Turn Your Page Titles Into a Marketing Hub
Article content is one of the most important parts of a website. Most people know that articles need to have newsworthy content as well as catchy and interesting titles. However, what people often forget is page titles.
Page titles are different from your article titles because they can title a page that contains multiple articles. If you are not optimizing your page titles, start now. Because the two titles serve different purposes, you can optimize both to increase traffic. The two titles can be the same or different as long as they relate to the content at hand. Page titles are the first thing that the search engines see. Therefore, the better the page title the more likely search engines will correctly classify your page under the right keywords.
Although searchers see the page title second, it is important to maintain good titles. This is because many surfers will still decide on whether or not to link to or bookmark your site based on your page title. Page titles are the default text for bookmarks and also store in surfers’ browser history. When viewers bookmark your site, they want the page title to be short and descriptive. Otherwise the bookmark will be useless to both of you and you will lose a return visit.
Often times RSS generators turn your page titles into headlines. Therefore, if your page title is not descriptive or relevant, you could lose viewers. Many people who link to sites often use the page title as their anchor text, which helps Google rank relevant keywords for your site.
Now that we’ve established the importance of page titles, here is how you to make them successful. Keep your page titles short and descriptive using only one or two keywords. Anymore than two keywords and you run the risk of overloading search engines and getting your page blocked. Pick a title for every page of your site. Yes, every page. This will force the search engines to look at every page instead of marking one or two pages as duplicate material.
Write plainly and cut extraneous phrases. The road to success is a simple one. Do not stuff your titles with tons of keywords and unnecessary phrases. The words “click here” are virtually useless in today’s online marketing, cut it out and replace it with something that has more weight. Instead of “Click Here for a FREE Consultation,” use “FREE Consultation.” Let’s say you are writing an article about how to save money teaching abroad. A good title would be, Get Paid to Travel the World and Help Children.
With the Internet, fast paces and small attention spans are dominant. Therefore, create a title that is simple and to the point. Be creative and try to stir up emotion or intrigue within your readers. Remember, you have two, not one, chances to do so with both page and article titles.
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Bees do it!
Yeah, they do!
Have you ever really watched them, and how they buzz their way from flower to flower? They may seem somewhat fickle to the observer but the flitting about is really just the bee’s way of “doing her job” of collecting the flower nectar.
Some of us do it, too. Marketing that is! Going from idea to idea; trying to find the ideal solution to getting customers to our “virtual” door!
But in order for your marketing to work, unlike bees, you must find one, or two, or a few more really effective ideas to use to build trust with prospective clients. And then stick with them.
How often have you thought, if only I had more clients…? Or, how can I get more clients? What about…how can my prospects know I can help them?
Well, what do you do? Do you have a way to capture names of new visitors to your Web site? Do you keep in touch on a regular basis? Do you have an offer they can’t refuse? Can they find you easily if all of a sudden they decide they want you?
Let’s look at these points individually:
How often do you think about getting more clients?
To some, thinking about finding clients is much like thinking about chocolate or cigarettes; you do it everyday and sometimes more than once. Especially, if you’re low on them at the time; you’re just starting out, or if you want to shore up your current list.
How will they know you can help them?
You have to tell them, and do it again and again. Think…how many times did your mother have to tell you to do something before you finally did it? Unless it was with a threat to your life or limb, more often than not, it took more than four or five times before you finally “heard” your momma’s admonitions!
To put this into perspective; initially, your message is at your Web site. But prospects don’t usually keep coming back to your Web site…so it’s necessary to figure out a way to either lure them back to your site or get you to stay in front of the interested prospects. This is commonly accomplished by a newsletter, ezine, blog, email campaign or direct mail.
Are you able to capture names of visitors to your web site?
Once you get prospective clients anywhere near your “door”, so to speak, you want a means to know who is “visiting”. Think of how you communicate with those around you in “real” time…think outside of the “box”.
No, really…outside the box!
Like, how do you interact with those at the grocery store? Or with a young woman or a guy at school or church, or the office, who’s caught your attention? Sooner or later, your conversation turns to the exchange of names, addresses or telephone numbers.
Do you keep in touch with prospects on a regular basis?
Going back to the “bees” thing, we know bees flit around the countryside, going from flower to flower. Of course, they get their business done, but we can’t do it quite like that.
If we jump from one thing to another and never stick with a specific direction or plan, always looking for something new but not “cultivating” what we already have, we’ll never know the true value of our list of visitors or potential clients.
And, conversely, they won’t be able to know our value either!
Do you have an offer they can’t refuse?
This can be something as simple as a complimentary report to lure your target market, or perhaps you’d offer a bonus of a free hour of service.
Can they find you easily?
What if, on the spur of the moment, they want to contact you to do some work for them? Is your contact information, including your full name, prominently listed and easily and quickly found on your Web site or in your email signature.
How many times have you been at a Web site that caught your interest but for the life you you could not find an email address or even a telephone number. So you were unable to contact the person who offered the service.
Instead, your course of action was to jump back to Google; that business lost your business, and in all probability will never know why!
Okay, so they’ve read your ezines, and your “staying in touch” email. But they can’t use your services after all.
Now’s the time to make lemonade! Particularly, if you routinely include in your “marketing” email the suggestion that your prospects consider working with you on a referral basis.
Above all, no matter what marketing methods you choose, the effectiveness will come most easily when your “PC” shows; that is, you are “persistent and consistent.”
The important role of follow up
For my contribution for the Revolutionary blog, I would like to include an excerpt from my book, The Art of Follow Up.
I honestly don’t believe I would have a full roster of clients if it weren’t for diligent follow up with all of my leads.
It’s not as intimidating as it may seem, trust me. If I can do it, you can do it.
You own a Virtual Assistant business. You are the Commander in Chief, CEO, Director of Sales and Marketing, Receptionist and most likely Maintenance crew, among other things. If you don’t follow up with your potential clients, who will? Your competitors will!
After you’ve sent a targeted mailing, do you sit back and wait for the phone to ring? I sincerely hope not. You must be proactive. You might be lucky and receive a couple of phone calls, but don’t hold your breath. Whether you are targeting successful coaches or top producing real estate agents, chances are you selected your target market because they are busy people. Busy people tend to let their mail sit for a long time, especially if they don’t know who it came from. Perhaps your letter was opened and well received by the reader, but then got stuck in the glove box or tossed into the recycling bin.
You must make another contact with each and every recipient of that letter. A dozen of those letters could be sitting on desks or thumb tacked on bulletin boards while their readers wait for a free moment to contact you. What if that moment never comes and your potential client keeps getting busier and busier? They could really use your services and are likely to hire you, if you follow up with them.
You have probably found yourself in a similar situation. Think about it. The most recent example in my own life was a couple of months ago. I received a letter in the mail from a company offering credit card merchant accounts to new businesses. I thought it was interesting and set it aside. I had been too busy to call him. If he had called me back or sent me more information, I might have obtained his services or at the very least spread the word to my business contacts.
Rule # 1:
Never leave it up to your potential client to contact you.
Say it aloud, memorize it and repeat it. If you leave it up to a potential client to call you, you are taking quite a risk. All it takes is another letter, a postcard or a simple phone call. You must understand how important it is to stay in touch with potential clients.
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