websense

In the early days of The Karcher Group, our website was much like the Cobbler’s child, always last to get new shoes. Because of this, I wrote a lot of the copy on the site myself. We needed something up there, and we weren’t using a marketing team yet. People used to tell me they could see the words on the screen coming straight out of my mouth, because I write like I talk. This has it’s good points and bad points. The bad: grammar is not my strong suit. I am also not a “writer” though I can knock out some copy when need be, and make it sound, well, like me. When it comes to your website, this can actually be a good thing. No, I’m not talking just about your blog, or even the blog on your business site. Your site should have a voice. It’s own unique flavor, if you get what I mean. It should not sound like every other site out there.

I know, I’m going to get comments from grammar purists, school teachers and possibly my mom about what I am about to say: you can write for your site in a different way than you have ever been taught – and really – it’s okay. The grammar police will not shut down your site for a non traditional writing style. So I am going to give you the go ahead, and a couple of tips on making the copy on your site stand out.

Because the copy on your site is often the only “voice” your site will have, you have to brand it. You have to make it unique to your company, or your personality.

1. Write in your own vernacular if it is suitable to your product or business. This makes the copy come alive, and seem more human. Everyone wants to know there are real people behind the site from which they are making a purchase.

2. I wouldn’t say throw grammar and sentence structure out the window, but allow yourself a little leeway. Marketers have always ‘bent the rules’ when it comes to advertising. Structure the copy on your pages to reflect what is being discussed. Adjust sentence length to the subject matter. Two or three word sentences can make a point, or make your copy really pop.

3. Keep the copy short if possible. Use bullets with great phrasing rather than paragraphs and long sentences. People want to be able to scan, rather than read.

4. Create interesting headers, something that will grab the eye and spark some interest. Be sure they reflect your subject matter or product!

5. If there is a character related to your site or product, consider writing as if it were the character speaking. It might sound a little hokey, but it can really give some personality to a site.

6. Use the terminology or lingo people would associate with your products, but expand your descriptions so a newbie can still get the gist.

7. Don’t be afraid to use slang! Especially if it is particularly relevant to the page or product. This gives your copy some character.

8. I would stop short of using any type of profanity, you don’t want to turn potential customers away, and it’s just not cool. Plus you don’t want your site to be blocked by parental control software and whatnot. Keep it clean out there, folks!

A few pretty cool sites that have good examples of some of these techniques are below:
http://www.colbertnation.com/home
http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/
http://www.tkg.com (Hey, I might not write all of it anymore, but I do throw my two cents in, and we definitely have found our ‘voice’.)
http://www.thegap.com All the copy on this site makes it clear what site you are on – very, very branded for Gap.

I have read several blog posts lately about Fair Use. Fair Use refers to the use of verbiage, copy, video, music, whatever, without having to ask for the owner’s permission. I think this is an important issue for blog owners, site owners and web users in general.

Wikipedia describes Fair Use as the following: Fair use is a doctrine in United States copyright law that allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders, such as for commentary, criticism, news reporting, research, teaching or scholarship. It provides for the legal, non-licensed citation or incorporation of copyrighted material in another author’s work under a four-factor balancing test. The term fair use originated in the United States.

More times than I care to remember we have come across copy on the web taken directly from our site, without permission. Often folks have just copy and pasted our verbiage right onto their site – basically plagiarism. This is an obvious case where people are not employing the fair use practice, but it’s a little bit hard to define. What does fair use really entail?

I think for practical, everyday purposes, such as blog posts, and other social media applications, a simple acknowledgment of where a piece of copy originated is sufficient. For example, I often just mention where I saw an article, idea or piece of news. If I think the original content is really worth a read, I will quite often post a link in the blog post, or at the end. I think this more than makes clear where I got the information, and I think it is appropriate. (Check out my Wikipedia quote above)

If, however, you are writing copy for a website, not a blog, I think any use of others’ verbiage or other created material needs to be clearly cited. This must be done carefully, such as in the MLA or APA style, depending on the type of site. Using quotes from another site is flattering, and can provide a useful link back to the original site, but I think that most of the time original content is the way to go. There are obviously circumstances where it is appropriate, such as academic or political or some such, but if you have an e-commerce site, you really need to create your own content. Just my two cents…

So, what does fair use mean to you? Do you use other people’s copy in other ways than I have described? What is your method of documentation? Do you just mention the original source, or do you provide a link?

For more discussion:
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2010/06/10/what-is-fair-use-you-tell-us
http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/fair-use

From TKG:
Hurry! Just 4 days until GetListed.org’s “Local University” comes to Cleveland!

Join us June 30, 2010 at the Educational Service Center of Cuyahoga County. The half-day workshop will feature two identical half-day sessions (8am – noon and 1pm – 5pm).

Top 5 Reasons You Should Attend:

• A representative from the Bing Local Listing Center will be on-hand for answers to your burning SEO questions.
• By using the coupon code “karcher” your price drops from $129 per ticket to $79!
• No sales pitches – just come, relax and learn about local web marketing
• Agency discounts and group rates are available starting at $57 per ticket. The “more the merrier” saying really does apply here.
• C’mon…who doesn’t love a day away from the office?

Wanna register? Head on over to http://GetListed.org/neo for info. For any questions, send ‘em to Nicole Hagy at The Karcher Group at nhagy@tkg.com or call 330.493.6141.

Those of us in the SEO world have been waiting around to see when and if Bing was going to really take off, be a major contender in the Search Engine game. Seems that time is upon us. Not only is Bing supposed to be merging with Yahoo! in the near future, powering results but Bing already provides the search results on Facebook. This combo, along with the fact that Bing -Yahoo! will provide about 35% of searches, means it needs to be considered when optimizing your site.

When it comes to Google Vs. Bing, it seems that on page efforts may be taking a back seat in both SEs to things like link building. Link building needs to consist of more than just a lot of links from one site, but need to concentrate to obtaining good links from lots of different sites. This will mean a small shift for some in strategy, but hopefully you are already diversifying your link building so as not to rely on one source.

We can all guess as to which elements of SEO will win out, or we can take a look at what the analytics tell us. Rand Fishkin over at SEOmoz.org has a great post up that walks you through the analytics of the whole thing. Pretty interesting – it’s gonna be interesting to see which elements are essentially the same, and who weighs which elements of SEO more heavily than the other.

Another question I put to you is what will this do in the wake of the MayDay update? What will happen to the long tail? Will the “exact match domain” matter as much as is being purported? “Exact match domain” refers to domains that are an exact match to your most relevant key phrases. We’ll have to see how analytics play out for a bit since the update. What this should mean is that your most relevant long tail phrase, if you used it in your url, should continue to matter, and in Bing – it will matter greatly.

While Google will still take over 65 percent of the market share, it is important to note that there is still a fairly large chunk (35%) to be claimed by the Yahoo!/Bing search engine. We will always optimize to make sure our clients are getting the most ROI, and I don’t see Bing changing that enough to warrant changing our best practices, however, I do think we need to pay attention to Bing and be prepared to make changes as needed.

So, the marketing team here at TKG tells me that they don’t want to promote my blog anymore because I’ve gotten too political, too controversial. I’ve tried to dial it down. Honest. I mean, the business and web posts have really outweighed the politics lately, right? So, just when they should start to feel comfortable with me and my blog again, I’m gonna blow it. I have to speak up on this one.

Have you heard about the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico? You have? Every minute of every day for about two months? Good, then you are familiar with the subject. Not doubt, huge mess. Horrible. No one’s going to quibble on that score. The way it’s being handled? Also horrible. Huge mess. I don’t think I’ll have too many arguments from anyone on that one either. The part that some of you may take issue with is that I think the current administration just isn’t moving fast on this because it’s gonna benefit their agenda. Think I’m crazy? Probably, but not about this. Rahm Emanuel, the president’s Chief of Staff is often quoted as saying, “never let a crisis go to waste”. They are looking for a couple of big payoffs from the slow reaction to the oil leak.
1. Passing of the Cap and Trade Bill. This is a major piece of legislation. This will tax the living daylights out of energy, for families and small businesses, it will be crippling. Think you have trouble paying utilities now, you have no idea how bad it can get.
2. Banning off shore drilling. And so increasing our dependence on foreign oil.

So, maybe you don’t buy my argument. That’s fair, but consider this:
1. The Obama Administration has refused to let local authorities attempt to deal with the leak. Bobby Jindal has been proposing strategies since the beginning, but the administration will not allow him to act on them.
2. This is a world impacting event. 22 other countries have offered help, but little to none of this help has been accepted.

I could take this a step beyond just the “benefits” this spill has created for Obama and suggest a couple of things, but I am probably off the radar on the political and controversial side of things – at least where our marketing folks are concerned, so I’ll leave you to digest what I have presented and come up with some ideas of your own.