inter:digital strategies

by Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin

This book, an excellent guide for the self-motivated search engine optimizer, won me over on page 54. Not that I wasn’t already convinced that Jennifer and Gradiva had a lot to say: but page 54 contained the single statement which demonstrated a perfect understanding of what it takes to understand the search marketing industry.

I wonder why that’s happening.

As they say, this mantra will keep you working through all the intellectual challenges of SEO. It demonstrates that critical characteristic of the successful search marketer: curiousity. They make a concentrated point of telling their reader that their own curiousity, coupled with a bit of experimentation and a strong willingness to learn, will keep their site moving continuously forward.

SEO: An Hour A Day is a great book. It’s honest in recognizing where it can’t help you, by differentiating clearly between "eternal truths" (things you can always count on - like change) and "ephemeral truths" - those facets of search marketing which are constantly in fluctuation.

The authors focus consistently on your business needs. They’re not trying to tell you that you need to do something for the good of the world - they’re telling you that you need to do something to accomplish your specific business goal. That practical and realistic emphasis on business oriented needs makes the book a great reference.

Of course, SEO isn’t just a matter of fixing your site and finding some marketing - and the authors are obviously aware of this. They’ve included chapters on convincing your company - everybody from the graphic designers and IT guys to the 5-martini lunch executives gets their mention. Even better, for the time-pressed small business owner, you’ve got an entire chapter on slacking off. What could be better than knowing exactly what you can go ahead and leave until later?

The book isn’t necessarily going to move somebody into the top ranks of search marketing, of course. No single text is capable of providing the breadth of experience and knowledge contained in 10 years of practical use. But if you want to understand what your professional consultant is doing, or use this book as a kicking off point to learn how to promote your own sites, you’ll have made a great choice.
Personally, I think I’m likely to recommend this book be on the bookshelves of my own clients - they may not ever read it, but one can always hope!

Images are a critical part of almost any website. Having a well-communicated brand identity can make a huge difference in convincing visitors to return - and having high quality product images can be the difference between a sale and an exit page.

I’ve had too many cases where, in an otherwise beautiful design, I’ve had to work with clumsy, out of focus, poorly optimized images. All the copy in the world may not help you if you’ve got low quality pictures.

The internet is a place where people can make decisions based on concrete issues - they can look at how an item is manufactured, what materials it’s made of, whether it’s non-toxic, and read reviews. But at the end of the day, gut feeling will inevitably play a part - and part of that gut response is going to be based on whether they can visualize your product in their life.

When you’re purely dealing with issues of search optimization, your written content is absolutely the most important single issue to focus on. But that only solves part of the overall marketing question: getting targeted visitors to your site. Convincing them to purchase your product can be greatly helped by strong visual impact.

Tips for Better Images

1. It’s not JUST about the product.

   Setting the stage for your product isn’t just a matter of going into your shop and taking a picture of it on the shelf. Do your storage room’s utility shelves help sell your product? NO. Depict your product either in use or in an appropriate abstract environment.

2. It’s ABOUT the product.

   Yes, I know what I just said - but even though the picture isn’t just about the product, it is mostly about the product. Don’t make people search for the product in your picture.

3. Work large.

   Assuming you’re not going to have a professional take your pictures, don’t make the mistake of reducing all your images yourself. You should always do any editing work at full-size - and you should always deliver full-size originals to the web professional who’s working with your site. You may think that they’re just too big to be useful, but trust me - your marketing team wants the best possible image to start from!

4. Never get rid of the originals.

   Thought you’d save yourself some hard drive space by deleting all your full-size digital images or scans? Whoops! Now all you’ve got to work with is your web-scaled .jpg. Face it - you never know when you may want to re-purpose an image.

5. Don’t be satisfied with just one shot.

   How do professional photographers work? They take a lot of pictures. Yes, professionals also have the benefit of years of experience and training in photo composition and lighting, etc. But anybody can take a great picture with patience.

6. If you don’t like the picture; don’t use it.

   You are a good judge of your product. If you don’t think that your picture is presenting the best view of what you’re selling, you’re probably right. Sometimes deciding between different great pictures is difficult - but you should always be able to eliminate the bad ones right away.

Take the time on your images that you do on your copy - it’ll pay off. Remember that a picture is worth 1,000 words. Google can’t read them, but your customers can.

One question it can be useful to ask yourself when beginning an SEO study is how, exactly, you would go about finding the product you’re trying to emphasize. It’s not enough to simply brainstorm synonyms or chain together descriptive terms: you need to think like an amateur.

The vast majority of customers for any web site are amateurs. Amateurs buying ski gear, amateurs buying computer equipment, amateurs looking for medical information. They aren’t likely to be professional researchers, either. So you should never assume that they actually know anything specific about your product.

After all, why would a beginning canoe enthusiast know that your particular brand of tortured plywood kayak is the best? For that matter, do they even know what "tortured plywood" is? Probably not. But they do know that they’re looking for a boat which is light, easy to portage, hard to overturn, and they may even know whether they’re going to be using it on whitewater or flat water.

Even assuming amateur customers, you’ve got to assume some knowledge at some point…

But the key point here is that you can’t just describe your product - also describe how it’s used and what advantages it has. Not only will this provide you with a wider variety of search phrases to be found for, but your potential customer will be able to learn more about your product sooner. It’s a win-win situation.

A good practice technique to use when thinking about product searching and product descriptions is to go shopping for something else. Specifically, some product you don’t sell and don’t know a lot about.

Searching for gifts is a great way to explore this whole avenue of thought. You’re looking for a product which you know little about and you can’t ask the nearest expert without giving away the secret - the perfect opportunity to try and discover what a good product description is in this industry.

Escaping the barrier of your own knowledge is such a challenge in writing product descriptions. When you are an expert in your product line it’s easy to find yourself focusing on the nitty-gritty details and ignoring the more widely known characteristics in your writing.

Providing your detailed specifics certainly doesn’t hurt you - but don’t write your description just for the product’s designer.