How much time are you spending on copy strategy with your SEO and PPC specialists? Do you just assume the messaging they’re using for Page Title (or Headline in PPC) and Description is as effective as it can be?
Do you discuss the need for “qualified” clicks?
It’s clear from looking at both Organic and PPC listings — even from billion dollar companies — that their SEO and PPC specialists are NOT as focused as they could be on the right copy strategy to get the click.
But We Have a Lot of Branches or a Lot of Pages or a Lot of Products . . .
Companies with many locations tend to do both SEO and PPC using copy templates. They create one message and just insert the city and/or address of each location. In looking at those types of Organic and PPC ads, it seems those doing the SEO and PPC may have forgotten to include the “why we’re different” messaging as well.
What is going to drive the click compared to every other business like yours?
“We have our unique points in there,” you say. Really? Do you ever check your Organic listings to see how much of your Page Title and Description is being truncated, because they’re too long? What if the most important words – or the “why we’re different” is being truncated?
Copy strategy conversation to have with your SEO specialist: Most important words that the prospect is likely searching for (and that have search volume) should appear first in Page Title (which most believe is most effective from an SEO point of view as well.) It’s not all that helpful to see your company name first – if the rest of the Page Title doesn’t include what I was looking for.
Copy strategy conversation #2 to have with both your SEO and PPC specialist: the description needs to make the prospect click. Why should prospects buy from you? And put that FIRST so it’s not truncated.
Be sure that I see more than your location address in the Description. If there are 15 listings, each offering the same product or service, be sure you have a unique message that tells me why I should click your ad or organic listing (and be sure it’s EARLY in the Description).
Watch the “SEO Shortcuts” with Blog Posts
With many WordPress SEO plug-ins, the plug-in will automatically load the Headline of the blog post (or page) as Page Title. But remember, you want the most important keywords at the beginning – both for SEO purposes, and to “flag” your audience.
So, what if this is your blog headline?
Do You Know Your Duties and Liabilities as a Trustee of a Home in a Trust?
It’s a good engaging headline for a blog. But for an Organic listing, the keywords “trustee of a home in a trust” are at the end – and may be truncated. So, if you use this as the SEO Page Title, the key point of your post may not even appear in your organic listing on google.com.
Your SEO specialist needs to not take the lazy way out with blog posts, and should create a Page Title for each blog, like:
Selling a Home in a Trust as Trustee
(How do you know this is happening? Search for one of your blogs by headline on google.com and see exactly what the Page Title is. If you see the headline word-for-word with the end of it truncated, you can be sure no one is creating Page Titles individually.)
On-Page Linking: Are You Forgetting to Get Visitors to an Action or Engagement Page?
For a while in SEO, some sites were including way too many links on miscellaneous words in blog posts. And many of those links were pulling visitors to pages off the company’s site!
Now many sites have swung the other way – with blog posts forgetting their purpose: to funnel prospects to engagement or action pages.
Every time you post a new blog, does your SEO specialist add Page Title and Description, and ensure the post has at least one link to an engagement or action page? (And hopefully that link is on keywords appropriate to the page you’re linking to – not the old “to learn more, click here” That’s just a missed SEO opportunity.)
CLICK-ABLE MOMENT #1: I’m frequently seeing blog posts that end with a pitch for a related product or service – but only a phone number for more information. But you have a page on your site that focuses on that product or service!! Why not link to it? Not only is that useful for SEO, it’s more convenient for your prospect.
CLICK-ABLE MOMENT #2: I visited a blog post the other day for a bank, that promised in the second paragraph a great online tool. WHERE WAS THE LINK TO IT? Oh. I had to read the next 4 paragraphs to discover the link way at the bottom of the post. Why not put the link where the tool was mentioned?
You’ve hired an SEO or PPC specialist, and you’re assuming that person or agency knows what they’re doing. But copy strategy – and results – are your job. Be sure you review the “why we’re different” language (and update it when needed), where it appears, and click-able moments with your resources.
And you should never be in the dark about the SEO work being done on your website. Have your SEO specialist run you a list of Page Title and Description for each of your pages and posts, showing you the pixel width of each (how long it is), and what pixel width they’re managing to. (This is a report that comes from an SEO tool that just about every SEO specialist uses – or should be.)
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The book includes 3 chapters on copy strategy, writing specific elements like headlines, and making every word as strong as it can be. There’s also a chapter on SEO step-by-step and the key success factors of Google Ads Pay-Per-Click campaigns.
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