An overview of Web design techniques critical for turning website visitors into prospects and customers.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

When a company is preparing to invest in a new lead generation website, it should not underestimate what Web design skills will be needed to build an effective one.

Often, companies focus a great deal of attention on design aesthetics, and not nearly enough on the many other factors that go into turning website visitors into hot prospects.

This white paper presents an overview of the lead generation characteristics of powerful lead generation websites.

They fall into five major categories:

• Usability — Ways of making the website easy for visitors to find what they need and interact with the information.
• Mobile Design — Website features specifically designed to convert the rapidly growing base of mobile users.
• SEO — On-site elements imperative for gaining strong organic search engine visibility.
• Copywriting — Techniques that build interest and confidence, and then motivate website visitors to inquire.
• Conversion — Small but massively important techniques that create large gains in conversion rates.

Important Note — Because proper lead tracking is crucial for evaluating website performance and continually improving conversion rates, we have included supplementary information on lead tracking best practices.

PART 1: USABILITY

A lead generation website is far from a static sales brochure; instead of being something a person passively reads, the website is a tool a person uses to find information by clicking on navigational links, filling out inquiry forms, zooming-in on details of product images, etc.

If a lead generation website is highly usable, it becomes a tool that is easy to work with and effective in helping the visitor find important information and take action. In contrast, websites with poor usability frustrate users, like a saw with a dull blade. Poor usability drives ripe prospects into the arms of competitors. Here are the key usability features of a high performance lead generation website.

Usability: Responsive Web Design

Responsive Web design uses various techniques that allow the website to adjust automatically for optimal display on any size screen. Thus, users have a similar, consistent website experience whether they use a desktop monitor, tablet, mobile device, or multiple devices at various times. Because of this display continuity, users become familiar with and remain comfortable with the website regardless of the device used to access it. (In the next section, we review mobile-specific design issues in more detail.)

Usability: Site Speed

Nothing frustrates users more than slow-loading Web pages. Page-loading speed is so important to usability that Google has made it an important factor in its search algorithm (slow websites have poor SEO results). A wide range of development and design techniques and best practices is required to optimize speed.

Usability: Image Loading Techniques

Image handling is often the key to attaining high page-loading speed. Image size, resolution, file type and retrieval processes all affect how quickly a Web page loads; if even one part of the image-handling process is off, the results for usability, SEO and conversions may be seriously impaired.

Usability: White Space

Clutter kills conversions. By using ample white space, Web designers make zeroing-in on navigational links and important content easy for users, as well as conveying an image of efficiency and expertise.

Usability: Avoid Rotating Carousels in Headers

Rotating carousels are trendy, but not at all helpful for attracting leads. Few visitors interact with them, content is missed, and page-loading time increases. Overall, most users perceive carousels as nothing more than annoying ads — not the impression a company wants to make on a prospect visiting its home page for the first time.

Usability: Site Architecture and Sitemap

Which navigational links are chosen and how pages are arranged in the website content hierarchy make or break usability. Intuitive navigation enables users of all types to quickly locate the desired information. A sitemap is an indispensable navigational tool, as it provides a reliable backup (or sometimes primary) option for visitors to maneuver around the website.

PART 2: MOBILE DESIGN

Mobile Internet access now exceeds desktop, and the gap is widening. If a website does not provide mobile users with a top-flight experience, conversions will suffer — not only in terms of quantity, but also quality. When mobile users access the Internet, they are more likely to be in decision mode than research mode, since research is more conveniently undertaken on a desktop, where multiple browser windows and documents can be viewed simultaneously.

Any business interested in obtaining phone leads, scheduled appointments and booked reservations must make mobile-friendly Web design a top priority. Here are key mobile design features for a high performance lead generation website.

Mobile Design: Site Speed

With many mobile users working from cellular Internet connections, site speed is more important than ever. Web designers must be up-to-date on techniques for optimizing page load time; for instance, being able to have images load as the user scrolls rather than loading all at once.

Mobile Design: Sticky Navigation

In a responsive Web design’s mobile view, main navigation should be “sticky” — i.e., remain fixed at the top as users scroll down the page. This simple but underused technique keeps critical informational and conversion links in view (such as a phone icon), so users can convert at any time as they move around the website.

Mobile Design: Phone Display

A phone icon with click-to-call functionality is a necessary main navigation element in mobile display. Pressing an icon to initiate a call represents the maximum in user convenience. As users become more experienced and adept in working with mobile websites, this functionality will be an expectation rather than a bonus.

Mobile Design: Responsive Web Design Choices

In responsive design, elements visible in desktop view can be eliminated in mobile view. Deciding which information stays and which goes, and further deciding the order in which information displays in mobile view, are difficult but crucial decisions. Current thinking is to retain as much information as possible in mobile view; however, if information overwhelms mobile users, it will deter conversions.

Mobile Design: Anchor Text

Another small but important mobile design technique is to provide ample anchor text for links, especially in body content. Clicking on one or two words of anchor text in mobile view is difficult; users may give up rather than deal with the inconvenience.

PART 3: SEO

SEO is a critical component of Internet marketing for most companies. With Google processing billions of search queries every day, organic search is too large a pool of prospects to ignore.

Just because your website is configured for SEO does not mean its content will be visible on Google or other search engines. The ability to not only make a website SEO-friendly, but also to make your website SEO-performing, is one of the most important skills your Web design team must have. Here is how SEO is handled in a high performance lead generation website.

SEO: Being SEO-friendly

For the framework of a lead generation website to be SEO-friendly (but still not SEO- performing), several key elements must be in place, specifically:

• Title tags on every page
• Meta description tags on every page
• Header content on every page
• Body content on every page
• A clean URL structure and custom URLs (see image above)
• A robots.txt file
• An HTML sitemap
• An XML sitemap
• 301 redirects from old Web pages to new ones
• A redirect for non-www to www (or vice versa) URLs
• A content management system (to add and edit pages and content)
• Blog functionality

SEO: Being SEO-performing

To go from SEO-friendly to SEO-performing, a great deal of SEO work must be done before your lead generation website goes live. If this preparatory work is done, your website will rise in visibility for organic search queries from people looking for the products or services you sell. The key activities your Web design firm must undertake include the following:

A. Keyword Research and Keyword Strategy

Keyword research identifies all of the keywords search engine users might use to find your products and services. Keyword strategy first narrows the focus to keywords with the highest likelihood of producing conversions. Factors to consider in keyword strategy include search volume, user intent, competitiveness and relevance. Once the keyword field has been defined, keyword strategists organize keywords into themed groups; these groups will influence (and sometimes drive) the content structure and navigation of the new website.

B. Sitemap

When keyword research is completed, a sitemap is created detailing every page of the new website. The sitemap ensures no SEO issues exist; that is, no overlap, where multiple target keywords are covered in a single page, and no gaps, where target keywords have no page dedicated to them. Seldom can content simply be moved page-for-page from the old website to the new one. Overlaps and gaps are almost inevitable and will crush ongoing SEO efforts.

C. Custom Title Tags

Title tags are the most important on-site element for SEO, and must be written by an SEO expert. Title tags must be unique for each page of the website, include the appropriate target keyword, and meet various technical requirements and best practices for style, punctuation and character count.

D. Custom Meta Description Tags

Meta description tags are snippets of text that often appear under the link in Google search results. Because meta descriptions influence click-throughs, unique meta description tags must be written by professional copywriters skilled in conversion optimization. Strong meta descriptions have a measurable impact on lead generation growth.

E. Header Tags

Header tags (H1-H6) are important places to insert keywords; Google crawlers interpret header tags as significant indicators of a website page’s main themes. Because these page headlines and subheads also facilitate scanning, they must be written engagingly and persuasively, as well as to achieve SEO objectives.

F. Optimized Body Content

SEO-performing body content is not only persuasive, relevant and informative, it is also optimized with the proper use of target keywords and related phrases. Using a copywriter skilled in SEO is essential, since too many keywords, poorly placed keywords, and too few keywords undermine organic search visibility.

PART 4: COPYWRITING

Professional copywriting is essential for lead generation. If copywriting fails to inform, persuade and present relevant information, conversions suffer no matter how much traffic funnels into the website.

Companies frequently underestimate the difficulty of executing high-level, lead-generating copywriting for their websites. Here are the key components of content for a high performance lead generation website.

Copywriting: Content Quality Factors

Website content needs to meet several quality criteria to maximize lead generation and branding. In addition, if SEO is part of the marketing mix, all of these criteria affect Google ranking performance. The quality criteria are:

• Relevance — Content must be highly relevant to the target audience in terms of subject matter and style.
• Persuasiveness — Professional copywriters make copy persuasive by writing from the customer’s point of view, storytelling, applying psychological principles for stimulating decision-making, weaving in customer testimonials and a host of other techniques.
• Authority — Making content authoritative and credible requires research, fact-checking, proper use of technical terms, and careful editing and proofreading.
• Usefulness — Content must solve a customer’s problem, make a customer’s life easier, or in some other way provide important benefits. A great deal of business content is not useful because it is written too much from the company’s point of view rather than the customer’s.
• Sharability — Exceptional website content is highly sharable, meaning that it is easy and tempting for readers to share it on social media, and forward it to colleagues and decision-makers. Content overloaded with jargon, with no clear point, or confusingly written fails the sharability test.

Copywriting: Typography

Not only is the substance of content important for lead generation, but also the style in which it is displayed matters greatly. Typographical techniques make scanning content and zeroing - in on important messaging points easy for readers. Key typography techniques:

• Headers and Subheads — These content elements should be informative, intriguing, and if SEO is involved, incorporate keywords. Expert copywriters spend as much time composing headers and subheads as they do body text!
• Bulleted and Numbered Lists — List formatting enhances scannability and draws emphasis to important information.
• Bold and Italics — Used selectively, bold and italic text forces readers to pay attention. (See image above.)
• Short Paragraphs — Paragraphs longer than five or six lines overwhelm readers and may cause them to exit the Web page — without converting.

• Line Width (above) — Body text width that is too wide or too narrow is hard to read in desktop view, again deterring readers and letting conversions slip through a company’s online fingers.
• Image Captions — Since reader attention is drawn to images, captions enable a company to position critical persuasive points and calls-to-action where they cannot be missed. This simple technique greatly improves conversions.

Copywriting: SEO, Substance and Branding

Overall, lead generation website content must meet substantive, SEO and branding goals. Too much of one and not enough of another results in content that appears stilted, incomplete, unprofessional and/or misaligned with brand perception. Common content problems that disrupt the balance:

• Too much substance — “Information dumps” are tempting to the internal staff, but produce websites long on information that doesn’t speak to customers and prospects.
• Style inconsistency — When style shifts from formal to informal, from low key to high pressure, website visitors become confused or come to doubt the company’s sincerity or stability.
• Inattention to keywords — Even if SEO is not underway, using strategically important keywords strengthens the conversion power of website copy, because they force copy to use the language customers and prospects use when looking for the products and services the company sells.

PART 5: CONVERSION OPTIMIZATION

Part art and part science, conversion optimization is a broad set of techniques used by Web designers and copywriters to squeeze the most conversions out of every website page’s page views.

Even if a website has covered all of the usability, mobile, SEO and content bases, failure to implement sound conversion optimization will stifle lead generation. Here are the key conversion optimization features of a high performance lead generation website.

Conversion Optimization: Calls to Action

Keeping users’ attention focused on the one thing your company wants them to do is important. Using a fixed call to action (CTA) banner at the top or bottom of the page — using the “sticky” navigation discussed in the Mobile section — ensures that your conversion message is always in sight.

CTA button color and text often have a significant impact on conversions. Button color should be consistent across the website and unique to the primary CTA. If secondary CTAs are used, the color scheme should be different.

Conversion Optimization: Phone Number Placement

Phone number placement for mobile viewing was discussed in the Mobile section. For desktop view, the strongest position for the phone number is in the upper right portion of the universal navigation bar (see image above).

The clearer and more consistently the phone number displays, the better. Phone inquiries are often far more urgent and/or complex than form submissions, so stimulating phone inquiries is arguably job number one for a lead generation website.

Conversion Optimization: Form Design and Functionality

The shorter the form and the easier it is to complete, the better. Anything more than four or five required fields, and the average user is more likely to exit rather than bother to fill out the form. Companies frequently err by trying to capture too much information; they lose sight of the fact they are trying to get prospects to raise their hands.

SUPPLEMENT: FORM AND PHONE TRACKING BEST PRACTICES
A high performance lead generation website is built using the techniques discussed in this white paper. However, for a lead generation website to be world class, it must be built with rock-solid lead tracking functionality. These articles by Straight North partner Aaron Wittersheim, originally published on the Lead Generation Insights Blog, present an informative overview of critical lead tracking issues.

Tracking: 12 Common Website Form Lead Tracking Issues

When we first start working with new clients, many of them are dropping all of the leads from their website into a single bucket called “Web Leads.” This makes informing a client about which Internet marketing channels or campaigns drove those leads impossible. Without complete and accurate information, clients cannot evaluate performance regarding specific channels or campaigns. Furthermore, they cannot accurately calculate ROI or know what adjustments can be made to improve specific channels or campaigns.

1. Using email addresses on your website.
Displaying an email address anywhere on your website is a kiss of death when it comes to lead tracking. Sales leads received over email cannot be tracked back to the marketing source of the lead. Even if you created a single email address and used it only on your website, the best position you will be in is bucketing all email leads as “Web Leads.” You will have no idea which Internet marketing channel or campaign produced the lead.

Also, many companies are not aware that email addresses on websites are a magnet for never-ending spam. Spammers have scripts that crawl the Internet looking for email addresses; once they find your email address, it is added to lists and sold over and over again. You will receive a growing daily stream of spam to that email address — forever.

2. Not having a form.
If you want website visitors to contact your business, your website needs to have at least one form. This can be as simple as a form on a Contact Us page. Many visitors prefer to fill out a form instead of calling. If you don’t provide a form, you will miss out on a great number of sales leads.

3. Hiding your form.
Make sure your form isn’t hidden in your website. Any business that relies on sales leads should have a page with a form linked from the header of all pages or in the top navigation bar. When your visitors are ready to make contact, be sure to make finding the form easy for them.

4. Not knowing the marketing source of your form submissions.
Most business websites with online forms fail to track the marketing source of each form submission. Without this data, your only option is to call all of these form submissions “Web Leads.” Since you don’t know which Internet marketing channel or campaign drove each form submission, you are not able to calculate ROI data or improve your campaigns. You need to know the marketing source of each form submission. This can be done with some Web development work around the referral URL and cookies.

5. Relying on an email from your form to notify you of a sales lead.
Most company websites have forms that do a single function: send an email when the forms are submitted. These companies assume that every email from their website makes its way to their inbox. Due to spam filters, this doesn’t always happen. To be sure that you are not missing sales leads from your website, be sure to use a server side programming language to store all form submissions in a database. Do continual QC checks to verify that emails of every form submission in your database are getting to you.

The other issue that many businesses forget about is what email address is set up on your website as the email to which all form submissions should be sent. Many times, staff email addresses are used on the website’s forms. If that staff member leaves the company, the fact that the website needs to be updated with a new email address is commonly forgotten. One simple solution is to use an email distribution group as the email address on your website. This allows you to manage who gets these emails through your email system instead of having a developer make changes to your website.

6. Having errors on your form page.
Be sure to test and retest all forms on your website to make sure they are working properly. When you test your form, try to make mistakes so you can see how the form’s validation responds. Imagine your visitors filling out your form to generate a sales lead, but your form stopped working. Changes to a website’s code or hosting server can break your forms. Be sure to set a reminder for a monthly test to verify that all forms are working correctly.

7. Having errors in your form validation.
Test your form validation and error messages to make sure they are simple for your visitors. Sometimes Web developers implement complex and/or conflicting front-end and back-end validation that makes successfully submitting your form difficult to impossible for visitors. Things like requiring a phone number field to consist of only 10 digits will cause a lot of visitors to receive an error. You would be amazed at how easily a simple form can become difficult for visitors to complete. Sometimes visitors do not notice the form validation errors when they submit the form and they just browse off the page without ever successfully submitting your form.

8. Using CAPTCHA.
Using a CAPTCHA can make completing your form problematic for visitors, which will decrease your form’s conversion rate.

9. Having too many fields in your form.
The fewer form fields your form has, the greater your conversion rate will be. Forms with many fields scare visitors away.

10. Outsourcing your form to a third party (like WuFoo, Hubspot, Marketo, etc.).
Many companies outsource their form to a third party because either building a form or integrating a form into another software application seems difficult. Rarely do companies take the time to understand what they are giving up by having another company run the form on its website. A number of issues can occur if you give up ownership and hosting of your form to a third party. Forms are one of the most important parts of a lead generation campaign — be sure you keep ownership and control of all of your forms.

11. Not validating your form submissions.
Most companies classify all form submissions as conversions, which is a huge mistake. Many form submissions are spam, people looking for jobs, sales reps trying to sell their things, etc. Some companies may be surprised to find that over 25 percent of their form submissions are not sales leads at all. The solution to this is lead validation, where each form submission is reviewed by a human and marked as a sales lead or not a sales lead. Validating your form submissions before you consider counting form submissions as conversions or sales leads is imperative.

12. Relying on analytics platform conversion data instead of your actual form submissions.
Many companies rely on analytics to track how many form submissions were received instead of using the actual form submission data. If you rely on analytics tracking for your form submission number, you are left dealing with a count of how many times a form was submitted. If analytics tells you that eight forms were submitted, you have no idea which forms those eight were. Two of them could have been spammers, three of them job applicants, one trying to sell you something and the remaining two are actual sales leads. Using analytics data, you would never know and you would just assume that all eight were actual sales leads. When running Internet marketing campaigns, measuring campaigns using actual form submission data and not simple counts in analytics is very important.

Tracking: 6 Common Website Phone Lead Tracking Issues

When we first start working with new clients, a huge majority of the time they place all of the leads from their website into a single bucket called “Web Leads.” This translates to the client not knowing which Internet marketing channels or campaigns drove those leads. Without that information, knowing the performance of specific channels or campaigns is impossible. Furthermore, the company cannot accurately calculate ROI or know what adjustments can be made to improve specific channels or campaigns.

1. Hiding your phone number.
Many company websites display the phone number only on the Contact Us page of the website. This makes finding the phone number and generating a sales lead for the company hard for visitors. Best practice for a lead generation website is to have a phone number displayed at least once at the top of every page of the website. Some experts recommend displaying a phone number multiple times on each page.

2. Relying on counting inbound phone calls.
Some companies analyze phone company bills to see how many inbound calls they received. Other companies have the person who answers the phone count how many inbound calls he or she receives, which introduces human error. Without knowing the marketing source of these phone calls, a count of inbound phone calls provides no meaningful lead tracking data.

3. Not knowing the marketing source of your phone calls.
Having a phone number clearly displayed on your website is a start, but to track sales leads you need to know what marketing channel or campaign generated each phone call. (See No. 4.)

4. Not using a call-tracking provider.
A call-tracking provider is required to track the marketing source of inbound phone calls from Internet marketing channels and campaigns. Many different vendors are available when looking for a call-tracking solution. The best solutions offer three features: (1) They assign your company a unique pool of phone numbers that are dedicated only to your company. You do not want your phone numbers shared by other companies. (2) They have the ability to assign a unique phone number directly to a single visitor on your website. This allows you to uncover the exact referral URL that was used by the visitor to reach your website. (3) They offer call recording features and remember to turn that feature on, as most disable it by default.

5. Not validating phone calls.
With a call-tracking solution in place, companies can now get a count of inbound phone calls segmented by each Internet marketing channel or campaign. However, most companies classify these phone call counts as conversions, which is a huge mistake. They forget that phone-tracking technology isn’t perfect and has a lot of noise in the data. Many phone calls that are tracked come from callers who dialed a wrong number, telemarketers who run auto-dialer software, people looking for jobs, sales reps trying to sell their things, etc. Some companies may be surprised to find that over 50 percent of their tracked calls are not sales leads. The solution to this is lead validation where each phone call recording is reviewed by a human and marked as a sales lead or not a sales lead. Validating your phone leads is imperative before you consider any phone call counts as conversions or sales leads.

6. Not including phone leads in your conversion data.
The fact that many clients disregard phone leads when analyzing their PPC campaign conversions or Google Analytics conversion data is surprising. If a company displays a phone number on its website, but doesn’t include those conversions in campaign reporting — sales lead data is flawed. Think about a company that gets 10 leads per day, and one day it receives three phone leads and seven form submissions. The next day, it receives seven phone leads and three form submissions. If the company failed to track phone leads, it would be overlooking 50 percent of its conversions. Then, imagine if this company is modifying its PPC campaign based on only 50 percent of the conversion data; it would be making changes to reduce bids or pause keywords that could have been producing the majority of its phone leads.

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A custom 404 error page is a strong enhancement to any business website. By providing useful information to visitors when they land on a missing page, you turn a frustrating and confusing experience into one that can actually improve their impression of your brand and set the stage for a conversion. Here are step-by-step technical instructions for setting up a custom 404 page for various platforms.

1. Drupal Website

1. Create your 404 page within the Drupal CMS. This can be as simple as creating a Basic Page and adding some custom text and links on that page.
2. In the Drupal admin section, navigate to Configuration > Site Information.
3. Under the “Error Pages” section, update the path field to point to your custom 404 page.

2. WordPress Website

1. By default, WordPress will look for a file named 404.php in your theme. Every WordPress theme should have a 404.php file in it, but it might not be a custom page.
2. You can customize this file or create a brand new file named 404.php and upload it to your theme in place of the current one. If for some reason your site does not have a 404.php file, you can create one as a simple HTML file with a .php extension and then upload it to your site’s theme directory.
3. Any time a 404 error occurs, WordPress will serve up this 404.php page to the user.

3. Custom / Static Website - Apache Server

1. Create your 404 page as an HTML file. The name of the file is not important, but for this example, let’s say you’ve named it 404page.html.
2. Upload that file to your website’s root directory.
3. Add this line into your. htaccess file: ErrorDocument 404 /404page.html.

Suggestions for 404 Page Content

1. Friendly text explaining the error. It’s common to put something witty or funny here to let the user know that what he or she is seeing is normal and not to worry. This is also good from a usability perspective and helps reduce user frustration.
2. Helpful links to common pages of the website, including the home page, contact page and site map page.
3. A site search box.
4. Phone number and address.
5. A design different from your website, which alerts users that they are not on a standard page.

The Best 404 Pages Are Seldom Seen!

A well-designed 404 page is definitely a marketing asset, but it works best of all when it is viewed infrequently.

To that end, make sure internal website links are tested regularly so that broken links can be identified and repaired. In addition, review inbound links regularly to spot outdated links, and then send a request to the publisher to update the link to target a current page.

An in-depth review of SEO outreach strategy and techniques

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Because outreach can make or break a company’s SEO results, we created this Outreach White Paper to help company leadership evaluate an SEO agency’s ability to formulate a winning outreach strategy and execute it to perfection with the right processes and techniques.

In SEO campaigns, the primary goal of outreach is to create valuable backlinks from off-site websites to the client website. These links improve organic rankings and expose the company to new audiences, driving highly qualified organic and referral traffic to the client. Often, outreach has the secondary goals of extending brand awareness and strengthening credibility.

Outreach is more important than ever to successful SEO:

• Backlinks continue to be the strongest ranking factor in the Google search algorithm. Without a strong backlink profile, a company website is competing for organic traffic at a significant disadvantage. Result: Leads and sales are ceded to competitors.
• As the Google algorithm has improved its ability to detect, ignore and penalize unethical link-building practices, companies must earn links by creating and marketing high-quality content, which necessitates sophisticated outreach communications and processes.
• As more SEO agencies have responded to Google’s algorithmic improvements by focusing attention on content link building, the supply of content greatly exceeds demand. Outreach specialists must use great skill to identify strategically valuable publishers and then to persuade them to accept and promote their content.

The outcome of effective outreach: Greater organic search engine visibility and potentially explosive growth in high-quality website traffic, sales leads and online revenue.

OVERVIEW OF OUTREACH STRATEGY

While some think of outreach narrowly, as the process of pitching content to off-site publishers, true outreach is much broader, touching many aspects of SEO, as well as the client’s sales, marketing and branding strategies.

The goal of SEO outreach is link building — that is, creating backlinks to the company website that enhance its organic visibility on Google and other search engines. As the outreach campaign progresses, the company’s improved visibility attracts more qualified traffic, increasing lead and online revenue production. Also, the backlinks themselves drive referred traffic from the host websites back to the company website — creating a whole new stream of qualified traffic and opportunities for conversion.

With all of this in mind, the SEO agency’s outreach team must cover six very important bases:

1. Link Building Best Practices — Knowing precisely what Google considers to be a good link and a bad link.
2. Target Markets — The types of buyers the client is trying to reach and what motivates them to do business.
3. Publishers — Identifying and vetting credible, authoritative websites and blogs with the same or similar target markets.
4. Content Development — Determining what types of content will appeal to off-site publishers, and making sure content published off-site is consistent with and highlights the company’s important sales, marketing and branding messages.
5. Publisher Communication — Persuading publishers to accept content with links, as well as building strong publisher relationships.
6. Review and Analysis — Evaluating the SEO performance of backlinks, publishing websites, and traffic/lead/revenue generation.

All of the areas listed above describe the outreach process at a high level. In the following sections, we look at the most important technical considerations within each area that are necessary for successful outreach.

Strategically, the most important drivers for outreach are:

• Relevance — Publishers must be relevant to the client, and content must be relevant to the target audience and connected to the client’s business in some way.
• Value — Earning high-quality links necessitates content and/or a company value proposition strong enough to interest relevant publishers.
• Creativity — Even with high-value content, a highly competitive link-building arena necessitates using an imaginative approach to grab the attention and respect of top-tier publishers.

WORTH NOTING: These elements of relevance, value and creativity are highly prized not only by publishers, but also by Google and target audiences.

Google wants its search engine users to discover relevant, valuable and interesting content — and this is exactly the type of content likely to persuade a company’s targeted prospects to inquire or buy. This example is one of many that illustrates how SEO, marketing and sales operate in harmony when executed properly.

DETAILED REVIEW OF THE OUTREACH PROCESS

In the previous section we identified six elements of the outreach process. For successful outreach implementation, SEO agencies must be proficient in each. In the following sections, we provide guidance and insight to help you assess an SEO agency’s outreach campaign process from top to bottom.

1. Link Building Best Practices

Backlinks are an extremely important factor in the Google search algorithm. As such, creating good links improves a company’s organic visibility — but creating bad links worsens visibility or has no effect. Thus, clearly understanding what makes a backlink valuable is extremely important to the outreach manager. Key metrics to review include:

• Relevance — Is the content relevant to both the linking page and the linked-to page? For example, a plumbing company publishing an article about crop circles on a science blog is not relevant to the linked-to website (the plumbing company). Google will interpret such a link as a “black hat” SEO tactic intended to manipulate its algorithm, and will ignore it or even penalize it.
• Trust — Is the linking website a legitimate domain in good standing with Google? Obtaining links from websites that have been penalized by Google, or that engage in dubious practices such as displaying non-relevant links, does more harm than good. Strong signs of trustworthy websites include old domains, following Web design best practices, frequent content updates, and .edu or .gov domains.
• Popularity — Do the website and/or linking page attract a high volume of traffic? Does the website generate a high volume of social media content shares and mentions? Does it have a high volume of quality backlinks? Popular websites offer strong fringe benefits to SEO-focused outreach campaigns by extending brand awareness.
• Linking Habits — Does the website/linking page have an inordinate number of outbound links? Does the website/linking page have irrelevant links or links that appear to have been purchased? These are signs the website may not be in good standing with Google.
• Citation Flow — The number of links pointing to a website. The raw number of links pointing to a target website indicates influence and popularity.
• Trust Flow — The quality of links pointing to a website. The quality of the links pointing to a website indicates influence and trust. Link quality is determined by using the same criteria detailed in this White Paper.
• Citation/Trust Flow Balance — If a website has thousands of links (citation flow) but only a handful of quality links (trust flow), the website may have low value as a publishing site due to lack of trust.
• Spam Score — A measurement utility offered by Moz that identifies potential spam flags on a website.
• Domain Authority — Does the overall linking domain have high authority in terms of domain age, popularity, size and other factors?
• Page Authority — Does the linking page have high authority in terms of its ranking, popularity and other factors?
• Website Diversity — Targeting off-site publishers should not be based on monolithic criteria. Google looks for a “natural” distribution of backlinks; if all of a client’s backlinks come from websites of uniform size, popularity, etc., Google may interpret the link profile as being a pure SEO manipulation. Target websites should always be relevant and trustworthy, however.
• Anchor Text Diversity — In a similar way, overly consistent use of keywords in backlink anchor text sends a suspicious signal to Google. Current best practice is to mix anchor text with keywords, company name, URLs and other varied wording.

Agency Evaluation Tip: SEO agencies use various online tools and internally developed analytics to quantify and measure these various link-building criteria. Asking for documentation on the methodology used to evaluate links — not necessarily to understand the technical aspects of the methodology, but at least to make sure a methodology exists — is worthwhile.

2. Understanding Client Target Markets

When the time comes to create and market a client’s content for link-building purposes, the SEO agency must use creative as well as technical inputs to target publishing websites and develop appropriate content. Often, SEO agencies are technically proficient but lack the creative ability to put their technical skill to use for outreach.

Keep in mind, relevance is an extremely important factor to persuade publishers to accept content, and for potential customers to read and act on that content. Thus, if the SEO agency lacks a clear understanding of the client’s products and services, what drives new business and what drives customer retention, published content will strike readers as inauthentic, irrelevant and therefore untrustworthy. Whatever SEO gains accrue from the backlinks will be negated because of no traffic and no conversions.

Beyond client considerations, the SEO agency must also gain a clear understanding of the client’s market. Since off-site publishers usually reject overly self-promotional content, determining effective topics often involves a discussion of broad industry-related issues rather than client-specific information. For example, a packaging company may have a hard time marketing an article about its own line of tamper-resistant boxes, but have great success marketing one about tamper-resistant packaging strategies in, say, the pharmaceutical sector. To conceptualize, create and market a topic like the latter one, the SEO agency needs to know how the client fits into the big picture.

Further complicating the outreach picture: Content strategies may need to be less direct than the example noted above. For instance, an auto insurance agency may not find a receptive market for articles about auto insurance, as the niche is already crowded with content and the content cannot help but be seen as self-promotional. A better strategy may be to write about an indirectly relevant topic such as automobile safety, or even more specifically, automobile safety for teenage drivers. A strategy along these lines may serve branding objectives as well as SEO — provided the SEO agency understands them.

Agency Evaluation Tip: An SEO agency proficient in outreach insists on thorough client discovery in the initial phases of its SEO campaign. Without covering all the points detailed above, the agency will not be successful in marketing content — let alone managing or collaborating on its creative development.

3. Identifying and Vetting Relevant Publishers

In addition to the technical vetting considerations detailed in Link Building Best Practices above, a number of other techniques are used to create a hit list of potential off-site link- building opportunities. These include:

• Insider Knowledge — The SEO agency gathers input from the client’s staff to discover influential websites, blogs and social media sites in the client’s industry and related niches.
• Search Engine Queries — By conducting a variety of advanced, specialized searches on Google and other search engines, the SEO agency can quickly identify publishers that have a strong organic presence and that accept outside contributions.
• Competitor Backlink Analysis — By reviewing the backlink profile of competitors — especially strong SEO competitors — the SEO agency can quickly determine relevant, quality publishing sites with a track record of accepting guest content.
• Social Media Monitoring — The SEO agency conducts keyword searches to identify influential industry bloggers, thought leaders and influencers. This research leads the agency to open lines of communication with the online publications they write for and read.
• Referrals — Once communication with potential publishers begins, an SEO agency can identify highly qualified publishers simply by asking for referrals. Publishers with a niche know their peers inside and out, and the competition is usually friendly, so they don’t mind helping agencies by providing referrals.

Agency Evaluation Tip: At one point, guest blogging, a common form of off-site backlink generation, received some bad press because of spamming — in particular, publishing low-quality, non-relevant content purely as a link-building ploy. Today, guest blogging remains a strong SEO strategy but must be conducted using high-quality content to create relevant links. Proficient SEO agencies understand this and emphasize it in their sales presentation.

4. Content Development

A. THE CREATIVE PROCESS.

While developing topics and content usually involves collaboration between the SEO agency and the client, the agency usually spearheads the creative process according to the following four-step process:

1. Thematic Development — Determining the “big picture” themes the client wants woven (or not woven) into the content. Frequently, these themes have to do with branding; for instance, a green manufacturer will want to emphasize themes dealing with sustainability/conservation, and a luxury retailer will want to avoid topics that suggest low prices/discount merchandise.
2. Topic Development — Determining specific topics to be pitched to publishers. This is in many ways the “secret sauce” of successful outreach campaigns. Several techniques are discussed later in this section.
3. Content Production — Producing online content (articles, infographics, slide presentations) requires contributions from copywriters, editors, Web designers and/or Web developers. Often, clients provide technical inputs and SEO agencies polish them into finished content. Editing and review duties can be done collaboratively as well. Note also that some outreach content can and should be on-site content. For instance, the outreach campaign could involve creating a highly detailed, widely relevant infographic for the client website, followed by email outreach to relevant publishers, alerting them to the content and requesting them to link to it.
4. Content Performance Review — Collecting publisher feedback about content, along with analyzing content metrics (more on this later) enables the SEO agency to continuously improve thematic focus, topic development and content quality, especially in terms of relevance, usefulness, newsworthiness and significance. This final step makes the difference between stagnant outreach and dynamic, high-impact outreach.

Agency Evaluation Tip: Because content development is collaborative and involves a lot of players and communications, SEO agencies need a documented process for content development, overseen by a trained production manager. If the agency lacks either of these, chaos is likely to ensue, leading to shortcomings in content quality.

B. THE SECRET SAUCE: TOPIC DEVELOPMENT AND PITCH TACTICS.

As mentioned earlier, the competition to get articles published is fierce. To capture the interest of publishers and get results for clients, SEO agencies must consider client and publisher needs when formulating topics and structuring outreach campaigns. Here are examples of proven techniques:

• Updating an outdated post — The SEO agency scours a target publisher’s website for a successful post that is out of date, then pitches the idea of having the client provide an updated article.
• Missing category — The SEO agency looks for a gap in a target publisher’s content offerings, and then pitches the idea of filling it with content (or a series of content pieces). Example: A packaging design blog that lacks a category for sustainable packaging.
• Missing topic within a category — The SEO agency looks for a gap within a target publisher’s category of content, and then pitches the idea of filling it. Example: A packaging design blog with a category for sustainable packaging, but lacking content for tamper-resistant sustainable packaging.
• Expanding on a thinly covered topic — The SEO agency looks for topics on a target publisher’s website that are under covered, and then pitches the idea of elaborating on them with an article, infographic, etc.
• Rebuttal/opposite side of an argument — Publishers are often interested in sparking conversation. Accordingly, the SEO agency looks for opinion pieces on a target publisher’s website, and then pitches the idea of offering an alternate view.
• Targeting engaged publishers on social media — The SEO agency identifies people who have interacted with the client’s content on social media (for example, sharing a link, mentioning the brand) and asks them if they have interest in publishing an article crafted specifically for their website/blog.
• Hot news and trending topics — With ongoing social media monitoring and client communication, the SEO agency can identify hot news stories and trending topics within any market niche, and then pitch content that provides factual information and/ or expert opinion and analysis to target publishers.
• Seasonal or holiday-themed content — Topicality is extremely important to publishers and readers, so content pitches involving seasonal and holiday themes, such as “Sustainable Packaging Ideas for Christmas,” often carry exponentially more weight with publishers than the same topic with no holiday tie-in. In this regard, SEO agencies must plan well in advance: The time to pitch Christmas-related content is likely to be 30-90 days before the holiday. As always, an organized outreach process is key.

Agency Evaluation Tip: Topic development and pitching tactics make or break an outreach campaign. A skilled SEO agency cites examples of successful pitch campaigns, including both a synopsis of the pitch tactic and the performance metrics.

5. Publisher Communication

For effective outreach, mass customization must be the SEO agency’s philosophy. This is a challenging approach requiring both personalization and scalability. Both are exceedingly important.

• Personalization — Canned email pitches are common, but notoriously ineffective. Publishers respond to pitches that demonstrate an understanding of their unique needs. Taking a personal approach requires research, strategy and skillful execution — all of which take time and experience.
• Scalability — Because even a single client requires scores of pitches month in and month out, the SEO agency must have the staff and processes in place to conduct research, formulate and deliver pitches, and follow-up on pitches on a large scale — a scale that grows as campaigns become more and more successful.

Let’s explore both areas in detail.

A. PERSONALIZATION TECHNIQUES.

• As discussed earlier, effective outreach involves a careful review of publisher websites to identify their specific content needs.
• Email pitch templates can be standardized to a degree, but must be individualized to communicate an understanding of the website’s content needs and to incorporate the publisher’s contact name.
• Researching publisher backlink requirements is critical. Certain publishers do not accept self-promotional links, links in the body of an article, or links of any kind. Pitching (or worse, creating) content that ignores publisher link guidelines will not only be rejected, but also will create ill will.
• Pitch content should be carefully edited to ensure that company and contact names are spelled correctly and that the pitch contains no grammatical or stylistic errors. If a pitch itself is poorly written, what conclusion will the prospective publisher come to about the quality of the content being pitched?
• Follow-up emails must be personalized. Publishers are busy; if they do not respond to a pitch, this does not necessarily mean they are not interested. Follow-up is essential, but canned follow-up emails can undermine an otherwise successful pitch.

Agency Evaluation Tip: Ask for samples of the SEO agency’s pitch and follow-up emails. In this case, a picture (i.e., sample) is worth a 1,000 words.

B. ATTRIBUTES OF A SCALABLE OUTREACH PROCESS.

• Several outreach functions must be covered by the SEO agency, including publisher research, SEO research, pitch strategy, pitch composition, follow-up scheduling and tracking, and pitch outcome analysis/continuous improvement.
• A high-caliber SEO agency manages and executes all of the above activities in-house. Relying on freelancers might work on a small scale, but creates too many disruptions in communication and scheduling to succeed on a medium or large scale.
• An SEO agency with outreach experience in a given niche can get a client in the same or similar niche up and running quickly, since it has already established relationships with key, relevant publishers.
• An SEO agency with strong outreach experience outside the client’s niche can also get the client up and running quickly, since it has had time to refine its process and has a thorough grasp of outreach best practices.

Agency Evaluation Tip: An SEO agency should be able to quantify the number of pitches and content placements it executes over any given time period. A prospective client should understand how many overall pitches and placements its campaign would need as a percentage of the agency’s whole. This gives prospective clients a feel for whether the agency has the bandwidth to support it.

6. Review and Analysis

Expert review and analysis of outreach performance is key to successful outreach and SEO campaigns. Certain data points related to outreach are concrete, such as the number of direct backlinks created, whereas others are quite difficult to peg, such as the number of social shares a piece of content has received. Nevertheless, tracking data to get a fuller picture of results is important. Experienced SEO agencies know how to weight data to compensate for margins of error. Important data to review includes:

• Backlinks created — The number of links produced directly and indirectly from each outreach placement is the starting point for any outreach analysis. Direct links are backlinks from the publishing website; indirect links are backlinks from other websites that reproduce or mention the placed content.
• Social shares — Social sharing of placed content is an important measure of reach, and also correlates to indirect backlink creation. Social sharing data is collected through various online monitoring tools; however, the accuracy of social share data is sometimes fairly high, but other times understated.
• SEO keyword performance — Backlinks from placed content should point either to the client’s home page or to strategically important interior pages associated with high- value keywords. As backlinks are created, home page links should lift overall domain authority, and interior links should lift the organic ranking of the associated pages. If those two things are happening, the outreach campaign is being productive.
• Pitch to placement ratio — If a campaign generates 500 pitches and receives one placement, serious flaws most likely exist in the outreach strategy or execution. Agencies must monitor this on a monthly basis or more frequently.
• Placement quality performance — Along similar lines, if placements are occurring with only second- or third-tier publishers, weaknesses probably exist in the outreach strategy, execution, or the content itself.

Agency Evaluation Tip: Reviewing an SEO agency’s monthly outreach/SEO reports provides tremendous insight on how thoroughly it is monitoring its own campaign activity. Careful monitoring means that improvements/tweaks can be made promptly if necessary.

OUTREACH FAQS

1. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SEO OUTREACH AND PR?
SEO outreach incorporates many PR best practices, as both involve selling publishers on talking about clients, and creating content that influences client target markets. The main difference between the two disciplines: PR is primarily concerned with content that improves a client’s image; SEO outreach is primarily concerned with improving a client’s organic search engine visibility to generate website traffic, leads and revenue. The SEO impact of a PR campaign is incidental or non-existent; the PR impact of an SEO outreach campaign is positive but not the focus.

2. ARE THERE GOALS BESIDES BACK LINKS AN SEO OUTREACH CAMPAIGN SHOULD PURSUE?
A well-crafted outreach campaign incorporates branding messages and leads to social sharing of content. These outcomes result in more brand awareness, greater brand affinity and strengthened credibility. While backlinks are generally the most important KPI of an outreach campaign, in the long run, clients measure outreach effectiveness in terms of traffic, and lead and revenue generation. Outreach campaigns that produce backlinks in quantity and of quality correlate most with those items.

3. CAN OUTREACH BE DONE EFFECTIVELY IN-HOUSE?
Successful outreach campaigns require expertise and time — a great deal more time than many companies realize. If an organization has a well-staffed SEO team, content strategists, copywriters, editors, Web designers, Web developers and PR personnel, it may be in a position to execute outreach internally. Lacking any of those elements, however, the company will get better, faster results by engaging a competent agency.

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INTRODUCTION

Section 1: Strategy and Budgeting

CAPTURING ONLINE DEMAND

What Are Keywords?
Keywords are search terms: the words people type into the search box of a search engine. They are of utmost importance for driving website traffic and generating leads because they are the words potential customers use when they are searching for the stuff you sell.

Branded versus Non-branded Keywords
Firms often grow complacent because they get lots of traffic from branded keywords such as “acme widget company.” However, branded keyword traffic is a given; google and other search engines will almost always give high rankings to company web pages when a company’s name is part of the search term. What really counts is how much traffic is generated from non-branded keywords — search terms people use when they’re looking for your stuff, but don’t know who you are, or don’t know you sell it. Increasing your share of non-branded keywords is the way to outperform the competition.

Keywords Make Existing Online Demand Measurable
Google and other search engines report the search volume for all search terms, enabling firms to gauge the relative popularity of keywords relevant to their business. If the search term “inexpensive industrial widgets” is used 10,000 times a month and the term “high quality industrial widgets” is used 1,000 times a month, we know that “inexpensive” has ten times the online demand of “high quality.”

Keyword Selection: The First Step to Greater Search Engine Traffic
By identifying and optimizing its web content for high volume keywords such as “inexpensive industrial widgets,” a firm can increase its volume of search engine traffic in a systematic way, and capitalize on the demand represented by those keywords. Keyword research that is incomplete, flawed in its methodology or not undertaken, will undercut search engine traffic volume.

Organic Search Visibility
When someone does a search on google, google displays results ranked in order of how relevant the web page is to the keywords used by the searcher. these are organic results – and the higher a page ranks, the more people click on it. So, if the widget maker can get its web page that talks about “inexpensive industrial widgets” moved up from page 10 of the search engine results to page one for searches on that term – those 100 visits a month might increase to 1,000 or more. the primary marketing discipline that focuses on improving organic search visibility is called search engine optimization, or SEO.

Paid Search Visibility
When someone does a search on google or bing, the search engine company also displays advertisements that relate to the search term being used, positioned above or alongside the organic results. pay-per-click advertising, or ppc, involves managing campaigns that serve up ads for keywords (anywhere from handfuls to millions) that relate to a firm’s products and services. So, if the widget maker’s ppc campaign includes “inexpensive industrial widgets,” it increases the pool of potential clicks by as much as 10,000 a month. If the campaign ignores this term – it reduces the click-through opportunity to zero.

Effective Marketing Starts with Keywords
From the discussion above, it should be clear that understanding aggregate keyword demand and your firm’s share of that demand are essential for driving qualified traffic. Marketing efforts must focus on the right terms in the right proportion to optimize online visibility. without an organized system of identifying and managing keywords, web traffic cannot be systematically improved.

Keywords and Budgets
For most businesses, tens of thousands of search terms are used by people looking for the stuff they sell. understanding your total universe of search terms is fundamental to establishing an appropriate budget. If the widget manufacturer identifies 100,000 relevant search terms, there may be only enough money in the budget to attack 5,000 of them. It therefore becomes critical to know which terms to pursue – and which to ignore.

Keywords, Budgets and Competition
Since costs are directly related to actual demand ... a smart tactic used to guard against budget waste is paying attention to what your competitors are doing. If a handful of firms dominate visibility for the highest volume keywords, it could be very expensive if not cost-prohibitive to overthrow them. In such cases, focusing on a larger number of smaller volume keywords could be the recipe for success. Also, keep in mind that online competitors may be completely different from traditional or perceived competitors. Firms sometime scoff at competitors with poor reputations that rank highly for important search terms. however, these secondary competitors are capturing demand (i.e., attracting clicks from searchers) – that could be, and perhaps should be, coming to you.

Section 2: Execution

THE LANGUAGE OF ONLINE MARKETING – AND 5 REASONS WHY MOST FIRMS FAIL TO SPEAK IT

Falling into Keyword Traps
Keyword strategies involve identifying the right keywords to focus on, and then using those keywords (and variations of them) in your website content, ppc ads, ppc landing pages, and social media content. While many firms falter before they start by forgetting to identify these terms, many more fail even though they have done their keyword due diligence. why? -- because they fall into keyword traps. Here are six of the most common:

Trap 1

Misjudging User Intent
The essence of successful marketing is positioning your content to capitalize on the right keywords. one way that firms chase the wrong keywords is failing to understand user intent. for example, consider a popular search term like “video delivery.” With more than 200,000 google searches a month, it would be tempting for a firm that sells video transmission equipment to optimize content around that term and capture more of the online demand. But what are people looking for when they search for video delivery? childbirth delivery? How to download video to a computer? Video transmission equipment? After conducting a google search, it becomes apparent that most searches on this term are related to childbirth. If the firm in question focused on “video delivery,” it would attract the wrong kind of visitors, wasting budget dollars.

Trap 2

Using Vague Keywords that Bleed Budgets
sometimes, chasing the biggest volume keywords is a recipe for disaster. the term “packaging supplies” generates 110,000 monthly searches and is enticing for large volume wholesalers of packaging supplies. However, the people doing those searches could be individuals looking for a mere handful of moving boxes, all the way up to a fortune 100 company looking for a supplier for a $5 million contract. not only that, searchers could be collecting information, looking to order online, or seeking a consultation. Most firms would be better off focusing on more precise keywords that relate more directly to the products and services they offer, and the segments of the market they serve..

Trap 3

Allowing Image Concerns to Take Winning Keywords Off the Table
In an earlier example we considered a case where “inexpensive widgets” had 10 times the search volume of “high quality widgets.” Nevertheless, some widget makers would completely ignore the higher volume term in their keyword strategy because they do not want to be perceived as low price or cheap. In many cases this thinking is shortsighted. If a widget maker captures demand (i.e., attracts traffic) for the “inexpensive” keyword, it has captured a lead – one that can be sold on a high quality product. without the traffic, there are no opportunities to upsell.

Trap 4

Succumbing to Toxic Keyword Fixations
In theory, keyword strategies are created in the clinical atmosphere of a marketing laboratory. In reality, emotion often comes into play. a business owner may be consumed by a desire to outrank a rival competitor for a keyword that has relatively low value. A marketing manager may be driven to achieve #1 ranking for a ridiculously competitive keyword simply because it is the pet favorite of the ceo. situations like these do nothing but impede traffic growth and lead generation – and waste precious marketing resources.

Trap 5

Building a Keyword prison with Jargon
customers drive the language of online marketing through the terms they use to conduct searches. the language of online marketing is the language of searchers, the language of customers. If a firm highlights its own jargon in its web content, social media conversation and ppc campaigns, it will usually be speaking a foreign language. often a firm’s content creators think that emphasizing popular search terms “dumbs down” their content. But before searchers become interested in how smart you are, they are interested in how relevant you are. In order to be relevant, you must have high visibility for the terms your customers like to use, not the ones you like to use.

Section 3: Assessment

4 WAYS TO RECOGNIZE KEYWORD INCOMPETENCE

Are We Doing It Right?
There are a number of ways to get a handle on how well your organization is leveraging the power of keywords. here are four of the most telling:

Diagnostic Tool 1

Articulate your Keyword Strategy
If you ask your marketing team to describe the current keyword strategy and are met with blank stares, it’s a good indication that your website, ppc and social media content are lacking a coherent, unified strategy and are therefore underperforming. If there is a documented, or documentable process in place, it can then be benchmarked against the ideas discussed in this brief and more technical resources such as Marketing sherpa or seomoz that outline keyword strategy best practices.

Diagnostic Tool 2

Measure your Branded to Non-branded Ratio
getting a lot of site traffic from your branded keywords won’t win you any marketing awards. In fact, if the lion’s share of your site traffic comes from branded keywords, it is almost certain that you have not been deploying a sound keyword strategy in your online marketing efforts.

Diagnostic Tool 3

Are Keyword Reviews Ongoing?
keyword research and strategy continually change: search term volumes change, new terms come into play, a firm’s product and service focus changes, new products are introduced, etc. In addition, analyzing search traffic, paid search campaign results and social media activity helps firms move beyond theory and sharpen the keyword focus on terms that are working best for them in real life. If your firm reviews keyword strategy monthly or quarterly, you are continually improving. If not, you are almost sure to be in a holding pattern or worse, losing ground.

Diagnostic Tool 4

Conduct an Onsite Keyword Optimization Review
In most cases, a firm’s site content is the heart and soul of its keyword strategy, the place that attracts the most traffic and generates the most leads. using your own resources or an outside firm to perform an audit of your site’s keyword effectiveness will make it clear whether you are capturing significant online demand ... or leaving leads on the table for your competitors to pick up.

Bottom Line: keyword assessment — keyword strategy may be part rocket science, but knowing whether you’re on the right track is not.

Section 4: Action Plan

5 WAYS TO FIX KEYWORD PROBLEMS THAT UNDERMINE RESULTS

How to Get on the Right Keyword Track
The good news is, most shortcomings in a firm’s approach to keywords can be improved without a complete overhaul of everything. true, there are cases that call for a website to be completely rebuilt or a ppc strategy to be overhauled – but they are infrequent. Here are five steps you can take immediately to right the keyword ship.

Action Step 1

Start Fresh with a New Keyword Analysis
If an existing keyword strategy is a year or two old or nonexistent, doing random tweaks will be like rearranging deck chairs on the titanic. A more sounder approach is to conduct new keyword analysis annually to identify current online demand, and use that analysis as a framework for implementing tactical adjustments and/or large-scale content revisions.

Action Step 2

Update Onsite Keyword Optimization
In the previous section we noted the value of conducting a site audit. Once this has been completed and keyword analysis has been updated, extremely useful site updates can be made. by revising key elements of on-page content, meta information, and navigational structure, and search visibility can be strongly enhanced.

Action Step 3

Begin Testing New ppC Campaigns
ongoing testing of keywords in ppc campaigns is highly effective for identifying search terms that resonate with your customers. Insights from ppc tests can be applied to keyword usage on all types of online content and lead to better organic and paid search visibility. 

Action Step 4

Add Keywords to your Social Media Communication
google, bing and other search engines index and rank social media content. by inserting the right keywords in those seemingly insignificant tweets and facebook posts, a firm can materially improve its visibility across social media platforms and search engines.

Action Step 5

Track Results with a Vengeance
As we mentioned earlier, keyword strategy is not a one-time event; instead, it is an exercise in continuous improvement. while many firms are content with implementing a coherent program, the real winners are the firms that always look for ways to improve. Careful review of site performance, ppc campaigns and social media metrics reveal new keyword opportunities, underperforming pages and hidden gems.

Bottom Line: Keyword action plan — for successful online marketing, it’s not so much where you are today, but how far and how fast you can move the dial.

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INTRODUCTION

When business writers resort to business jargon, it’s because they lack the time, creative energy or subject mastery to find a more exact word or phrase. Unfortunately, B2B and B2C writers face these obstacles day in and day out. It’s difficult to come up with a suitable alternative to “solutions” when assignments are coming in by the hour. And in the agency world especially, writers are often forced to write about businesses and industries with which they have very limited experience or knowledge.

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This guide is meant to serve as a quick fix for business writers looking for powerful alternatives to the tired phrases that drain all the life out of their content. The information herein was originally published as a series on the Jeff Bullas blog.

150 BUSINESS JARGON PHRASES, WITH BETTER OPTIONS

A

1. 800-pound gorilla. Convey the idea with more style by saying a force to be reckoned with.

2. Actionable. An actionable item is one you can take action on. Whether the action is desirable is another story. For that reason, an item may be more clearly described as practical, useful, realistic or workable.

3. Action item. What’s the difference between an action and an action item? Other than word count – none.

4. Aha moment. A trendy way of saying you just discovered something important. Suitable substitutes include revelation and insight. (Aside: Would an aha moment in a sushi bar be an ahi moment?)

5. Around. Don’t have a discussion around an issue; have a discussion about an issue.

6. ASAP. This means you’re in panic mode; you need it so fast you don’t even know when you need it!! Spare us the theatrics and just provide a due date.

7. At the end of the day. Any time you write this phrase, your next step is to delete it.

8. Awesome. If you’re describing the Grand Canyon or the dimensions of the universe, awesome is fine. Otherwise, find a less sensational (i.e., more realistic) adjective, such as outstanding or exceptional.

B

9. Baked in. Instead of saying that a given possibility or fact is baked into something, say it is accounted for.

10. Balls in the air. Sound less like a carnival act and more like a business professional by saying that you are busy or have several projects underway.

11. Bandwidth. This is a euphemism to make we don’t have time sound like it’s part of the plan. If you simply say you don’t have the time or resources, people will respect your frankness.

12. Bells and whistles. These are fancy features added to a product or service to entice prospects. Since bells and whistles suggests unnecessary features, avoid the phrase when talking about your own products.

13. Best of breed. “Of breed” adds nothing to “best.” Just say you’re the best.

14. Best regards. How lucky am I to receive your best regards rather than only your regular regards! Don’t be pretentious; stick with regards.

15. Big bang for the buck. A sleazy fast-talker’s way of saying this or that product or service has exceptionally high value.

16. Bleeding edge. With so many companies on the bleeding edge, it’s no wonder the economy is hemorrhaging. Overstatements such as this inspire skepticism. Instead, talk about your groundbreaking business model or new approach.

17. Boil the ocean. To boil the ocean is to waste time. Since not everybody knows this, don’t force readers to boil the ocean trying to figure it out.

18. Brain dump. Brain dump is an overly casual way of saying we’ll teach you. (At the pretentious extreme, we engage in knowledge transfer.)

19. Brain surgery. This isn’t brain surgery has been so overused it carries comical overtones the author may not intend. Better to operate with a straightforward word like complicated.

20. Brick and mortar. Physical locations are best described as such.

21. Bring to the table. This is an overused way of saying a person contributes this or that specific thing to a project or work group.

22. Business case. Redundant. If you’re talking business, you should simply say case.

23. Buy-in. Try support or agreement instead.

C

24. Champion (as a verb). Replace with support, defend or perhaps spearhead.

25. Change agent. A change agent is either a person who works at a toll both or a consultant with a mighty high opinion of himself. Personally, I’d prefer to develop and implement new ideas with the former rather than the latter.

26. Check the box. Replace with complete the task.

27. Circle back. A roundabout way of saying discuss later that belongs in the circular file.

28. Circular file. Wastebasket.

29. Compelling. Overused! A 90 percent discount is compelling, but a 5 percent discount is merely interesting. Don’t describe something as compelling unless it is.

30. Competitive advantage. This phrase is a puffed up, boardroom-y way of saying your company excels at something.

31. Content is king. A massively overused metaphor that lets people know you don’t understand content. Why? Because king metaphors apply when a clear, measurable hierarchy exists; e.g., The blueberry is the king of antioxidants. Content is one element of a complex marketing system in which all components have unique and essential value. Homework and discussion: What is a simple metaphor for that?

32. Contrarian. A contrarian is someone who thinks and acts contrary to public opinion. Be careful how you use this, because contrarianism can be seen as a big negative. It’s also worth noting that self-described contrarians sometimes turn out merely to be raving lunatics.

33. Core competencies. A fancy way of saying we’re good at this. There’s nothing wrong with saying we specialize in this, or we excel at this.

34. Corporate culture. Small businesses overreach when they claim to have a culture. It’s more realistic, honest and believable to say you have a particular kind of environment or atmosphere.

35. Cross-training. A sales trainee spending an hour watching an accounts receivable clerk file invoices is not cross-training. Use this phrase only if you have a serious, comprehensive and documented training program.

36. Cutting edge. See bleeding edge.

D

37. Deck. Some people know that a deck is a slide presentation. Everybody else will think you’re not playing with a full one.

38. Deep dive. Overuse has sunk this way of describing a thorough analysis. Try explore, analyze, or the soon-to-be-overused unpack.

39. Deliverable. Agency-speak for work product or output. Because deliverable is necessarily vague, avoid it as much as possible, and instead describe the things your client will receive from you.

40. Dialog (as a verb). Don’t dialog with someone; talk to him or her.

41. Disambiguate. The word you’re looking for is clarify.

42. Disconnect (as a noun). This word is not only overused, it’s also vague. Does disconnect imply a difference of opinion or just a misunderstanding? Clear up the confusion by using the former or latter.

43. Disruptive. If a product or business model is truly disruptive, you don’t need to describe it as such; it will speak for itself.

44. Drill down. Replace with look more closely at.

45. Drink the Kool-Aid. This phrase was gruesomely powerful in the ‘80s, when the Jonestown Massacre was fresh in people’s minds. With overuse, the phrase has become vague: Does it mean a person is a fanatic, believes in something evil, or just toes the company line? Think about what you really mean and use a more precise description.

46. Drop dead date. This phrase is sometimes used as a bluff to get staffers or clients moving. Use it too often and people will stop taking you seriously.

47. Ducks in a row. A silly way of saying we’re ready or organized.

E

48. Ecosystem. Ecosystem can describe Microsoft Windows or Apple, where users have deep and broad interaction with products and services in a closed system. For the most part, however, ecosystem is an overreach. In most business situations, ecosystems are merely systems or networks or product groups.

49. Empower. Better options are assign responsibility or delegate responsibility. Besides being overused, empower has a bad business vibe, as it suggests class warfare.

50. Epic (as an adjective). Epic describes something of heroic, sweeping proportions. Applying the word to business content or situations is an epic overstatement that serious-minded people won’t take seriously. A simple adjective like useful or memorable carries more weight.

51. Evangelist. A generous, one-sentence Yelp review does not an evangelist make. Evangelism takes fiery passion and sustained, unsolicited effort. Too often businesses describe as evangelists those who are loyal customers or casual fans of the brand.

52. Evolve. More precisely stated, a business plan or relationship develops, strengthens or grows in complexity or size.

53. Execute. Fancy words won’t get you fancy fees. Instead of saying we’ll execute the task, just say we’ll do it.

F

54. Fish or cut bait. Scale back this reel bad jargon and say make a decision.

55. Frictionless. Overstatement. Friction has to do with change, and what type of business change has ever occurred without friction? If you say something can take place with minimal friction, you’ll be much more accurate and believable.

56. Functionality. Instead of multi-user functionality, try supports multiple users. The latter phrasing is easier to read and contains an action verb rather than a bland, corporate compound noun.

G

57. Game changer. Whereas paradigm shift is too formal, game changer is too casual. Instead of either of these, meet in the middle with significant change or fundamental change.

58. Get on board. See buy-in.

59. Give 110%. At this rate, by 2020 we’ll have to give 250% to demonstrate our commitment. C’mon: 100% — i.e., everything – should be sufficient.

60. Going forward. For the most part, this phrase can be eliminated: Going forward, we will hire 10 people.

61. Good to go. A slangy way to say ready.

62. Granular. Instead of taking a granular look, look at the details.

63. Grow the business. Unless you’re a farmer, build the business.

64. Guesstimate. Replace with rough estimate and reduce the odds of being taken for an idiot.

65. Guru. If others describe you as a guru, people will be skeptical. If you describe yourself as a guru, people will laugh in your face.

H

66. Herding cats. This phase describes the attempt to manage a group of difficult and/or disagreeable individuals. Because herding cats is insulting to the individuals in question, the phrase should be used with care – especially if your cats are customers.

67. Holistic. Comprehensive or complete is more straightforward.

68. Human capital. Ironically, few pieces of business jargon are as dehumanizing as human capital. Much better to speak of employees, workers, laborers, workforce, crew or staff.

I

69. Ideation. To ideate is to form ideas or concepts. The word is frequently used in a clinical (and rather ominous) context, such as suicidal ideation. In business, stick with phrases such as develop a strategy or brainstorming session.

70. Impact (as a verb). Grammatically correct options: have an impact on or have an effect on or simply affect.

71. Incentivize. A mouthful of mush that means motivate.

72. In light of the fact that. Replace this useless phrase with because. (Side note: Did you know that because is one of the most powerful and persuasive words in all of business writing?)

73. Innovative. Describing a product or service as innovative means nothing. You have to explain in what way the product is innovative. Since most things described as innovative aren’t, this can be a daunting task.

J-K

74. Jump the shark. If a business or product is past its prime and grasping at straws to stay relevant, it has jumped the shark. The metaphor is past its prime; grasping at this straw makes your writing suck.

75. Key takeaways. A puffed up way of describing important points.

76. Killer app. More overstatement. Most “killer apps” are dead within months of their introduction.

77. Knowledge transfer. We’ll teach you beats We’ll engage in knowledge transfer by six syllables and a country mile.

L

78. Laser focus. I guess when regular focus isn’t enough, companies must bring out the big guns and employ laser focus. C’mon: drop the pretentious laser and just focus.

79. Leaders. Everybody is a leader in this or a leader in that – so what? Here’s a case where frankness and modesty paradoxically arouse interest. If you claim only that you’re good at this or that, people may actually take notice.

80. Learnings. Ironically, this is not even a real word. Teachings or lessons, on the other hand, are.

81. Level playing field. Stop going over the same metaphorical ground and replace this phrase with fair competition.

82. Leverage (as a verb). Instead of, we leverage our volume to offer low prices, try, our volume enables us to offer low prices.

83. Lipstick on a pig. When you try to make something bad look good, you’re putting lipstick on a pig. A more professional phrase: put the best face on.

84. Low-hanging fruit. This phrase drives people bananas. Pear down fruit metaphors and juice up clarity with easy opportunities or easy options.

85. Luddite. A Luddite is someone who opposes technological innovation. It is not someone who rejects your new, untested, unproven and unendorsed gizmo.

M

86. Magic bullet. High caliber business writers replace this overused phrase with cure-all or panacea.

87. Make hay while the sun shines. Maybe this is what a farmer does after putting lipstick on his pig. If you’re not a farmer, replace this phrase with make the most of the opportunity.

88. Maximize. To sound like a real person, say that your product or service improves results rather than maximizes results.

89. Methodology. Scholars, scientists and extremely complex businesses have methodologies. To avoid sounding pretentious, say that your business has documented methods, processes or internal systems.

90. Mission-critical. What’s the difference between critical and mission-critical? Unless you want to sound like an astronaut, stick with critical.

91. Most unique. Something is either unique or it isn’t. If what you’re describing is truly unique – a rarity indeed — by all means call it unique. More likely, you’re looking for a word like special, rare, or extraordinary.

92. Move the needle. This means to get meaningful or measurable results. Why not, then, say one or the other?

93. My bad. If you made a mistake, don’t trivialize it by saying it was my bad – this only makes people think you’re indifferent as well as incompetent. On the other hand, by saying I made a mistake, you’ll earn respect.

N-O

94. Next steps. This harmless-looking phrase escalates word count. Instead of, as a next step we will … just say, next, we will.

95. Ninja. See guru.

96. Offline. Replace discuss offline with discuss privately.

97. One throat to choke. This means you are the only place your client needs to go for answers. Don’t give your client any ideas! Instead, simply say that you are fully accountable.

98. On the same page. In the old days, we were singing from the same sheet of music. Now, we’re on the same page. In any era, it’s easier to simply say, we agree.

99. Open the kimono. If you’re sharing secrets or proprietary information, just share them and be done with it. There’s no upside to bringing hidden body parts into the discussion.

100. Optimize. This term is overused; whenever possible, replace with improve.

101. Out of pocket. A tailor’s inventory may be out of pocket. You’re just busy.

102. Outside the box. Ironically, using this tired phrase alerts people that you have no creativity whatsoever. Instead, talk about creative or imaginative thinking.

P

103. Pain point. Replace with problem, challenge, frustration, difficulty or headache.

104. Paradigm shift. If you say significant change or fundamental change, people will actually understand what you’re talking about.

105. Pencil in. You penciled me in: that means we’re tentatively scheduled, right? Hmm … maybe not. Maybe we’re definitely scheduled but you didn’t have access to your calendar. Maybe you should have said tentatively scheduled or definitely scheduled.

106. Preplan. When people say preplan, they usually mean early-stage planning. Preplanning is something (I’m not really sure what) that people do before they start planning.

107. Preschedule. See preplan.

108. Preso. I stopped using this word when I realized nobody knew I meant slide presentation. It probably saved my job.

109. Price point. For general business use, price is all you need.

110. Proactive. When people are proactive they take the initiative. Doesn’t take the initiative sound stronger and more like something a real person would say?

111. Push the envelope. This could mean to act aggressively, assume risk, expand the boundaries of, or advance to the boundary. Think about what you mean exactly, and then describe it.

Q-R

112. Quite frankly. Use this phrase only when you want people to know you’re being otherwise deceptive and insincere.

113. Radio silent. When you don’t hear from a customer or prospect for a good while, he’s gone radio silent. Radio doesn’t add anything to this disturbing situation. Better to say the customer has gone silent or stopped communicating.

114. Raise the bar. This means to set a higher standard, which sounds a whole lot better.

115. Rationalization. This is a euphemism for getting fired. Vendor rationalization means your supplier got fired; workforce rationalization means you get fired. Avoid euphemisms always. They infuriate people and are guaranteed to worsen the reaction to your bad news.

116. Reach out. Customers don’t want you to reach out, as that phrasing is vague and nonchalant. They prefer you visit, call, email or text them (ideally within a stated amount of time).

117. Reinvent the wheel. When people reinvent the wheel, they are laboriously recreating something essential that already exists in finished form. The phrase is actually useful for describing this situation; problems arise when it is used to describe something that is not laborious, not being recreated, not essential and/or not already existing in finished form.

118. Resonate. When an idea resonates, it reaches people on an emotional level or in a way they can relate to. This is why it may be better to say either that people will be moved by this idea or will relate to this idea.

119. Roadmap. Vague. In business, a roadmap could be a strategic plan, a tactical plan or a set of instructions. Decide what you really mean and describe accordingly.

120. Robust. Robust functionality just doesn’t resonate. On the other hand, people will relate when you say your product does a lot of useful things.

121. Rock star. See guru and ninja.

122. Rocket science. See brain surgery.

S

123. Seamless. See frictionless. Few things, if any, in business are seamless. Replace this word with something along the lines of easy to implement.

124. Secret sauce. Your secret sauce is your competitive edge; something crucial you can do that your competitors cannot. Secret sauce trivializes a supremely important concept; replace the phrase with key benefit, unique benefit, unique advantage, etc.

125. Sense of urgency. When I hear this bit of corporate-speak, I think the seller is just going through the motions of sounding concerned. I’d rather hear, we’re deeply concerned, which is personal and direct, or we’re working an extra 10 hours a week, which is specific. Or both.

126. Skin in the game. A gruesome phrase you’d expect to hear from Hannibal Lecter. Stick with the professional and universally understood ownership interest.

127. Solutions. For my money, the worst word in the world. When people hear solutions, they think, “Here’s a complicated product that will create more problems than it solves.” Or, their minds simply go blank because they’ve heard the word a million times. Replace solutions with specific benefits; e.g., This product simplifies household budgeting.

128. Soup to nuts. To avoid coming off like a buffoon, substitute comprehensive or complete.

129. State of the art. This phrase used to be state of the art … but now lets customers know your product has jumped the shark (see jump the shark). Better to avoid superlatives and describe it as your latest model, or having the latest technology. 130. Strategic plan. Few companies have the stamina and expertise to create a genuine strategic plan. More often, the phrase is used to describe a strategic sketch, strategic guesswork or a tactical plan. Don’t overinflate what you’ve created (and your ego) by calling these latter items a strategic plan.

131. Strike while the iron is hot. See make hay while the sun shines.

132. Synergy. When things synergize, they combine to have a greater impact than they can achieve on their own. Synergy is a useful business concept, but the word has been run into the ground. The key is to avoid synergy when you mean only collaboration, cooperation or consolidation.

T

133. Table stakes. Table stakes are minimum requirements to engage in a particular business. Use minimum requirements instead.

134. Take strides. A way of saying we’re improving that implies you started from a poor position. If that’s what you mean, fine.

135. Take to the next level. A way of saying we’re improving that implies you started from a strong position. If that’s what you mean, fine.

136. Task (as a verb). Don’t task someone; give him or her an assignment.

137. Thought leader. See guru, ninja and rock star.

138. Touch base. See reach out.

139. Traction. In general business usage, when something gains traction, it begins to take hold or gather momentum. Either of these latter phrases conveys the idea more clearly than traction.

U-V

140. Unpack. To unpack an idea is to examine it in detail. Unpack is becoming overused; better to stick with examine in detail.

141. Utilize. Don’t utilize something; use it.

142. Value-added. Saying your product or service has “value-added” components doesn’t tell anyone anything about what the value is or how the value is relevant; in other words, the phrase is meaningless. Reaching for this phrase means the time has come to point out product and service benefits.

143. Valued partner. Beware of valued partner followed by but: You’re a valued partner, but you’ve been selected for our vendor rationalization initiative. In general, valued is unnecessary; being a partner implies the other party values you.

144. Viral. Few things in the world of marketing go viral. Most business mentions of this word mean four or five people tweeted your blog post.

W-Z

145. White Paper. Bad on two counts. First, it’s pretentious: THE IVORY TOWER HAS SPOKEN! Second, it’s too often used to describe a scrap of drivel rather than what it is supposed to be — an authoritative report.

146. Win-win. Theoretically, it’s a game where both parties win; the opposite of a zero-sum game. In business world reality, a win-win is a phrase the party that wins more uses to console the party that wins less. Better to avoid the whole concept and describe specifically what each party gains.

147. With all due respect. Usually a prelude to an insult. This phrase is utterly delete-worthy.

148. World class. A bold statement that should be used only to describe proven and widely accepted products, services, systems and organizations. Even then, it doesn’t convey anything concrete. As with solutions, it is far more persuasive to describe the standout quality of the subject in question: Our customer service reps answer every call within one ring.

149. Wordsmith (as a verb). Don’t wordsmith the sales copy; edit it.

150. Zero-sum game. A game where one party wins and the other loses; the opposite of a win-win. Since not everyone knows this, a clearer (and powerful) way to describe it is winner take all.

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From Traffic Sources to New Customers

The Internet marketing lead generation ecosystem illustrates how all components fit together to form cohesive campaigns. It is intended to give marketing leaders a blueprint for building a complete Internet marketing strategy that maximizes sales lead generation.

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