone has your URL and wants to visit your website, they can. They don’t need your four-color tri-fold. All they need is your URL scribbled on a cocktail napkin or printed on a business card. Of course, reaching your potential customers can still present a challenge — and that’s where search engines and page rank come in.
Make Your Message Count
Websites can do so much more than brochures as marketing tools, if you play them correctly. Websites never wear out. They are online 24/7. Your website serves as an advertisement for your company when customers look for your products or services. How can it fail?
Your website only works if your customers can find it. We’re not talking about cryptic URLs, which can be a problem. We’re talking about finding your site through an Internet search. Chances are good that people will find your website, but only if it comes up on the first or second page of a search result. That’s considered a high search ranking, with the first page being the ideal, the “Holy Grail” of all business websites. If your website doesn’t appear until page three or four — or worse — forget about it and keep passing out your business cards and brochures … because that’s the only way customers will find their way to your site.
The Puzzle of Internet Searches
The Internet is fast and convenient — and that’s what people have come to expect. Internet users aren’t accustomed to wading through page after page of entries on Google or Bing. They want instant gratification. If they search for buggy whips, they’ll visit a site that comes up on the first page. They might shop around, visit one or two sites for comparison, but more often than not, they’ll buy from the first site they hit. If your buggy whip company isn’t listed until page three, you’re out of luck and out of a customer. And not that many people are buying buggy whips these days.
No matter how slick your site, regardless of how low your prices are, if you can’t get your website to be listed on the first or second page of an organic search — meaning based on a phrase naturally entered by someone looking for something on the Internet — your site might as well be invisible. In fact, it is.
When a person uses a search engine like Google or Bing, it begins an intricate process that weighs complex algorithms, paid advertisements, and many, many other factors to deliver the results — and the order in which they’re posted — in mere seconds. Worse, this process is subject to change without warning.
Solving the Search Engine Puzzle
You can hire a team of Internet marketing specialists, called SEO (or search engine optimization) experts to help you rank higher on Internet searches. They understand the intricacies and can advise you on different strategies for getting the best results. These strategies often work, over time, but SEO experts are expensive and often work for large companies who have large marketing departments.
Alternately, you can take matters into your own hands and play the same game. Learn as much as you can. Spend the time tweaking your website to find the magic bullet that jumps your website to the top of the charts, so to speak. But be forewarned: this is a time-consuming venture.
Fortunately, there is a real solution. Not surprisingly, it involves us.
How Search Engines Work: A Primer
Search engines ultimately want to deliver to their customers a list of websites that most likely help, websites most likely to contain the information, products, or services the person is searching for. Search engines are looking for sites with clear content, consistent and relevant information, and useful copy. In other words, they’re looking for websites that are clear and easy to understand. These are the sites most likely to deliver whatever it is the user is seeking, even if it’s buggy whips.
The complex algorithms the search engines use are merely ways to try to find those clear sites. Your website can be one of them. It starts with clear text on your site, with the right words and good images on each page. It continues with a constant stream of new material, delivered over time.
Why is new content important? Search engines troll the Internet for fresh content all the time, to keep its “index” up to date. If your website is static, search engines will never have a reason to check back, driving your site lower and lower in rank. If your website continues to deliver good, useful information week after week, it will naturally rise in rank, not to mention get readers involved and result in links from other sites.
So don’t go to all the trouble of creating a new website if you’re only going to use it as an electronic calling card. Instead, take advantage of the marketing power of search engines and drive new visitors to your site. Post new content on your site daily or at least weekly. That’s one of the keys to driving your page rank higher.
If you don’t have time to write new stuff every day — because you’re also trying to run your business — then contact Ray Access. That’s what we do.
Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.
by Mark Bloom | Mar 2, 2013 | Content Marketing
How to Get Ranked Higher for Search Results
This is the question on every business-owner’s mind. If a company has a website — and what serious company, no matter how small, doesn’t? — the visibility of that website becomes a major concern.
When a business thinks about ways to grow — ways to advertise its products or services, and ways to attract new customers — a new hot website seems like a no-brainer. It’s the old “If you build it, they will come” philosophy. In reality, however, the world doesn’t work that way.
So, after an initial push to launch the website, it just sits there. All optimism soon fades. The site is written off as a loss.
It doesn’t have to be that way, of course. Building the site is just the first step. There are ways to nudge the search page listing toward the top (aka, increasing the page rank of the website, getting more potential customers to look at your site, and then turning them into clients).
Build It the Right Way
We recently took a seminar put on by Chris Kaminski of Lone Bird Studio. He’s been in marketing for 30+ years and in the website end of it for 13+ years. He knows of what he speaks.
Chris ran through a litany of proper ways to build and code a website. Part of the trick is to develop and employ the right keywords, not only for your business, but for each page of the website. Everything has to be relevant, and every keyword has to match.
But That’s Not Enough
The really interesting thing about the seminar, however, was what Chris had to say about the key elements of the keyword use (and we’re paraphrasing here): “Stuffing keywords into text on the page no longer works. In fact, it may work against you. The copy has to flow naturally.”
To put that in layman’s terms, he said, “Search engines today are content-driven… It’s all about the quality of the content.”
What It’s About
This confirms what Ray Access has repeated here many times: the best way to raise your page rank is to provide quality content — useful and relevant information — to your website continually over time. It’s the best way to attract visitors, establish your authority, and yes, move your listing up on the search pages. Find out how Ray Access can help your website’s page rank.
Having your website rank higher based on the site’s content is not only the most effective way to do it, but it’s also the cheapest way to do it. There’s also a term for it: it’s called organic. Organic means that you’re putting the time into your website to add value. Search engines, regardless of the current algorithm for determining rank, will always be attracted to organic value. Or as Chris put it: “Organic buzz rarely comes without quality content.”
Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.
