Similar to when the popular kids in high school got to choose their team members in gym class, Google Blogsearch leaves the weaklings and so-called losers behind. If your blog isn’t popular, it won’t be part of the elite blog group that is ranked by Google. In other words, your blog won’t be on page one of Google Blogsearch. It will be on page 570—or worse.

If you want to rank high on Google Blogsearch, it’s time to start playing Google’s game. It’s all about popularity when it comes to ranking high, and there are a lot of factors that determine your degree of popularity. But, how does one become so admired? You must prove to Google that your blog is high quality.

• Approach popular, like-minded bloggers, and ask if you could be a guest blogger: Google looks highly upon blogs mentioned on other blogs because it illustrates that your blog provides intellectual material that ignites curiosity and discussion in the online community. Aside from other blogs, if Google finds your blog’s URL on emails, chats, and social bookmarking sites, Google considers this a positive indicator that your blog is high quality.

• Attach the RSS feed widget to your blog: RSS feed stands for Really Simple Syndication, which is a file containing a brief amount of information—a headline and synopsis—and a link to the full content on the blog. Voluntary subscribers to specific blog RSS feed will receive this information through their RSS readers. Google can detect if your blog is high quality based on how many people subscribe to your blog’s RSS feed. In addition, Google can detect how many people visit your blog from their RSS readers and how many times they click through your blog. And, don’t try to trick Google by subscribing to your own blog numerous times. Google’s mind readers have already devised a way to detect this type of blog fraud!

Building a successful business online requires effectively reaching potential clients through strategic and authentic marketing practices. And companies that utilize transparent practices are more successful than companies that shy away from expressing their brand personality and business practices.

Transparent practices are crucial if you want to build trust between potential clients and your brand. If you hide your brand personality, if your message is inflated or muddled in industry jargon, or if the message is too focused on the company, it will be difficult to reach a large range of potential clients and strategic partners.

The key is to get real. Take some time and evaluate your business mission and what your company stands for. Take a look at where you aren’t being as authentic as you could be, then rework your message to reflect the personality and the message you want to communicate.

Here are three result-driven ways to authentically market your business:

• Share your brand story and your company’s personality on your website. Don’t make your potential customers feel out of the loop or intimidated when they visit your website. A website that lacks a clear, authentic message and unique company personality will weaken the connection between the visitor and your brand image. A site with a transparent About Us page is a powerful tool that facilitates a strong connection. Not only do potential clients like to see whom they’re doing business with, they also like to see an authentic brand story and the personality of the company.

• Become transparent on social media sites. Social media sites are the perfect places to reach a high concentration of potential customers and strategic partners and to integrate your company into the online community. They are an informal way to market your business and places where you can truly let your personality and brand image shine through in a fun and interactive way.

Offering behind-the-scenes information, sneak peeks, photos, videos, and recent news about your business on these social media sites provides potential customers with a clear understanding of your brand image and your practices. It also gives prospects a sense of the personalities behind the business.

• Share yourself and your company at networking events. A networking event is the perfect place to meet referral partners, strategic partners, and potential clients. Your goal at a networking event is to be remembered—in a positive way—by a handful of people with whom you speak. Don’t be afraid to let your personality shine through when discussing business. This transparency is the key to showing others that your business practices and brand image are authentic. Allow potential customers and strategic partners to build a strong connection between you as a person and your brand name. When you are remembered, your business will be remembered.

Are you concerned about how customers perceive your brand image online? Perhaps your website currently isn’t a strong branding tool for you. If not, it should be.

Many businesses find that their message isn’t clear, effective, and targeted to their correct market. It can be extremely difficult for businesses to project an accurate message, encompassing a combination of their company’s products, beliefs, mission, and goals. The message is a mixture of several key elements, including effectively placing keywords to increase SEO, which makes the task of projecting company image quite precise and complicated.

Crafting your brand image online is an extremely important client attraction tool. With a result-driven business message, your targeted website visitors will understand the language and tone of the web copy, and the client will feel a stronger connection to your brand. Once this bond is established, the customers will be more inclined to take action and purchase from you.

The customer wants to feel compatible with all your company stands for. For example, if your brand image is high-end, a high-end client will be attracted and comfortable with this image and, in turn, will want to buy from you.

Since fashioning a company message online is both complex and important, it would be highly beneficial for your company to hire a professional copywriter.

A professional copywriter:
· Interviews the company to pull out key elements vital to the business message.
· Recognizes the company image and puts this image into the written word—the message.
· Creates well-crafted copy that speaks the language of the target market.
· Strategically places keywords to increase SEO.
· Facilitates a connection between the brand image and the client through the use of a creative tone in the copy.

If you’re uncomfortable with the message you’re sending potential customers online, it’s time to change this message and solidify a strong brand image.

Wednesday, February 11, Gary Harwyn, owner of Daniel Island Mortgage,  unveiled his new green mortgage services and association with myEnergyLoan. (photo below: Gary Harwyn and Jeff Cole, founder of myEnergyLoan)

We are so excited to be helping promote Daniel Island Mortgage and its new ecofriendly mortgage products, and writing the web copy for their new site.

The event, hosted by Green Drinks Charleston, was held in downtown Charleston at Yo Burrito. As you can tell from the photo, we had a huge turn out for the event.

Designing a company website requires some compromising. It involves the perfect balance between visually appealing and functional elements. It’s important that one element doesn’t dominate the other. This is where many companies go wrong.

Many times company websites are polluted with too much flash, pointless graphics, and unnecessary copy. The combination of these elements is a major risk factor for decreasing website SEO.

In order to ensure your website ranks #1 in search engines, you must adhere to some kind of compromise. Make sure your entire website isn’t in flash. Many people might think flash is more appealing—and it is at times—but it greatly reduces your SEO if overused. Flash limits the amount of copy you can have on your page. Great copy is your best chance at ranking #1 in search engines and should never be substituted for unnecessary elements.

Result-driven copy . . .
· Increases SEO with effective keywords placed throughout. It’s important that these keywords add to the message and mission of your company.
· Converts leads into sales and motivates visitors to take action on your website.
· Increases site traffic.
· Targets your company’s specific market and keeps them on your website.
· Works to reinforce your brand image. Compressed, informative, and concise web copy is easy to read, gets to the point, and expresses your brand image in merely a few sentences without compromising important details.

It’s important to hire a web designer and web copywriter who work toward expressing your brand image online. An excellent web designer will ensure your site is attractive and functional, while an effective web copywriter will guarantee your company message comes across accurately and thoroughly.

The functionality and visual elements of your website may require a slight compromise, but you shouldn’t compromise on a web copywriter and web designer who don’t understand your needs and message. Grow your business. Grow to success. Hire the right copywriter and web designer.

Your business image–from your marketing materials to your personal dress–affect potential clients’ perception of your company. First impressions are everything.

Check out the style contest hosted by Charleston Style Concierge. The deadline is the end of this week — so hurry and enter today!  

Enter to Win a Style Consultation

Add some excitement to your Valentines Day with the gift you really want:

EFFORTLESS STYLE.

Enter to win a

Virtual Style Consultation

($100.00 Value)

Enter to win your Virtual Style Consultation.

During a 60-minute Virtual Style Consultation over the phone, we’ll discuss your style goals, answer your questions, and uncover the best way for you to get effortless style. We will use a style-assessment workbook and digital pictures you send to help develop the personal style you desire.

In your 60-minute Virtual Style Consultation, you’ll learn . . .

• What clothes are right for your body.
• How to dress based on the proportions of your body.
• What you need to buy to create a versatile wardrobe.
• How to develop a great style within your budget and for your unique lifestyle.

Here’s how it works: Using a style assessment and digital photos, we will help you determine the right clothing for your body type and easy ways to update your current wardrobe. All you need to do is fill out our style assessment, send photos, and show up for the call. It’s that easy.

Celebrate you this Valentines Day and enter to win.

Winner to be randomly chosen and announced on Valentines Day, February 14th.

Click here for your chance to win a FREE Virtual Style Consultation

We are very excited about the launch of Nest Realty’s website. We worked for weeks with Blue Ion to make this site a one-of-a-kind real estate website.

Nest is the new breed of broker and the website had to reflect the company’s brand and their unique business model. We oversaw the direction of the creative content and wrote the web copy. It was a great project because we worked closely with Nest owner Jonathan Kaufman and the awesome team at the brilliant crew at Blue Ion to create the end product. And we had a blast writing the copy.

We interviewed Jonathan on why he decided to build a strong online presence immediately after he launched his new company.  

Here’s a excerpt from our conversation.

How do you think the decision will affect the success of your business online?

The Nest web site is the face of the company.  Therefore, I had to have a site that was head and shoulders above the competition in all respects.  Within the last 10 years, real estate has shifted from an offline industry to one that is starting to become dependent on technology and the web.  In fact, 87% of   home buyers now begin their search online.  I believe that having a strong web presence will set apart the winners and the losers in the real estate world.  Hiring Blue Ion to design and develop the Nest site to be aesthetically pleasing and functional is helping to set me apart. 

Having great copy was really the icing on the cake. If the site was beautiful and functional, but the copy was clunky, I would lose prospects and the site wouldn’t be as appealing to visitors.  Michelle took pages and pages of business plans and company beliefs and consolidated them down into simple, concise, and easy-to-read copy.  Since Nest is different than your typical real estate brokerage, so it was important for me to be able to express those differences in a clear and concise manner.  And from a search engine standpoint, great copy will help me attract visitors to the site so that I can then convert them to clients.

I knew I wanted a top-notch web site and actually started researching real estate web sites and design firms almost 12 months ago.  However, just before I launched Nest Realty this past summer, I began interviewing different web designers throughout the country.  Blue Ion had been on my radar because I stumbled across another web site they had done after picking up a real estate flyer while I was visiting Charleston in 2006.  I ended up interviewing 4 different firms, but chose Blue Ion because I felt confident in their abilities and developed a good rapport with them. I decided to bring on a copywriter at the suggestion of Chris and Robert at Blue Ion. 

I have been involved in large web projects in the past, but never considered a copywriter.  However, I felt it was important to have professionally-written copy not only to enhance the visitor experience, but also from a search engine optimization standpoint.

What’s going on? To get potential visitors to purchase your products or services, you must effectively address concerns and answer additional questions. Remember, less is better. Keep it simple.

 The best way to do this is with a Frequently Asked Questions and Answers page—a separate FAQ section. Bold the question, and then answer it. The secret is to answer it as clearly and concisely as you can—in the shortest amount of words possible. List the most commonly asked questions first.

A great way to know what potential customers need and want to know is to email a satisfaction questionnaire shortly after they have taken your garden tour or purchased your hand-designed jewelry. Ask relevant questions that are clear and direct; then use this information to narrow your FAQ section.

Client testimonials are also a great way to learn more about your company: how clients perceived the level of service, what they liked and disliked, and why they chose to do business with you. Paying attention to these statements and mining them for valuable information will also help in determining what potential customers want and need to know.

Do not forget the power of offering free information. Posting online articles or blog entries will help you establish credibility and help with your online presence. Remember, the information must be useful. The more useful it is, the better credibility you will have.

The key is to make sure it will work to your benefit and turn potential clients into customers.

We are excited to announce the launch of Handsome Properties new website. We headed up the creative content direction and wrote the web copy while the Charleston-based design firm Studio Blur worked their magic.

Handsome Properties is a boutique real estate firm specalizing in historic and luxury properties in and around Charleston, South Carolina.

Now is a critical time for businesses to invest in their marketing.

According to a McGraw-Hill study, businesses that maintained or increased their marketing during the 1981-82 recession:

–Averaged higher sales growth during the recession and over the next three years, and by 1985, had increased sales 256% over those companies that cut marketing…

–Then in 2001, another study found that aggressive marketers increased market share 2½ times the average for all businesses in the post-recession!

Those who stepped up their marketing were the big winners during and after the recession.

The time to grow your business is now. 

The most effective way to grow your business is to invest in your online presence. If you don’t have a website, now invest in one. If your site is stale and the content is outdated, now is the time to revamp it.

Your website is the easiest and fastest way to advertise your services or product. But there’s a catch: you have 3 to 5 seconds to grab a prospective client’s attention.

One. Two. Three. And they are gone.

And with millions of websites to choose from, the competition is fierce. Want to stay ahead of the crowd, rank high on search engines, and reach millions of prospective customers? 

You must have compelling web copy.

Having a clear business message on your website is the #1 action you can take to attract ideal clients online and skyrocket your sales. 

Your marketing message must speak to your target audience. Give them what they are hungry for. Get them to take action. Communicate in a clear, concise, informative way.