Wouldn’t it be great to sync the contacts and events on your iPhone with Entourage on your laptop? Yeah, it would – if it worked. But, having exhausted the best minds at Apple and Microsoft in trying to find a solution, my recommendation is give Entourage the flick, and use Mail, iCal and Address Book.

“By this time, I’d had a complete gutful. I’d lost probably 3 days work – not to mention my tether.”

Know how to sync the iPhone with Entourage? Where you were you when I needed you?

An enforced iPhone 3G early adopter

I wasn’t going to be an iPhone 3G early adopter. Let the bugs get sorted out, then make the shift was my grand plan. But, then my old Sony Ericsson refused to charge any more and it was a mad dash to get the old data onto an iPhone before its predecessor kicked the bucket.

First impressions blighted by poor battery

There wasn’t much of a honeymoon. I’m not a big phone user, but even without using the iPhone as an iPod, browser, photo album or GPS, I was needing to charge every day. If you’re a serious business phone user, the iPhone is not yet for you.

Vanishing iPhone contacts

The iPhone didn’t synch with my Entourage initially but I was too busy to worry about it. However, matters reached a head when all contacts on my iPhone vanished. Gone. Not a trace. Not once. But twice.

Apple says Microsoft is causing synch problem

I went into the Genius Bar at Apple in George St, Sydney, and Alex, a nice young lad with curly black hair, was very patient but unable to solve the problem. He said he thought the problem was with my Microsoft Office.

Microsoft says I should reinstall Office 2008

So I get on the phone to Microsoft Support, and they run me through a few things. But after an hour or two, they have no more clues and suggest that I reinstall Microsoft Office 2008. Easy for you, I say.

Reinstall of Microsoft Office 2008 doesn’t fix synching problem

But I do as I’m told. I reinstall Microsoft Office 2008 – an exhaustive process since it involves downloading 5 separate subsequent and sizable updates. And then re-entering all your email accounts. And I have a lot of email accounts. Does the reinstall help? Not one bit.

Reset Sync history, they say

I get onto Apple Support again, and a pretty obvious solution is suggested. Reset the Sync History in iSync, they say. No skin off my nose. So I do. Does it help? Not a jot.

Reinstall of Mac OSX fixes syncing problem – for about 5 minutes

I call Apple Support. They run through a bunch of things, but none of them work, so after an hour, they say the only solution is to reinstall my Mac OSX from the install disks. And then all the updates. Sure, what the hell? What’s another lost half day by this time. So I do it. Does it help? Well, initially, yes.

Vanishing Contacts, Emails, Events

It all looked fab. The iPhone synched with Entourage 2008 on my G4 PowerBook and I thought the battle was won. But then I shut the laptop down and restarted, and everything was gone again. And I mean everything. Emails, events and contacts were gone not just from my Entourage, but also from iCal, Address Book and Mail. And off Mobileme. I’m weeping by this point.

Restore the iPhone, they say

I’d been having problems for more than a week, so I’m a little surprised when someone suggests a fairly obvious solution. Restore the iPhone. So I do. And the iPhone syncs with Powerbook. But then, when I make a change in one, it doesn’t show up on the other when I sync again.

“Synching problems between Entourage and Sync Services well known”

What was particularly galling was that everyone at Apple and Microsoft were acting like my situation was completely unusual. That they’d never seen anything like it. And, yet, when I did a Google search, I found lots of people having the same problem. In fact, I found one who said that “the synching problems between Microsoft Office 2008 and Apple’s Sync services are well known”. To everyone but Apple and Microsoft apparently.

Farewell Entourage

By this time, I’d had a complete gutful. I’d lost probably 3 days work – not to mention my tether. I’d been to the Genius Bar twice, I’d had about 5 lengthy sessions on the phone to Apple Support, and another one with Microsoft. Nothing had helped, and no-one took responsibility for fixing the problem. Life is too short. I gave Entourage the arse, and switched back to using Mail, iCal and Address Book.

My life is now blissfully in sync

And, as they say in the cheesy shampoo commercials, am I glad I did. As soon as they were set up, my iPhone synced first time. Events, Contacts and Mail were as they should be. It then synched with Mobileme. There they all were – admittedly they were all a day early – but I soon fixed that by setting the Time Zone. So my recommendation is clear: if you are a Mac user and an iPhone user, do not bother trying to sync using Entourage. Use the separate Apple Mail, iCal and Address Book programs and, who knows, your mobile phone and laptop might actually revert to being productivity tools rather than resource blackholes.

Know how to fix the iPhone – Entourage syncing problem?

So you know how to fix the iPhone / Entourage synching problem? Well, that’s great. To spare others the pain I went through, please share your knowledge with the support staff at Apple and Microsoft. But the horse has bolted for me. My Entourage days are over. But, now I must go. My iPhone has just reminded me – and my synched PowerBook has as well – that I need to be somewhere. Here’s hoping you find synching your life a whole lot easier than I did.

I got my start in the web game at digital agency Devotion and still love writing freelance for them. This week, they’re moving across the road to new premises and saying farewell, after five years, to 3/137 Pyrmont St. To mark the moment, I penned this heart-felt eulogy.

“This is where Simon and Chris – well, probably mainly Chris – talked their way into FCB on the basis that there was a natural synergy between the two firms that would allow both to flourish. Well, he was half right.”

Devotion's exit from 137 Pyrmont will hopefully be a little more dignified

Goodbye, old girl. We’re going to miss you.

Apart from the dust. And the leak over Frank’s desk. And the blinding sunlight. And the dodgy lifts. And the goofy boardroom. And the now-you-see-them-now-you-don’t carpark boom gates. And the cavernous space that meant to get from Creative to Client Service you had to pass through Customs. So, not at all really.

But you’ll always be etched in the annals of Devotion’s history – or some variation of it.

This is where Simon and Chris – well, probably mainly Chris – talked their way into FCB on the basis that there was a natural synergy between the two firms that would allow both to flourish. Well, he was half right.

It’s where a young, chubby-cheeked whipper-snapper called Andy came, went, came, went and came again. Kat’s interest is finally explained.

It’s where a red-head came through the door talking fire-breathing strategy – and her husband and his no-hoper mate snuck in behind her.

It’s where Lynn didn’t work, did work, then didn’t again.

It’s where Russell did work, didn’t work, did work, didn’t work, and then did again – all in the same week.

It’s where Beardy (aka Gareth) organised the Futsal team, ate, placated his pregnant wife, ate, placated his infant son, ate some more and haggled with dealers over cathode ray televisions – all while holding down a part-time job as Technical Director.

It’s where, in the height of Melbourne Cup hysteria, we released two cockroaches in the hope they would colonise the world but, in a very Sydney moment, found they were both male.

It’s where Devotion got two AIMIA gongs while 4 of its principal members were ranked in the top 10 ping pong players in the country.

It’s where Simon gratuitously shared his music, fashion tips and suggestions for how Australians could become, well, more like him.

May life be half as interesting when Devotion picks up her skirts over the weekend and crosses Pyrmont Bridge Rd. One small step for Devotion. One giant leap for Digital Kind.

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.

Google suddenly wasn’t indexing one of my pages – ironically, my “SEO Copywriter” page – and it was knocking my ranking for that keyword phrase. But I’ve made some changes and – voile – the page has indexed once more.

What to do when Google snubs you?

Sudden drop for “SEO Copywriter”

I check the Google rankings of my clients and my own sites on an almost daily basis. So I was alarmed during a routine check to find that I had suddenly dropped from a ranking of 3 or 4 on “SEO Copywriter” to 9. And when I looked at the pages listed on the Search Engine Result Page (SERP), neither of them were the “SEO Copywriter” page. How weird.

Google wasn’t indexing the “SEO Copywriter” page

When I checked what Google was indexing (in a Google search field enter site:yourdomain.com), the “SEO Copywriter” page was missing. Yet it was indexing two child pages off that parent – “What is SEO” and “SEO Tools”. Why?

Why isn’t Google indexing my page?

Google can be capricious. It can not index your page for a bunch of reasons. But generally it’s because it doesn’t think that this page adds anything to the world’s collective knowledge. It could form this high and mighty opinion because …

• your page title is the same as other page titles
• your meta tags are the same as other pages
• your h1 tag is the same as other pages
• your page’s content is too similar to other pages

However, in my case, this wasn’t true. The page was unique for my site in every regard. So what else could it be?

Was it something I said?

If Google doesn’t like an inbound link to your site, it will mark you down, but again this was unlikely. So I looked at the content and found that on this page I had made a couple of references that Google might not have liked. Without wanting to repeat the content exactly, I made a reference to Spamming and to a certain landmark event in the way Google ranked pages. Could this have been the problem? I wasn’t taking any chances. I revised the content. But how to get Google to re-index the page?

Getting Google to index the SEO Copywriter page

Apart from getting rid of content that I thought Google might have found offensive, I revised the first paragraph to make it distinctly different to other pages. I also found a 301 Redirect I’d set up from /seo-sydney/ to /seo-copywriter-sydney/ wasn’t working and fixed that. But how long would it take Google to get back to look at this site? I wasn’t going to sit on my hands waiting.

In-bound links to the missing page

I have the Web Copywriter site listed on a few reputable online business indexes. In order to get Google to take notice of the SEO Copywriter page, I changed the URLs on a couple of these sites from the home page to the SEO Copywriter page. I asked one of my clients to alter the link as well, but then this morning I got some good news.

SEO Copywriter is back

When I checked which pages were indexed this morning, the SEO Copywriter was back. And so was my ranking. I am now back at 4 for SEO Copywriter and 2 for SEO Copywriter Sydney. Tellingly, the pages listed on the SERP now include the SEO Copywriter page. What made the difference?

Try an inbound link to cure a Google indexing problem

Who knows. It could have been the removal of the Google references. It might have been making the content more different. It might have been fixing the 301 Redirect. But my money is on the inbound-links. If pages on reputable sites are linking to a page that Google hasn’t deemed worthy of indexing, it is surely going to give it cause to think again. The unease I was feeling while I was being blanked by Google has now dissipated. Now I can get back to worrying about other stuff.

A tiny SEO job I did free for a mate has led to a fascinating brief from a massive new client.

“As Confucius once said, “To open yourself up to the possibilities of the universe, you occasionally need to do an SEO freebie’.”

At the centre of the universe is one small act of SEO kindness.

The ‘optimised’ website that showed no evidence of SEO visitation

A friend of mine asked me to look at his site and I didn’t have good news for him. Despite the fact that it had supposedly been search engine optimised, I could see little evidence of it.

The keyword strategy seemed flawed, but the damage was limited because they hadn’t really optimised for those keywords in any event. There was not a single keyword in any Page Title for example. He appreciated my candour but couldn’t afford my services. What the hell, I thought. I’ll do it anyway.

The freebie SEO job that snowballed

I spent a few hours doing keyword analysis and surveying what his competitors were doing. I then spent another few hours rattling off the page titles and meta tags for each page of his site. Unable to help myself, I went on to make recommendations about a switch of domain names, and crafted individual page URLs that were keyword-rich. In for a penny, in for a pound – I then rewrote the home page copy using the principles of Persuasive Architecture. All for the same very reasonable price of nada. But, as things transpired, I got paid back in spades.

I optimised for free but not without expectation

I can’t say I did this free SEO job without expectation. I’m not that altruistic. I did it in the belief that some day in some way I would be repaid for my efforts. My faith was rewarded – more quickly than I could possibly have imagined.

The web lets Karma work its magic

Within days of doing the work – and before my mate had even implemented my SEO recommendations – I got an email from a seriously large client who’d found me on a Google search. When we got to chat, I asked him what it was about my site that convinced him to get in touch. You guessed it. It was my blog post about the work I’d done for my mate. And he wasn’t impressed by my generosity of spirit. He liked what I had to say about Persuasive Architecture. He’s now presented me with a fascinating brief that I can’t wait to get started on, and I feel fairly confident it will cover the cost of the SEO work I did for my mate.

The devout atheist with boundless faith

I’m a devout atheist – don’t get me started – but I do have boundless faith. I genuinely believe that if you make a habit of doing good things that ultimately things will work out for you. This faith can be tested at times. For example, when you promptly respond to a request for a free SEO report card and you don’t get so much as a thank you – let alone a follow-up commission of more work. But this latest episode is a wonderful reminder of why economic rationalists never have any fun. As Confucius once said, “To open yourself up to the full possibilities of the universe, you occasionally need to do an SEO freebie”.

Yesterday I got an email from an executive at one of Australia’s leading banks who said that he’d stumbled upon The Web Copywriter site “while Google searching for SEO copywriters”. This was music to an SEO guy’s ears. And a reminder of why investing in SEO makes sound business sense.

“There are no easy-beats in the ‘SEO copywriter’ category – no Carltons of the pre-Chris Judd era.”

Good Search Engine Optimisation is still surprisingly rare

I’m amazed to find that sites in many business sectors are still not search engine optimised. These companies will spend a fortune on general marketing, hundreds of thousands on a website, and not shell out a few grand on something that could deliver them a huge increase in web traffic and online sales. Unfortunately, “SEO Copywriter” is not one of these sectors.

“SEO Copywriter” is the Parramatta Rd of search categories

“SEO Copywriter” is the Parramatta Rd of search categories. You’re trying to sell in a crowded sector, against people who really know how to sell. There are no cheap wins to be had in this competition – no Carltons of the pre-Chris Judd era. So when I set up The Web Copywriter site, the possibility existed that I could use perfect search engine optimisation and still not trouble the Google scorers. But, to my delight, that’s not what happened.

Lifting the Google ranking of one of my favourite clients: me

I was surprised and delighted to find that my site moved very quickly through the rankings and was very soon on Google’s first page of Search Results in all my primary keywords. Here’s where it currently stands:

• web copywriter sydney – #1
• seo copywriter – #3
• website copywriting – #3
• website copywriter – #3
• web writer sydney – #5
• web copywriter Australia – #6

I knew that reaching the first SERP (Search Engine Results Page) of “web copywriter” – ironically – would be tough. But by listing with a good business index, I made it. I’m at #7. So clearly – given the importance of history in Google’s ranking – not all of these SEO guys are all that cluey.

What’s my SEO secret?

I can honestly say that I haven’t done anything in terms of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) on my site that I don’t do for all my clients.

• Good keyword analysis
• Good domain name
• Good page URLs
• Good page titles
• Good meta tags
• Good highlighting
• Judicious link building

And constantly refreshing the content through this website copywriting blog. You can’t rest on your SEO laurels. You need to be constantly reminding Google that your site is the authority in your category. Particularly in this god-forsaken category.

Has my investment in SEO been worth it?

Obviously I get my SEO at very good rates. But there is still an opportunity cost – instead of writing this post I could be making phone calls to prospects. (If it wasn’t 6.30 am). But my own investment in SEO has been good business for me. This bank client alone has made it all worthwhile. If you’re at all cluey, you’ll get a good SEO Copywriter to take a look at your site. I know someone I can recommend.

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.

Some SEO tips from the Web Copywriter are hopefully going to lift the Google Search Ranking of a UK company that turns photos into Personalised Pop Art on canvas.

Which bits did the SEO guy optimise exactly?

Email Marketing leads to SEO opportunity

I recently sent out a Web Copywriter email update and heard back from a mate I used to play tennis with when I lived in Brighton, UK. Dave – who’s worked for some of London’s top design consultancies – had just created a website and invited me to take a look.

UK Personalised Pop Art firm, Photo2Art's website - Before

Personalised Art – turning photos into pop art portraits on canvas

His business is called Photo2Art and the idea is that they turn your photos into Andy Warhol-inspired pop art portraits on canvas. A cute idea but they’re not the only ones doing it and they need to distinguish themselves from firms that just print your photos onto canvas. Unfortunately, even though he’d employed a web copywriter (rather than The Web Copywriter) and an SEO guy, site traffic had been poor, and conversions had been low. What was the problem?

No evidence of SEO

The site had a Google PageRank of 3/10 which wasn’t bad but it showed no evidence of being optimised at all. It had poor (and repetitive) meta page titles, few relevant h tags, no highlighting and no terms being emphasised. I was left thinking, “Which bits did the SEO guy optimise exactly?”.

Why Keyword Analysis Tools need to be used with discretion

I asked to look at the SEO guy’s keyword analysis and discovered that they’d recommended “unusual gifts” as the best keyword for this business. Why? Because their Keyword tool said it had the highest Keyword Effectiveness Index (KEI).

KEI is a measure that you’ll use in SEO to try to unearth a niche keyword but it needs to be used with discretion. How many people who are looking for “unusual gifts” will want this offering? How many will you actually convert? Meanwhile, you have failed to optimise for the keywords that would attract people who are actually looking to convert their photos into personalised pop art portraits on convas.

Revisiting Keyword Analysis

I used Wordtracker with its UK database option to identify a bunch of keywords that are popular in this category and was surprised at the results.

1. “personalised pop art”
2. “personalised art”
3. “personalised wall art”
4. “personalized wall art”
5. “personalised pop art portrait”

Who would have thought that “personalised pop art” would be the most popular – for a factor of almost two.
“Pop art portraits” and “pop art canvas” were also rated highly.

“Photos on canvas” was searched for much more frequently than any of these – but it’s too broad and too competitive. You get those people who just want to put their photos on canvas and you’re competing in a very crowded and better resourced market.

But before making any recommendations, I wanted to see what Dave’s competitors were doing?

Which keywords? Look at your competitors

Dave had identified the number one competitor as You Are Art so I checked out their site and guess what I found? They were optimising for the terms that Wordtracker had identified. What’s more, Google ranked them #1 for these terms. Clearly they must be the right terms. But could Dave’s firm hope to compete?

Can you compete for the prime keywords?

This competitor only had a Google PageRank of 3/10 – the same as Dave – and its page titles weren’t as good as they could be. Other competitors who were ranked highly also weren’t too intimidating. So I recommended that Dave optimise for these keywords and rattled off some meta tags at very affordable rates (ie free). But I didn’t stop there.

Domain names – .co.uk vs .net and usability

Dave’s domain name – www.photo2Art.net – was problematic. Firstly, it’s a .net domain, which means that when people in the UK look at a Google search results page, they can’t be sure whether it’s a UK firm or not. Secondly, if people have been to the site, when they come back – assuming they remember your name – they are more likely to go to photo2art.co.uk than photo2art.net. I sure did.

A keyword optimised domain name

It’s always a good idea to try to have a domain name that includes keywords – particularly if you are first and foremost an online business. While www.personalisedart.co.uk and www.personalised-art.co.uk were both taken, www.personalisedpopart.co.uk was not. So the domain name with the most searched for keyword phrase in the category was available. Fabulous. They bought that. But I made a further recommendation.

Domain name usability and defending your turf

I said they should also buy www.personalised-pop-art.co.uk for three reasons. Firstly, Google will rank more highly a domain that has words delineated. So it will prefer www.personalised-pop-art.co.uk over www.personalisedpopart.co.uk.

Secondly, it’s easier to read on a Google Search Results page. People can look at it and at a glance see exactly that it is “personalised-pop-art” whereas “personalisedpopart” is much harder to discern and can be read as “personalised po part” amongst others.

The final reason is a defensive move. Because it’s a better domain name, you don’t want anyone else to get it.

So I recommended they set up the site as www.personalised-pop-art.co.uk. However. when they tell people where to go, they should say “personalisedpopart.co.uk” because it’s easier to remember. They then redirect all traffic from www.personalisedpopart.co.uk to www.personalised-pop-art.co.uk.

But – and this is a very big but – I said they MUST use a 301 Permanent Redirect from all their old pages to their new ones. This way they get the advantage of the SEO improvements while preserving their existing PageRank.

Practise what you preach

I do this with my own Web Copywriter domains. I own web-copywriter.com.au and the site is set up there, but I also own webcopywriter.com.au and I use this for my email address because it’s easier to type in and remember. I also own thewebcopywriter.com.au. Domain names are partly about SEO, partly about usability and partly about keeping your competitors at bay.

Beyond SEO

I have also recommended that Dave rejig his information architecture (IA) and website copywriting to make it clearer, cleaner and more action-oriented. I wanted him to implement Persuasive Architecture. This means guiding people through your site step by step, massaging them past all of their psychological barriers in turn until they WANT to press that order button. But this will have to wait – and I might have to get him to part with a few sheckels for that.

I also said that link building was important and that they should get themselves listed on a reputable gifting website. Those inbound links from high ranking sites are gold.

Watch this space

The recommendations are in. Let’s see how they go. I’ll keep you posted.

A recent experience with a client is a reminder that a little Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) knowledge can be worse than none at all.

The SEO pitch that wasn’t

I heard back that the client loved my SEO stuff and had adopted all my “recommendations”. I found this interesting because I didn’t recall making too many recommendations.

I was invited by an agency to pitch for a significant bit of new business and put in several days work analysing the SEO of their existing site and the opportunity in their sector. The prognosis was quite exciting. Unfortunately, after sitting through a couple of hours of presentations by the Strategy and Creative guys, when it came time for my bit, they said, “Sorry, no, we don’t need to hear that.” Great.

They loved my SEO and had adopted all my “recommendations”

However, my presentation was included in the pitch document, and a few days later I heard back that the client loved my SEO stuff and had adopted all my “recommendations”. I found this interesting because I didn’t recall making too many recommendations. I’d suggested that they buy a couple of domain names – so I assumed they must have been talking about this. But I thought I’d just check out their site. In the immortal words of Britney Spears, “OMIGOD!”.

SEO is not a trowel

Their site was a total SEO abomination. I had identified the five most popular keywords in the category but had gone on to say that there was no point trying to optimise for these terms because they were too broad and too popular. They had put these 5 essentially useless SEO keywords EVERYWHERE – in meta page titles, alt tags, keywords and descriptions tags. It was total SEO Spamsville. Horrified, I called the client.

Couldn’t I just give her the SEO over the phone?

I told her that she had misinterpreted my “recommendations” and that she was at grave risk of dropping dramatically in Google’s search rankings. Now, strangely, I expected at this point that I might be commissioned to complete the job that I had started. But, no. She didn’t want to pay for any SEO – couldn’t I just tell her over the phone? This is a client that was spending $200k for a website. I told her that no, that wouldn’t be possible.

Skimping on SEO is a distortion of priorities

This client was selling product on line. It was an e-commerce site. Now, strategy is important. And design is important. But for a few thousand dollars, she could have optimised the site and actually generated some free web traffic. It’s a great shame. Because with just a little professional SEO help, some people might actually have got to see her $200k site.