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Web Traffic - Is Your Content Making Your Web Site Invisible?

We Web content writers lead quiet lives peering at a computer monitor and tapping a keyboard. I even eat lunch at the keyboard, because it means that I can do some relaxing Web surfing without feeling guilty.

So drama was the last thing I expected on a cold winter's day when I bit into my peanut butter, raisin, and celery sandwich, and grabbed the ringing phone with my other hand.

A woman I didn't know sobbed into my ear: "My boss says our Web site's a disaster. We're not getting any visitors at all.... and I'm going to be fired."

I tried to tell her that it couldn't be that bad, and even if it was, we'd fix it, but it took ten minutes for her to calm down enough to tell me what the URL (Web address) was. When I looked at the site, I had a pretty good idea why her boss was mad.

It was a real estate site. Very nice. Tasteful -- elegant even. But clicking around the site, I could see that while artistically the site was fine, as a commercial Web site, it had big challenges.

No wonder the site wasn't getting any traffic. The site was almost invisible to the search engines.

At a guess, the site would be lucky to get five visitors a day, unless the real estate company bought traffic via Pay Per Click or other advertising.

Unfortunately, it turns out that they'd already spent too much on the site. Unless the sobbing lady got the site to do what had been promised by the developers -- get at least a thousand visitors a day and FAST -- her job was history.

Here's what I found on the site:

=> A Flash intro to the site

Flash animation was popular several years ago, but its popularity died when site owners realized that most Flash is just annoying. When someone comes to your site, they want information, and they want it right away.

=> Big images on every page

The images looked lovely, gorgeous homes, but only a few words of text. From a search engine standpoint, there was nothing to index on the pages.

=> Almost no text

Again, with very little text, there was nothing for search engines to index, and therefore no chance that the site would get traffic from the site search engines.

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=> NO "real estate"-related keywords

The site was called (not the real name, this name is fictitious) "Thomas Fedeck Green and Smythe Incorporated". This name was on every page. I'm sure that the name was well known to the real estate buyers in the company's home city, but it meant nothing to most Web surfers, and worse -- there was nothing connecting "Thomas Fedeck Green and Smythe Incorporated" with the keywords "real estate".

Worse yet, someone had decided to create images of each property's listing so that a very fancy font could be used. Again, nothing for the Web search engines to index.

=> Flash movies

Every listing on the site was accompanied by a Flash movie of the property, with an agent showing off the features of each property.

=> My recommendation: get some text onto each and every page

"The site's fine," I assured my caller, whose sobs had calmed down. "You just need material for the Web search engines to index. The engines aren't psychic. They don't know what your site is about. You have to tell them in words. Get some words onto the site -- words about real estate, and you'll get traffic in no time."

=> The happy ending: a rapid uptick in traffic

I developed a Web content plan for the site, and within a few weeks the site got an excellent uptick in traffic. The traffic's been steadily growing.

My caller wasn't fired. When I heard from her just a few days ago, she'd been made a partner. A happy ending all around -- and a site that was made visible at last.

Related: Content Writer - Experience Writing

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Angela Booth is a veteran copywriter and Web content expert. She writes Web site copy and content, and develops Web content plans for Web sites. Visit her creative copywriting site at http://angelabooth.com/ and her Creativity Factory marketing copywriting weblog at http://www.angelabooth.com/wp/

Using Website Translations To Monetize Content And Boost Online Revenues

Most web publishers, content creators, online marketers will continuously tell you that content is king—it is invariably one of the most critical ingredients for online marketing success. I couldn’t agree more.

However, a fact that often goes unnoticed is the huge amount of money that many of these publishers leave on the table by not “pushing” out their prized content to a much bigger market. By no means am I advocating stepping out of the niche that the publisher has created; rather, I’d like to highlight the opportunity that opens up when the web site publisher is able to reach a bigger audience within that niche.

There is a very simple solution: translate your web sites into multiple languages.

Now, we’ve heard many people say that the benefits of translation of web sites are for the big multinational companies that have large plans for specific markets, including having a local presence. However, this is not true. Granted that the opportunities for these larger organizations and the scale of investment for their web site translation and localization would be significantly different, but the opportunities for smaller web sites to boost their revenues are certainly not insignificant.

Why translate web sites?

It is easy to gauge the considerable potential by translating web sites (or even some pages of a web site) into more languages, when we look at the numbers. Vast numbers of Internet users (in fact, well over 50% worldwide) do not use the English language. Let’s consider for example some of the biggest markets in Asia- China, India, Japan and Korea. Barring India, English is not spoken or understood by the vast majority of the Internet-using population in the other countries. At the same, users in Japan and Korea are amongst the most net-savvy users in the world, with the Internet playing an integral part in their lives, from seeking information to shopping online.

Web publishers in the US or UK who are looking to monetize their web sites with contextual advertising or affiliate marketing can drive so much more traffic when they have their web site content translated into Japanese, Chinese or Korean.

It is likely that while a web site may not rank very high for a particular keyword phrase in English, it may rank much higher for its translated version in another language.

In a case study in a Global By Design report, published by Byte Level, a German software company adopted this strategy to multiply its traffic from search engines and attract the right kind of traffic to its web site, despite the fact that it translated only a fraction of its content on the parent site into other languages.

Even though this particular example pertains to the advantages of web localization and globalization undertaken by a software company, the same rationale applies to online retailers or information publishers monetizing web sites with contextual advertising such as Google AdSense or affiliate marketing links.

Many web site publishers who do take cognizance of the opportunities presented by translation, take a short cut and try to get their web sites translated using some free online translation tools.

While these tools are certainly useful for some purposes, they can hardly be a substitute for professional translation by a native translator who knows the intricacies of the language as well as its cultural nuances.

The consequences of not taking into account the cultural sensitivities of the Japanese or Chinese, for example, when translating a web site into these languages can be disastrous.

Professional marketers – be they of products, services or content-- can ill-afford to let their message get lost in translation.

Home Maintenance - Don't Lose Out on your Home and Contents Insurance

Every homeowner is familiar with the maintenance it takes to keep your home in good shape to avoid future problems. Keeping your property in good repair with regular preventative care is a necessity to make it a comfortable home – but did you know that poor maintenance can have other side effects besides a little damp or dry rot? In the event of a claim on your home and contents policy, insurers will look at your property’s upkeep very carefully, Should your care be found to be at fault, your claim could suffer. Poor maintenance can lead insurers to reduce their payment to you – or worse, refuse to pay altogether.

So how can you avoid this problem? Here are our top ten tips in our once –a-year guide to a well-maintained home. It’s the annual checkup no homeowner can afford to miss!

Start your care plan once winter is over – winter is the time when most problems reveal themselves due to the damage caused by wind, rain, snow and frost. In the springtime, you can assess them properly and take corrective measures. Choose any calm spring afternoon, or even take it up as part that other traditional Easter pastime – doing up the house! If you catch a problem early, it will be much easier to correct and could save you a lot of money, not just in terms of work but the insurance claim we mentioned earlier.

So here it is, our handy guide to home maintenance!

1. Check and clear all gutters – don’t forget any on freestanding buildings like the garage. Unless you have the proper ladders and safety equipment, this can be a dangerous job so you may want to hire a professional cleaner. Clean out leaves and debris. In the autumn and winter, as well as summer showers, gutters are in constant use. Overflowing gutters leak down walls, causing problems with damp inside and out, from redecorating to damp proofing as water penetrates the fabric of the building. A costly affair that can be simply prevented with the right preparation.

2. Examine your roof. You can use binoculars to help. Check for any loose, cracked or slipped tiles. You don’t want rain to get in – there’s no sinking feeling like the one you get on hearing the steady drip, drip, drip of water coming from your ceiling. In addition to nuisance, water can cause long-term, expensive problems like damp or dry rot. Not to mention having to redecorate! There could also be problems in high winds – a loose slate or tile could be blown loose and hit you or a passer-by. Not a risk you’d want to take.

3. Keep an eye on any exterior finishes and paintwork. These are continually exposed to the elements – summer heat can make paint or underlying surfaces expand and crack or blister. When winter comes, these damaged areas contract with the cold and more cracks can start to form, letting in moisture. Once water gets in, frost and ice expand it causing even more damage. It’s well worth tackling any surface damage early with a lick of paint or sealer.

4. If you’re lucky enough to have an old-fashioned fire, you need to make sure that the chimney is swept annually. Not only is soot build-up unsightly, it is a fire risk and a chimney blaze is something to avoid. In the warmer summer months you may not use your fire, but any soot will absorb damp from the air and this may start to affect the brickwork.

5. Check the damp proof course. Make sure it is still intact, and that there is nothing bridging it. Your DPC can’t work properly if it is covered by garden rubbish or other yard debris. If the damp proofing fails, it will no longer protect your property from damp and dry rot.

6. Standard trees and specimen shrubs can add to the look of a property, but some will grow very large indeed – consider that a tree has a root spread at least as far as the branches of its crown. If a tree is overhanging your house, its roots are under your foundations. Removing them – or getting them out of the drainage system – is a very expensive business. The most notorious trees for this are Willows, which love water, and Poplars. In fact if a new house is built within 150 feet of a Poplar tree, the foundations have to be reinforced.

7. Falling trees or branches can cause problems too. If damage is caused to your property from a tree on someone else’s land, you will be covered in the event of an insurance claim. But if you own the land on which the tree grows, its maintenance is your responsibility. If its branches are structurally unsound or the trunk rotten, then it is up to you to keep it in a safe condition or have it removed. While you can keep smaller plants in good order yourself, you may need to have a tree surgeon conduct an annual inspection to ensure that large trees are safe, and not likely to be blown over except in extreme conditions.

8. Rambling ivy or Virginia Creeper may add a touch of the rustic to your home, but climbing plants can cause a lot of damage to the brickwork. Removing them is hard too, with roots penetrating mortar and plasterwork. Any cracks caused will be exploited by bad weather. Ivy is the most damaging, and you need to be especially careful not to let it get in to damage the roof.

9. Have your gas checked by a properly qualified professional. Make sure you choose a Corgi-registered engineer, who will check your boiler, radiators and gas appliances as well as carbon monoxide levels. Springtime is best for this, after the high-use winter period is over.

10. Finally, check the loft. Birds like to creep into roof spaces to nest, with messy consequences, as do wasps. Squirrels can also nest in roofs, and they have one nasty habit that could have a dangerous or even fatal outcome – they like to chew the insulation found on wires. Block up any access to your roof an ensure they don’t take up residence.

Follow our ten tips, and your home should be equal to almost anything the weather can throw at it. You will also be protected in the event of a claim on your home and contents insurance, knowing that your maintenance is up to standard.

Getting Free Content For Your Site

Everybody know contents are important for a web site, but not everyone is a good writer. One of the options is hiring a writer to help out with site contents. Writers often are not cheap, and they are not the only way to help you get great contents for your web site.

1) You can get great contents from government sources. The great thing is the government sources are huge. It has the surprising range of information, and it is free, free, and free. You have to love it. For example, U.S. Government departments do not have copyright protection. The United States Postal Service is exempt from these rules. They have copyright protection for their work. You should also know that other governments may hold copyrights on their works. So it is still a good idea to check first, before they take their contents. Even with these exemptions, government content are a great resource to us.

2) You can also get free resources for your sites from content syndication sites. Site owner like you and me can pick up and use the contents from this site for free. Why ? Because, you have to link back to the author web site. That’s the trade off. It is not a really a free lunch, but you can save money.

3) Product Information. If your site sell products, contact the manufacturer. Try to get your hand on the brochures, recipe, user manuals of the products.

Be smart about finding good contents, and you can save money.

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