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Copywriting - Don’t Lead Me to a Dry Well
By Kimberly Bock | April 22, 2008
<rant>
Don’t you just hate it when an article is full of text that cannot be fully understood unless:
A) you travel to multiple other links, that are sprayed throughout the article at random
or
B) have previous existing knowledge of what’s being referred to?
Take this for example Google Xooglers Launch Social Search Engine Mechanical Zoo (thank goodness I don’t need to be the most popular, ey?)
Benefits:
Search engine and fellow marketer love..
- In the eyes of a search engine, the outgoing links may very well be attached to quality articles. They may even provide some sort of reciprocation to this article, which the search engines also seem to enjoy.(dunno..I didn’t bother visiting them. I was hoping to find the article useful without having to do so. In a hurry, you see)
- In the eyes of fellow marketers who may be the ones linked to, this is also terrific. For obvious reasons, they received some traffic from the article that led the horses to water. From the fellow marketers perspective, this may encourage reciprocation of support, etc.
That’s all gravy. But aren’t we forgetting something important here?
The Drawbacks:
Unfriendly design for the reader or better yet, If you’re a first time visitor, what are you seeing?
- Are we given enough information on the page without having to travel to these various links? (unless its microblogging, which is designed for ’snippet’ appreciation)
- Does the presentation draw enough curiosity to make us want to visit the links provided?
- Is the Title in any way ‘misleading’? Therefore only catering to more confusion? (ex: When performing a Google search for the word “Xooglers” (which is a word used in the title of the example article) this site is the first result. Are the writers of that site being referred to in the article? or is it generalizing and capitalizing on the simple term? Will a newcomer know? Is this term common knowledge to those who are being targeted by the article?
- The phrase “mechanical Zoo” was used, but also used a couple of paragraphs later, was “mech zoo”..Now, I know it meant the same thing as “mechanical zoo” but I’m sure some would find this confusing. Consistency in the wording makes for no doubt.
These are just a few of the things that show the importance of optimizing page copy to appease not only the search engines and those who we fellowship with on a marketing level, but certainly for the most important facet..the reader. If we lose their attention, we lose the possibility of securing them in any sort of call to action.
Whether it be to
- grab our RSS feed
- register for a weekly newsletter or
- make the almighty golden purchase
</rant>
Suggested Copywriting articles:
- Learn SEO Copywriting: mmm, Make Love to Me
- How to Use “Action Words” to Increase Traffic & Reader Response
- 3 Important Questions to Ask Before You Start Writing
Tags: copywriting, marketing, rant
Topics: SEO Copywriting |