Have you ever had someone, a fellow adult to be specific, speak to you in baby talk? Annoying isn’t it? Try doing it to someone you don’t know and you’re asking to be punched in the face. But that’s exactly what some people are doing in their SEO efforts. I’ll try to explain. Let’s say that a friend of yours is optimizing his site for New York Widgets. He’s pretty enthusiastic about getting search rankings, so he plows ahead. He’s the kind of guy who doesn’t always think things through before doing them. This is apparent once again when, at his request, you check out his newly optimized website.
Here’s a sample of what you see:
“New York Widgets – that’s what you’re looking for. We know New York Widgets and sell them at rock bottom prices. Other New York Widgets sellers think they know New York Widgets, but they don’t. They don’t really know New York Widgets at all. We, on the other hand, live and breathe New York Widgets. That’s why we sell the best New York Widgets…Etc.”
I don’t know about you, but I’d be looking for a number to call this company just so I could confirm whether an 8 year old was running the place. But that’s exactly the kind of copy you will find on a lot of sites. They get so carried away with hitting the keywords that they produce pure drivel.
Don’t get me wrong – sometimes Google and the other search engines reward this kind of thing. Don’t ask me why. If I could answer that, I could tell you why my marketing site has been outranked at times by a fortune teller’s site. No joke.
The problem is what happens once the prospect arrives and starts reading the copy. The bounce rate off of those sites is monumental. It scares business away. Quickly. You have to think of the whole sales process when optimizing your copy. Remember, rankings is a big part of succeeding online, but if you can’t make a sale, does it really matter how high up you are?
You must balance that pursuit of keyword ranking with the rest of the process of selling someone on your product(s) or service. Most visitors don’t instantly buy from you just because they followed your link. Your website stats will tell you that in black and white.
Before you release your site copy to the world, read it over a few times. Let it sit for a while, then read it again from a fresh perspective. Have friends or family members read it as well. Your site copy does need optimization and the presence of keywords, but you will go broke quickly if you serve up the SEO equivalent of baby talk. Remember that next time you sit down at the editor.
Author: Jonathan Cook, The Waikiki Marketer WaikikiMarketer.com
