Stop floundering

Having a clear content strategy keeps you from wasting time. There are four simple steps to getting a content strategy, and then executing it consistently:

1. Create a simple outline of your product / service offerings – Don’t base this just on the way you think it should be structured. Base it on the way your prospective customers search for what they need.

2. Let that guide your search for key phrases – Google provides free tools for choosing phrases based on search demand per month. Use the tools, but don’t use them blindly. Apply marketing thinking to the selection. Also, make sure you can commit to working with those phrases again and again, turning them into interesting blog postings that will be of value to your prospects. Google must see that you’re committed to particular phrases based on the number of times it’s on your website.

3. Work with key phrases your prospects are using to find companies like yours – This seems to be particularly difficult for many companies. When I look around various business websites, I can immediately tell that people still look at writing as a purely creative exercise. While blog writing for SEO purposes should be creative and fun to read, it must follow a business goal, or don’t bother. Your creative writing days were back in college. Time to get very focused.

4. Use the phrases in the way that works – If you write a blog post in a particular way, it will rank on Google and Bing. If you don’t…it won’t. Our technique of writing blog postings using key phrases is proprietary and I’ll be happy to discuss it with serious companies. Try me at the contact link above.

Getting to page 1 on SERPS doesn’t necessarily result in sales

In certain categories, getting to page 1 on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) definitely means increased sales. But in some higher-cost categories it’s far more difficult to tie a page-1 ranking to a sale.

At ion Leap, we go much further than just getting you ranked on page 1. We examine the pages that are ranking and make the necessary changes to it to ensure a lower bounce rate and cross sell other products and services. We make the offering compelling. Then, if they’re still not ready to buy, we offer the opportunity to at least let us bring them “thought leadership” content like a monthly e-newsletter.

Get ruthless

Look, getting someone to click your page 1 ranking
is no guarantee they’ll be back. You must be compelling.
What they find when they click that page 1 link
must have a sense of urgency to it. We can get
you to page 1. Let us go further.

The next step is to assess what’s happening on your landing pages – the pages they arrive at when they click that page one ranking we’ll get you to. Is there anything that compels them to buy your product or service? Are there relevant, short videos on those landing pages? Is there a way for them to sign up for an e-newsletter?

Why ion Leap

We bring over 25 years of marketing expertise to our integrated approach. Sometimes we recommend that our clients NOT write a blog…not use content marketing. How’s that for a statement in a blog post about blog writing??

If you’re ready to take a more marketing-driven approach to your content – to be ruthless about it – then it’s time to contact ion Leap. We’ll get you focused fast.

Blog Writer Summary:

Hire a blog writer who understands strategy

Make sure each blog is written with those phrases

You must go beyond blog writing to on-page sales

Contact ion Leap for blog writing that works

If you write things people value,
you will be rewarded with links pointing at your website.

If you have links pointing at your website,
the search engines will reward you with a higher ranking in the organic search results.

People will follow you on your Facebook Fan Page.

You will have friends on Twitter.

Recently, we invented a very simple and addictive Facebook and blog writing idea for a famous resort in the Caribbean. It’s very visual in nature and lots of fun. All it requires is that they bring more friends who will want to participate in the fun.

In a very simple and relevant way, we added a great deal of value. The client will be rewarded with tons more followers, many of whom will give them money to visit their resort.

Internet marketing shouldn’t focus on words.

It should be about ideas. Probably about ideas that sell things.

That’s not un-zen…selling stuff.
It is the inevitable outcome of creating wonderful things.

The Internet really is no different than the real world. If you are wonderful,
people will find their way to you.

If people aren’t finding their way to you, it’s probably because you are in your own way.
Or at least your website is.

We begin by getting your website
out of your way.

Get your blog writing right

The problem with such blog writers is they don’t value their blogs as resources for content delivery. At Ion Leap, we represent trusted brands on the Internet, so we do our homework in their categories with great care. Every word is considered; every sentence checked for accuracy.

Does your blog writer value accuracy?

Even the slightest slips on blogs can harm a company’s reputation among its customers. Ion Leap regularly gets our clients to the point where they trust us with their content writing so much that they no long check everything we post.

We bring subject matter experts to our clients and add SEO value (and content reliability) to every blog post they write. In the end, both Google and our clients’ prospective customers find incredible value in what we write.

Ion Leap builds long-term brand value with trusted content

We’ve been in marketing for over 20 years and have been trusted by some of the country’s most-loved brands. On reason we hold this trust is that we’re careful with how we represent our clients’ content.

If you’d like your company’s voice to be managed by consummate professionals, contact us at the link above and ask about our blog writing services. We’ll happily provide a list of contacts among our current customers so you can see for yourself how we handle content writing for brands like yours.

Blog writing and content will become more important

The age of attempting to trick the search engines with link building spam is, hopefully, soon to wind down. When I see websites out there who have 65,000 links pointing to them (and they sell cat food), then it’s time for Google to begin to devalue this practice and begin to focus on written content. There’s no better way to handle your content than blog writing.

If you currently have a blog parked on your website, you’re part of the way towards building your content assets for search success, but it’s not enough. You must have a key phrase strategy which you incorporate very carefully into each of your blog postings. If you’re writing it carefully enough, you will be ideally positioned for SEO success in 2011. If you’re not, it’s time to call Ion Leap for advice and writing services.

Social Media will continue to rise in importance

While the pundits who predict that social media will take over everything are certainly over-reaching, they’re not wrong about its increasing importance. Perhaps the success of sites like Facebook, Twitter and Stumbleupon are a reaction to too much commercialism in other places on the web. People turn to groups of friends for advice, recommendations and entertainment.

We at Ion Leap think the combination of social media plus mobile delivery will point the way to the future of digital marketing; if not in 2011, then shortly thereafter. And we’re preparing all our clients to be ready for it.

One thing we’re beginning to ponder for 2011 is how to build a more effective corporate presence in the social world. We’re looking at all sorts of solutions to keeping companies relevant as everything moves more towards personalization. Can a corporate fan page on Facebook retain its relevancy. We have some very unique suggestions we’re talking to our customers about. We can’t reveal some of our techniques here, but we’d be happy to speak over the phone – (917) 676-6788.

Mobile delivery will be critical

In 2011 and onwards, mobile delivery will be more important than ever. Having a position you can occupy by using this delivery platform will be terribly important.

We’ve blogged before about the importance of positioning yourself in the growing localization movement. This is only one part of your critical mobile strategy. It’s time to start crafting your mobile content strategy; and we’re not just talking about blog writing. We’re recommending all our clients move quickly to establish a brand in mobile delivery. If you manufacture a product then you should be able to guide prospective customers to it; but there are far more lasting brand opportunities available to you.

By building your brand based on localization services with a content / context overlay, you’ll be grabbing space that others will clamor for years from now.

Begin now to set up your Internet presence so you encourage your customers to transact business with you via electronic funding. Make it simple and intuitive now, with just a few options for purchase, so your customers look to you as a leader in the mobile transaction space.

By following white hat practices, we’ve seen our clients take over the top 3 pages of their category for multiple key phrases. Being a nice witch really pays off. Those websites who invest now in creating solid, useful and admired content will be rewarded permanently. And once you’re occupying the top level of pages, it’s very difficult to unseat you.

But there are many different kinds of white hats. Which kind are Ion Leap blog writers?

We’d definitely never be caught in the hat on the right. However, the two others deserve some discussion.

That construction hat on the left was chosen because it represents hard, muscular work. Doing content writing for clients is very much like that. One has to know the category – especially in B2B categories. You have to be on time, use great skill in your job, and display good craftsmanship. You wear such a hat because you work in a challenging area. As writers, we’re not exposed to much more than carpal tunnel syndrome, but the job has other difficult moments – tight deadlines, an always-changing algorithm, well-funded competitors, and more.

The chef’s hat appealed to us because it represents a level of artistry which we like to maintain in what we do for clients. Think how many knives the chef is skilled at using. Ion Leap blog writers also have to be skilled in managing our clients’ social media presences. We’re skilled at writing with a variety of tones of voice. We’re brilliant in Business-to-Business and Business-to-Consumer. And through it all, we care greatly about our craft. We want our work to be mouth-watering.

Build long-term value on the web. Hire white hat Ion Leap blog writer teams.

We’re currently helping clients in all sorts of industries. We’ll find a blog writer subject matter expert for your web presence who can be adept at all three of the hats pictured above. We’ll combine them with our in-house SEO experts to craft content that both Google and your potential customers will find delicious. Use the “Contact” link above to get in touch with us today.

Your blog can help

If your website has a blog on it, it makes a major difference in how it’s viewed by search engines. Freshness of your content is now viewed as a plus. This is a way the search engines are offering more “real-time” value to their users. It’s also a guarantee that the search results don’t present stagnant websites which haven’t had anything new to say for years.

Writing on your blog is one of the easiest ways to update a website. Because it’s a content management system, it makes it possible for just about anyone to update the site.

But updates aren’t enough

Ion Leap blog writer teams know what Google and your business prospects are looking for. While fresh content is part of it, there’s much more to it. Our content writing seamlessly weaves key phrases into the pages in a particular density which makes it very attractive to search engines, and that’s one of the main ways we make your site rank higher. There are others.

Site structure and SEO

From a long-term perspective, we’re extremely pessimistic about the current practices of ‘link farming,’ directory hammering and other methods which have nothing to do with creating real website value. However, we also understand how Google works and we will get your website compliant with what the search engines want. There are SEO practices which can make a major difference in how your site is crawled by search engines.

We write content that creates long-term value

Ion Leap is all about long-term value. We create website content that your readers will find incredibly useful. Many of them will bookmark it. Others will point links at it. In the end, this is the way both your prospects and the search engines will value websites. By starting to create content of lasting value now, you’ll be set for the future. A blog writer team from Ion Leap will combine the artistry of persuasive writing in any business category with an SEO writer who makes sure Google will also love the page.

To learn more about how an Ion Leap Blog writer team can get you ranked higher on Google, use the “Contact” link above.

Here’s a funny one – Pet Place dot Com. Amazingly, 3,952 other websites have pointed links at this website. Oh, really??!! They started their website in June of 1998 (go to WhoIs dot com and look them up). So they’ve had time to acquire a good deal of outside websites who are fans…but 3,952? No Way. These guys have hired a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) company who’s been planting links in directories all over the internet.

Strange inconsistencies

There’s another company out there called Cat Care dot Com who also shows up on page one on a search for the phrase “Cat Care” and they only have 82 links pointed at them. The difference? They’ve been around since 1996 and have a different approach to their website – one that Google and human beings like better.

Then I did a search for the phrase “Cat Food.” One of the top 10 websites is Iams dot Com. Amazingly 3,229 other websites have pointed a link at Iams dot Com. Did you point a link at Iams? I sure didn’t.

FancyFeast dot Com also started their website in 1996. Yet they have only 189 links pointing at their website. So why are both showing up on page 1 of a Google search for the phrase “Cat food?” We’ll get to that in a few paragraphs. First, what’s going on out there?

SEO link hammering and how to beat it with an honest approach.

Don’t get me wrong. SEO companies serve a purpose, especially in some categories. But when I see thousands of links pointing to a company’s website and they make cat food…come on now…something is wrong. Are that many people passionate about cat food? And why are so many crazy about Iams yet not Fancy Feast. My cats always loved the later brand far more than the former, but even then I didn’t get so excited about it that I got on every website I manage and point a link at the company. No, something is clearly going on here.

SEO companies make their money primarily by getting onto directories out there and planting links. There are 2 kinds of directories – 1. Listings like Search Site dot Com 2. Article submission sites like Buzzle dot Com

SEO guys typically hate the article approach because it requires a lot of work and it’s a slow way to build up off-page link credibility. There are some other arguments against this approach that make sense, like not wanting to compete against your own website. But a great reason to use these sites is that you can plant an anchor text link in a page full of relevant content full of key phrases. Google likes that.

Why this is good for you…and Ion Leap

In certain categories, it’s very clear that everyone on the top couple pages of a Google search results page (SERP) is using SEO companies to plant tons of links. So once every company out there has 22,000 outside links pointed at their website, then how will you compete?

You’ll have to put up relevant content for your audience and it will have to be really good content.

We have to admit, we do link building too. But Ion Leap does it in a far more careful way than just hammering links onto directories. I won’t go into our full approach here because it’s proprietary, but as you read through out website you’ll begin to see that the difference between us and SEO companies is that we’re very careful and are building lasting value for brands by using blog writer teams to create high value content writing. Internet marketing at Ion Leap is not instant. It can take us several months to get some companies in competitive categories ranked well. But once we achieve this with solid content writing by our blog writer teams and careful link building, you’ll be next to impossible to get around on the ranking.

If there’s a level above “white hat” in the world of SEO practices, that’s Ion Leap. We are a more careful internet marketing company.
______________________________

Steve St. Clair runs Ion Leap and, for fun, runs the Sinclair DNA study, which studies the history of the Sinclair family using the wonderfully accurate science of DNA. Through this study, Steve has applied the rigor of DNA he applies the clarity of marketing data and metrics to clients’ rankings on Google and Bing.

Why social makes sense for rankings

Google values word of mouth marketing more and more. Before Facebook and even earlier than Myspace, the best way they could achieve this was through measuring the number of and relative value of links pointing at each website. This and good content written by a skilled blog writer are still the main ways websites get ranked highly. But now there’s the direct and timely recommendation power of social media.

As search starts to use pages like Facebook to determine relevance of a web property, it’s getting much more timely information. Try a search today and among the recommended websites might be some that were put up 5 year ago or more. If social media is brought into the picture, then the opportunity is there for Google to present search results based on timely information and to filter it based on the likes of your friends and peers.

An opportunity for other solutions

Lately I’ve been playing around with Quora and Hunch. The latter one is building something akin to Pandora’s music genome project which learns about you as you listen. In this case, you must continuously answer questions. According to Wikipedia, they reached 1.2 million users by February 2010. Even better, by allowing it access to your Facebook or Twitter accounts, it immediately begins to make predictions about your interests, and then it learns about you as you go.

Quora is question-based, but much the same. It’s built by the community who’s on it.

Still another is called Recorded Future. This one is really interesting. It scrapes real-time data from the Internet and makes predictions about what might happen in the future related to what it’s learned about the company or person in the present. For instance, if I’m searching for a blog writer and it finds that I’ve also placed hiring ads on CraigsList; and on another site it finds a mention that Google wants to buy Ion Leap; then it scrapes something related from my Twitter feed…then it might bring all that information together and make predictions about how Ion Leap is going to be very, very rich. To use the service you have to sign up for a paid plan, so I haven’t jumped in yet, but it certainly looks like a cool solution.

Why social isn’t enough

There are immediate and then long-term problems which will likely affect all of these. The immediate problem is that the early information and recommendations built into them will be from the early adopters, and they represent a certain demographic which will result in skewed information. While not bad or wrong, it will by necessity leave out certain topics and be one-sided on others.

The long-term issues will occur if they are successful. Who judges which experts can control what I see? Certainly not all of my Facebook friends should be recommending what I read or where I vacation. I have a very wide set of friends with extremely differing taste levels and interests. Do I really trust them more than the Google Algorithm?

What will it look like and when?

What will make all this powerful will be to put the controls into the hands of the users. If Google doesn’t buy Quora and Hunch, then maybe some sort of overlord company will come along that will allow me to choose how to filter my search between all the services out there. If I’m looking for a restaurant, then I trust a certain set of friends. If it’s a question about technology, I trust others. But if I’m looking for a vacation spot, I’d like a plain old-fashioned search, driven by the Google search engine, pointing at websites with good blog writer teams on the other end. And, occasionally, I’d like to click on a website written 10 years ago.