Take a good, hard look at your Web site. Does it accurately define your online business?

Does the language, design, graphics, contents, and flavor match your products and services?

Let me give you an example.

Look at this blog. It’s extremely colorful. I use pictures with every single post. There’s a cartoon graphic of me at the top of the page, and I put on hats (Designed by Hilary of Weekend Gardener!) for every season.

This blog is different from most blogs, and it’s meant to be. 

I’m trying to teach SEOs and readers of this blog how to think with the right side of their brains (the creative, free thinking side) to unleash their creativity in order to show them how truly powerful it can be.

When Martin (who works with me on this blog) first created the blog, he designed the blog to look like the rest of the site, which is where our Workshop Resource Center resides. That’s the way it’s normally done when you create a blog that resides on the same domain as a Web site.

But when I saw the blog in that template, I immediately knew it was all wrong. I couldn’t create in that environment. It had no color, no fun, no creativity to it. It was too . . . SEO.

So Martin gave me some parameters and sent me looking for blog templates. I found this one. It was perfect.

Then, we had a caricature done, and I decided to use the one of me on the blog. I thought it would be fun to put a different hat on me for different holidays.

This whole blog is meant to instill creativity, idea generation, and forward thinking. Creativity should be part of the SEO process, but the blog couldn’t be placed in an SEO-looking site.

Let’s take another example. If you have a corporate Web site, you’d want the corporate image throughout the Web site. The language you use, the graphics, color scheme, design, etc., should all scream “corporate.”

By the same token, if you have a hobby store, you’d better build a fun Web site that sets my creativity loose and makes me want to buy. A dull and boring online hobby shop would never work.

Remember who your audience is. If you have a hunting and fishing store, your audience is varied: sportsmen, hunters, fishermen and women, youth considering the sport, gift buyers, collectors, etc. Write in a language that appeals to your main audience. Speak their language. Design the site around their likes and dislikes.

You wouldn’t want to use an unsmiling person on a vacation site. You also wouldn’t want to use a picture of a lady looking away from the camera on a cosmetic site. Did the cosmetics ruin her complexion? We want to see her beautiful smile on a cosmetic site!

On a site with a older audience, don’t use a black background with a white font. It’s very difficult to read, and the white font sparkles. Instead, use a larger font size with a white background and black font. Make it easy on your customers.

Think about your target audience and make sure your Web site accurately defines your business. Your Web site needs to make sense on more levels than one.

Good luck!

Robin

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If I were to tell you that the best dates to go on a diet in February were February 7 and 17, would that be meaningful information to you?

What if I told you that the information came from a well-respected source that’s been putting out this publication year after year since 1792?

Could this information be valuable to you, either as a consumer or a business? What if you’re selling health products, weight loss products, diet information, diets, etc.?

Let’s think about this for a minute. Before you undertake any project, isn’t there a psychological component to it? You’re going to start on a diet on a particular date, so you psyche yourself up for it. On that date, the diet starts. Before that date, you can eat the equivalent of three horses a day and it’s okay, because that date is magical. You know what I mean.

The same applies to quitting other things, like smoking.

The best dates in February to quit smoking are also February 7 and 17, by the way.

I can also tell you that the best dates to have dental work are February 4 and 5.

The best date to start projects is February 18. The best date to end a project is February 16.

Want to entertain some of your friends or business associates? The best dates are February 1, 2, and 28.

I can tell you the best dates to cut your hair to encourage growth and the best dates to discourage growth.

Wanna know the best dates to go camping? I’ve got ‘em.

We’re in an “idea motivator” blog. Am I motivating any ideas in your brains yet?

Just think what you could do with this information on your own sites, if you have outdoor sites, sites which entail projects (SEO projects?), dental sites, diet sites, wedding sites, baby shower sites, entertainment sites of all kinds, and on we go. Let your mind run wild as you think about your own site.

You could easily create a page of contact about this information with a little creativity.

I have this information for a whole year!

The source?

The Old Farmer’s Almanac, 2007

By the way, I found out about this book because my dad told my brother that the best dates in January to quit smoking were January 6 and 11. I asked him how he knew this, and he told me from the Farmer’s Almanac. I thought the Almanac was only about livestock and green beans! After he told me that valuable piece of information, I could hardly wait to get my hands on a copy.

Everything always points back to the Internet with me. Keep yours eyes and ears open to the world, and you’ll learn so much!

Robin

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Picture used with permission
of David Singer

Last night, I walked into a Walmart’s, and there stood a lovely little girl around the age of 11 or 12. Her smile was infectious. What did I do? I smiled back.

Her mother was standing across the entry way from her. She asked me if I smiled at her daughter when she smiled at me. I said of course–who wouldn’t?–she had a beautiful smile.

Her mother told me that her daughter was working on a science fair project, and she asked me if she could take a picture of me with her daughter, because I smiled back.

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m rather allergic to pictures. But I jumped right into that picture with the delightful little girl (who smiled the whole time).

Obviously, the premise is if you smile at someone, most people will smile back. She’ll have a record of how many people looked at her, how many smiled, and how many people agreed to have their pictures made. What an ingenious science project!

Are those of you who offer tips for science fair projects listening??

The whole thing was fascinating to me, as you might imagine. I travel constantly, and everywhere I go, people smile at me, because I am friendly to them. People say that certain parts of the country or world aren’t friendly. Is it because we stereotype those parts of the country or world? We assume they’re not friendly, so we don’t try?

I’m totally against stereotypes. I live in the deep South. We’re known for certain things–some very very bad and some very good. Most are totally inaccurate. By the same token, just because someone lives in NYC doesn’t mean they won’t smile when you walk past them. Give it a try.

If this little girl were standing in NYC in a Walmart, would her results be totally different? Would she have less pictures to show in her project? Less people smiling back at her?

It’s something to think about, isn’t it?

Have a great weekend . . . and be friendly to those you meet. A smile doesn’t cost you a thing, and neither does reading this blog.

Robin

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Because of the popularity of my grammar and punctuation topics here, I’ve decided to devote one post every week or so to a grammar or punctuation rule. As always, I’ll verify the grammar rule from a reputable source, but please feel free to comment or disagree on the rule.

I’m also doing this because the ultimate goal of this blog is to help you build Web site content for your site. My belief is that you need to take care of grammar and punctuation problems in your content in order to maintain the professionalism of your site.

However, I also want to emphasize that just because we have this left-brain grammar topic once a week, we’re not going to freeze up on our posts or comments because we’re so worried about grammar. Grammar is a left-brain activity. In order to write content, you have to free up your creativity and not worry about grammar. Editing comes later . . . much later.

Blogs, forums, personal e-mail, e-mail discussion groups, or chats are not the places to worry about grammar rules. Creative writing–the very act of writing–is also not the place . . . at least not at first. You need to allow yourself to write and create first.

In any event, we’re going to devote a frequent post to grammar, because it is so important to the professionalism of a site. We just don’t want to get all left-brained in a right-brained blog!

Now, let’s talk about tips for using that. Some writers or editors believe it’s important to remove as many instances of that as possible. However, in many cases, the sentences make more sense if you use that. According to Woe Is I by Patricia T. O’Conner (Riverhead Books), some verbs may sound smoother to the ear if you use that, verbs such as “think, say, hope, believe, find, feel, and wish.”

For example, Joe hoped that Bennie would write the invitations. (Vs.: Joe hoped Bennie would write the invitations.)

O’Conner acknowledges that you may or may not agree with this. It’s simply a matter of taste, and the sentence is correct either way.

She also cautions to be sure to use that to make the meaning of a sentence more clear. Her example is:

“Johnny found the old violin hidden in a trunk in his attic wasn’t a real Stradivarius.”

If you don’t use that after found, you’d think that the point of the sentence is that Johnny found an old violin, as opposed to the violin not being a real Stradivarius. You wouldn’t discover the real point until the very end of the sentence.

Enough about that. Back to the right brain. It’s much more fun there!

Robin

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Several of you have asked to hear some tips on article marketing, so I’m going to begin to offer weekly tips here.

This week’s tip is how to title your article.

I’m not referring to your HTML title tag, though I generally use the same title for my article that I use in the HTML title tag.

When you think about a title, it’s the first thing your readers see on your page. Does the title captivate them? Does it make them want to read the article?

If the readers were to see the title in search results, would they click on it? Is it self explanatory as to what the article is about?

We’re not talking about simple Web pages any more. We’re in a different realm altogether. We want people to read our articles and learn from our knowledge.

Let me give you some possible title tags, and you can decide which are good and which need improvement. I’ll give you my comments later in this post.

Bill Says . . .

Top Ten Reasons Why You Should Syndicate Your Articles

PPC Marketing

The Pros and Cons of Social Network Marketing

Ideas

(end of titles)

What do you think? Which would you be interested in reading if you saw those in the search results?

Let me give you my thoughts.

Bill Says . . . (Who is Bill? Why should we care what he says? If we’re on MSN’s site and this is Bill Gates, we might care. Other than that, forget it. There is no keyword phrase in the title, and it’s certainly not captivating. A title is not the place for an ego. Plus, do you think you’d see this title at the top of the rankings for a keyword phrase? Nope.)

Top Ten Reasons Why You Should Syndicate Your Articles (People love to read “top ten” articles; “how to” articles; etc. If you can write an article that divides the topic into bite-sized chunks, readers love it. This title contains a keyword phrase–syndicate your articles. It stands a good chance at getting good rankings, inbound links, etc. And, of course, you’ll want to syndicate it!)

PPC Marketing (Too vague. I would recommend more focus. The PPC arena is huge, so why not go down one path for this article and write a series. It would be much more effective, and it would brand you as someone who knows a lot about the PPC industry.)

The Pros and Cons of Social Network Marketing (Good title. Readers love articles that offer pros and cons. After the opening paragraph, which summarizes what this article is about, you’ll want to explain what social network marketing is. Don’t assume your readers know. You might also want to include a subtitle that offers a little more information.)

Ideas (Do I even need to explain? This one is way too vague. However, look at sample search results. You’ll see one word, extremely vague titles all the time. Are they captivating? No, not as a general rule.)

(end of my comments on titles)

Additional tips:

* Use muscle words in your title–words to make your audience want to continue reading.

* Use your keyword phrase in your title. The title will be a heading tag at the top of the page, and I always use the title as the HTML title of the page.

* Write down several titles and don’t choose one for at a least a day. Begin crossing off ones that don’t work. Change up the words a little. Add new titles. Add subtitles, such as:

An Ingenious Way to Use Wordtracker
. . . that’s actually easier too!

* The goal of your article should be included in the article’s title. If your goal is to dispel a myth about the SEO industry, your title should state that clearly. If your goal is to teach your readers how to repair a torn leather jacket in five easy steps, the title should reflect the same. Creativity comes in when you make the title captivating and designed to make your potential readers want to click on your link.

* Try to stay away from overused words in your title.

Example:

Think Outside of the Box in your SEO Efforts

Yawn. Think outside of the box is so cliched. Good writers stay away from cliches whenever possible. Aside from the cliche, the title isn’t very focused. What SEO efforts? However, I would still probably read the article. I like “thinking beyond red roses” to see what the writer has to say on a topic of interest to me. Is the title using good keywords? I would guess not, but I would have to check with Wordtracker to see whether SEO efforts is a good keyword phrase or not. 

* Write articles that teach something, help the reader in some way, or offer good, solid information. Ask yourself, will my readers really want to know this information? Is it important to my readers?

* Keep the length of your titles relative short–8 to 9 words for the first line. This isn’t set in stone, but anything much longer won’t get read and could be perceived as convoluted.

Begin looking more closely at the title of articles you read. I’m a firm believer in researching and studying to learn more about whatever topic interests you.

I hope this helps. If you have any title ideas to add here, I’d love to hear them.

Robin

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