An Interview with an Actual Google Quality Rater

On January 20, 2012, Search Engine Land columnist Matt McGee revealed a post that was quite interesting.  Through email, he interviewed an actual Google Quality Rater asking the man all sorts of detailed questions. The Rater approached Matt because he wanted to clear up the misconceptions about what Quality Raters do and what their jobs are.

 

While the process itself is interesting, as a copywriter I was, of course, drawn to the mentions of content.  I’m going to give you some highlights below along with my thoughts, but I encourage you to read the Search Engine Land article completely when you have the time.

 

Who are the Quality Raters?

 

Haven’t heard of Google’s Quality Raters?  These are a group of folks that began working for Google (indirectly) in 2005.  Their jobs are to rate the quality of web pages according to Google’s quality standards.  Contrary to popular belief, they are not out there issuing rankings to web pages.  Rather, in the words of the Quality Rater himself, “The whole point behind quality raters is not to rate the actual web, but rather rate how well Google is doing at providing quality results.”

 

This army of experts looks at web pages for the purpose of determining whether Google’s algorithm is delivering the best results that are the most relevant.

 

What is Google Looking for?

 

Basically… content.  Quality, relevant content.  Search engine optimization is as it has always been: word-based.  Text is what drives the engines from the keywords you research to the anchor text in links pointing back to your site (and everything in between).

 

The Rater has this to say in response to one question:

 

When you click through from a Google search result page, what are you looking for on the web page that you visit?

 

“When looking at a site, I always check for spam signals first — keyword stuffing, hidden text, sneaky redirects, and the like. Once I know it’s a good site, I start to look at the page as a person who would type the query in Google and whether or not the content on the page would help me fulfill my needs. There are some tasks that ask about design and layout and the like, but … I really just look at content and figure out if it would be a worthwhile page for a user to see.”

 

Here’s your challenge for the day: visit your own site with fresh eyes (or have someone else visit) and rate yourself. Google is using four categories: Useful, Relevant, Slightly Relevant, or Off-topic.  Which would your Home page fall into?

 

If you think you need help, check out my Step-by-Step Copywriting Course. The premier self-paced course for writing website & SEO copy, it walks you through every step of the process. Plus you get answers, insights & access to a private feedback group so you can be sure you’re doing it right. Get it today at http://www.CopywritingCourse.com

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[VIDEO] Keyword Copywriting Tips

Do you *have* to use keyword phrases the same way every time? Watch me as I click around the web and show you examples of how keyword copywriting is supposed to work.

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Win a Copy of My Step-by-Step Copywriting Course ($249 value)

I have to admit, I’ve been slack in doing our monthly contest.  Now that the New Year is here, I’ll try to do much better.  So let’s kick things off right, shall we? For January 2012, I’m giving away one free copy of my Step-by-Step Copywriting Course.  It sells every day online at www.CopywritingCourse.com for $249.

But, if you’re selected from the random drawing, you’ll get it free!

If you’re located within the U.S., I’ll even kick in free shipping.

 

Just leave your name below in the remarks/comments section.  I’ll draw for the winner on Monday, January 16, 2012.

 

Good luck!

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What the Original Sears Catalog Can Teach You about Website Copywriting

I’m a big fan of biographies.  Whether about individuals or companies, I’m constantly watching Bio or Biography on CNBC.  It was what I heard during CNBC’s program on Sears, Roebuck & Company that made me smile with pride.

One of the people CNBC interviewed made the statement that Richard Sears was an innovator: He knew what people wanted and found a way to give it to them affordably. But this, in and of itself, wasn’t where his success came from.  It was due largely to <drum roll please> his copywriting and the ability to differentiate his company from the competition.  (Two things I’ve been preaching for years.)

Let’s take a look at a product description from the 1937 Sears catalog.  This item is for a wagon.

NEW… Buckboard Racer

Boy! It’s 45-inches long (the usual wagon is 33 in. long) and it’s sleek, speedy and different with its streamlined, hard-wood sled top, cadmium plated and polished heavy steel airplane type front nose, and its flashing chrome plated tubular steel tongue with “D” grip. The heavy steel under gearing is brightly enameled in a silvery color, braced to take a lot of punishment. It sure is a dandy racer!

Throughout each Sears catalog, the copy would not only play up the products themselves, but you’d also see page headlines, starbursts and Johnson-type boxes that proclaimed lower prices and better quality.  The entire catalog highlighted the benefits to the customer of buying from Sears.

Applying Time-Tested Strategies to Your Website

If you have time, search online for a copy of the old Sears catalog and flip through it.  You’ll see a master at work in each publication.  And the techniques that made this 19th and 20th century copy pull in sales by the bucket load will help your website do the same thing.  For instance:

1. Write TO the customer, not ABOUT your company – Richard Sears understood that the customer should be the focus, not Sears.  Instead of writing “We have the lowest prices” he would write “You’ll pay far less at Sears.”  Count how many times you use the words “we,” “us” and “our” in your copy.  The word “you” should be used far more often than those.

 2. Play up the features – Notice the comparison between this 45-inch wagon and the usual 33-inch variety.  Sears didn’t say, “heavy steel tipped protective guard on the front.”  Instead he conjured up an image by writing “heavy steel airplane type front nose.” I can hear those little boys now reading this and thinking “Holy smokes! It looks like an airplane!”

3. Highlight the benefits – After all those features, Sears wraps it up by saying this wagon is braced to take a lot of punishment. And that’s something any mom or dad of a little boy can appreciate.

4. Use super verbs and adjectives – Plain, ordinary language is boring. Jazz it up and make your copy interesting by substituting powerful words for more typical ones.  Instead of just “chrome plates” it’s “flashing chrome plated.”  Rather than “narrow and quick” Sears uses “sleek and speedy.”

5. Differentiate your company – Sears didn’t manufacture these products.  Other stores sold the same things he sold.  Why was he more successful?  In part because he understood what unique and valuable advantages his catalog had to offer and he communicated that at every turn.

Follow in Richard Sears’ footsteps when writing your copy and you’ll likely see greater results from your website.

Need a bit more help? If you prefer to work at your own pace but still want a little guidance, check out the Step-by-Step Copywriting Course. With lessons, practice assignments and an Answers & Insights section you can see how I actually completed each assignment. It’s like having a tutor right there at your side.  Get details today at http://www.CopywritingCourse.com

 

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Are You Setting Goals or Just Making Wishes?

As a New Year unfolds, much of the world will participate in a long-standing tradition: setting goals and making resolutions. Using clichés like “plan your work and work your plan” we’ll march off with iPad in hand, jotting down all of our would-be accomplishments for the upcoming 12 months.

The excitement of a brand new year will fill us with anticipation as we anxiously wait for success to walk up, yank our front doors open and flood into our homes and businesses.

We buy books and courses, we enroll in workshops, we drag home exercise equipment, workout DVDs, nutritional supplements and organizational tools by the boatload. We are ready! 2012 is going to be OUR YEAR!

<Fast forward two months…>

Life rears its ugly head and the best-laid plans are just that: laid to the side.

The half-read books sit on the coffee table buried under magazines. The new treadmill has become a glorified clothesline and the workout DVD sits in the player after only two uses. Here we go, slowly sliding back into our old routines and behaviors. Here’s where the line is drawn in the sand. Will you or will you not actually do what you said you were going to do?

It’s a tough question. I can tell you from experience that planning is the easy part. The question has never been whether we could plan. But setting detailed goals the right way (with a measurable implementation schedule) goes far beyond planning. Writing down what you want is nothing more than making wishes on falling stars.

In order to accomplish what you wish for, you have to follow through.

I’ve learned this the hard way over the years. So I finally created a very simple 4-step process for setting and accomplishing my goals.

1. Make Realistic Goals – You’ve heard this before, but most people don’t pay attention to it. If you want to learn to write better copy, don’t go out and buy every product you can find. If you do, you’ll face certain overwhelm and information overload. You’ll get paralyzed by the amount of work you think you have to do and you’ll end up not doing anything.

Instead, take small bites. Look around then choose ONE product to start with. Read the book or take the course and – after you’ve finished – move on to another one.

2. Set Timeframes – Rather than saying, “I’ll learn to write better website copy,” create goals with a timeline. “I’ll purchase XYZ course and complete it by February 23rd.” Put that date on your calendar then work backwards to see how many sections/lessons within the course you’ll need to complete each day/week in order to finish on time.

3. Implement What You’ve Learned – While a lot of people will do steps one and two, almost none actually implement what they’ve learned before moving on to something else. THIS IS CRUCIAL.

Why bother learning or buying anything if you aren’t going to put it to use? You can buy all the exercise DVDs in the store, but they won’t get you into shape sitting in your entertainment center drawer. You can purchase every book on copywriting known to man, but you won’t convert any new shoppers into buyers just by reading the material.

To accomplish your goal and see results you must put what you’ve learned/bought into action.

4. Start Again – Once you’ve been through all three of the steps above, then you can move onto the next item on your list.

Biting off more than we can chew is a chronic problem that prevents people from getting what they want out of life. They try to lose weight and quit smoking and stop saying swear words all at the same time. It’s too much to expect.

This year can be your year. Stop making wishes. Start setting goals and implementing new practices. When you pick a single thing to focus on and take it one step at a time you’ll see the outcome you’ve been looking for.

Is converting more website visitors into buyers one of your goals? Improving your copywriting skills is the fastest way to make it happen. Check out my SEO / website copywriting course at http://www.CopywritingCourse.com and get started now.

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Article Writing Makeover: From So-So to Super

I have a new video for you that includes an article makeover. If article marketing is a part of your promotional strategy (and it should be) you’ll want to have a look at this. Great tips to take you from so-so to super!


Want more detailed information on writing link-worthy articles?  Pick up a copy of my ebook “Wordtracker Masterclass: Article Marketing: The Write Way to Build More Links” today.

 

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Merry Christmas, Peace on Earth

As Christmas arrives this weekend, I’m taking this time to wish you a very Merry Christmas, happy holidays and peace on earth.  As we celebrate the Savior’s birth, I invite you to listen to one of my favorite, revised versions of an old carol.  It pretty much says it all.

 

6 Comments

December 21, 2011 • Tags:  • Posted in: Video


Build Curiosity to Raise Your Email Click Rates

Have you ever taken a look back at the history of advertising?  If you pay close attention, you’ll notice a trend.  As time has passed, advertising of all sorts has become less, well… like an advertisement.  The reason?  Because over time people have gotten bombarded by and immune to marketing messages.

Email is no different.  The excitement of seeing emails in your inbox has been replaced largely with a heavy sigh in anticipation of weeding through which messages are from real people and which are virus-filled spam or scammy phishing expeditions.

The combination of fear and skepticism have caused a good deal of trouble for email marketers.  What once worked now screams “I’m an ad… delete me quick!”  So let’s take a look at what types of subject lines get the best open rates these days.

The Non-Ad Subject Line

The growing trend I’ve seen over the past few years has been to make the subject line as non-ad-like as possible.  This has been supported by testing from organizations including Marketing Experiments and others.

Here are a few suggestions from one of their webinars:

I agree.  I’ve been paying attention to which email subject lines catch my attention as I scan my inbox every day.  The ones that pique my curiosity rather than delivering a clear pitch usually work best.

I’ve been testing email subject lines on my own accounts for months now.  Here’s what I’ve seen.

Most Popular Subject Lines

The subject lines that worked best for my Marketing Words Copywriting Blog is are the ones with an article in them, free offers and announcements of webinar replays.  These got more than a 10% click rate. (Not open rate… click rate.)

The open rate can be a little misleading because, for instance, a person might delete one email and their email program automatically open the next message in the list.  The person did not mean to open your email.

With my Online Copywriting 101 list, the same held true.  Subject lines that enticed and teased recipients outperformed the rest with almost five times the number of clicks.

A few examples:

“One Thing All the Big Moneymakers Have in Common”

“True Story: Google Pulls Site’s Traffic After 12 Years”

And again… free offers and webinar announcements got lots of clicks, too.

Least Successful Subject Lines

The subject lines that received the lowest click rates (less than 5%) included those that made highly specific offers (50% Off Copywriting Coaching Calls – Ends 1/1/2009).  Also included in that group were “maintenance” types of emails such as webinar follow up, etc.

The Exception to the Rule

The one exception to the scenarios give above is the general discount email.  Cyber Monday discount emails did very well as did those that were less detail oriented such as:

“50% off Everything”

“Just $7 – Today Only”

“$9 Copywriting Ebooks Increase to $19 TOMORROW”

If you’re still sending emails with straight-up promotional subject lines, it’s time to do a little testing.  Pay attention to the types of subject lines you use and the click rates they bring.  If you keep track, you can quickly determine which ones bring the highest returns so you can duplicate those successes.

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Using Personas to Draw in More Customers

What’s the golden rule of copywriting?  Know thy target audience. Why?  Because you can’t effectively write and/or persuade people that you know nothing about.  In order to convince customers that you are the obvious choice to solve their problem, you have to know:

That information won’t be the same for every member of your target market.  In essence, each segment of your target audience makes up its own little group.  If you exclude references to that crowd in your copy, you may be sacrificing sales.

 

Let’s say you work for Apple computers.  You want to write copy for the iPod Nano.  Can you just imagine the target audience for that product?  It’s huge!  Not everybody within that target market is the same, however.

 

You’ll have teens that want a Nano for the music, business people that want to download podcasts to listen to, adults that want to use it when working out… the list goes on. To help you relate to your customers, you’d create a persona that fit each “category” of human being that might be interested in your product/service.

 

Categorize, Don’t Stereotype

 

Personas are based on fact, not assumptions.  These are not stereotypical behaviors.  They are comprised from surveys, emails and other actual contacts you have with your customers. Then, each category is made into the persona of a fictitious person.  Give him/her a name and you’ll have an easier time remembering to include information suited just to them when you write.

 

Here’s a very good example from a post I wrote awhile back.  As you can see, even narrowing your personas down to “federal agent who needs to buy a new personal computer” won’t quite cut it. As the example shows, not all federal agents are created equal :)

 

With the iPod Nano, taking a quick look at the features page for this MP3 player lets you immediately see that Apple did its homework.  They’ve included something for businesspeople, music lovers… practically everybody.

 

It All Boils Down to One Question

 

Basically, the people in various segments of your target audience want to know one thing: how is your product/service going to help me specifically?  Not, how it will help all small business owners or how it will help small business owners with budgets over $1,000,000.

 

How will your product/service will help small business owners with budgets over $1,000,000 that are control freaks as well as techno-phobes.  How will it help a second segment comprised of small business owners that are completely hands-off?  Do you see the difference?

 

One persona wants you to do everything for them while the other insists on micromanaging.  If you created copy that spoke exclusively to one you would alienate the other.

 

While you may not be able to identify every segment, you can most likely draft a persona or two.  The more you know about the people within your target audience, the better you’ll be able to communicate with them through your copy.

 

That’s why I included a detailed section about target audiences and personas in my Step-by-Step Copywriting Course.  This SEO/web copywriting course takes you through lessons, provides practice assignments and includes an answers section so you know you’re on the right track. Get the copywriting help you need today at http://www.CopywritingCourse.com

 

(c) 2011 Karon Thackston, All Rights Reserved



Top 7 Picks for 2011

 

I’ve run across some great products/services this year so I thought I’d create one of those ever-popular “best of” lists to wrap up 2011.  Here are my favs.  Most are copywriting related; a few are business related.

1. Words That Sell – This is my all-time favorite copywriting resource. It’s basically a copywriter’s thesaurus.  I have just about worn the cover off mine.  There is also More Words That Sell by the same author.

2. Email Copywriting Made Easy – Jay White created this excellent course on writing an email autoresponder series.  I took this course earlier this year and even invited Jay to do a webinar with me because I thought his product was so good.

3. List Building for Bloggers – Feedblitz wrote this ebook that takes you through how to build a list using your blog instead of a newsletter.  That’s the way I do it and love it!

4. SIMPLE Video Velocity – Another super course, this one from Bob Jenkins. If you think writing or creating videos is hard, think again. This course makes it… well… simple!  Even *I* learned how to do it.

5. 101 Web Content Ideas, Tips & Resources – Really handy resource from Wordtracker & Nick Usborne. I refer back to this often.

6. Discover the Secrets to Writing Killer Web Headline – Another Wordtracker product and a great reference. Only 60+ pages and chocked full of excellent tips on writing headlines.

7. Host Gator Website Hosting – I’ve seen these banners all over the ‘Net and thought Host Gator had to be the cheapest (read: least reliable) host ever.  After a recommendation from a friend, I gave them a try. LOVE them! Have had no problems whatsoever on the site I switched to them and the service is first rate.

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I’ve run across some great products/services this year so I thought I’d create one of those ever-popular “best of” lists to wrap up 2011.  Here are my favs.  Most are copywriting related; a few are business related.

1.    Words That Sell – This is my all-time favorite copywriting resource. It’s basically a copywriter’s thesaurus.  I have just about worn the cover off mine.  There is also More Words That Sell by the same author.

2.    Email Copywriting Made Easy – Jay White created this excellent course on writing an email autoresponder series.  I took this course earlier this year and even invited Jay to do a webinar with me because I thought his product was so good.

3.    List Building for Bloggers – Feedblitz wrote this ebook that takes you through how to build a list using your blog instead of a newsletter.  That’s the way I do it and love it!

4.    SIMPLE Video Velocity – Another super course, this one from Bob Jenkins. If you think writing or creating videos is hard, think again. This course makes it… well… simple!  Even *I* learned how to do it.

5.    101 Web Content Ideas, Tips & Resources – Really handy resource from Wordtracker & Nick Usborne. I refer back to this often.

6.    Discover the Secrets to Writing Killer Web Headline – Another Wordtracker product and a great reference. Only 60+ pages and chocked full of excellent tips on writing headlines.

7.    Host Gator Website Hosting – I’ve seen these banners all over the ‘Net and thought Host Gator had to be the cheapest (read: least reliable) host ever.  After a recommendation from a friend, I gave them a try. LOVE them! Have had no problems whatsoever on the site I switched to them and the service is first rate.