Should Writers Be Held Accountable For Web Page Performance?

[thejenn]

Should Writers Be Held Accountable For Web Page Performance?

Authored by: Nick Usborne

A Snippet:

Ask print direct response copywriters if they are held accountable, and they'll say yes. That was my own life for 15 years. I wrote direct mail packages and was judged not on my past reputation, but on the performance of each piece I wrote, one mailing at a time.

[copywriter]

This is a very good article and oh-so true. I appreciate Nick writing this article. He presented the information well and clearly explains what can happen.

Good information for every copywriter to read.

[Dale King]

Thanks, Jenn!


Dale King

[St0n3y]

I think that's an excellent question. The answer, or at least the solution, is in making sure that businesses employ a good SEO company that can manage all aspects of the marketing message. But that's not easy, nor is it always feasible. It's easy to hire an SEO consultant but a team of consultants is more costly... though the end result should be much better. On top of that, most SEOs don't have full control over a site's design and if they are the SEO is limited by the companies budget. Site re-designs are not cheap, especially when you start adding in back-end configurations that may be necessary.

This is ultimately why most SEOs don't guarantee results, and why I'm against pay-for-performance SEO. There is simply too much outside of the SEO (and the writer's) control that can hinder the sales process.

[copywriter]

I agree, but it's not even just dependant on SEOs. I can write the world's best copy for a site, but if their shopping cart is all screwed up and people have trouble ordering, the conversion rate will still be pitiful. That's not the fault of the copy, it's the fault of the screwed up shopping cart.

Or, if the copy is great, but the site loads way too slow. People will get frustrated and leave. That's not the copy's fault either.

There are so many more elements at play with web copy than with offline copy that it is virtually impossible to make guarantees of performance unless you have control over every single aspect of the site from hosting to design to SEO to payment gateway to delivery.

[St0n3y]

... not to mention the SEOs who screw up the copy in order to "get top rankings"!

[copywriter]

Lolololol

[Karri]

Usability is still almost an invisible issue to business and website owners - and unfortunately, a lot of designers. Not even on the radar screen most of the time.

Search, on the other hand, is at the top of everybody's minds but it's always after the fact. After the site has been built with some crazy CMS that was easy for the site owner to use but a nightmare for search engines and marketing consultants to deal with. I think for most business people, search engines remain an enigma ... well, online marketing period is pretty much still a mystery to most.

Definitely more awareness needed about these things. Would save people a ton of money and frustration in the long run. There may be no silver bullet but when all the right variables are put together it sure increases the likelihood of hitting the target!

Karri

[St0n3y]

not to divert the topic too much, but I want to expand on Karri's thoughts. Its very unfortunate that marketing and usability isn't a greater issue. I mean, as an SEO firm I like the fact that everybody is thinking top rankings, but that's where the thinking stops. All our SEO services are integrated with usability & conversion analysis, not to mention link marketing, etc. SEO itself is pretty straight forward. Add these other important things into the mix and suddenly you have a much more expensive "SEO package" that many businesses have a hard time grasping on to. I was just talking with someone the other day and when I told him our fees he said, "well, it doesn't take that much to write copy and SEO a page." This was a guy who wanted optimized pages covering a wide range of geographical locations. He just thought the copy would all end up being the same. Well, duh, that doesn't take long.

I made the mistake of trying to explain to him in terms of time instead of in terms of experience and overall return. We're not just going after top rankings. What we want is to create a better site that gets more exposure and is able to convert better.

[copywriter]

Amen to that! And usability and the other things you mentioned are prime sources for screwing up the effect of otherwise good copy.

"well, it doesn't take that much to write copy and SEO a page." This was a guy who wanted optimized pages covering a wide range of geographical locations. He just thought the copy would all end up being the same. Well, duh, that doesn't take long.

LOL. I always love statements like that. Too funny. True, most people assume SEO copywriting is all about shoving keyphrases into copy everywhere you possibly can. It's not about volume or density or ratios. It's about making the copy sell.

I agree 100%, what people want is not an optimized site that ranks high. What people want is a site that sells and makes money. It just so happens that SEO is one means to that end.