Copyright © 2010 I-COM International 2010-09-06T15:39:03+0100 2010-09-06T15:39:03+0100 http://www.i-com.net/blog/ Leading Manchester SEO, SEM and web design agency blog. http://www.i-com.net/blog/ http://i-com.net/images/icom-net.gif http://www.i-com.net/blog/ Leading Manchester SEO, SEM and web design agency blog. I-COM International blogmaster at i-com dot net I-COM International I-COM International en SEO, SEM, Web Design, Web Development 1440 http://www.i-com.net/blog/what-can-copywriters-learn-from-poetry-2-use-of-imaginative-language-348/ Poetry is an incredibly refined form of writing; every word is carefully considered, agonised over, every word must contribute to the poem's overall conceit. At the same time word choice must be imaginative, unusual, something that will pique the reader's interest. Take for example, this poem by Spanish surrealist Federico Garca Lorca, Landscape of a Vomiting Multitude. Whilst it is perhaps not the most lucid of poems, as far as its language is concerned it is a complete, surrealistic joyride: Landscape of a Vomiting Multitude The fat lady came out first,tearing out roots and moistening drumskins.The fat ladywho turns dying octopuses inside out.The fat lady, the moon's antagonist,was running through the streets and deserted buildingsand leaving tiny skulls of pigeons in the cornersand stirring up the furies of the last centuries' feastsand summoning the demon of bread through the sky's clean-swept hillsand filtering a longing for light into subterranean tunnels.The graveyards, yes the graveyardsand the sorrow of the kitchens buried in sand,the dead, pheasants and apples of another era,pushing it into our throat.There were murmuring from the jungle of vomitwith the empty women, with hot wax children,with fermented trees and tireless waiterswho serve platters of salt beneath harps of saliva.There's no other way, my son, vomit! There's no other way.It's not the vomit of hussars on the breasts of their whores,nor the vomit of cats that inadvertently swallowed frogs,but the dead who scratch with clay handson flint gates where clouds and desserts decay.The fat lady came firstwith the crowds from the ships, taverns, and parks.Vomit was delicately shaking its drumsamong a few little girls of bloodwho were begging the moon for protection.Who could imagine my sadness?The look on my face was mine, but now isn't me,the naked look on my face, trembling for alcoholand launching incredible shipsthrough the anemones of the piers.I protect myself with this lookthat flows from waves where no dawn would go,I, poet without arms, lostin the vomiting multitude,with no effusive horse to shearthe thick moss from my temples.The fat lady went firstand the crowds kept looking for pharmacieswhere the bitter tropics could be found.Only when a flag went up and the first dogs arriveddid the entire city rush to the railings of the boardwalk. Throughout the poem Lorca surprises us with his choice of words and descriptive phrases, 'The fat lady / who turns dying octopuses inside out', 'with the empty women / with hot wax children'. We are left unsettled, perhaps a little unsure of what to make of the poem, but most importantly, we are interested. Thanks to his artful use of language we are never sure where Lorca is taking us, and this is what keeps us interested.SEO Copy Clients usually provide stringent brand and stylistic briefs within which a copywriter must operate if they are to create satisfactory web copy. It is therefore up to the copywriter to take these briefs and twist them, use them imaginatively to create interesting and original copy with the power to improve the stickiness of a web page and drive conversions. Working within the confines of keyword research and brand brief, the copywriter is required to write content that uses language imaginatively and interestingly, whether this means using a conversational tone or slang (where appropriate), seamlessly working core brand values into a page of content or livening up stuffy legal copy with occasional use of unusual phraseology.So What Can We Learn from Poets' use of Imaginative Language? Poets' use of language demonstrates ways to break the rules of language without sacrificing an overall conceit. Therefore, if it is a copywriter's aim to sell an apartment in a city centre, they should be able to use language imaginatively to do this, rather than relying on tired old marketing and advertising clichs. Imaginative language is more interesting for the reader and the copywriter, and has the potential to help clients' sites stand out in even the most competitive of SERPs. Copywriting 2010-05-05 09:44:58 http://www.i-com.net/blog/what-can-copywriters-learn-from-poetry-2-use-of-imaginative-language-348/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/seo-results-you-cant-afford-to-ignore-339/ Here at I-COM were never happier than when clients are happy with the level of success they are receiving from our online marketing and SEO services. So we were really excited when we received this fantastic testimonial from the MD of one of our long standing clients: "I can honestly say that engaging with I-COM is one of the best business decisions I have ever made. At the outset of the SEO campaign, I never foresaw that we would have the sort of positions, visibility and prominence in the search engines that we do today. Even now, three years into our relationship, I-COM continue to surprise and impress me with the results they deliver." Our client specialises in recruiting top quality candidates for sales and marketing positions in leading UK healthcare, ethical pharmaceutical, dental and veterinary companies. This is a highly competitive industry online and I-COM has helped to make them one of the major online players. Theyve been with us for three years, and in that time we've used our not inconsiderable SEO, web development and design nous to drastically improve their visibility in the major search engines. According to Google Analytics weve seen a massive increase in their visibility in the search engines. When comparing the period 01/01/10 - 31/03/10 to 01/01/08-31/03/08, we found that: The site had achieved many top ten listings in Google for medical sales related keywords. The site received traffic for 3,108 keywords, as opposed to 1,474 in 2008. Based on just organic traffic, the total number of number of conversions had increased, from 185 in 2008 to 471 in 2010, an increase of 154.59%. The goal conversion rate increased from 4.21% to 7.96%. Page views had increased from 23,434 in 2008 to 37,453 in 2010, suggesting visitors are now exploring more of the site, finding the jobs more easily and finding more useful information in general. Overall, organic traffic to the site also increased from 4,396 in 2008 to 5,916 in 2010, a percentage increase of 34.58%. When considered in conjunction with a 19.88% drop in the bounce rate over this period, we concluded that these visitors were more targeted, and were therefore able to find the information they required much faster than previously. We've achieved these results by, amongst other things, making some fundamental changes to the structure of the site which allows all jobs to be indexed by the search engines and adding search engine optimised content to the site. In addition our in house social media specialists have begun establishing a social media presence for the company. We've got big plans for the future SEO of our client, which should see their website continuing to enjoy a high level of visibility in the search engines, but more importantly providing them with a fantastic return on investment. Here's to the next three years! Search Engine Optimisation 2010-04-20 10:16:11 http://www.i-com.net/blog/seo-results-you-cant-afford-to-ignore-339/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/first-impressions-what-is-your-website-saying-about-your-business-318/ I get to speak with a lot of people that are less than happy with their websites. Most people's stories go something like we've had a new website developed but it's still not working properly. It's not generating any more sales or enquiries than it was before. Can you tell us why?" At the risk of sounding flippant, the simple answer is that something has either not been done or has been done incorrectly. But what is it exactly? What could be causing so many websites to underperform? To understand this we first need to identify what it is that a website needs to achieve in order to perform and generate results.Essentially, a site needs to: receive good levels of relevant traffic engage visitors convert visitors into customers Addressing these elements effectively is critical for a website to be successful. Failure in any one of these areas and the sites performance will suffer - which in turn will hit the company's bottom line. Points i) and iii) I shall be looking at in later posts but today I'm going to concentrate on engaging visitors - and in particular first impressions. Converting Visitors into CustomersIf, when assessing your analytics, you see results showing high bounce rates, or low site page visits, or low time on site, then there is an issue around visitors leaving the site far too quickly. They are not engaging with the site for some reason. Identifying what the issue is can be pretty straightforward. But identifying why this is the case is what we're after. In our experience, there can be a whole number of reasons why visitors are leaving websites quickly - they might feel they are in the wrong place, they might not be sure about how to use the website - in many cases it can be simply that they do not like the look of the site. On this last point, we are all told we shouldnt judge a book by its cover and that first impressions often lie, etc., but I'm afraid I do it and I would guess that you might do it too. Many of us tend to make judgements very quickly based on the feeling we get from the overall look-and-feel of a website. Some call it the 3 second rule, others the 2 second rule, or even the 1 second rule. However many seconds it actually takes, one thing's for sure - it's not very long. In times when internet users are becoming increasingly demanding and impatient, a website has precious little time to communicate to the user. And rightly or wrongly, we all make up our minds almost immediately based upon how well the site communicates to us. Am I in the right place? Does this feel like a company I can trust to do business with? These questions are being asked by visitors landing on your site and as visual communication is the most immediate, the site's look-and-feel, it's visual message needs to be absolutely spot on.  Everything a company says or does communicates something about the quality or the values of that business, right from how the phone is answered through to the quality of company documents. All these go into making up the public image of the company. Potential customers are influenced either positively or negatively every time they come into contact with a company and will make their decisions based upon these experiences. A company's website is a crucial part of this and considering its importance in generating revenues, why then do so many companies put such little effort in getting it right? Yes, generating high levels of traffic to your site is very important, but if, on arrival, visitors are presented with a website that looks tired and out-of-date then they might well feel that, like the site, the company too is tired and out-of-date. They might question whether or not they want to do business with this the type of company. You may well have the best range of products on the web at the very best prices but present your visitors with a poorly designed site and you might put them off before they even get through the front door.  Time and effort needs to be put into making your online image communicate exactly what your company is about. Simply throwing up a website with little or no thought to the message that is being communicated can often be the difference between online success or failure.First impressions may often lie - make sure yours doesn't. Web Design 2010-03-02 09:34:33 http://www.i-com.net/blog/first-impressions-what-is-your-website-saying-about-your-business-318/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/5-reasons-blogging-is-good-for-you-and-your-business-317/ I recently advised a friend of mine to add a blog to his company's new website and, whilst it set back the go live date by a few weeks as the developer desperately tried to incorporate a blog into a vastly intricate Flash site (don't ask), I believe it will be worth it. As Social Media becomes more and more important to both SEO and the user experience, companies must ensure that their sites are in some way interactive. A website filled with dry, static content that never changes is little more than a glorified online brochure that's potentially years out of date - a website should offer users a much more interactive experience, and the easiest way to do this is through use of a blog. Blogging is good for your business because: It ensures your company website is regularly updated with fresh and interesting content about your specific niche. Blog content can be anything from company news to instructional videos, it doesn't have to be pure text; It's an opportunity to make a connection with potential customers, to showcase the personalities lurking behind that corporate facade; It gives you the chance to impart genuinely useful advice about your business or products, making you appear magnanimous and, if your advice is good enough, has the potential to make your website a destination for web users interested in your particular trade or niche; Blogs are a great way of increasing traffic to your website; if a particularly funny or interesting article proves popular, some of the visitors it gets are bound to turn into paying customers; And blogging is good for you because: It ensures you stay engaged with your niche - it forces you to stay at the forefront of your industry. If you're always on the look out for a great topic for your blog, then you're going to be trawling the latest news stories, changes in law and business legislation that may affect your business or your customers. The more authoritative your knowledge of your industry, the more likely you are to impress prospective customers. But Remember If you're going to make the most of your company blog, you must update it regularly. An infrequently updated blog can be damaging to your business, making you appear lazy, disengaged with your customers and your industry as a whole. Here are some examples of well maintained company blogs: SEOmoz, Pannone's Personal Injury Blog. Copywriting 2010-03-01 15:24:28 http://www.i-com.net/blog/5-reasons-blogging-is-good-for-you-and-your-business-317/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/4networking-business-breakfast-tuesday-260110-premier-inn-trafford-centre-west-304/ I'll be sharing my online marketing secrets with attendees to the 4Networking Business Breakfast on Tuesday 26th January, at Premier Inn, Trafford Centre West. The event will run between 08.00 and 10.00am. Here at I-COM we believe that having a great looking website is useless if no-one ever sees it, which is why we offer all our clients comprehensive SEO strategies, designed to get them into the most relevant SERPs to their business. I'll be sharing my inside knowledge on the ins and outs of search engine marketing, including tips on how you can make the most out of your online presence, turning those casual visitors into paying customers. Attendance to the event costs just 10. Book your place today. If you only attend one business breakfast this year, make it this one. I guarantee you'll be enthused, amazed and inspired! I-COM News 2010-01-25 13:50:39 http://www.i-com.net/blog/4networking-business-breakfast-tuesday-260110-premier-inn-trafford-centre-west-304/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/website-testimonials-what-we-can-learn-from-spammers-about-trust-250/ I spend a lot of time asking clients to provide testimonials and telling them to add case studies to their websites. Why? Well, by associating yourself with real people and real actions, it helps your business look trustworthy.It's such a proven tactic that even the pyramid scheme email spammers use it:Take the above screenshot - if you got an email from some random guy named Joel telling you to trust him that he was telling the truth about his marketing genius and his surefire way to make money, well, you'd never believe him. But, if his client Phil goes out of his way to tell you about the scheme, explaining that not only has Joel helped him, but he's also helped all these other people - and he gives you their names - doesn't that add a hint of credibility?Names = real life people = happy customers.Surely providing real stories about how your products or services have benefitted others, backed up with their thoughts on how great you are in their own words is the best form of marketing there is. There is absolutely no substitute for receiving a recommendation from a satisfied customer.So, take it from the spammers - testimonials work. They don't send those emails out to you for fun because they like the idea of filling your junk folder. They do it because it makes them money. Internet Marketing 2009-10-09 08:35:00 http://www.i-com.net/blog/website-testimonials-what-we-can-learn-from-spammers-about-trust-250/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/online-advertising-overtakes-tv-advertising-grows-by-46-in-the-uk-244/ Interesting to see that the IAB and Price Waterhouse Coopers latest report shows that, while overall marketing spend has slid by 16% due to the recession, spend in online marketing grew in the UK by approximately 4.6% to 1.752bn between January and July of this year. For the first time ever, the amount of money companies spend on online advertising has overtaken that spent on TV advertising.This comes as no surprise at all to us here at I-COM. We're seeing the recession accelerate companies' migration of advertising spending from more traditional media to digital technology.It's no wonder that online advertising and marketing has grown even in such difficult times. Growth in online adverts is driven by; Multi-media / Rich Content: Online Video and interaction makes the internet much more engaging E-commerce: People are now taking to the internet to find bargains and discounts, especially in recession Direct Response: Marketeers can measure the success of online advertising much more effectively Cheaper Broadband / WIFI Services: Allow for a much wider audience whom advertisers can provide with richer content More and more clients are coming to us looking to get the best possible Return on Investment for their advertising spend and more importantly, are realising that digital media, particularly search marketing, provides the best possible ROI. Internet Marketing 2009-09-30 09:32:18 http://www.i-com.net/blog/online-advertising-overtakes-tv-advertising-grows-by-46-in-the-uk-244/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/whats-on-the-page-can-affect-your-listings-233/ Every day businesses are bombarded with offers from companies hoping to help them acquire links to boost their site's performance on Google.We'd be the last people to suggest that links don't have an effect, but as has been discussed previously on this blog you have to be careful how you use them.As a business we always start our work with what's on the page itself, because unless it aligns with the listings you're trying to achieve you are unlikely to have long term success. I thought it might be useful to provide a bit of a case study on how we might approach the site of someone who's not a client but has visited our site recently. Superstarsceilings.info is a site whose owner has a bit of an interest in SEO, Manchester-based Mark Watts. The site promotes his business of creating cosmic ceiling murals, glow in the dark representations of the night sky that appear when the lights are turned out. The idea is great and looks fantastic on chidren's bedroom ceilings. In terms of his site we can see that the market for his services is quite focussed and so it's critically important that he should achieve good listings for the key phrases. From our limited research we'd be focussing on the phrases "ceiling murals" and "cosmic ceilings". "Ceiling Murals" is a more general search phrase and the site will have to compete against sites describing the Sistine Chapel, amongst others. "Cosmic Ceilings" is a more specific term used by people who know what they're looking for and should be easier to achieve good listings. At the moment the site is not in the first 100 listings on Google.co.uk for "ceiling murals" and sits at number 39 for "cosmic ceilings".We think that achieving better rankings for both of these search terms can be addressed by the site's homepage and that implementation of the following changes to meta could have a positive effect:Title TagThis is currently too long and the structure could be improved. It also refers to parts of the business that aren't really covered on the homepage (sale of UV paints, etc) which should be targetted on the relevant subpages of the site.We'd recommend changing the title tage to something like, "Glow in the Dark Cosmic Ceiling Murals - Superstars Ceilings" this includes all of the key words in the correct order. Some people might argue that the title tag should include some geo-targetting, however, in this instance we believe that because the listing competition and search volumes are relatively low it's better to keep things generic.  To get focussed results from SEO, Manchester or other targetted areas could simply be included in the body copy.Meta DesciptionAgain the existing description on the site is probably too long and not focussed enough. We'd recommend changing it to something like "Unique glow in the dark cosmic ceiling murals. Give your ceilings the wow factor. Our cosmic ceilings make the stars come out at night in your bedroom."These changes, if implemented, could also result in an improved listing that would be more likely to convert, looking something like:Headers and Body CopyThis is not the place to re-write the homepage, as we may run into duplicate content isssues, we'll send a separate email to Mark with advice. Suffice to say, the copy could be made more compelling and the headers used more effectively. At the moment the main header (h1) is "What do I do?" we'd change it to something that includes our target phrases but also answers very clearly the main questions that visitors might ask.The key thing to remember with all re-writes though is to ensure the copy reads well, including your key phrases but not stuffing the content so that it's obvious you're trying to manipulate results.Hopefully this blog provides a little practical advice for small business owners to help themselves improve their listings and avoid the tricks of the SEO cowboys that can provide short term results but long term issues for sites. There are no easy answers, good search results are all about hard work and making sure the site gives the searcher what they're looking for Search Engine Optimisation 2009-09-03 09:26:00 http://www.i-com.net/blog/whats-on-the-page-can-affect-your-listings-233/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/getting-to-know-you-writing-targeted-copy-201/ If you want your business websites copy to appeal to your target market, you have to spend some time getting to know who that market is. Now, were not talking Robert De Niro-style method acting here. If your target market is 85-year-old, pipe-smoking ex-jockeys, Im not suggesting you prop your feet up with an aged whisky and peruse the racing fixtures. Rather, take a few moments before you set fingers to keyboard, and think about who youre writing for.For Example... Its my belief that ideas and concepts are always best illustrated by examples; consider, if you will, that you are tasked with writing the text for a solicitors website. You are asked to write a page of text aimed at winning new business clients, and a page of text for the personal injury section entitled Accidents at Work. Heres what that text might look like: Welcome to Berry, Triste & Mansell Solicitors, one the UKs premier teams of business law specialists. Our experienced solicitors are capable of advising clients on everything from property and debt recovery to commercial litigation, and enjoy an exemplary reputation amongst current clients and legal peers. And now, for the personal injury text: If youve been injured in a slip, trip or fall at work or in a public place, the personal injury team at Berry, Triste & Mansell Solicitors can help you claim the compensation you deserve. When you suffer a debilitating injury as a result of another individuals negligence, compensation is your legal right. Now if Im doing my job properly, there should be a marked difference in tone between these two pieces of writing. The first excerpt is intended to appeal to business clients, and therefore the tone is official and informative, stressing the good reputation and therefore implied reliability of the law firm. In contrast, the second excerpt is aimed at potential personal injury claimants and attempts to reassure them that they are entitled to make a claim, and are in fact well within their rights to pursue monetary reparations for an accident that wasnt their fault.Improve your conversion rate... Taking the time to think about who you are writing for can have a significant affect on your websites conversion rate. In the above case of the solicitor, avoiding bombarding potential claimants with unnecessary legal jargon, and avoiding putting off their potential business clients with an excessively sales oriented tone, means they are more likely to retain clients interest. This in turn, makes the clients more likely to pick up the phone or complete the contact form.Getting started... OK, so youre on board with this targeted copy stuff, and youre ready to get writing, but how do you start? I find the best way of getting into the mind of my target audience is to spend a few moments thinking about what questions they will want answered by my page of text. I usually start by making a note of these questions, and attempt to answer them to the best of my ability in the copy. For instance, a personal injury claimant may be thinking: Ive been injured at work, am I eligible for compensation? What kind of accident do people normally claim for? How do I go about making a claim? How much compensation could I be awarded? Is this law firm reputable? How do I find out more? Ordering your thoughts in this manner really helps you to focus on the needs of your client, rather than your own ideas about what they want from the site, which could be coloured by your own professional understanding of the business.Get cracking... This concept is true of all businesses, not just solicitors. Identifying your target market and pointing your copy in their direction can prove to be an extremely valuable weapon in the ongoing battle to retain client interest and secure new business. Just remember, the copy is for your clients, not for you. Answer their questions, keep them informed, keep them happy and watch the conversions roll in. Copywriting 2009-06-05 15:54:06 http://www.i-com.net/blog/getting-to-know-you-writing-targeted-copy-201/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/go-on-give-your-consumers-a-quick-flash-198/ Although it will be hard to believe for anyone who saw the queues outside many Mark & Spencers yesterday morning all looking to buy merchandise for a penny, the retail landscape is feeling the effect of a decline in sales. This is not just exclusive to the high street either and despite record profits for ASOS last month the recession is hitting those in the cyber space with just as much force.So, what can you do to beat this trend I hear you cry. Well its the web! There are always new and exciting ways to promote your company and products. One of the new ways to attract lots of business and sales in a short period of time is through bringing the offline phonemenon usually likened to top and up-and-coming designers to your ecommerce site - the flash sale.Whats a Flash Sale? Flash sales are when you hold a sale over a very short period of time - hence the name. For an online company it would not be advisable to hold one for more than one hour. The discounts you offer would have to be enough to attract visitors for this once in a lifetime chance to purchase from you for the best price possible. The benefits are that you are putting a sense of urgency into the buying cycle through putting a time restriction on the sale. This will have an impact on those consumers who go away and think about a purchase before returning, or worse, forgetting. In simple terms, however, its like a normal sale but in a shorter time frame and it helps you drive sales in quiet times and/or sell off older stock. It is also good for brand loyalty as you're giving something back to your customers. This type of loyalty can even help attract new visitors to your site. Its as easy to do as, say, flashing. Through picking a time, date and promoting the sale you could be flashing in no time. This is also a good way to utilise social media marketing practices such as Twitter, Facebook, using related forums and even writing a blog on your own site to promote your impending flash sale. But dont do it too far in advance as a rule of thumb try and keep to the mantra of the flash by keeping it spontaneous - do not do it much more than 24 hours in advance. An email campaign going out to all existing customers will also help spread the word.Isnt flashing a risky business? Not every one has the CMS system in place to hold a sale within a very short time frame or a site that can handle a high volume of traffic / sales at the same time. So you do run the risk of crashing your site. Other concerns are selling stock at highly reduced prices and thus not making enough to maintain profit. But remember, you're in control of what you sell and how much you charge! Just make sure its at a significant reduction that is clear to all users - and remember at the end of the day its just a sale! So go on, expose yourself and get selling! Internet Marketing 2009-05-21 08:15:10 http://www.i-com.net/blog/go-on-give-your-consumers-a-quick-flash-198/