How to Choose the Best Keywords for SEO in Cyprus

What Are Keywords?

As a website owner you will have heard of them as every search engine uses them – keywords are right at the heart of SEO (read more about SEO here http://www.cypruscopywriter.com/website-optimisation/). When it comes to search marketing, selecting the right keywords can make all the difference between a successful website business and slow, painful failure.

The Truth About Keywords

Keywords are the words and phrases people use to when they search online. It can be a single words or a phrase (up to 5 words) and are used by search engines to index your website. If the words that people are using to search are relevant to the words you have on your site, it will feature prominently in the search results.

Many businesses only look internally to make their keyword selections, choosing words they think will get the most traffic, instead of basing their decisions on words people actually use. Other appear to take a haphazard or more likely uneducated approach and simply base their choice on keywords that have extremely high competition (lots of people searching for that phrase must be good?)

The most productive method for choosing keywords is to put yourself into the mind of someone interested in your products or services. Think what words or phrases they would enter into the search browser and what important elements about them (colour, material, location, price) may be a feature of these searches.

Choosing the Best Keywords for Cyprus SEO 

Try and avoid being too generic in your keyword choices – using popular keywords may be an attempt to aggressively increase your businesses visibility in the search rankings, but on its own will more likely be detrimental to you search engine optimisation campaign. Choosing a generic keyword such as SEO won’t add any value as the competition for the results for these terms will be fierce and your website will most likely be lost in the rush to the top.

The best and most reliable way to achieve keyword success and gain the largest returns for your SEO investment is to fully understand the research process for finding effective keywords. There are many methods and tools to achieve this including:

- Look to companies and websites that provide similar products or services to see what keywords and phrases they are targeting.

- Take advantage of the many free online keyword research tools like Google’s Keyword tool, Wordtracker & Keywordspy are just a few. They will help to identify and pick the most relevant and the most searched for keywords for your website.

- Analytics data can be used to identify historical patterns and gain insight into changes in users’ behaviour. This will help when updating keywords or making small changes and monitoring the results.

- If you have a site search facility, analyse the search information data for insights   

Draw up a keyword list to help you better understand your target audiences ‘search thinking.’ Use your keyword list to work out the most effective combinations of primary and secondary keywords that:

- Drive visitors to your website

- Boost conversion rates for your business

- Generate the best terms for search engines when indexing your website

- Identify and optimise for ‘long tail’ terms

- Look to related keywords and use to drive traffic from large and small search engines.

- Use tools that identify trends and insights to pick out possible new keywords

- Utilise keywords relating to blogs, news sites and forums

Need more information?

There are many sources of information to build your understanding of the importance and the process of keywords in SEO. Here are just a few:

http://www.seomoz.org – useful blog & advice for all levels of aspects of keywords & SEO

http://searchenginewatch.com – for everything search engine related

http://www.googlekeywordtool.com/ – as Google does it bigger & better than everyone else!

Remember to keep your focus on what you are trying to achieve – it is not a vanity exercise, but it most definitely is a competition. This is all about driving the most amount of relevant traffic to your website to maximise customer conversions and to get ahead of your competition & stay there.

If you have any questions or need further information about using keywords and SEO, just get in touch with us at www.cypruscopywriter.com

Cyprus Copywriter – We make websites work harder!

Cyprus SEO

When people look for a business or service, most want to use someone local to them. You wouldn’t want an engineer to have to travel 200 miles when there is an equally skilled engineer half a mile from your home or business.

Local search services are predominantly free directories which, quite literally, put your business on the map. In the case of Google, Yahoo and Bing, you submit your business to their local business directory and verify your business by phone or post. Once accepted your business listing, complete with a link to your website plus a map showing your location, will appear in their search results.

If someone then performs a search for your type of business, for example “your business” in Nicosia, a list of matching businesses in the area will feature along with a map of the area. This can bring valuable targeted traffic to your website and these listings often come high up in the results, sometimes above the natural search listings, therefore giving your website increased visibility.

If you have a niche industry it is likely that you will not have much competition in the search results, but some more competitive industries may have hundreds of businesses listed in the same area. Search engines will only show, at the most, 10 of these listings. Therefore to take advantage of this service you need to optimise your local business listing to secure your place.

Yahoo Local, Google Maps and Bing Places offer a great opportunity to show off your business and services as you can add images, ask customers to give you reviews, and direct people to your door using the map features. If you can optimise your listing, you can gain valuable new customers.

Cyprus Business Directories

In addition to the major search engines, there are also many smaller business directories where you can add your business listing for free. Even though you may not have heard of the directory, they are still worth submitting your business details to as this will be good for SEO (search engine optimisation), and will increase the chances of your website appearing in the main search engine results.

Social Media

If you have social networking accounts on Facebook, Google+ or LinkedIn, it is essential you enter as much detail as possible about your business. Give full contact details, a comprehensive description of what you do (including keywords & phrases), making sure to tag your company’s location if possible.

Google Cyprus

Google has had a dedicated search domain for Cyprus (www.google.com.cy) for a couple of years now. It does not offer the full functionality of many other country domains, but it undoubtedly favours sites that have a Cypriot URL (www.companyname.com.cy) and that are optimised for local search.

Even though the number of searches is relatively low when compared to Google.com, there are still almost 3000 performed daily. That is still a significant level of traffic and it’s quite likely that these people could be searching for the very products or services that your website offers.

Get your website optimised for local search

If you are not doing this already or are not implementing it properly, you are literally turning away business! Local search in Cyprus is not difficult; it will take a little time to set up properly, but it is essential, and many of the methods of achieving it are free.

Contact us on +357 99091948 or info@cypruscopywriter.com  to discuss how you can optimise your website to make the most out of local search traffic.

 
]]> http://www.cypruscopywriter.com/2012/01/20/seo-in-ciprus/feed/ 0 http://www.cypruscopywriter.com/2012/01/20/10-simple-techniques-to-create-a-website-that-sells/ http://www.cypruscopywriter.com/2012/01/20/10-simple-techniques-to-create-a-website-that-sells/#comments Fri, 20 Jan 2012 14:10:11 +0000 Digidestination Ltd http://piazza.in/demo/web/?p=115 How to boost your online sales

Would you like your website to win more sales? Here are 10 easy tips to make your website work harder. They are tried, tested and best of all – FREE! At Cyprus Copywriter we use them all the time to get results for our clients.

Most are surprisingly simple, but very few businesses use them to their advantage. Are you?

1. Use ‘you’ more than ‘we’. Speak directly to your customers by using the word ‘you’. If you use the word ‘we’ too much they will switch off and go elsewhere. Talk about your customers, not yourself.

2.Stay focussed. Don’t overload your page with different topics. Create separate pages for different products, otherwise search engines won’t know what the page is about and people won’t find what they want.

3.Stress benefits, not features. Very few people care how your product is put together. What they do want to know is whether it will make their life better. If it’s faster, applies better, will create more professional results – say so.

4. Avoid professional jargon. Don’t talk about ‘heating solutions’ if your customers are searching for ‘boilers’ or ‘radiators’. They won’t be able to find you on Google.

5.Use relevant words in the right places. Ask your website company if there are relevant keywords in page titles, heading tags and in a piece of code called ‘meta description’. If there aren’t, look for a new website company immediately. We can advise you.

6. Simple words are best. And the very best highlight the benefit to your customers: ‘quick’, ‘easy’, simple’, ‘free’, ‘guarantee’, ‘first’.

7. Keep to the point. Don’t waffle – plan what you want to say and stick to it. Keep it short and precise so that you keep your readers attention.

8.Break up your text. Use short paragraphs, headings, lists, quotes, and boxes to add variety. If you do, more people will read to the end.

9.Do your research. Find out the words people use when searching for your products or services. They are often different to the ones you think they use. Use the free online tools such as Google’s keyword tool.

10.Ask for the sale. So many people forget to do this! If you want people to buy from you, call you or download a report, you have to ask them. Use phrases like ‘order now’, ‘call today for a free quote’ or ‘download your free report now’.

WANT TO LEARN MORE?

Using just a few of these techniques will make a big improvement to the number of sales your website will generate.

This is only the tip of the iceberg though – there are many more proven techniques that we use daily to help companies get ahead and stay ahead of their competitors.

They can work for you too. Call us on 99091948 or email john@cypruscopywriter.com to find out how.

You may have spent some time recently reviewing the highs and lows of your business year. Did you meet your targets such as getting that important new client or launching your new website? Perhaps you tried out some different business practices.

What could you change? What will you keep? This time next year, what do you want to have achieved?

Now is the time to plan and set out your goals for the coming year. Here are a few ideas for your online business to get you started:

1. Get social – If you aren’t already using Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or other social media, then now is the time to do so. Studies show that most Cypriots that have access to the internet use at least one of the major social networks (Facebook being the most popular). It is worth noting that LinkedIn is quickly becoming the Facebook of business, so don’t overlook this important resource.
2. Meetings are good – While social media is increasingly important, don’t rely on it completely. Make a point to meet with customers face to face. E-mail and phone calls are good, but it needs to be backed up with the personal touch.
3. Network – Try and attend one major industry event. This will provide opportunities to network, learn from the successes or failures of others or perhaps brainstorm ways to improve how you work.
4. Go mobile – If your website is not set up for mobile, then it needs to be! It is estimated that just over 10% of all searches are now performed on a mobile device and this is predicted to grow to 20% in 2012. Can you afford to miss out?
5. Focus on SEO – Whether you have a regular or a mobile friendly site, look at anything you could change to make it rank higher in the search engine results. This is also a good time to review and update your site’s keywords, links and content.
6. Inform & share – If you don’t have a blog on your website, why not? A blog keeps people informed about your business and by adding regular new content you will increase your site’s visibility in the search results.
7. Create a buzz – Whatever method you choose to promote your business this year, make sure it creates a buzz. Get people talking and sharing the information or offer to create excitement and interest. Think of unusual or time limited ideas that will spark your clients’ attention and draw in new customers.
8. Be consistent – If you are going to have a newsletter, blog or marketing campaigns, be consistent and not hit or miss. Don’t give up the initial response is weak. Critically evaluate what you did and use the analytics tolls available to help make tweaks and improvements where necessary.
9. Work with a professional - Many business owners go it alone and it is tough to keep up with all that needs to be done and stay creative and ahead of the competition. Invest in the things that are important (like marketing) and don’t run yourself ragged trying to do everything yourself.
10. Work Smarter, Not Harder - Give yourself a break – don’t try to be everything to everyone. Enjoy being a business owner and outsource the things that take you away from growing your business. Make use of the vast array of technologies that are available to help and enhance business performance. Many mundane or repetitive tasks can be automated, freeing you up to focus on the things you do best – managing your business.

For businesses, the start of a new year is a chance to step back and evaluate the past year and to revisit and revise some of the aims and goals set out in the original business plan.

Make this year the best business year you have ever had by making sure you put these plans into action.

If you need any help with elements like copywriting, SEO or planning a marketing strategy, give us a call. We’re here to help!

Reciprocation

Reciprocation is based on the theory that if you give something as a gift, the recipient will respond in kind and willingly return the favour.

For example, if you give a customer something extra for free, you will then be able to ask them to return the favour by sharing the news with friends. You can reinforce the likelihood of the referral by offering a further bonus reward once they have shared. That’s reciprocity.

A common social media strategy is to give away free information in return for subscribing to your blog, Facebook Fan page or Twitter account.

Social Proof

We often look to other people for clues when making decisions. This is called social proof. Here are a few examples of social proof in the social media world:

• Subscriber or follower counts – If there are a lot of people following a blogger, then you will be more inclined to follow it too.
• Reviews – You are more likely to buy a book that has over 500 reviews and an average four stars than a book without any reviews.
• Comments – It is usually more tempting to see what’s going on at a blog with hundreds of comments as this suggests that it is either a very good or controversial post.
• Share counts – An article that has been tweeted 2,000 times is more likely to draw you in to read it than an article tweeted 50 times.

When it comes to social media, a large audience has a bigger attraction.

Likability

Do people like you? It may sound simple, but to sell more you must be liked more. Here are a few ideas on how to make this work for your business:

• Be warm and personable – On social media sites, communicate with people in the same manner you would interact with them at a dinner party.
• Give people what they want – If you come across some information that you know your customers are interested in, share it with them.
• Be polite – Don’t make the mistake of letting off steam and saying exactly what you think online. If you can’t say anything nice, keep it to yourself.
• Be funny – People love to laugh, even in professional contexts. If you have a sense of humour, let it show.

Authority

A visible relationship with a well-known brand can help establish authority. For example, if any of your clients or publications has an instantly recognisable brand or profile, highlight it on your social media accounts.

If you have built your company to a position of success over time, you are already an authority. If you lead the market, you are an expert. Writing about, and sharing, your knowledge will strengthen this authority.

By including your achievements in your social media interactions you will develop greater influence with your audience.

Scarcity

Scarcity implies a limited supply of something, which often leads to greater demand.

Limit your interactions – Online attention is limited. To increase your social media performance, identify the best times to interact with your social media communities. Posting too frequently will overload your audience, so only post when you have something truly productive to say.

Use deadlines – People hate to miss out on an opportunity. Force them to act quickly by limiting how long a product or offer is available. Reinforce the scarcity by reminding them how little time is left to take action.

Commitment

During the entire process of connecting with your social networks, you should constantly ask for small commitments.

For example, if you published some information or an offer and asked for it to be shared by your contacts, once they have received it, remind them of their commitment!

Push those commitments because most people don’t like to be seen as inconsistent in their behaviour. If they commit to something (and are reminded that they committed), they are more likely to do it.

Conclusion

To be successful in business, you must ask people for help. But first, you need to convince them to comply with your requests. There is no need to be pushy – most people’s in-built responses will ensure they take action. You simply need to push the right buttons.

These basic human traits will help you to better understand and focus on getting greater response to your online business activities to help your business grow.

Google “Given the incredibly fast pace at which information moves in today’s world, the most recent information can be from the last week, day or even minute, and depending on the search terms, the algorithm needs to be able to figure out if a result from a week ago about a TV show is recent, or if a result from a week ago about breaking news is too old,” Google says in a blog post announcing the big change.

As much as 35% of all searches on Google are expected to be affected by the latest update the company says. The impact is likely to be huge seeing as the Panda update had businesses struggling to maintain their search rankings was said to affect 12% of searches.

Google “This change better determines the level of freshness needed for each query and promotes fresher results accordingly,” a Google spokesperson says. “We’re continuously working to improve our search algorithm so that we provide users the most relevant answers to their queries.”

Google says the main impact will be on searched for recent events or “hot topics”, regularly occurring events and searches for information that changes often but isn’t specifically a trending topic.

Matt McGee – Search Engine Land “It seems to me that the biggest impact on small-business owners will be that, in some industries, it will be near impossible to get visibility with a small, rarely-updated website,” says Matt McGee, executive news editor at SEO-focused news site Search Engine Land. “If the business is in an industry where there’s regular news, where things change on a frequent basis, it looks like never-updated websites won’t have much chance of being visible on a lot of queries.”

One effective way for businesses to generate fresh content for their website is to create and frequently update a business blog or news section, Google recommends.

This change only seems to emphasise the value of publishing quality content on a regular basis, whether that is a blog, articles or latest news updates.

For information on how Cyprus Copywriter can help create and maintain fresh, unique content solutions to keep websites at the top of the rankings call 99091948 or email info@cypruscopywriter.com

The business environment is tough right now and many companies are looking to cut costs to prepare for the lean times to come.

How are you planning to tackle this?

a)    Hang on to the clients you have and hope to ride it out?

b)    Cut advertising spend to control costs?

c)    Explore alternative ways to work that are low or no cost?

Stand out from the crowd to get more business

If your answer was c) you stand the greatest chance of success. This doesn’t mean spending your way out, it simply requires greater creativity than your competitors.

Now is the time to look at simple strategies that will set you apart from the crowd and in doing so will ensure you benefit from any available business opportunities.

Helping you get more clients

Let’s focus on just one idea – email marketing. How well are you doing this at the moment?

Do you run a targeted campaign to demonstrate to your customers how powerful their website is or has the potential to be?

Are they aware that they are missing out on business by not making some very basic, often free changes?

Are you aware that to set-up a clear, powerful email campaign with strong calls to action will help you:

• Build your database – build your list to drive successful promotions & market awareness
• Up-sell your services – make clients aware of everything you can do for them
• Win new business – develop new business through increased marketing activity & more focussed sales materials
• Better communications – open up new channels to promote your business & get fast feed-back 

Helping you add more value for your clients

How are you planning to set your company apart from the competition?

a)    Lower prices

b)    Impress them with your knowledge & experience of new technologies

c)    Offer greater value for money

Now you’re talking if you answered c) again!

Don’t start to stress over the cost involved – this is simply the time & effort it takes to set-up a great email campaign.

The key is to add value, not cut prices or give something away that costs you money.

Instead you can share your expertise by offering information or more competitive methods of working such as:

• Educating your clients on how to use technology to improve their business
• Develop free information packs or quick tips for using the technology available to them
• Offer special promotions & incentives for loyal  or new customers
• Raise their awareness of all your company’s services

Perceived value (the added value that the customer feels they are getting) is extremely powerful and is the key to all great marketing.

It’s your call

The next step is up to you. Are you going to stick with the herd, keep your head down and hope it will all blow over like most of your competitors?

Or are you going to do something about it?

To talk about email marketing and many other simple ways professional copywriting will help your company get creative through the downturn, call Cyprus Copywriter on 99091948 or email info@cypruscopywriter.com

Cyprus has huge potential for internet business growth. Right now, for creative entrepreneurs, online business (ecommerce) is an area that offers fantastic opportunities.

Recent statistics show that internet access and connectivity levels are high. When compared with the rest of Europe, Cyprus is only slightly behind, with 88% of businesses having internet access compared with 93% for the EU.

The major difference is the disparity between Cyprus and the EU when it comes to ecommerce as a percentage of total turnover – 1% v’s 14% respectively.

The problem therefore is not the ability to get online and use the internet, but may simply be the number of businesses with an online presence (not to mention the ability to offer internet shopping).

For consumers there just aren’t the quantity of websites in Cyprus ready and able to deliver what they want.

Huge Internet Business Opportunities

Cyprus companies that are open to new technologies and are adaptable, creative thinkers can quickly develop a successful internet business. Those that are there at the beginning stand the best chance of profiting from this growth.

Looking at just the UK, the value of goods & travel purchased online in 2009 was worth a staggering £50billion and ecommerce contributed to nearly 7.5% of the country’s total GDP.

Cyprus still has a long way to go to match these figures, but that just goes to show the potential.

Quality, Reliability, Innovation

Every business should have a website, even if it is just to tell customers where they are and how to get in contact. Building on that, any business that produces or sells goods and services will find it easy to adapt these core business principles to trading on the internet.

It is neither expensive or particularly difficult – there are now many companies in Cyprus that can advise, design and maintain great websites that stand up to competing in the international market.

The basics remain the same as traditional business – offer quality, develop your customers trust and deliver new and exciting offerings at competitive prices.

The potential, however, far exceeds most traditional businesses. The internet opens the market not only to the whole of the country, but internationally too. With minimal costs for marketing to the rest of the world, there are no limits to how far your company could grow.

To discuss making improvements to your existing website, or if you need inspiration and content for taking your business online, contact us.

Creating well researched, original content is a powerful way of attracting potential clients, building business networks and increasing the number of links to your website.

Cyprus Copywriter creates Search Optimised Articles with targeted keywords to create a steady flow of unique content that will increase the impact of your online marketing.

SEO Services

• targeted, researched 300 – 400 word articles
• submission to online directories
• keyword targeted to attract responses from specific markets
• Cyprus based

Search Engine Optimised (SEO) website copy can make a dramatic improvement to the success of your website. Creating this content is challenging – it can be time consuming and requires in-depth knowledge of how the search engines find and read websites.

Cyprus Copywriter’s SEO Copywriting Services provide the on-going content development required for your website to flourish, leaving you free to concentrate on running your business.

Get in touch if you would like information about our monthly SEO Copywriting and Article Marketing packages for business.

People are drawn further into a site if the content is relevant and compelling.

Search engines rank a site highly if the content is……relevant and compelling.

Remember, research shows that visitors generally don’t make a purchase on their first visit to a website, so getting them to return is essential for your business. Sites that are content rich with clear navigation are the sites that win return visits and convert these visitors into loyal customers.

Increasingly, people are willing to pay to subscribe to highly relevant websites that deliver what they want. Quality content has become king.

At Cyprus Copywriter we can provide copywriting that reflects the values of your business, while capturing visitors attention and motivating them to act. Content that is highly rated by the humans as well as the search engines.

All this translates to more visitors, staying longer and buying more. For you this results in a better bottom line and a reason to smile!

Get in touch today to discuss how we can help your content rule.