When I was a kid in New Mexico, I knew this girl who threw a big party for her birthday…and nobody came.
I know, I know. Really sad, right?
I sometimes think of that story when I see businesses spending a lot of money putting up a website and then waiting for the traffic to show up and the sales to start pouring in.
The point is, you can throw a “party” on the web—you can have a really cool website—but that doesn’t guarantee the crowds will show up!
So how do you get the crowds there? Well, the web-heads say that one of the keys to doing that is to pack the copy with keywords so that you come out at the top of relevant searches. And that sounds reasonable. But I am a bit skeptical about all the claims being thrown around about keywords and other SEO (Search Engine Optimization) techniques.
Just Say No to SEO?
As it turns out, I’m not alone in my skepticity. In a recent newsletter, Jeremy Shoemaker () confessed his own hatred of SEO.
I won’t repeat his argument—you can read it for yourself—but I do agree with his basic premise: simply showing up high in Google searches alone is no guarantee that you’re going to create a buzz and build your business.
Here’s the problem: Very often the technical aspects of building a website and SEO end up trumping the principles of good, persuasive communication.
I was working with a company in Canada, and some web-heads convinced them to change all of the copy on their website, to pack it with certain keywords. Sure enough, they started showing up at the tops of local searches. But the copy on their web pages which used to be warm, personal, and persuasive now reads like dry, technical gobbledygook.
If communication was simply the process of using the right key words, we could all just get up every day and repeat to our children words like: goodness, kindness, obedience, study, success, etc. Doesn’t quite work that way, does it?
Writing for People vs. Writing for Search Engines
To put it another way, it doesn’t matter how many people come to your website if you don’t have something really compelling and convincing and interesting and helpful for them when they get there. If you’re going to invite a lot of people to your web “party,” you’ve got to make sure you have something there they want.
So don’t let them pressure you into writing your website copy only for search engines. You have to remember that you’re talking to real people, one on one. What would you say, in about 30 seconds, if a prospective customer asked you why they should be interested in your product or service? That’s the kind of thing you should be saying on your website.
Sure, get your keywords in there as much as you can, but not at the expense of actually communicating effectively with customers and prospects. If it doesn’t work in a one-on-one conversation, it probably won’t work on your website.
It’s All About Your Story
Sometimes I see a movie that has lots of technical production value, but no story. They got so involved in the production process of making the movie that they forgot to put in a story!
That’s what happens with a lot of websites. People get so involved in the technical aspects of producing the website that they forget that it’s all about telling their story.
So get your story down first, the story of why people should be interested in your product or service. Get it down so that it’s clear, compelling, and will work in a one-on-one conversation with a real human being. Make sure that basic story doesn’t get lost in the process of creating your website.
If anything is going to help you create a buzz, it starts with having a really good story to tell.
If you don’t have a good story and a compelling offer, all the SEO in the world probably won’t help.
