More than words: compelling your audience with Google friendly content

Many people forget that Google is really just looking to provide the right content for the right search terms.

Sometimes we try to write something for Google, rather than write something that is genuinely informative on an interesting subject. I remember several years ago I was writing some copy for my web design site. I must have written 20 variations of “website design” in four paragraphs. When I read it back to myself it was practically gobbledegook!

I realised at this point that even if I did get someone to visit my site from the search engines I would only end up with idiots ordering my services based on my copywriting skills. Idiots often do not have money to pay for good design work!

So I wrote my copy on the areas I was passionate about and within a few weeks I was on the search engines. Enough people saw my site and linked to the articles and, sure enough, I started getting good business from the site directly.

The key point here is that you must compel your reader to do something.

Whether it is fill in an enquiry form, call your hotline, subscribe to your newsletter or buy your product there and then, we must make them do the action we require of them.

When I say to create compelling content I mean you need to write copy that is strongly persuasive and offers a surprising amount of value.

There are a number of common ways this is attempted but people rarely succeed at it. People use colourful statistics, bold logic, loud promises and strong “yes words” (I think these have been around for as long as salesmen – guaranteed, sure-fire, outstanding, incredible, spectacular, secret –  and a multitude of other dramatic adjectives).

I find these tiring to read and I struggle to believe most of it. In fact there is nothing I hate more than these one page sale pitches with background audio testimonials and big red writing saying “not $500 or £500 but $25 for the next 47 people who sign up for private mentoring in the next 8 hours.” And then they say “buy now and get 15 bonus items worth $57,698”. People buy this stuff all the time, and then, once payment has gone through, they get a new screen where they get a one off opportunity to buy the fancy version or some completely different product worth $92,899 for just $52 and so on. The products themselves often have very little or very short term value as they are trying to capitalise on some new loophole somewhere which is already in the process of being sewn up.

Two things to bear in mind: 1) I have never got a high ranking search term that brings in valuable traffic without creating valuable content that is what the user wants given the search they have just put in and 2) Content is only as valuable to the person as they can use it after reading it and it is only as valuable to you as it makes the reader want to utilise you in some manner.

My favourite content is where someone has done a lot of work and found the exact bullet pointed data on a given subject or area that I am trying to learn about.

I think Smashing Magazine did a “list of everything you need to know about typography” a few years back and it literally had 15 links and descriptions to different valuable articles. I learned more about typography in 3 hours than I knew in my previous 25 years.

Now that’s valuable content.

The problem with that valuable content was that it offered value to the reader but it did not compel the reader (me) to do something for Smashing Magazine or the people who wrote the articles. I read all of that data on font placement, font size, line spacing and so on and was very grateful. But I was not a customer. Why? At no point in all of those links and articles and pictures and videos was there a single “buy this amazing typography book” or “join our font club”. All they generated was good will which, if that is what you are going for, is OK; but generally, only generating good will, is not what you are trying to achieve; you want a potential CUSTOMER.

I personally believe that you need to offer all potential customers insight into what services you provide and how you provide them.

In all of my ventures I strive to offer guides, articles and resources for every single type of potential contact. For example with this set of resources, we have business start-ups, going concerns,  business owners, employees, corporate representatives, young entrepreneurs, senior entrepreneurs, students, budding start-up online marketers, successful marketers, competitors and consumers.

I also show that the business is well thought of by adding a number of testimonials – normally in big block quotes and placed within the main content of the key site articles and pages.

I try to offer value to every one of these types of possible interaction with the site. Everyone is happy and when they feel that the business can help them, they pick up the phone, write an email or subscribe to the newsfeeds. Our potential customer is on their way to becoming a bona fide customer that just requires the level of care, attention to detail, and service offered from the site content they have been reading to become a long term and loyal client who tells his contacts about how good it all is too.

This is what creating truly compelling content is all about – bringing repeat visitors that visit just to see what you are up to and offering continued high value to the visitor which is compelling enough for them to become customers.

Google LOVES compelling content and rewards those who create compelling content that is easy to find and index with top rankings and premium positions on organic as well as paid advertising.

It is time to figure out (can do this on your own or with a competent online marketing company) what your business does and what content you could offer that is valuable to the visitor and compels them to enquire or step onto the potential customer conveyor belt. Start now!