For the first time, on pages from the web, The Web Copywriter is ranked #1 on Google for “web copywriter”. Since this is possibly a momentary glory, forgive me if I record it for posterity.

If I achieve nothing else in life, I'll always have this.

Dropping the Domain hyphen delivers

I wrote previously about the spectacular effect on rankings of dumping the dash from my domain name. In moving from web-copywriter.com.au to webcopywriter.com.au I went from #29 on “pages from Australia” to #1 – before dropping back to second. At that point, I was third on pages from the web.

Pages from the Web versus Pages from Australia

But today I had the pleasant surprise of seeing The Web Copywriter on top of the pile for pages from the web. My ranking on pages from Australia remained #2. Why the difference? I’d welcome any explanations.

PageRanks lost in the transition

What is weird is that while the PageRanks for the new domain were initially maintained, they have now gone – at least for the moment. But without affecting the Google search ranking obviously. All the literature says you’ll maintain your PageRanks with a 301 Permanent Redirect, so I’ll watch this with interest.

High Google ranking of secondary importance

This is nice and all. If you’re a web copywriter, it’s better to rank well on Google rather than being an also-ran. But ultimately it’s about delivering sales. So, I’ve done my bit. Now you do yours. The number to call is 0423 653 756 or email The Web Copywriter.

I recently did some SEO and web copywriting for Super Safeguard – a company that helps Australians find their lost superannuation. It reminded me how important it is to write from the customer’s perspective rather than the business’s.

“If your site’s structure and content is written from the company’s perspective, that will be really handy if someone from the company is searching the site for your products”

Write from the customer's shoes - even if personally you'd never wear them.

Most websites structure for the company rather than the customer

I’m amazed at how often the structure of websites is based on the way the company views their business – rather than the customer’s perspective. The site’s navigation tends to be product-based rather than attribute based. It’s more “here is what we have in terms that only we understand” rather than “here is what you, our dear potential customer, came on the web to find”. This has two consequences – both of them bad.

Writing from business’s perspective hurts SEO

Firstly, it hurts your Google Search ranking. If your site’s structure and content is written from the company’s perspective, that will be really handy if someone from the company is searching the site for your products. They’ll enter terms that beautifully match the content. But it won’t match what Joe Public enters into that little Google search box – so no-one outside the company will find what you’re selling.

Writing from business’s perspective hurts business

But it hurts you even more where it really counts – in converting visitors into customers. Because if people can’t look at your website and see very quickly what they’re after, they’re gone. How did this come up for Super Safeguard?

I have a super “account” with you?

Do you know much about lost super? The deal is this. Let’s say your super fund loses contact with you. You change jobs, move, whatever. They will generally hand your account over to what is called “a compliant Eligible Rollover Fund (ERF)”. Super Safeguard is one of these ERFs. So from the company’s perspective, it would make perfect sense to say on the site, “Find out if you have an account with us”. And that’s what it did say. Unfortunately, you don’t think about it in those terms, do you?

All I know is I’ve lost my super

If you knew you had an “account” with them, your super wouldn’t be lost, would it? All you know is that you’ve lost your super. So from your perspective, you don’t want to see any mention of “accounts”. You just want to see stuff about “lost super” and “help me find my lost super”. So that’s what I wrote.

SEO keyword analysis provides customer insight

Before we had the net, I guess you might have had an excuse for not knowing what a customer was looking for. You’d have had to do expensive research to discover what their mindset was. But not anymore. With SEO keyword analysis tools, you can identify precisely what they’re after. And you ignore these insights at your peril.

Web Copywriting 101: Use the customer’s terminology – even if it’s wrong

I was reading an SEO blog just the other day and it was saying that a major US telco refused to have any reference to “cell phones” or “cellular phones” on its site because it was “wrong”. They weren’t “cell phones” any longer (sorry, can’t remember what they thought they should be called). The only problem is that the US punters are still calling them “cell phones”. And when they go onto the net, that’s what they search for. Well, they won’t find this telco’s products, will they? Rule #1 in web copywriting: use the customer’s perspective and terminology – even if it’s “wrong”.

Working for Clean Up the World’s new website presented some particular copywriting challenges because all the copy needed to be translated into French and Spanish. In the process, I developed 3 simple rules to help you avoid “hilarious” translations.

“Get a wriggle on”, for example, is probably not a great call to action on a site that’s going to be translated into 12 languages.

Avoid injudicious copywriting on multi-lingual websites. For example, avoid words like 'injudicious'.

Clean Up the World now mobilises 35 million

Clean Up the World was founded by Australian solo yachtsman Ian Kiernan and now mobilises 35 million people across 120 countries to help clean up, fix up and rejuvenate the planet. A friend of mine, Tricia Wilden, is the campaign manager over there and invited me to help her on a special project to literally put Clean Up the World on the map.

Putting Clean Up the World on the map

To help people share their activities with other team members and the world, Tricia teamed with partner organisation Google to create a special Clean Up the World Activities map. Want to clean the park at the end of your street? Simply register your group and activity and see it appear on Google’s global map.

Get personal with a Clean Up the World My Map

Using Google’s MyMap application, you can also create a special map of your activity and personalise it. Show your route, add pictures and videos, and really inspire your team. It’s a neat site and Tricia, Ian, Terri-Ann and the team over there can be very proud. But what did I learn as a website copywriter on the job?

Website copywriting challenges of the multi-lingual website

I’ve worked on a few multi-lingual sites – for Merino Innovation (which needed to be translated into Chinese) and Sydney Airport Shopping – and they present some special copywriting challenges. Here are three rules that could keep you out of a whole lot of translation trouble:

1. Write clearly and simply
2. Avoid the use of idioms
3. Limit your vocabulary

Write clearly and simply to avoid translator confusion

Website copywriting should always be clear and simple, but you need to be especially careful with a multi-lingual site. If you’re not, the translation could take on a wholly different meaning to the one you intended. Rather than trying to use clever language, you need to use the most easily and universally understood word for each particular situation.

Avoid idioms in copywriting for multi-lingual websites

We all love a good idiom and they can add colour to the language. But they are totally inappropriate for a multi-lingual site because 1. The translator might not be familiar with it and 2. The Translator probably won’t admit they’re unfamiliar with it and come up with some “hilarious” misinterpretation. Hilarious for the rest of the internet. Not so hilarious for your client. In this context, “Get a wriggle on” is probably not a great call to action on a site that’s going to be translated into 12 languages.

Limit your vocabulary in multi-lingual websites

The general rule of writing is to use our vast English vocabulary to add variety, texture and additional layers omeaning. Not when you’re writing for a multi-lingual site. Every time you come up with a new way of saying the same thing, you force the translator to come up with a new translation. And with that comes a fresh opportunity for another “hilarious” misinterpretation.

Get involved with Clean Up the World

When all is said and done, the website copywriting challenges of the multi-lingual website fall just a little way short of the problems facing the planet. So please reward Tricia and her team and do something for a beleaguered globe by getting involved with Clean Up the World.

I wrote copy for a couple of high end brochures this week and absolutely loved it. It reminded me how much fun copywriting can be and made me question the whole SEO-at-all-costs approach to website copywriting. Is SEO killing off great copywriting? If you write beautifully for the web, will online sales go up or down?

“Try to imagine Shakespeare writing Hamlet within the constraints of search engine optimisation. ‘To be or not to be?’ Hey, Bill, can you squeeze a keyword in there, pal?”

Failed web copywriter, William Shakespeare

The best kind of copywriting clients

The best clients are those who are absolutely passionate about their product. People whose love of what they do is reflected in the quality of their product. And I’ve been lucky enough to work for two of them this last week. One is Poronui, a luxury sporting lodge in New Zealand’s North Island. And the other is Wine Odyssey Australia, an innovative business offering a sensory wine adventure down in The Rocks that is going to be a total trip for Australian wine lovers. But, I wasn’t doing their websites. (Though in time I will.) I was writing their brochures.

Why some clients still need brochures

Anybody remember brochures? They’re kind of glossy paper things. And for certain products they still do the business. A good brochure is a sensual storybook that helps you forget how much money you’re shelling out and how great life will be once you have this object of desire in your life. They create a perception that helps shape reality. I love brochures. I love them as a consumer. And I love them even more as a copywriter.

Brochure copywriting is a blast (from the past)

Not all brochure copywriting is fun. Writing a brochure on toilet paper, for example, wouldn’t be a whole lot of fun. Wasn’t a whole lot of fun. (I wrote a couple for Kimberly Clark.) But when you’re writing for a high-end product and it’s appropriate to be lyrical, sensual and evocative, copywriting becomes an absolute joy. The same can’t be said of a lot of website copywriting.

SEO has killed beautiful copywriting

I’ve had my SEO training. I know how to lift your Google search ranking. I know how to write for an attention-deficient online audience. But unfortunately Search Engine Optimisation and writing for the web in the way that you’re told to write for the web means the elimination of style, the narrowing of vocabulary, the foregoing of beauty. Is that the right way forward? If you re-introduced truly great writing to the web, would your online sales go up or down?

Should we forget all about SEO?

No. I’m not about to throw my SEO manuals out the window (though I might as well since I’ve long ago internalised their contents). And I’m not about to write great swathes of copy for an online audience that insists on scanning. Because if you forget about SEO, the web will forget about your client. But having been reminded this past week of what writing can be, I’m going to be bringing more of that flavour to my website work from now on.

Great copywriting is good for online sales

Not for my sake. But because selling is ultimately about storytelling. Clinical website copywriting might appeal to search engines but search engines don’t buy your product. If, through your copy, you can transport people to another place, they’re more likely to reach into their virtual pockets – and feel good about doing it. If you can use more of your storytelling skills, if you can use words to weave a magic web, you will increase online sales for your client. And have more fun into the bargain.

In your website copywriting, you should try to harness the mystical, eternal, magical power of the number 3.

The Olympic motto is not “Faster, Higher Stronger, And make sure you use a good masking agent”. It’s just “Faster, Higher, Stronger”.

In website copywriting, as in life, good things come in threes

The advertising for the telco 3 says, “Three is a magic number”. And they are absolutely right. People love things to come in threes.

It’s not the holy duopoly: Father and Son. They knew that wouldn’t fly. It’s the Holy Trinity. Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Who’s the Holy Ghost? No-one. He’s just there to make up the numbers. Or, more specifically, the number. The number 3.

Alexandre Dumas, that wonderful French novelist, wrote a cracking yarn about four swashbuckling heroes – Arthos, Porthos, Aramis and D’Artagnan. But did he call it The Four Musketeers? Well, he wanted to. But his publicist said “Are you kidding?”. And the rest is publishing history.

The Olympic motto is not “Faster, Higher Stronger, and make sure you use a good masking agent”. It’s just “Faster, Higher, Stronger”. Three truly is a magic number. But what relevance does this have for website copywriting?

It means that when you’re creating your web copy, you should be looking to harness this magical power of the number 3. Two has no magic – unless you’re planning a candle-lit dinner. And four is only good if you’ve finished that candle-lit dinner and you happen to be Bob, Carol, Ted or Alice.

Bob, Carol, Ted and Alice challenge the omnipotency of the number three.

I’m prompted to remind you of the power of 3 because I was recently asked to rejig a site that had not a 3-step ordering process but a 4-step ordering process. Customers want things to be simple. But a 4-step process doesn’t say simplicity. If it did, we’d all say that things were “as easy as 1-2-3-4″. We’d say it was as easy as “A-B-C-D”. But we don’t, do we? We say they’re “as easy as 1-2-3″. We say it’s as easy as A-B-C. We crave for that magic little number 3.

So, with a little bit of literal re-engineering, voile, suddenly my client had a 3-step ordering process.

Now, you could say, how could you do that? It’s not a 3-step ordering process – it’s a 4-step ordering process. And I’d say – as was drilled into during my time at IBM – “don’t confuse selling with installing”. Your business is as your customers want it to be. And your customers, by an overwhelming majority, want the number 3.

Even Bob, Carol, Ted and Alice – if they were to launch an online business – would by trying to harness the mystical, eternal, magical power of the number 3.