I'm working on a "web site awareness" campaign for Dummies.com, which recently upgraded around video and blogs. My office manager, Tatyana, received an awkward reply from Darren Rowse to one of her pitches. She had used a feedback form to ask Digital Photography School to link to the digital photography resources at Dummies.com.

Darren found our pitch tepid, I guess. So he wrote about it on a different site, ProBlogger, and posted a list of "11 Ways to Increase Your Chances of Being Linked To By A Blogger." After reading Darren's post, I added four more suggestions to the list. I hope you find this dialogue and case history informative and entertaining.

STEVE O'KEEFE
Former VP, International Association of Online Communicators
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To start off my week of blog posts about "search engine friendly" copy, I'd first like to define what exactly this term means to me.

I hear people use this phrase as a way of dismissing search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. Because you're writing copy for the search engines, as opposed for people, the thinking goes,  optimized copy really isn't as powerful as pure direct response copy.

Of course, I completely disagree.

This week, I'm going to focus on optimized copy that's written for people and that also helps a site rank well in the search engines.

Notice I put "people" first.

Why? Because no matter how well a site ranks in the search engines results pages (SERPs) for a particular keyword set, if the site's content *sucks* it's going to deter inquiries and/or sales.

And conversely, if a site has great content but buyers and prospects can't find the site when doing searches, then again, you're losing sales.

SEO and great sales copy go hand in hand.

But, before we get into the nitty gritty of optimized copy, I'll first ask you to do the same exercise I perform for prospective clients who call me about their sites' lack of performance: Analyze your site's analytics.

Why do you need data? Because you can't write optimized copy until you know what's going on with your site.

It's the same thing Bob Bly does before writing a direct response letter. "Before I start writing," he recently told me, "I ask the client to send me the control letter plus the results of any recent test packages. My mission is to beat the control but I can't do that until I have data."

If an ISP hosts your site, you may have Web analytics as part of your monthly hosting package. If you have a corporate site, your IT or marketing department may have an application such as Web Trends.

If you don't have Web analytics, get it. Today. You can sign up for Google Analytics in about two minutes and start getting data as soon as the code is installed on your site.

If you do have Web analytics, go look at your data to determine the following for the last six months: number of unique visitors, top downloaded pages, average time on site, the Websites that are sending traffic to your site (referring sites), and the keywords people are using to find your site.

Feel free to post anything you learn. If you already analyze your data, tell us how you've used it to improve results. Personally, the more I analyze other sites, the more I learn about SEO, online marketing, and copywriting in general.

Tomorrow: Performing a keyword search

Is your website lost? Now it will be found!
Tune in Monday for
Search Engine Friendly Copy
October  29-November 2, 2007
GUEST: Dianna Huff, Marcom Writer Blog
TOPIC: Writing Search Engine Friendly Copy

Coming soon to a screen near you:
October  29-November 2, 2007
GUEST: Dianna Huff, Marcom Writer Blog

TOPIC: Writing Search Engine Friendly Copy

Is SEO magic? manipulation? a myth?

In a recent teleclass at which Dianna Huff was a guest, white paper guru Michael Stelzner asked, "What's more important: the words humans read on the landing page or manipulating information in favor of search engines?"

As a B2B marcom consultant and SEO copywriter, Dianna Huff bristles at the word, "manipulation." "The biggest myth," she says, "is that you can manipulate the search engines -- especially Google -- to do anything."

So what can you do with SEO? Is it a science, an art... or hocus-pocus? Join Dianna as she reveals what SEO is and isn't.... why direct response writers make ideal SEO copywriters, how to write copy that's BOTH search engine and people friendly, and why high-quality content will do more for your SEO efforts than "manipulating" the search engines.

ABOUT THE DISCUSSION LEADER:

Dianna Huff blogs at the MarCom Writer blog. When she's not blogging, she's working with clients on projects ranging from e-newsletters and Websites to search engine optimization and online marketing.

Dianna Huff's e-book, "Turning Clicks into Leads" manages to make sense of the world of SEO copywriting without confusing jargon (or forced humor)....   more »