2nd Annual Women's Conference in New Prague, Minnesota

Due to scheduling conflicts THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED. Stay tuned for the rescheduled date!

The 2nd Annual "Reaching Beyond" Women's Conference will be held Saturday, March 28 from 9AM to 1PM at Ridges of Sand Creek golf course.

This event supports area youth with activities scholarships and features a full brunch and beverages, accomplished women presenters, vendor fair, gift bags and door prizes.

Event is hosted by Essential Life Center and New Prague Area Community Education. Cost is $35.00 in advance, $40.00 at the door. Register online at New Prague Community Ed or by calling 952-758-1734.

More information about event and speakers here. Treat yourself to a wonderful Saturday morning designed for women by women!

-Paula

Action-Oriented Copywriting for Your Website

Before writing content or copy for your web site, keep these things in mind to get the results you want. Help your customers find and get exactly what they are looking for when they visit.

You can increase the likelihood of visitors getting what you intended for them to receive (or going where you intended to have them to go) by writing your web page copy (content) so it's focused on one goal or action.

Before you write, ask yourself "What do I want my visitors to do?" Do I want them to click through to another page on my site, purchase right away, sign-up for something by giving me their contact information--there are many possible actions. Give some thought as to what one action you want them to take once they arrive on any given page of your site. Then write your copy with that one goal in mind and include clear verbal steps along the way to help your visitors prepare to take action when the time comes.

If you are offering a free sample, sprinkle 'free trial', free sample', etc. throughout the text. Motivate them by telling them why they need it, why it's important to them, - solve their "problem". As they are reading, you are preparing them to take action and they are saying to themselves--Where do I get it? What do I do next?

Now tell them how to take action. Buy here, get your 'free whatever' here, give us your name and email and we'll send you.....get the idea? Your copy should guide, nudge, and lead your visitors in the direction of the action you want them to take; then call for that action.

Once you give your copy a single focus with a defined goal/action--then your visitors will find what they are looking for and you'll have a web page that is clearly defined for your users to take action!

Happy copywriting :-)
Paula


Paula M Bonelli | ASAP Web Site Promotion
"Helping small businesses find customers online."
http://www.MarketYourBizOnline.com

Copywriting Best Practices for your Website

You need to take steps for your users to find your website. Studies show more than 80% of Internet users begin their time online when searching for products and services. You want to increase the likelihood that your site will come up near the top of the search results.

The sophisticated algorithms of Google, Yahoo! and MSN match the best websites for each search. The search engines are looking for the content that matches the search most closely. The words you use on your web page(s) tell the search engines whether or not your page is relevant. Taking time to focus on good keywords will likely increase the traffic to your page.

Choosing Keywords/Keyword Phrases
Think about how your target audience is searching for you. What phrases would they enter into a search engine if they were trying to find a business/product like yours? Choose 3-5 keyword phrases per page that fit your business and also would likely be common phrases that people would use in a search. Here are some free keyword research tools:

-Google AdWords keyword tool
-NicheBotClassic.com
-GoodKeywords.com

Create Relevant Page Copy
It's essential to create relevant copy by spending time researching keywords and keyword phrases that match what visitors are searching for. Examples of relevant keywords and keyword phrases could include:

-Your company and/or product (ABC widgets)
-Local attributes (New Prague Minnesota widgets)
-Special attributes (Minnesota blue widgets)

In the examples above, the keywords would be relevant or "optimized" keywords or keyword phrases. Use these relevant keywords/keyword phrases in your web page copy, photo captions, links, etc.

Quick Tips About Page Text
1) Search engines place strong emphasis on the first words on your page; place keyword phrases at the beginning and in order of importance.
2) Avoid repeating them more than 3 times.
3) Be sure text is related to the overall theme of the page and organized in logical sentences or bullet points.

Other Details to Remember
1) Use text-based keyword phrases in headings. Avoid using only images/graphics as headers because search engines cannot "read" them. When posting photos or videos to your pages, add text descriptions/captions nearby that include a keyword/keyword phrase.
2) Search engines weigh link text more heavily than plain text; use keywords/keyword phrases in on-page links.

Updated features of Google's free Local Business Ads

Get the most recent updates from Google about your local business ads here.

Google has added great new functionality to your listing that allow you to learn more about your business. Starting in a few weeks, they will also be adding a new interaction report available through your account’s Report Center. The report
will help you accurately assess your return on investment with local
business ads by detailing how many users opened your info window and
clicked on each of the new interactive links. Read more here.

Let me know if you have questions and have fun using all of Google's great tools for small businesses!
--Paula

Bad Advertising

As a small business, I have to make the most of my advertising budget. So when I'm driving traffic to my website I need to be sure it's effective. Here's a great article from Mark Widawer. He specializes in effective landing pages (the page you send traffic to with your advertising).

This reminder from Mark is an absolute MUST if you're running a small business and you want to have the most effective advertising on- or offline.

Read more here.