Harvey Norman, a household name in Australia, is a franchise that retails products for the home and office. Its diverse product line and quality of merchandise allows you to completely furnish your house or office with one visit, should you want to, and, if you know it exists.
By all appearances, Harvey Norman is a successful company; from a search point of view, not so much. Let’s take a look at their site.
The only thing Googlebot and other search engine robots “see” when they crawl, categorize, and index Web sites is text.
They don’t care that your site was designed by the latest award winner, or that you have the next Bill Gates, sitting out the back furiously spitting out code.
What bots do look for in text, is relevant content. Spend your time putting together great information and Google and the rest of the search engines will hunt you down, index your site, and rank it well. (Google recommends you use the Lynx viewer to see how your site appears to the Googlebot)
Sounds simple right? It is, but here’s the kicker. People are wary of simple things, especially when it comes to technology.
So, let’s take a step back.
The major search companies, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo! are just that–companies.
They want to make money (they are a business after all) and they are really, really good at it. Their chief concern is to find content that will bring them more traffic and advertising revenue, and the only way they can do that is by spitting out relevant results.
Think about it. If you are type “Ice Hockey” into Google, and it comes back with a list of a hundred sites dealing with refrigerators, chances are you will try another search engine. Can you really imagine Google saying, “…Um, no, No…thanks anyway, but why don’t you go to Yahoo! instead?” This is an extreme example, but it will serve you well to remember this.
Write for the user is the mantra, but really, it’s just a variant of what is taught in journalism school – write for the audience.
To do this effectively, be prepared to spend time learning and researching. I said it was simple, not easy.
Webster’s Dictionary defines simple as:
“not elaborate or complicated; plain.”
It defines easy as:
“requiring no great labor or effort.”
You have to invest time and effort into writing your content.
Brush up on your grammar skills; write well constructed, succinct content, include enough varied information on the subject so your visitors don’t need to go elsewhere, use words that you know your users are interested in, and voila, your site suddenly becomes hugely attractive to the Googlebot.
Let’s say your forte is stone – specifically travertine, limestone, marble and apple stone. You want to hit the global market, even a local market, so the obvious choice is an online business – or you want to offer information to existing customers – or you want to attract new customers - doesn’t matter, the nett result is the same – you need an online presence and you need the search engines to see you.
There are three ways you can approach this.
The ‘easy’ route:
Build a Web site; take amazing shots of your work, post beautiful imagery on your site, describe what you do, put in costs and contact details, and then sit back. And wait. I guarantee you will still be waiting in six months; wondering why your site has no visitors (other than Aunt Gertrude) and why Google doesn’t see you.
Complicate the simple stuff:
Start by investigating search engine optimization (SEO). Learn about keyword density. Try and work out the algorithms. Put your site up and stuff as many keywords in as you can…
Given you are working with photographs; you will most likely stuff your image tags with keywords too.
Guess what? Googlebot will see you, BUT – remember what I said robots being simple? They work to formulas that will look at your site, see it is filled with useless information, and brand you “spam” (like the Monty Python song, spam is an endless repetition of worthless stuff). When a search engine deems your site spam, it goes away and ignores you.
Effort: Invest in mental power:
Start thinking laterally.
Sure, do all of the things in the ‘easy’ example above, but then do more. Remember, the more information you provide, the less reason your visitor has to go to another Web site, and isn’t that your goal? To entice the visitor to stay, look around, and ultimately buy your gorgeous stone?
So what else could you include? How about:
*If you choose to have the technical specs as an image make sure you label the image really well – eg.
“Technical-specifications-for-Urban-brvc” not “urban_brvc.gif”
You don’t want the URI reading: “Urban_brvc.gif”
This applies to the tool tip as well, instead of “basins” the tool tip should be very specific e.g. “Urban brvc basin”
By writing to the user, you have written to the search engines as well. Yes, it definitely will take more time to put together a site like this, but if you want the search engines to reward you, you need to put in some effort.
Oh, and if you think your work is now done, think again. Time moves on, and new information becomes available. Your visitors want regularly updated information, along with the basic reference material they have come to love on your site. Guess who else likes to see updated content. Yep. Those simple bots searching the Web—don’t disappoint them.
The idea of generating traffic to your website seems daunting for many; people often use not too clever ideas, sometimes learning about the Google death penalty as a result.
You don’t want that. If people can’t find your site, they won’t come to your site; if they don’t come to your site – no surprise – your product or service can not sell.
Q: So how do you generate traffic to your site?
A: You encourage new links! Think Link Bait!
Eric Ward sums it up neatly and accurately:
“Link Bait has been around longer than I have. It’s what we used to call ‘content’.”
Matt Cutts describes it as “Anything interesting enough to catch people’s attention.”
Although it has an unfortunate name, the ideas are tried and true; just ask any journalist, PR or marketing person – you need to ‘hook’ the reader.
Types of hooks:
Informational Hook:
Provide information users find useful in the form of a report. Make sure you work with subjects you either know well, or want to learn about.
For instance: If you have a thing for Bill Gates, look through his speeches for a common link; let’s say, predictions he has made about technology. Then find out how many have actually played out, how many are on their way to reality and how many seemingly have no chance of ever working out. Talk to others in the field and get good quotes. Then write your report. Title it “Bill Gates sees the future 90% of the time.” Cite your sources, link to them and summarize your findings.
News Hook:
Write about breaking news if you have it or set up a site that is a reliable news source for a specific subject. If you have an interest in aromatherapy for instance, put together a site that has latest findings, information about different oils, uses etc. Become the expert.
Debate hook:
Find a story that someone in your industry has told recently, then retell from the opposing view. This works best if you strongly disagree with what the person has said your voice will carry the passion. It becomes much like a debate, however it does not mean you should be nasty or malicious, just give the flip side of an argument.
Attack hook:
Being mean or talking about someone in a derogatory sense will bring you attention. Be ready for backlash if you choose to use this one – unless of course your complaint is valid.
Humor hook:
Tell a funny story, share a funny picture or video. If you’ve been around an industry long enough, you should have enough anecdotal arsenals. People like to laugh, or at least smile a lot.
If you are involved in the media industry, look for amusing stories in the industry rags, include weird and wonderful ads or stories you see in the papers, find or take silly photos, use funny stories from your past (no names of course) and don’t confuse this hook with the attack hook. They are very different.
Tool hook:
Create a tool useful enough to get people talking about it online. Use an invention of yours and show people a way they can benefit from using it. Then, and this is the bit you may not like, give it away. Describe how someone can do/make something in detail, write a Google gadget and submit it. Write about something that benefits readers and you have your hook.
Fear Hook:
If you do a great job writing your title and lead, scare tactics bring people in. This hook needs great care too; you don’t want unhappy readers, you want to use link baiting effectively, and unhappy readers don’t come back. Take care with your words and be prepared to back everything up.
I guess by now you have realized you need to tap into an emotion if you want people to come to your site. Journalists have been doing this for a long time. Take a look at any story and if it’s good you will see the author has reached out on an emotive level. People respond to emotions, they cannot help it, it’s intrinsic.
If you want tips from a brilliant marketing mind – check out Seth Godin’s blog.
And finally, three lessons from a master baiter at seoblackhat.
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