How To Use Social Media To Reach More Customers

Did you know that the 2nd most followed page on Facebook is Samsung, with 159.82 million followers? That’s six times the population of Australia tapped into all the moves the South Korean electronics giant is making - from a consumer perspective. That is, they’ve all opted in to being sold new phones, cameras, TVs, and tablets as part of their daily social media scroll.

Though enterprise businesses may employ social media managers (who may be flustered by the overwhelming demands of the job, as I’ve explored here), small to medium businesses often flounder under the constant demand for content - or mistaken belief that just because one posts it will be seen by all their audience, every time. (That’s the non-linear algorithm at work, baybay!)

Social media is free to use - but with all free things, it means spending time on it to gain any real benefit. Here is a primer on how to use social media to reach more customers.

Find Your Audience and Meet Them There

There’s no such thing as the Field of Dreams on the web. It’s not a case of “build it and they will come” but rather, “build it where they already are.”

That means looking at your business and figuring out where your core demographic customer base already hangs out. B2B businesses will likely want to focus on B2B social media, such as LinkedIn. (It’s where I hang out!) B2C will want to embrace Meta platforms (Instagram and Facebook), TikTok, and to a lesser extent, X (formerly Twitter.)

If you have limited time to spend, you may want to focus on one platform. Meta Business Suite helps you post across Instagram, Facebook, and even WhatsApp, which means reaching three sets of audiences at once.

Apps such as Keyhole can help you identify these audiences without waiting too long for analytics to come in - which can help you along tremendously.

Establish a Narrative and Social Proof

Stories are everything. People are drawn in by stories; brands that establish solid narratives about themselves will rise to the top of the pile compared with soulless, bland sales pages. For example, the DIY, grassroots values of Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream - a small business started by two hippie college dropouts from Vermont selling fresh ice-cream from their gelatery - (almost) overrides the fact they are now a global brand owned by Unilever, a multi-national corporation with questionable holdings.

Social proof is the act of using other’s opinions of your brand to sell your products and services. This may come in the form of using content from your customers (i.e., re-blogging or re-posting their Instagram reels or TikToks) to “prove” that people like, use, and trust your product.

Using Influencers and Brand Advocates

Believe it or not, 40% of Twitter (as it was called in 2016) users said they bought something because an influencer tweeted about it. There was a 5.2x increase in the likelihood of a purchase when users saw both brand and influencer tweets about the product.

According to Mention.com, URL shortener Bitly saw 11x greater return on investment than traditional forms of digital marketing. People who have a large social media following are instant social proof - even if the audience knows that the brand is sponsoring their posts. Influencers need not just be on Instagram; they could be bloggers, podcasters, YouTubers, TikTokers, and other high-follower count individuals or groups.

Reposting content from satisfied customers who become “cheerleaders” for your product is another way to reach even greater audiences. People love being seen - and according to an Olapic study, 70% of U.S.-based respondents are more likely to buy products after being exposed to a relatable or positive image created by other consumers.

Provide Value For THEIR FOLLOW

Yes, some people will follow certain brands or companies just to get the jump on sales. But the top performers provide real value to their customers in the form of informational or instructional content that they can use.

A food brand may want to showcase recipes; a fashion brand may want to emphasise which fragrances to pair with their outfit. Even if you’re an excavator company, you can still provide value by showing which kind of plant you use to tackle certain jobs, which may be useful for apprentices. The more content that you can provide that’s useful, the better.

Use a Strategic Approach

One of the most common mistakes brands make is using a scattershot approach to social media posting and content. A hospitality venue might make one post about an upcoming event…only for it to get buried under the algorithm and have it appear in people’s feeds three days after it’s finished.

Every business should have a social media strategy which should be planned out ahead of time with content (or at least ideas about content), its purpose (brand recognition, promotion, reach), and the goals it is attempting to reach.

This keeps your social media running smoothly as part of your overall sales or marketing processes. Instead of panicking about what to post, where, and when, your strategy will guide you in the right direction whether you want to make a post yourself or leave it up to the professionals.

With a bit of persistence and effort you can use social media to reach more customers - and greater sales!

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For expert guidance and quality cut-through content that’s both strategic and impossible to ignore, trust I Sell Words for all aspects of social media management. Read about my social media success stories here!

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Can you have your Google cake and EEAT it too? (Flying Solo)

Content is king, right? I mean, I am a loyal subject to it as a copywriter, supplicating before its wordy throne, feeding it fine morsels of verbiage and sentences crafted to perfection to satisfy its ever-growing hunger, I write at Flying Solo.

How To Create a Winning SEO Keyword Strategy For Your Business

Google and search engines are always on the look out to optimise their results for the end user. It’s why they so frequently change their algorithms. In 2018 they “improved” their PageRank and ranking signals algorithm over 3,000 times; in the age where AI is taking over more and more, it could be refining itself in ways we don’t even see.

If your business site has been reigning supreme over Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) for years, you could find yourself in the unenviable position of being on the wrong side of an algorithm update, losing hard-won rankings and positions.

Having a strong keyword strategy that keeps up with Google and new trends can help your business navigate the wild world of SEO without having to start from square one.

WHAT IS A SEO KEYWORD STRATEGY?

Though it can be confused with keyword research, a keyword strategy goes a step further than mere keyword research. Intuitively, we know what keywords we want to target in searches. If we own a plumbing business, we would type in “plumbers near me” or “gas plumber Melbourne” to Google and grab the first few autocomplete results, incorporating this into our on-page SEO copy.

A keyword strategy goes deeper. Instead of a scattergun approach, an SEO Keyword Strategist would identify the cost/benefit ratio for chasing certain keywords or keyphrases, see what keywords could drive relevant traffic to your site, identify new opportunities, and help structure your content into topic clusters. A strategic approach can also temper expectations around rankings and growth. Highly competitive keywords may be out of reach for many small businesses.

However a laser-focused strategy that also includes less competitive or high-intent keywords could drive more qualified leads to your site. This often means a higher return on investment than looking for raw volume. Many users who end up at your site may be “tyre kicking” and bouncing off without any conversion or interaction. The strategy also needs to consider this aspect of user behaviour.

Benchmarking Performance

At the very least, you should have some kind of analytics set up to gauge what incoming search terms your site is ranking for at any given moment. You should be using Google Analytics or Google Search Console at the minimum.

Signing up for free versions of Ahrefs or SEMRush can give you general overviews of how your site is ranking in terms of keyword authority and positioning among competitors. At the very least, you need to set a baseline from which to work with.

Set SMART Goals

With any strategy, be it crossing the Ardennes or carving out 10% greater market share, it needs an identifiable goal. These should be SMART:

• Specific

• Measurable

• Actionable

• Relevant

• Timely

The specific goal a business could set are improving rankings for a certain topic or keyword cluster to the first page within six months. To use our plumber, this may be “blocked sinks/drains/grease traps” to the first page in that time period. These could be refined into key performance indicators for Top 3 rankings or Top 4-10 rankings, for example. For a list of SEO KPIs every business should track, SEMRush has a great guide here.

Topics - The New SEO Keyword?

As you may be aware, Google uses the E-E-A-T ranking signal to sort relevant pages and display them in Search Engine results. This stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. This rings especially true for businesses that trade in “money or your life” sectors such as financial advice or medical treatment. Instead of focusing on individual keywords or phrases, a good SEO keyword strategy will incorporate content and backlinking efforts on becoming trusted expert authorities on topics.

Our plumber may want to target keywords around plumbing, but what other topics are relevant to would-be searchers? How to unclog drains can also relate to general home maintenance; the latter of which could be a topic cluster. The high-level topic then informs what other secondary keywords you could be targeting underneath to support your strategy.

Creating topic pages also feeds into any good SEO content strategy, which also comprises how you lay out your pages and sitemap. Certain pillar pages may contain basic information on a given topic (plumbing maintenance) and supporting pages with their own topics (how to stop drains from running slowly) which you can then link to.

Remember: this topical content need not be written: it could be video content, podcasts, interactives, and social media content.

Keyword Difficulty vs. Payoff

Every keyword has metrics that you need to look at such as search volume and keyword difficulty. Search volume shows how often a search is run (usually a rough estimate) and keyword difficulty is the probability of entering the “race” for ranking high and actually pulling it off.

Sites or pages with high domain authority, referring domains, and page authority are harder to knock off the perch than lower-hanging fruit. The higher the difficulty, the better or more relevant your content has to become, which can take a lot of time and effort (and even then, it may not pay off.)

You will have to evaluate how much effort you wish to funnel into certain keywords or perhaps look for “easy target” keywords that you can target for quick and easy wins. (which Backlinko goes into detail with here.) How you prioritise high difficulty vs. low difficulty keywords or topics is a matter for your business - but the strategy itself should give you insights into what will work best to achieve your ultimate goal.

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SEO KEYWORD STRATEGY IS ALSO Content Strategy

Your topics and keywords will be centered around content - but your keywords for content shouldn’t be placed “just anywhere.” They too should be laid out in a strategic way.

A strategic approach must include direction for topics, blog or page posting frequency, and where a potential customer could potentially enter your sales funnel when searching for that keyword or phrase.

The top-of-the-funnel often sends larger traffic levels with a lower intent to purchase or convert, whereas the bottom-of-the-funnel typically sends lower traffic volumes with a higher intent. Though you may have less traffic coming through at the bottom-of-the-funnel, the payoff is much higher than if you simply ignored that keyword completely.

Tracking and Refinement

It’s vital that you conduct regular tracking and reporting on progress towards your goals.

Plans can change and the methods you employ to can and might shift halfway through. That's normal, and it's frequently what distinguishes a good plan from a great strategy. 

Checking in on your KPIs at least monthly ensures that you are constantly aware of how near you are to meeting your objectives, that you can communicate updates with other stakeholders and that you have confidence that things are heading in the right direction and that your SEO Keyword Strategy is set up for success.

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Want a killer SEO Keyword Strategy that can supercharge your business, along with persuasive content that sells and converts more often? Talk to me!

The State of Digital Marketing in 2023

AI, TikTok…what’s next? Digital marketing seems to be so evolved it barely resembles this time last year. In a new report by Hubspot has taken a snapshot of the state of digital marketing in 2023. We all know about the advent of artificial intelligence - but is it all its cracked up to be? Is short-form video still effective? Will budgets increase or decrease in 2023 and 2024?

Drawing on other trends and sources on digital marketing, let’s have a deep dive into the State of Digital Marketing in 2023.

Artificial Intelligence and Automation

According to Hubspot’s report, the average marketer works on five campaigns at a time, and a total of seven campaigns per quarter. Using AI to automate certain processes makes business sense to gain more productivity with less time spent on admin and busywork. Tools like ChatGPT, Midjourney, and DALL-E are proving to be useful in generating ideas, creating templates, and churning out content at scale. However, the time savings may be offset by the limitations of GPTs which are prone to repetition, “hallucination”, and limited in scope.

First Party Data

Notice how “big data” died suddenly and without warning? With Apple and Google both tackling the problem of terrible user privacy with new features that restrict the tracking of data from third-parties via cookies - and users taking matters into their own hands with AdBlockers and the like - gathering first-party data will be the boon for marketers wishing to personalise and target content to their audiences. 86% of marketers told Hubspot that that data privacy changes have impacted their overall marketing strategy over 2022. Giving users control over their data by opting in to newsletters, shopping accounts, and other data capture methods such as surveys, yields a sense of trust and an opportunity to create value in the often hidden transaction of harvesting user data.

The Rise of the Short Video

Instagram Reels is just YouTube Shorts for people who don’t like TikTok. Whatever the platform may be, short form videos are reigning supreme for marketing in 2023. (Especially the tarted up AliExpress tat hawked by people in sweatpants - but that’s a discussion for another time.) 21% of marketers are going to be investing in short form video, and ad revenue from the format is set to surpass $10 billion (USD) according to Woosuite. Research by Wyzowl shows that 91% of businesses are using video and 73% of consumers prefer to watch a short-form video to learn about a potential purchase. 90% of those businesses that are using video has helped them generate leads.

Mobile Friendly Design

According to SimilarWeb, 57.36% of Australian web traffic is consumed on mobile; the present and the future of the web will be mobile optimised. That means optimised designs, user experiences, and even instant apps will be in-demand among users - and businesses. Though desktop designs may look great, the chances are your customers are scrolling with their thumb, not their index finger.

Sliding into DMs

“Sliding into DMs” or direct messages over social media was once describing a slick romantic gesture - and businesses want the romance between customers to blossom as they use social media to directly interact with customers by answering questions, handling complaints, and general interaction. Hubspot says 30% of younger (Gen Y and Z) have bought products on social media over the past three months, thanks in part to direct message customer service. Using AI chatbots and other automation can help start the conversation with humans taking over when things get too complicated for the machine to handle.

Authentic, Organic SEO

When downturns occur, people look for authentic, organic content. Not paid advertorial but something they can connect with and feel good about reading. Hubspot says that 7% of businesses will cut their ad spend during recessions and bottom-out business cycles - but that doesn’t mean you should skimp on your organic content that improves your SEO. Though marketers may do this as a business-building exercise, B2B and B2C companies should be thinking of investing in SEO content that isn’t engineered to hard sell, but connect with customers while taking home the added benefit of improved Search Engine Results Pages. That means providing real value for their reader - not so much top of mind, but strong of heart.

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Ready to leverage the top marketing methods that will keep your business thriving during 2023? Want the best marketing copy to fuel your videos or SEO? Contact me!

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How to Choose an Effective SEO Copywriter

Of course, this could be the shortest blog post in the history of this site - Choose me! I’m awesome! End of story.

However, not all SEO Copywriters are the same. Some have particular niches; others are generalists (such as myself.) One may emphasise on-page techniques over off-page optimisation. I am more creative - others are more technical. Learn about the differences between types of copywriters here.

Identifying a suitable SEO content creator or copywriter for your organisation is vital to the success of your digital marketing and content strategy.  It’s important to consider various factors when selecting the ideal SEO copywriter for your business.

Research Their Portfolio

It’s important to research a potential copywriter’s portfolio before hiring them. Check out their past work and see if it aligns with what you need done. You want someone who can provide quality content that will help boost your website’s visibility and attract more customers.

Gaining an insight into their methodology is key when searching for the right SEO copywriter. To make sure you’re on the same wavelength, ask questions about how they approach a project, what kind of results can be expected, if they’ve worked on projects within your industry, and any other important details like turnaround times or keyword optimisation techniques.

Gleaning information from reviews and testimonials can provide insight into the efficacy of a copywriter, allowing you to make an informed decision. Seeing what others have said about them can give insight into how reliable and effective they may be when it comes to producing content for your business needs.

Tailored or Specific Writing Styles

When selecting an SEO copywriter, make sure to read through some samples of their work so that you understand their writing style and determine if it fits with yours or the brand identity that you want portrayed online. A great writer should be able to produce content tailored specifically towards meeting all of your objectives while also staying true to the tone desired by both parties involved in the project (you included).

I Sell Words, for instance, always produces “test pages” to ensure the tone and style of your content suits your brand’s personality and your target market’s expectations.

An experienced SEO copywriter should be able to offer valuable insight into how best to optimise content based on industry trends, keywords used by competitors in similar markets, etc. What's more, it is essential that they understand exactly what success looks like from your perspective; meaning having a clear grasp of both short-term and long-term objectives associated with each piece of content written/produced for the best results across multiple channels (e.g social media platforms).

By following these steps when selecting an copywriter, businesses can ensure they find someone who meets all expectations set forth prior to engagement, ultimately leading up towards successful digital marketing campaigns.

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What is Artificial Intelligence Optimisation (AIO) Writing?

There’s a new buzzword/acronym floating around the writing space at the moment, and it’s the “AIO writer” - the Artificial Intelligence Optimisation writer.

Some sites are saying that the advent of the AIO marks the death of the Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) writer - and at this stage, there is merit to the argument.

What is AIO writing, and will it really kill the SEO writer?

What is AIO Writing?

AIO writing is a bit of a misnomer. AIO writing is more like AI editing - taking the output from an AI text generator and editing it up to make it seem as if a human wrote the piece itself.

The business model is to have an AI write a blog or webpage in mere minutes, have a human AIO specialist massage the content so it bypasses any potential AI-detection algorithm (the kind that can scuttle your hard won SEO) and appears as if a human wrote the entire thing itself.

HOW AIO WORKS, IN THEORY

If you are an SEO content writer, the usual process is to write an article that caters to a certain search term, keyword, or keyphrase.

The aim of this is to provide expert-level, authoritative and trustworthy content so it ranks higher on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) for a user query. The higher the ranking, the more likely it will be clicked on, resulting in more traffic for the site. For business or commercial sites, this forms a crucial part of their digital marketing.

Instead of an SEO writer writing the content from scratch, the initial ‘draft’ would be generated by an AI algorithm. This can take minutes instead of the hours in which a human would usually complete a draft.

As discussed in a previous blog, “ripping and posting” AI content can potentially harm your SEO efforts. An AIO writer (or editor) would “massage” the AI content so it has the superficial appearance of “experience” - the Google PageRank metric that AI struggles to replicate in its writing.

The AIO writer could also edit the work so it has a consistent tone of voice, is free of glaring copy errors, and/or factual inaccuracies.

However, it could be argued, that any veteran SEO writer would not need to edit their own work to a significant degree. In the three hours an AIO writer shapes a 2,500 word AI-generated article so it’s worthy of PageRank and human eyes, a deft writer could have written the article itself with the editing process resembling proofreading (fixing grammatical or spelling mistakes) instead of substantive copyediting (making stylistic or editorial changes to the piece, e.g., removing entire sections.)

A human writer could also have made critical decisions when it comes to linking to other authoritative sources, instead of shoehorning them in after the fact.

The POTENTIAL Limitations of AIO

It would seem that my job is caught up in a “rapidly developing, uncontrollable technological system” as the thinker Jacques Ellul would say.

However, the fact I just (rather shamelessly) name-dropped an obscure technological thinker from the late 20th Century also shows the limitation of AIO writers. If they are mere editors, over a long-enough timeline, all AIO writing will sound, feel, and read the same.

AIO writing as a bonafide “profession” may also be a flash in the pan. Google and other closed-source detection algorithms may become so sophisticated they will ferret out AIO content from the “real thing” and end up penalising “cheaters” who take the easy way out.

Ellul said “every problem generates a technological solution; computers breed ever larger, more fragile, and vulnerable systems. But the solutions raise more and greater problems than they solve.” His disciple, the incomparable media ecologist Neil Postman went further: “like all important technologies of the past, they are Faustian bargains, giving and taking away, sometimes in equal measure, sometimes more in one way than the other.”

Like the smartphone revolution in 2007, it “solved” many problems by combining many different technologies into one device. It also had unintended consequences. Mental health problems, addiction, and cyberbullying are now rampant problems caused (at least to a significant degree) by smartphones and “always-on” social media.

The academic Evegeny Morozov in his landmark To Save Everything, Click Here, argues that technology can often be an improvement, and is not necessarily revolutionary in and of itself. Even the once “revolutionary” streaming service Netflix has lost more than one million subscribers.

There is a tendency to view any mass-adopted technology as truly game-changing. I even wrote in a journal article (2011) that businesses don’t use computers because they’re handy; you literally cannot run a business without one and a connection to the World Wide Web. Is AIO in the same category? Would this level of introspection even be possible for AI? Or is that not what we want?

I mean, you can travel by horseback these days, but why would you?

That said, I still wear mechanical watches when many of my friends wear Apple Watches. What does that make me?

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Should AI Write Your Content For You? (Answered By An AI)

I used the dialogue artificial intelligence ChatGPT to respond to questions about AI writing content. Here is the unedited response:

Should businesses use AI to write their content for them?

It depends on the specific use case and the type of content being produced. AI can be used to generate certain types of content, such as product descriptions or news articles, but it may not be appropriate for all types of content, such as creative writing or content that requires a high degree of industry expertise. Additionally, it is important for businesses to consider the ethical implications of using AI to generate content, as well as the potential for errors or inaccuracies in the generated content. Ultimately, businesses should weigh the benefits and drawbacks of using AI to generate content and determine whether it is the best approach for their specific needs.

Should a business use AI to write blog posts for them? Are there any potential drawbacks?

A business may choose to use AI to write blog posts for them, but it is important to consider the potential drawbacks. One potential drawback is that the AI-generated content may not be as high-quality or unique as content written by a human. The AI-generated content may also lack the personal touch and human connection that many readers look for in a blog post. Additionally, there may be ethical concerns surrounding the use of AI to generate content, particularly if the content is being used to influence or persuade readers.

Another potential drawback is that the AI-generated content may not be able to capture the nuances, tone and style of the company, which can make the blog post look less professional and less engaging.

It's also important to consider that AI-generated content can be less creative and less engaging than human-generated content, which may lead to lower engagement, fewer shares, and less ROI.

In summary, while AI-generated content can be useful for certain types of content, such as product descriptions or news articles, it may not be the best approach for a blog post, as it may lack the high-quality, unique, personal touch and engagement that many readers look for. Businesses should weigh the benefits and drawbacks of using AI to generate blog post content and determine whether it is the best approach for their specific needs.

As a human copywriter, should I be afraid that AI will take my job?

As an AI, I do not have the ability to predict the future and can't say for certain whether or not AI will take your job as a human copywriter. However, it is important to understand that AI has the potential to automate certain types of writing tasks, such as product descriptions or news articles. However, it is likely that AI will not be able to completely replace human copywriters in the near future, particularly for tasks that require creativity, emotional intelligence, and a high level of industry expertise.

Many experts believe that AI will augment human work rather than replacing it. AI can help copywriters to improve their productivity, efficiency, and quality of work. For example, AI can assist with research, data analysis, and even with the generation of ideas and headlines.

Additionally, human copywriters have the ability to understand the nuances and subtleties of language, as well as the ability to connect with audiences on an emotional level, which is something that AI currently lacks.

Therefore, it is important for you to stay informed about the capabilities of AI and to adapt and evolve your skills to stay relevant in the field. It's also important to focus on your unique strengths, such as creativity, storytelling, empathy, and personal touch, which are not easily replicable by AI.

Will Artificial Intelligence Change SEO Copywriting?

If you haven’t taken the AI natural-language dialogue engine ChatGPT for a spin, you definitely should.

It’s astounding how it can take a normal query and reply in a structured, easy-to-understand, and if you didn’t know any better, thoughtful way.

Friends and colleagues have been sending me links to ChatGPT, fearing that this will kill off my livelihood. As an SEO copywriter, at least on the surface, it can produce articles in minutes for cents while it takes me hours and hundreds of dollars of investment later.

With that scary thought in mind, should I learn how to code these machines instead of competing against them?

The written word by a scribe’s hand has been around for tens of thousands of years; we aren’t extinct just yet.

The Limitations of AI-written copy

The irony of logging into ChatGPT is the reCAPTCHA asking if you aren’t a robot. AI cannot access itself, it would seem.

I asked it “How do I optimise my content for Google?” - and it returned a pretty decent list of best-practice SEO techniques. Use H1, H2, etc. headings, use internal and external links, upload sitemaps, conduct keyword research. Couldn’t fault it there.

Then I asked it something more subjective - something that required real-world experience to answer.

“Who's the better Starfleet captain, Picard or Sisko?” If you don’t speak nerd, this is the eternal debate as to whether who is the better fictional starship commander - Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise-D or Captain Sisko of Deep Space Nine and the Defiant in the iconic Star Trek spinoffs.

Here’s where things got interesting; or from my perspective, quite boring.

Its opening line was this:

It's difficult to say definitively who the better Starfleet captain is between Jean-Luc Picard and Benjamin Sisko, as it ultimately comes down to personal preference.

That’s not what I asked, ChatGPT. I asked who is better.

It rattled off, in natural-language, how Picard was a level-headed, intellectually curious, and stoic diplomat; Sisko by contrast was an impulsive yet decisive warrior who let his emotions guide him more often than not.

That’s all fantastic; but AI will never ever give you a “straight” answer. So who’s better, HAL? I am unable to tell you that, Dave.

If it was attempting to persuade me one way or the other - the essence of sales - it was doing a pretty poor job.

Fortunately for us mere mortal copywriters, Google has seen the inherent flaw in AI copywriting and adjusted its PageRank algorithm, the fundamental programming behind its search engine, to accommodate.

Preempting the rise of AI - Google’s E-E-A-T

Prior to 2018, Google’s quality index rated pages in terms of Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-A-T). If a page could demonstrate more of these attributes compared to others, it would rank higher in Search Engine Page Results (SERPs).

In August of 2018, Google added another metric to the ranking system: Experience. (E-E-A-T.)

Google is essentially asking if the writer behind the content has accumulated actual, real-world experience on their chosen topic. Have they actually made Gramma’s Sausage Gravy & Biscuits? Have they actually stood underneath and witnessed the grandeur of the Sistine Chapel? Have they binge watched Star Trek: The Next Generation or Deep Space Nine to truly evaluate whether Picard or Sisko is the better captain?

An AI could have high levels of Expertise (they have the entire internet at their disposal), and in turn Authoritativeness or Trustworthiness owing to prior social proof, high traffic, or user ratings on a particular site.

However, if this high E-A-T site begins churning content written by a machine lacking Experience, their ranking will be soon be diminished in comparison to a site that has a real human that has actually done all the things it’s writing about.

Expertise is also a subjective measure - just because I changed my oil on my car, does that make me a motor mechanic? Hardly. How do I stack up against Star Trek nerds who saw the first television run in 1966 and stuck with it ever since? At the end of the day, it’s for the reading public to decide.

Training and formal education can go a long way to establish credibility as a subject matter expert or influencer - but I can’t sit here and say that I learned everything there is to know about copywriting by attending university. That took independent research, trial and error, informal learning, and practice.

AI copywriting is cheap and fast, but never good

If you’re a business and you’re thinking that SEO copywriting “costs too much” we now have something that can do it for free. But should you use it?

Remember the triangle of value: good, cheap, and fast - you only ever get to pick two.

AI copywriting seems to pick “cheap and fast” each time, every time. That doesn’t bode well if you have high search engine ranking aspirations in the short-term or long-term. AI will always be one step behind human minds doing real and original research.

The Hungarian scholar and author Arthur Koestler once remarked, “true creativity often starts where language ends.” For AI, there is no end to language. It can only regurgitate or synthesise what we feed it.

For now, pioneers will always be flesh and blood; and machines will be playing second fiddle.

SPOILER (RED) ALERT

To me, Sisko is clearly the better captain.

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Get your own human-written and award-winning copywriting for your business right here at I Sell Words!

How To Write Evergreen Content For Your Business

Living in a fast paced world where news goes in one ear and out the other in a matter of minutes, having solid evergreen content for your business will feel like herding cats - cats who may or may not exist depending if you look at them or not. (Schrödinger’s content, perhaps?)

With some businesses, some truths remain self evident. Good narrative writing, no matter what language you speak, will always need a beginning, middle, and an end. In Accounting, showing people how to balance their books will always be a valuable skill to impart.

So what is evergreen content, and how do you write it for your business?

What Evergreen Content Looks Like - And What It Doesn’t Look Like

Evergreen content is content that will be relevant now, tomorrow, and (hopefully) five years from now. Evergreen topics are ones that people will always be interested in and will search for consistently.

Topics based on:

• Recent news or current events - X did Y at Z time

• Temporary trends and fads

• Pop culture

• Statistics or reports

Are not evergreen, as the map they are trying to create will not correspond to the real-world territory for very long. There’s nothing more disheartening finding out-of-date statistics when conducting a research project.

Evergreen topics may look like:

• How to come up with ideas for your blog

• How to write a mission statement

• Steps for creating and sticking to a budget

• Choosing complimentary colours for your logo

Usually, evergreen topics are highly abstract in nature - they don’t focus on a specific application that may not exist in a year or two - and conversely they don’t try to predict the next best thing. It remains as relevant now as it will five or even ten years down the track.

Researching and Writing Evergreen Content

Evergreen content needs to be thoroughly researched - even if you feel that the topic is “played out,” you can conduct research by looking up already popular articles on the topic. You know you have researched the topic to its limit when you are finding new articles or websites that contain almost the exact same information.

Now that you have your research, it’s time to write the content. Evergreen content is rarely “novel” - but there’s nothing preventing you from putting your own spin on things. Coming up with new ideas for blogs is a broad topic - though you could drill down into a niche such as Finance or Automotive to appeal to a select audience. You may want to produce smaller pieces, or create long-form ‘skyscraper’ content that touches on almost everything there is to know about the topic.

Evergreen content should be aimed at laypeople or beginners. It shouldn’t contain jargon; unless it’s vital to the topic. At any rate, you need to explain what it means and how it fits into the broader subject.

Evergreen Content and SEO

Evergreen content should form part of your comprehensive SEO and content strategy. That means choosing the right keywords, optimising the meta descriptions, having relevant headings, adding links and having good backlinks. It should be authoritative and valuable to others - not a cynical play at boosting your Search Engine Results.

Repurposing Evergreen Content

You may be thinking - once I’ve written my evergreen content, that’s it - I’ve painted myself into a corner. I can’t say the same thing on the same topic twice! That may be true, but you can refresh evergreen content by:

• Turning it into a video or podcast.

• Reminding your audience of the content via social media.

• Looking at the “state of” or “trends in” the topic as a follow-up (which unfortunately is not evergreen, but may be useful for others in their research.)

• Create case studies based on others who have followed your advice.

• Turn your information into an infographic.

• Use it as the basis for an email onboarding campaign.

• Tailor it for other websites or niches.

I’ve worked with businesses where I’ve written evergreen content on subjects so many times I’ve seen them in my dreams. The information is relevant but tailored for certain audiences. “How to get a car loan with bad credit,” with a little creativity and research can also become “Tips for single dads to get a car with impaired credit” which speaks directly to certain demographics.

What’s Next

That’s up to you - pick something you’re knowledgeable in, something other people will find useful, and start writing!

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Looking to get your own evergreen content up and running, written by a copywriter who’s worked with some of Australia’s top ASX 200 companies? Contact me to get started!

How To Write Landing Pages To Improve Your Local SEO

As a business that’s vying for prime position in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), you’re using every Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) trick in the book - but are you focused on local SEO?

Local SEO is becoming vital, especially when searches for “X near me” have surged 500% over the last few years, according to WebFX.

Couple that to 78% of local mobile searches convert into offline sales; and you’re probably wondering why you haven’t amped up your local SEO already!

So what is Local SEO and what do you need to consider when writing landing pages to take advantage of local SEO?

What is Local SEO?

Local Search Engine Optimisation or Local SEO is an SEO technique focused on catering to searches within a discrete geographic area, instead of just generic keywords. For example, “hairdressers near me” or “Plumbers in Ultimo” are search engine queries that businesses that have good local SEO will rank highly for. Businesses with multiple locations or are Service Area Businesses (SABs) benefit most from local SEO. A leading technique that chases these queries is having a area-specific or local landing page.

Getting Your Data Ready for Local Landing Pages

You may learn more about your existing visitors' origins and online behaviour by using Google Analytics, Google Trends, or SEO software such as Ahrefs. Make a list of potential local search terms for these people using this information. Leverage your position as a local businessperson to your advantage by asking clients about their search habits and the phrases they use to describe the services or goods you provide.

Thinking About Site Structure

You will either have a single local landing page or an overview page with multiple pages beneath, depending on the number of locations. It makes sense to include these pages in your navigation in order to guarantee that they will be found. Is there room on your menu to put "locations" as an item? Or do you want to include your overview page or a few significant landing pages in your site's footer?

Consider where in the navigation of your site your visitors would want or expect to discover your places. Link internally to your landing pages from other website pages or blog posts wherever it is possible to do so naturally.

Elements of a Good Local Landing Page

Elements of a good landing page are universal - that means having the right keywords in your meta and title tags; having clean URLs; internal linking; a definite call to action; social proof such as testimonials, preferably from someone in the area; a contact form; and your name, phone number, and email address so people can contact you directly.

A good local landing page should also include an interactive map of your location or service area; special local offers if applicable; and local schema markup too. This all enhances your local SEO.

Remembering Landing Page Localisation

Repeating the same information over and over can get tedious to write; and it also means duplicate content that search engines will penalise. The object of the landing page is for people to find your business when running a local search. It should be obvious that you are located or service that area. That means you’ll also have to be mindful of localisms and other peculiarities of language. If you’re a fast food wholesaler, a “potato cake” in Melbourne is a “potato scallop” in Sydney. Let’s not forget the eternal barney over what constitutes a “pint” in Australia.

Writing authentic and authoritative content needs a local flavour - and if you don’t know what that is, do your research by visiting the area (if possible) or making a list of consistencies in language among other local sites to use in your own landing pages.

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Looking to supercharge your local SEO with specialised local landing pages? Get started with award-winning SEO copywriting from I Sell Words.

What The Future of Web Content Writing Looks Like

Conventional wisdom on web content writing ten years ago was to “stuff as many keywords into your copy” and the reader be damned.

Of course, Google’s PageRank algorithm was refined further - and so has web content writing.

We now arguably live in the age of “clickbait” - though the future of web content may look very different.

In this blog, I’ll break down emerging trends in web content writing and what the future may hold for marketers and web content writers of all stripes.

The Human Factor In Web Content Writing

We all know that AI copywriting is coming. In fact, it’s here.

However, despite our collective best efforts to replace humans with machines, we still encounter the uncanny valley. This is no more obvious in supermarkets; I’ve yet to meet one person who’s felt a connection or affinity with an automated checkout. Does anyone find a soulless voice announcing “unidentified item in the bagging area” cute or endearing?

The same will apply for content writing. There will be an upsurge in AI content - but humans are smarter. We can tell there’s no soul behind the screen - we know something is missing, even in Zoom meetings.

Authentic, thoughtful, and informative web content will always remain king; despite an army of bots invading the kingdom and threatening its throne.

Topic Authority Will Displace Keywords & Backlinking

As an SEO copywriter and web content writer, I know all about keyword relevancy. It’s how your business gets noticed on Google.

However, Google’s AI and crawlers will transition toward topical authority as a ranking tool more so than keyword relevance and backlinking. As marketing AI and machine learning expert Eduard Klein says:

When marketers talk about authority, they talk about building backlinks. This is still the case, but as google gets smarter about semantics, link relevancy will likely decrease over time. Organisations that cover a topic with the most depth will own the future traffic flow for related queries.

The remedy is to focus on long-form, well researched, and potentially peer-reviewed web content that forms the pillars of your web content writing. Having web content that is thesis-like in scope but rich in media and interactivity will be a boon to business. The “mega-skyscraper” web content will be in vogue soon.

Good Web Content Is Good User Experiences

Just having web content on a white blank page that loads slow won’t cut it any more - good web content will be part and parcel of delivering a good overall user experience across all device types - perhaps even AR and VR such as the Oculus or HTC Vive (as an owner of one, I can tell you how awful reading web content is on one of those things.)

Interactivity and other experiences that users will come back to time and again will drive the future of web content writing.

Giving Users Control Over Web Content

This means how they consume, share, and remix content - can they get the same content in video as they do as text? What about as audio, like a book on tape? Giving users the option for multi-faceted media that suits their lifestyle or consumption habits will be valuable to marketers and businesses in the future. If you’re a web content writer that only writes for web copy, be prepared to branch out into writing for podcasts and video, too.

Value-Driven Web Content Will Rise

Free eBooks about how to set up Mailchimp or the five best tips for writing about ducks in exchange for an email list sign-up won’t cut it any more. There are so many tips out there for the taking, a bit of Google-fu can give you the entire sum of knowledge in the area without signing up for anything. If you think what you are offering is an insight and you’re peddling it without cost, it’s probably not.

Gated and cards-to-the-chest web content will become extinct - providing valuable web content as your core offering will be the future that inspires the success of your business or brand. The value proposition should be immediate and obvious.

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Are your ready for the future of web content writing? Want to know more, or get started while the competition sleeps? Contact me!

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