When you think about the qualities of a great website, what do you think about?

Is it the slick graphic design? Or the really cool, sexy Flash intro? Or maybe some genius programming skills that make the site do something unique?

Do theses techno gizmos make a business website, (maybe even yours) stand out from the competition, or attract and convert more sales?

Um… No!

Granted. Many, if not most websites use these things today, and they are necessary, but without one missing crucial component, it cant truly stand out.

So how can you differentiate your website from the rest?

Simply put – Hiring a web copywriter to writing the right words in the right place on every page on your website.

Granted… words sure aren’t as sexy as the latest technological wizardry and programming, but since most web copy completely sucks, a copywriter can make your site stand out from the crowd, and great web copy will actually attract new prospects and customers. The technology can’t.

A good web copywriter will more than pay for themselves, and let your website show the world (or at least your local community) how they will benefit from using your products and services.

What are your thoughts?

And if you need offline direct response marketing copy and advice, go to www.crestviewmarketing.com

Merrill Clark
Web, SEO, and Direct Response Copywriter

Since the recent death of my son, I’ve come to the overwhelming realization that marketing and business is not the most important thing in the world.

Your life and family is the most important thing in your world! (at least, it should be)

It’s been 5 weeks now, and my mind and heart is still riding an emotional roller coaster, with just about every emotion known to mankind.

And with all those powerful emotions running around inside, it hit me like a ton of bricks…

I’ve come to realize the things in life that are really important, and the things that don’t mean a damn thing in the overall scheme of things.

And you know what? Over the last 5 weeks – marketing, which is my business, hasn’t even existed in my world.

It’s amazing the things I’ve come to realize that just don’t matter at all.

Taking care of my wife and the rest of my family and friends have taken complete priority, and will continue to do so.

Now that doesn’t mean I won’t work my business hard. Of course I have to… the bills still have to be payed.

It just means that I’ll work hard and pay more attention at taking care of love and life itself while I’m still around.

Business will happen.

Unfortunately, it took my son’s suicide for me to learn this valuable lesson.

What does all this have to do with marketing and business and generating leads?

Probably nothing at all.

But I feel a lot better sharing this so maybe you won’t be writing a similar story in your lifetime.

And in case you’re wondering… You’ll start getting new marketing and business tips in this blog soon. As soon as my brain says…

Let’s GO!

Thanks for listening, your cards, prayers, and your support…

And if you need offline direct response marketing copy and advice, go to www.crestviewmarketing.com

Merrill Clark

Web, SEO, and Direct Response Copywriter

It’s a fact: Most websites display at least one picture.

Did you know by changing a simple setting on your website pictures, your website could get found more often?

But more importantly, search engines such as Google, will scan this setting and take it into consideration when displaying the search results page. This could result in your site being shown higher in the rankings.

In techie talk…it’s called the “alt tag”.

And every picture on your website has one.

In non-techie talk, it’s a place where you can include text to describe the picture. So when someone’s computer can’t display the picture, it will show this “alt tag”, so you know what it is, even if you can’t see it.

Unfortunately, when most websites are created, these fields are often left blank.

Generally, pictures don’t help Google figure out what your web page is about, so it looks for the “alt tag” for that information.

So what I recommend is to put an “alt tag” on every picture on your site, so Google will see it.

And use your keywords in the alt tag anytime you can, as long as it’s relevant to the picture.

Just make sure it’s descriptive and accurate, though.

Example: If you’re a plumber in Boston…

Let’s say you have a picture of yourself in the sidebar to give your readers a face and a personality to your site.

You’d create an alt tag that says:

“John Smith – Master Plumber in Boston MA”

Google will see this text (and also some great keywords), ultimately helping improve your site’s search rankings.

To see if your pictures have alt tags or not, just move your mouse over the picture for a few seconds, and see if a little text box pops up.

If it does, it will be your alt tag. If nothing happens, the picture probably doesn’t have one.

Your web people can help you make these changes, and a good web copywriter can give you the right text for them.

What are your thoughts?

And if you need offline direct response marketing copy and advice, go to www.crestviewmarketing.com

Merrill Clark
Web, SEO, and Direct Response Copywriter

As long as I’ve been writing web and SEO copy, there’s been a general copywriting rule of thumb.

And it says: Don’t use the words “Click Here” with a hyperlink, because it doesn’t include any keywords in the link text.

And keywords in your links and anchor text are a good thing.

So that’s one train of thought – which does make sense.

But when you want a web visitor to click on a link, sometimes it’s tough to come up with the right combination of keywords in the link text that are strong enough to persuade them to click.

Another thing that’s crucial to getting a click is a powerful and compelling call to action.

A call to action is what you tell your prospect to do next.

Click Here is a pretty darn strong call to action, but doesn’t include any keywords.

The latest debate centers on using Click Here or not using Click Here as the link text.

Hmmm… The SEO side … or the strong call to action side?

Personally, I try to use keywords in my links whenever I can, and if my primary goal is to get people to click on a certain link, I’ll use Click Here if I can make it sound good, too.

Like everything else in life, I think balance is the key.

What are your thoughts?

And if you need offline direct response marketing copy and advice, go to www.crestviewmarketing.com

Merrill Clark
Web, SEO, and Direct Response Copywriter

Do you want to get more qualified visitors to your website, and convert more of them to paying customers?

Of course you do! Or at least most business owners do. I mean – that’s why you have a website to begin with.

So…assuming you do, too, I’m going to tell you about one optimization change you can make that could increase your traffic by as much as 30…40…even 50%.

It’s a mistake I see almost every day and it has to do with how people search for your products or services.

Companies that have multiple products and services often lump all of those descriptions onto one web page.

And that’s bad. It’s bad because one web page can only have one page title, only one description meta tag, and only one keyword tag.

The problem is you can’t put all your products and services in one title, description, or keyword tag.

Special note – To find out exactly why these factors are so crucial for your website getting found by the search engines, check out my new book for local search marketing advice.

The most effective strategy is to create a separate web page for each product and service you offer. Then you can optimize a persuasive page title, page description, keywords, a powerful headline, and great copy that’s completely laser-focused on each product and service.

Those are crucial elements on your web pages that will attract the search engines.

Why? Because the service names and descriptions are usually what people will be searching on, and if you have a specific page for each one, you stand a much better chance of having that particular page rank higher than your competition, maybe even higher than your home page.

Think about it… When you search for something, you’re only searching for one specific thing, not a whole bunch of things.

So start by taking your services page that lists 5 or 6 or 10 or however many services you provide, and create separate pages for each one.

You can see a good example of this at www.maguirehealthbenefits.com.

He could have lumped employer health insurance, supplemental insurance, and individual health insurance and supplemental insurance onto one page. Keep in mind employers and individuals have completely different wants and search on different keywords.

Instead, each is logically separated on its own page so the copy can be focused on each one.

And he’s reported to me that it works very well.

Product and service specific pages definitely works. If you want more details about how it could affect your website, contact me.

What are your thoughts?

And if you need offline direct response marketing copy and advice, go to www.crestviewmarketing.com

Merrill Clark
Web, SEO, and Direct Response Copywriter

Personally…there’s nothing more irritating than leaving a message for a business you want to give your hard-earned money to, and never hearing back from them…

But it really ticks me off when I send an email or take the time to fill out a contact form on a business website – and never get a response – ever!

Come on folks…this is Marketing and Business 101. Not to mention Courtesy 101.

And it’s just plain rude to not respond to a legitimate request from a prospect.

Do these companies really have so much business that they cant find the time to follow up and respond to a possible client’s request for information or answer a question. Jeesh!!

I think not.

It seems to me that it’s becoming more and more frequent to ignore online requests for information, and it’s too bad for those that businesses, since they’re the ones losing out.

More and more people like to do research and get information online before they contact a vendor to make a purchase.

So why ignore them, and run the risk of losing them as a client forever?

Dunno, but it sure happens a lot.

The moral to my rant is this:

If you have an email and/or a contact form on your website: Make damn sure your company follows up with the people who spend their valuable time contacting you!

And if you don’t want anyone to buy anything from you, then get rid of all your contact information from your website. At least you’ll save people the aggravation of wasting their time on you.

What are your thoughts?

And if you need offline direct response marketing copy and advice, go to www.crestviewmarketing.com

Merrill Clark
Web, SEO, and Direct Response Copywriter

Do you wanna know how you can drive a ton of new traffic to your website?

In a word… Postcards.

Now before you get all worked up thinking it sounds counter-intuitive to using an offline technique to generate more visitors to your website, let me explain.

First, the postage to mail a 4×6 postcard to your ideal prospect is only 28 cents each.

Plus, you can get postcards printed pretty darn cheap, even at your local print shop. And they don’t have to be fancy, either.

To get the best results from a postcard mailing, with the purpose of generating new traffic to your site…

Here’s what you need to do:

First – come up with a physical mailing list of your ideal prospects. Buy one, rent one, or create your own (the cheapest way).

Second – come up with a special offer just for them that’s so irresistible, they’d be crazy not to respond.

Third – make sure you have a powerful call-to-action that tells them to go to your website to get your offer. (You should even create a special web page just for this postcard offer)

Finally – mail them out and start tracking your results.

Just make sure your postcard copy adheres to direct response copywriting and marketing rules.

What I mean is – use a great headline, convincing copy, offer them something they want, and tell them how to get it (go to your website). And don’t forget to test.

What are your thoughts?

And if you need offline direct response marketing copy and advice, go to www.crestviewmarketing.com

Merrill Clark
Web, SEO, and Direct Response Copywriter

There are a number of ways to effectively increase your website’s exposure to the search engines, and at the same time, increase your Google Page Rank.

Today, I’m just going to talk about one of them.

It involves getting more incoming links (also called backlinks) to your website.

The main idea is to get other businesses to put a link to your website on their website. And the more you get, the better off you’ll be.

As long as the links are from respected and trustworthy sites that are somewhat relevant to your website and business. You can even create incoming links from other pages on your own site.

For example: If your site sells custom dog coats, you’d come up with a list of other business sites that also cater to dog owners, but sell different products – doggie cookies for instance.

Contact the website owner, and ask them if they’ll do it. Better yet, put a link to their site on yours first, then contact them. The law of reciprocity can be a powerful motivator.

Granted this can be a tedious, time consuming, and ongoing project…but over time, can be well worth it.

But please don’t fall for the link exchange services where someone promises to put links to your site on thousands of useless sites for a fee. You might as well flush your money down the toilet.

Matt Cutts from Google recently stated in a video that they are getting real good at sniffing out those types of links, and they wont be rewarded at all. And sometimes, Google even penalizes sites that try that technique.

Be smart, stay persistent, and stay on the up-and-up, and over time, you’ll see your rankings and traffic trend upwards.

What are your thoughts?

And if you need offline direct response marketing copy and advice, go to www.crestviewmarketing.com

Merrill Clark
Web, SEO, and Direct Response Copywriter

What if you could change just one element of your website’s design that could improve the time your visitors spent on your site by 30-40 percent?

Would you be interested?

I thought so.

As I was writing a web critique for a client this weekend, there was one thing about their site that really disturbed me.

And it had nothing to do with the lack of web copy or page headlines or anything like that.

Instead it was related to the design aspect (of which I’m certainly not an expert on). And since I was looking at it from a “possible client” point of view, I can have an opinion.

I just didn’t like the colors that were used. They just didn’t fit in with the specific service that was offered or the prospect’s reason for being there. In short – it was cold and negative.

Now I’m not going to get into a war of words with designers (The good designers I know will agree with me because they do the necessary research), but when you or your designer, or whoever does your site comes up with a layout and color scheme for your website…

Please make sure it will be warm and inviting so the person looking at it will want to check it out in more detail – don’t make it look so cold, negative, and impersonal that they turn and run as fast as they can.

To do that though, they’ll need to learn about the products and services being offered, and the personalities of the people going to the site.

For example: if you’re site is selling heavy metal rock songs to kids, maybe the black and dark color schemes would be okay. But…if your website is trying to get 45 year old women to sign up for your local garden club, you may want to consider using bright and happy colors.

Bottom line — colors (and pictures, too) should be used to make your prospects feel at home, feel positive, and give ‘em that trusting, warm and fuzzy feeling they are looking for.

Depending on your services or products AND your ideal prospect’s wants, it might just be a matter of using the right color, or a brighter, cheerier color scheme.

What are your thoughts?

And if you need offline direct response marketing copy and advice, go to www.crestviewmarketing.com

Merrill Clark
Web, SEO, and Direct Response Copywriter

**UPDATED APRIL 5th**

“How Your Small Local Business Can Get More Customers On The Internet”, written by Merrill R. Clark at Crestview Marketing Services, is now available!

It shows business owners how to use the unlimited reach and power of the Internet to generate more qualified leads, then convert those leads to paying customers.

The paperback is only $24.95, and the downloadable PDF E-book version is only $19.95. For those of you who’d like both formats, there will be a special price of $39.95.

In stock at www.GetmoreClientsOnlineBook.com!

Frankly, at those prices, if you’re a business owner or sales professional, you have no excuse for not picking up your own copy.

It includes 27 chapters chock-full of practical online marketing advice that any business owner can easily take advantage of. And it’s all right here in one easy-to-read book.

For your convenience, you can order a copy from Amazon, direct from my website, from Water Street Bookstore in Exeter, or from RiverRun Bookstore in Portsmouth.

So…To get started woopin’ up your competition, just click on the button below to order now!

.Order here!

If you’d prefer to see what kind of information you’ll get before you shell out your hard-earned cash, you can download one chapter from the book for free.

Get More Customers on the Internet is written in simple-to-understand language, and targeted specifically towards the average small business owner. In it, I also tried to keep the techie stuff to a minimum, and from the feedback I’ve received so far, I did a pretty good job at that.

Last week I gave you the first 8 chapter titles of How Your Local Small Business Can Get New Customers on the Internet…

So here are the next 9 chapter titles…

CHAPTER 9 Page title meta-tags that generate free traffic

CHAPTER 10 Description meta-tags that make people click

CHAPTER 11 Tracking your website statistics

CHAPTER 12 Using the right keywords and phrases

CHAPTER 13 Getting found online for free with SEO

CHAPTER 14 Instant web traffic with pay-per-click ads

CHAPTER 15 Tracking and testing

CHAPTER 16 The power of e-mail marketing

CHAPTER 17 Power tips for E-mail success

If you’re a small business professional or owner who wants to find out how to market your local business using the power and reach of the Internet, make sure you get your own copy from the first print run before they run out.

What are your thoughts?

And if you need offline direct response marketing copy and advice, go to www.crestviewmarketing.com Merrill Clark Web, SEO, and Direct Response Copywriter