Today I interviewed Jon Wuebben, who is an expert in website copywriting. It is a very important topic today because SEO is how we position our own brands in search engines, so we’re found. Before you even start writing a blog post, you need to think of an SEO strategy. This means that you must disperse keywords throughout your writing for the search engines. Enjoy the interview.
What is more important content or communication? Do you need both or will be just find you if you produce remarkable or unique content?
You really need both..”content” are the words that make up your site or blog and “communication” is the exchange you have with prospects and customers. Blogs lend themselves well to both of these elements and is part of the reason why they are so popular. With your content, you want to make it interesting, benefit-rich and be sure to use a call to action. What do you want the visitor to do? Download a e-book? Contact you? Make it easy for them to do this. In terms of communicating, you want to make sure you are using the words and phrases that resonate with your target audience.
Do you feel someone can have a successful blog if their design sucks but their content is interesting?
Yes, they can. There are many examples of this. Content is and always will be king. But, it really is a mistake to discount the design of your site. People respond to a nice color scheme, good contrast and eye catching design elements. Plus, its not very hard to find a great designer nowadays. Just be sure to look at samples before you go with them.
What 3 SEO tips would you recommend to people who want to rank high on Google for their name?
- 1. use their name in the title tag
- 2. use their name on the page itself – at the top (in a header), in the first line of the first paragraph, in the middle of the page and towards the end
- 3. aggressively pursue links for your keyword phrases
Aside from blog’s, how do you make wiki’s/RSS and podcasts viral?
Start a newsletter! Send it out to your prospects an customers on a regular basis and include your RSS feed, wiki’s and podcast links in the newsletter.
What’s the difference between copywriting for a Fortune 500 company and a small business with less than 30 employees?
Copywriting for a large company can be an extensive process – many pages and lots of products and services. You’re also usually speaking to many different audiences and target customers. With a small business, you need to be focused on nurturing and appealing to every prospect that shows interest, because one of your goals is to build your database and client list as quickly as possible. The copy needs to reflect this. Personal emails and even phone calls can be a good idea for the small business looking to grow and compliment the copy that appears on your site.
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What tools are out there for checking links, pagerank and keyword rankings?
Google your URL and use LinkPopularity.com (checking links), download the Google Toolbar (pagerank indicator) and use semmetrix.com (keyword rankings).
How do you think copywriting and/or SEO will change in the future?
- Searchchanges will dictate copywriting changes
- Consumer’s wants and needs will lead copywriting changes
- Customer (user) generated content continues to grow
- Universal/blended search: gets sophisticated
- Personalized search: different search results for different people
- Social networks take on new life
- Consumer reviews continue to be important
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Jon Wuebben is a veteran copywriter, speaker, entrepreneur and online marketing leader. Seeing the exploding need for high quality, keyword rich web content, he founded the SEO copywriting house, Custom Copywriting, in 2003. Rising quickly as one of the fastest growing content providers in the industry, they have written copy for the Fortune 100, small startups, and hundreds of mid-sized organizations. Jon wrote Content Rich: Writing Your Way to Wealth to help businesses of all sizes write their own content and to learn all the tips and tricks of SEO copywriting and how it relates to online marketing.
