Monthly Archives: October 2010

So you’ve had your website up for awhile, and let’s face it, it’s showing its age. Maybe you’ve had some major changes in your life and mission…maybe you’ve moved to a new address or joined up with a partner…maybe you’ve added some great new services and completely shifted the direction of your business. Whatever the cause, you look at your website now and think – this has GOT to go!

So you start re-examining everything from the ground up…the fees you’re paying your hosting company, the colors and logo and design that you’ve chosen to represent you, the structure and tone and content of the copy. And it’s oh-so-tempting to just decide – I don’t like any of this. Just drop it, let it go, start over!

And so you find a better-priced host, a developer who understands your vision (or a free DIY drag-and-drop site builder), set up your new hosting package and switch over your domain, scuttling your ugly old site in the process. You set up a gorgeous new design and post “Under Construction” on the empty pages, figuring you can fill them up with content as you have time…

DON’T DO THAT!

Why not? Well, for two major reasons that far too many solopreneurs find out too late…after seeing their site’s Google ranking, traffic, and revenue plummet.

First and most important reason – incoming links.

If your website has been online for any significant length of time, and if it has any substantive content to it at all – or if you have colleagues who refer clients to  you online, listings in professional directories, a Facebook fan page, a YouTube channel or assorted videos, a third-party blog, perhaps a book or two on Amazon – you have links directed to your website. Not just to your website URL (www. yourwebsite. com) but to the specific address of each page on your host’s server.

Your Google ranking is based in large part on the number of incoming links to your site, as well as the quality of the sites that are linking to you. When you move your domain to a new host, all of those old host-specific addresses are wiped out – and with them, your incoming links. So even if your site is high on the first page of Google for your modality, you will – repeat will – be relegated to the lowest listings (if you are listed at all) when the gorgeous but echoing empty new pages replace your creaky old site.

You can prevent this by having your hosting company perform a 301 Redirect at the time you switch. This literally, well, redirects those incoming links to the address of your new host’s servers. There is usually a charge for this service, but it is well worth the cost when you consider the value of those links in bringing business to your door.

And that’s not the only reason why you shouldn’t just scrap your creaky old site just yet….

Next reason: content.

It’s surprising how many solopreneurs don’t realize: even the creakiest, ugliest site with content will serve you better than the most gorgeous site with blank pages and “Under Construction” icons. Even if you don’t have metatags on your site, search engines identify the words used most frequently in your web content and use them to index your site. And if there’s no content – of course, there’s no listing.

What’s the solution here? Don’t – repeat, don’t – switch over your site until you have the content ready to plug in, at least for the key pages. You can always add links later to brochures, videos, etc. – but if you don’t have at least the core content (preferably with metatags), you will be wiping your site out of the search engine rankings.

A reputable hosting company will know this, and will advise you to keep your existing site online while your new site is in development (under your account name but without a domain, accessible to your editing but hidden from the world). Then, when all of your content is ready, they’ll point the nameservers over to their address, perform the redirect, and within 24-48 hours your beautiful, functional site is online.

If your proposed web developer doesn’t know about doing this, you might do well to consider working with somebody else.

If all of this sounds a bit overwhelming – perhaps more time-intensive than you’re ready to handle – call us! While Your Words’ Worth is not a web development or hosting company, our Zero Headache Website Makeover package is designed to help you through all the phases of this process – smoothly, without the huge horrific errors that many solo practitioners endure (and we’ve also survived!). We’ve set up alliances with affordable and highly-rated resources to serve your online needs. And in-house, we have more than 25 years of professional writing experience to communicate your vision in your voice.

My trial by fire as a writer came from a high-wired Technical Communications professor…a moonlighting novelist who loved coffee and hated Latinate -ize and -ization suffixes with equal passion.

With our latest assignments pinned on the board, he’d read the first sentence of each one aloud, confront the writer, and demand, “SO WHAT? Why should I care about this? What difference does it make to ME?” If we didn’t have a strong answer the first time, he’d demand again and again until – finally – we discovered a compelling reason to read our work. Not one of our first drafts ever survived…

Eventually, we learned that this lesson applies to any writing, whether it’s a user manual, a  sales brochure, a news or feature story, or a business memo. If your writing doesn’t make a personal connection with your readers within the first sentence or two, you’ve lost them.

Especially if you’re writing for the web, especially if you’re a solopreneur whose practice offers, say, energy work, coaching, or a new approach to life, the “SO WHAT” lesson applies. Sure, your visitors want to know who you are, what you offer, and how it differs from everything else on the market. But more than that, if they’re going to do more than glance at your site’s home page, they need you to answer that unspoken first question.

They’ll probably never confront you, demanding fiercely why they should care about your work – but if you don’t tell them, you can be sure they’ll move on to another site in seven (yes, 7) seconds or less.

So how do you tell them? Well, you start by looking at your work from their point of view….

What do your current clients say? What do your potential clients need?

Did your current clients come to you – and are they staying – because of your personal energy, your presence, skill, and expertise within your field – or is it the teaching or modality you practice or you’ve pioneered? Are you the only one in your area to offer this service or approach – the most insurance-friendly – or the most empowering and supportive? What is the core of their need for you?

Take it a step further: if you are thinking of attracting new clients, why should they come to you? What do you offer them, how do your services or your approach fit their needs or the direction they’re taking in life?

In the words of marketing guru Perry Marshall, “Nobody who bought a drill actually wanted a drill; they wanted a hole.” What is the outcome – the hole – your clients need, and you offer?

Speak into their needs, use their language, answer their questions. Even though (you could say) the site is about you, it’s really about them.

Are you the brand – or is your work? Or both?

This will make a key difference in the structure, focus, and content of your site.

When you are a solo practitioner – whether you work in a known field such as acupuncture or naturopathy, or whether you’ve broken open the limits of a strict traditional teaching to create a new modality -  you are your brand: your business depends on the quality and uniqueness of the service you  provide.  This addresses the question of your mission – the point at which “your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet” (to quote Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking)…the point at which you are unique and irreplaceable.

Again, the key here is connection with your readers’ needs: your site should reflect both your credibility, your background, your expertise, and the background and benefits of the approach you offer.

Of course, the “SO WHAT” questions will differ. If you are an acupuncturist, for example, why should a mainstream patient try acupuncture at all? Why should he or she come to you as a Five Elements Acupuncturist rather than to a Medical Acupuncturist (who may be likelier to be covered by insurance)? What makes your practice unique among Five Elements practitioners?

On the other hand, if you have pioneered a new approach, why should a client take the risk of coming to you? What is your credibility? Does your approach have a historical foundation, or is it purely your creation? Are you the only person practicing it, or have you trained others? Even if your work has gained media attention in the past, don’t assume that visitors will know about it, or about you. Connect with them now, gain their attention and trust now.

If you have created a modality that has taken on a life of its own, you may want to consider a separate site for it – providing information about the background, the principles, and resources for potential  clients and students (who are the practitioners you’ve trained? Where can potential students learn your approach?). Again, view the information you provide from your target audience’s position: what are the questions you’re constantly answering?

Write as you would speak!

Finally, nothing is more off-putting than finding canned corporatespeak on the home page of a site offering deeply personal services…and nothing is more warm and attractive than a home page that speaks to the visitor’s heart and needs, answering the “SO WHAT” question in personal language. If your business reaches out to your clients’ hearts, souls, and psyches, write in language that resonates deeply. Write as you would speak if your readers were standing in front of you. Don’t fear the natural voice of your passion for your work.

It’s all about connection, from heart to heart and spirit to spirit.

Whether you’re reworking your website, you can be sure of one thing:  your audience is going to come in asking – “So what? Why does this matter? Why should I care? What does this have to do with me?” And if you can’t connect with them with power and passion in the first few seconds, you’ve probably lost them.

So – if you really believe your practice makes a difference in your clients’ lives - you need to let that passion, that magic, burst forth. Don’t just assert that your products, or services, or ideas will make your clients’ lives happier, healthier, or more meaningful – tell how and why. Skip the features – anybody can give a list of features – go straight to the benefits, the personal impact that your product or service or message offers. Don’t just tell how long you’ve been practicing XYZ – tell how you became passionate about it. Especially if you are a solo practitioner, don’t be afraid to be personal and speak from your heart. Let your words shine on the page – not through graphic gizmos, but with the sheer power of their meaning.

Especially if you have a message to share – if your message is the product with which you plan to change the world – your writing should leap from the page or screen, grab your reader by the lapels, lock eyes with them, and deliver your meaning like a shot of empowerment straight to their core:  YES!

Be unexpected. Lull their senses with soft words one moment, startle them awake with a jangle of paradox the next. Make it easy for them to grasp your meaning by using simple language, then toss in one beautiful rich sesquipedalianism inspiring them to stretch. Leave them breathless, tantalized, titillated, hungry for more.

Make more available to them, step by step: book excerpts, podcasts, teleclasses, recorded workshops, connecting with their hearts – not just their heads – at every step. For your message to be transmitted like a virus, like dharma, it needs to be fueled and driven by a sense of love and connection; no matter the strength of your readers’ immune systems, they can’t deny their hunger for that energy. Let them feel close to you. Blog your activities, appearances, insights along your journey.

If a community has sprung up in response to your work, throw open its doors to your readers! Offer a page dedicated to the benefits your community offers to its members. Include an RSS feed or link to the daily featured blog post from the community on your site. Wax enthusiastic – this is the offspring of your personal passion, shared with others – let it speak, let it sing!

Open the door for your connections to multiply! If you’re on Facebook – and you should be – use the Networked Blogs app to link your blog to your page. Create a business page for your fans to connect through social posting. Create a group – if there isn’t one already – for your community to connect. And link, link, link – make sure that your visitors can navigate easily from one part of your online world to another…and that they can find links to your products or services, and the option to buy, wherever they are.

One spiritual client, in learning to optimize her website, referred to targeted keywords as “words of power.” Yes – when you’re seeking the words with the highest number of searches and the lowest number of competing sites, you are stalking the power of the search engines. When you find those magic-laced words, sprinkle them like saffron, rare and priceless, in your body content and – especially – in your headlines and links, just a word or phrase or two per page, repeated with discretion.

There are some businesses that run “for the love of the game.” This is marketing for the love of your clients, of the earth, of Spirit, of the greater work.

If you’re thinking at this stage – Yes, I have the passion, but this is all too much for my time and energy! – don’t worry. Here at Your Words’ Worth, we can hear your message, affirm your mission, and present your work, with power and passion, in your voice. We’ll identify the online marketing elements that will help you most and set them up for you, then give you the keys and the coaching to manage your web presence for the long term…or manage it for you if you wish.

If you are working from your heart, from your spirit, your practice deserves nothing less.

I’m really beginning to wonder if it’s in the water.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve heard the questions from one business owner after another:

• I really need a website makeover…my site is an expense that’s not bringing me any business…
• I need to update my site content…it doesn’t reflect what I’m doing anymore…
• I’m all over the place online, but I don’t know how to make it work together…
• People tell me I should have a Facebook page for my business, but isn’t my website enough?…
• I keep hearing that I should be blogging, but I just don’t know what to say…

And most of all – I just don’t have the time to spend on marketing my business online!

Let’s face it – online marketing does gobble up time, and can gobble up money too, if you’re not careful. You wind up trying one thing, then another, wondering how to make it all fit together and bring in new clients, and all the while your frustration level builds.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if someone could just do it for you – without breaking the bank?

Here’s the bottom-line truth: selling on the web is all about content. It’s not hard to put together a good-looking starter site…but to craft the content that will make it sell for you is another story entirely. It’s not just a matter of setting it up and forgetting it, either – to stay at the top of the search engine rankings and keep the traffic coming, you need fresh, keyword-targeted content on a regular basis…the more frequent, and in the more places, the better.

And that’s when the inspiration hit: to create a series of bundled content makeover services to get you started with the content you need, when and where you need it…and affordable ghostwriting or coaching services to help you keep that content coming!

That was the start of the Zero Headache Content Makeover Package…better than a bottle of aspirin. Just check out the service page (http://www.your-words-worth.com/content-makeover/) and call us…today!