Jeff's No-Nonsense News, Issue No. 1
Published: June 1st, 2006

Hello, and welcome to Jeff’s No-Nonsense News newsletter, a brand new publication that offers information, advice, and tips on how to get the most out of your Web site! This edition of the newsletter features two articles:

• Choosing the Right Keywords
• The Subtle Effects of the Written Word
• A quick word about our 10% Off a Hosting Plan promotion

We at No-Nonsense Hosting are excited about being able to interact with you through this medium, and we look forward to helping you build a better, more lucrative Web presence for yourself and your organization.

One more thing... If you enjoy this edition, or find it to be useful, do me a favor and please share it with a friend or colleague.

Practical Tips You Can Use Right Away to Improve Your Website

Choosing the Right Keywords

For all their variety, Web sites have one common underlying goal: to attract as much traffic as possible. Well, in the past decade we at NoNonsenseHosting.com have noticed a few things about what makes websites popular, and from our endless fount of experience have compiled a few handy tips that’ll make it easier for you to attract and retain traffic on your site(s).

Improve your site’s search engine visibility by assigning specific keywords to individual pages on your website.

The sole job of a search engine is to deliver the most relevant results to whomever uses it to find information on the Web. For example, imagine if someone used Google™ to search for “used ford explorer” and found only results containing references to BMWs. How useful would that be?

Google™ tries to maintain its edge by determining which websites offer the most relevant content and which ones don’t. Like virtually all other search engines, Google’s indexing process is automated; by assigning proper keywords to the web pages they actually relate to, you can use this automated system to your advantage. Taking the time to custom-tailor keyword associations on your site will produce more relevant search results (especially compared to sites that use more general, non-targeted keyword associations) and make your site more prominent and easier to find.

Assign keywords to a web page that are relevant to its content.

Too many webmasters assign the same keywords to every single page of a website. Often Web designers will ask their clients to supply a list of ten to fifteen keyword phrases, and then they assign these universally throughout the entire website.

Think about that from a search engine’s perspective. After indexing the entire website, how does it know how to distinguish each individual Web page based on the same list of keywords? The search engine must analyze the text of each page looking for keywords it can associate with the content; why not provide a little guidance by assigning specific keywords to the page?

Use Locale Qualifiers

Speaking of specific keywords, it also helps a search engine return the most relevant results when you add locale qualifiers to your keywords. Imagine a New York City pizza shop owner assigning the keyword “pizza coupons” to his Web page. That keyword phrase attracts nearly thirty thousand daily searches, and more than six million other Web pages compete for search results directly related to that phrase. How well do you think our humble pizza shop owner in NYC will fare in the face of such stifling competition?

Get around this potential roadblock by giving the search engine more specific information about your Web page. In this case, we could add “ny” and even a zip code to the keyword phrase, as in “pizza coupons ny” or “pizza coupons 10118.”

Now, the “pizza coupons ny” search phrase would receive dramatically fewer daily searches than “pizza coupons.” On the other hand, the locale-specific phrase has very little competition, and anyone doing a targeted search would be sure to see our humble pizza shop owner’s page – in fact, using a locale qualifier acts as a “sales qualifier” of sorts, too, catching those people who already know they need pizza from a particular area. Besides, is our Manhattan pizza maker really going to sell a pizza to someone in Southern California?

The Subtle Effects of the Written Word

Why linguistic integrity in Web publications still matters

Whether for e-commerce, blogging, or advertising purposes, people have been adding millions of new websites to the Internet every year for the past decade. And regardless of how much money people spend or how many bleeding-edge features they use to create them, many sites fail to meet expectations because they lack one crucial element: good, solid writing.

Now, we at No-Nonsense Hosting don’t claim to be expert writers, but we’ve seen enough site tracking statistics over the years to know that good writing is one of the most common denominators of successful websites. After all, why shouldn't it be? When you surf the Web, you’re reading content more than you’re viewing or listening to it. But if a reader gets the basic gist of your message, isn’t that good enough? In today’s too-fast world, isn’t grammar more of an outdated luxury than a usable tool?

The answer, of course, is no. Here are a few reasons why:

First impressions – Like in face-to-face situations, first impressions gathered from writing happen in the blink of an eye and have subtle, lasting effects.

This is especially important when it comes to e-Commerce. People tend to spend money with organizations they feel relate to their own level of education and language skills. If a Web page looks like it was thrown together in five minutes, a reader’s perception of the site (and its associated products, services, and/or parent organization) will reflect that impression until the site improves.

Typos – Typos can kill the credibility of a written passage in seconds. They can also distract readers from getting the full impact of what’s being said. Reading a typo is like hearing a comedian flub a punch line; you may still get the joke, but it won’t have nearly the impact it should have had.

Punctuation and Sentence Structure – As anyone who’s ever read a book can tell you, good punctuation and sentence structure are the keys to getting points across. No one wants to fight through sentences to figure out what they’re saying; reading should be effortless, like listening to someone speaking (just not out loud).

People also gravitate towards good writing because it connotes a level of respect and consideration for its audience. A well-written bit of text never condescends to its readers, nor does it lead them to subconsciously imply a lack of education or ignorance on the part of the author.

Bad grammar and syntax, on the other hand, denote a rather unprofessional image. When a website or advertisement contains typos or misused punctuation, it instantly looks “out of whack” to its viewers because when we read, our brains recognize words as groups of letters, not  as individual letters strung together. (This is why you can identify mixed-up words as long as their first and last letters are correct.) At worst, poor punctuation and grammar implies that an author either doesn’t care enough to do a quick spell-check or doesn’t have anyone on staff capable of spotting the errors – both undesirable, unnecessary implications that are best avoided whenever possible.

Common sense – If you spend money to put written material on display for millions to see (or use or download), it just makes sense to make that material as coherent as possible. The Internet is a global entity, and any language can sometimes be hard to understand, even to native speakers. Poor use of language can turn a promising site into a frustrating experience, no matter how good its offered product or service may be.

Suggestions

Fortunately, you don’t have to be a grammarian to write well. All it takes is a little time and patience. If you have a website and feel it doesn’t quite convey your message as strongly as you’d like, try one or more of the following suggestions:

Write the way you speak.

If you can’t seem to put your thoughts into words, try speaking them out loud. State your topics in the simplest terms possible, then jot them down and form short, concise sentences from the most relevant parts.

When you finish writing something.

Put it aside for a while and return to it later. Use this technique to freshen your perspective at any time, whether you’re stuck or not. You might be surprised at how useful a planned distraction can be when it comes to writing. The best part about this little trick is that it doesn’t take long to work – the key is simply remembering to do it.

Write "For the Web"

There's a bit of a debate going on between traditional copy writers and those who write content specifically for the Web. Traditionalists prefer to stick with proper sentence structure, paragraph structure, and grammar, while those who write “for the Web” advocate using subheadings and bullet points to break up their copy.

Changing one’s writing style to suit a medium is nothing new. (Journalists have done it for decades.) The issue lies in the fact that when surfing the Web, readers quickly scan pages looking for quick, accessible information as opposed to reading a page from top to bottom. The act of "surfing" the Web occurs at a much faster rate than, say, reading a book or a newspaper, and the whole point is to absorb information quickly without having to dig through pages of text to do so.

We at No-Nonsense suggest using a balanced mixture of styles when putting together a website. You don’t want to completely sacrifice ease of use for properly-written content, but you don’t want to bog down your site’s readers with long-winded text, either.

Use spell-check and grammar-checking tools.

This one’s a no-brainer. Spelling- and grammar-checking tools found in most word processing programs aren’t perfect, but they’re so easy to use that not using them borders on asinine.

Put your most important material at the top of the page.

Most people browsing the Web want their information as quickly as possible, so make it easy for visitors by presenting your most important ideas and facts first, near the top of the page. Put topics of lesser importance further down.

Match your link text to the right content.

Make sure that links within your Web page match the content they're linked to. In other words, a link such as "our company offers various products for the paper industry" should actually link to a page about products for the paper industry and not to a general products page. Never assume that readers will simply figure out where they need to be on your website. You need to guide them every step of the way.

Avoid the "Click Here" syndrome by using descriptive text in links.

Avoid using the phrase "click here" to represent links to other pages. It’s a common sight online, but the problem with the phrase "click here"  is that it doesn't say anything about the content it links to. Readers look specifically for links, subheadings, bullets, and other tidbits of information when they scan Web pages, so it’s best to use descriptive link text whenever possible; for example, use "Read about our recent merger" instead of "Click here to read about our recent merger."

A descriptive link offers readers a point of reference to the next relevant piece of information. If you take away the descriptive text and replace it with "click here" you take away the point of reference, which makes it much harder to get information – and chances are your reader will zip on past to the next website.

Don't expose your URLs.

“URL” is an acronym for Universal Resource Locator. (A URL is more commonly referred to as a link; most links look like http://www.website.com/somepage.html.) When you provide readers with a link to a site on your Web page, avoid “exposing” the destination URL by making it a part of the link description. Represent the link with descriptive text instead.

For example: "For more information about our membership, go to http://www.website.com/info.html" instead should read "Our 2004 membership information is now available." There is one exception to this rule: it is acceptable to use a raw URL within your written content if the link points to a document on another website.

Read through your site content two or three times carefully before you upload it for publication.

Besides typos and run-on sentences, check the overall ‘flow’ of your topic(s). It’s easy to miss the forest for the trees when you write, so read your material and ask yourself, would you get your point if you were seeing your site for the first time?

Get some help.

If all else fails and you’re still unsatisfied with your writing, don’t feel silly about getting some help (or at least a second opinion). A fresh set of eyes on your work can produce ideas, constructive criticism, or guidance that you might never have thought of on your own.

A Gentle Reminder

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To use your 10% discount, simply include your coupon code (initially sent to you in an email following your registration) in your Hosting Plan application, and we’ll take care of the rest.

Thank you again for registering with No-Nonsense. We’re glad to have you as a customer, and we look forward to serving – and exceeding – your needs and expectations.