By: Robert F. Abbott

Over past couple of days I've been setting up visitor counters, so people in another organization can accurately count number of people who visit their event.

They got idea (and counters) from an association I belong to, and they, too, are learning how data delivers credibility.

I'm always impressed by how much respect I get when speaking or writing with specific, solid numbers. For example, when I talk about number of visitors who came through gates of my association's event on a specific night, I don't talk about "a lot" or "a few" or "more than night before."

Instead, I can say something like, "2,348 visitors came through last night, compared to 1,852 evening before." That specificity makes a difference when it comes to credibility, and if I propose a certain course of action based on those numbers, I'm likely to get support I need from other members of board.

Data, you see, represents very specific information, and often, more specific you can be, more credibility you have.

Similarly, direct marketing gurus encourage their clients to use specific numbers in headlines, rather than generalizations. That's why effective direct mail, and now online advertising, uses claims like "Learn how one sales rep earned $2,216.78 last week..." rather than "Learn how one sales rep earned more than $2,000 last week..."

I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I’ve heard statement, “I get tons of traffic, but no sales.” It’s normally followed by comments like: “My site is highly optimized for engines and my rankings are great. I don’t understand why no one is buying.” Let me shed some light on this mystery.

Most often, when site owners (or professional copywriters for that matter) write “search engine optimized” copy, they develop tunnel vision. They are so focused on placement of keyphrases throughout copy that they neglect something very important… customer!

Because immediate task at hand “seems” to be getting site ranked high, writer neglects to take out his or her crystal ball and gaze into future. What should you be asking crystal ball? “What happens when customer gets to my site?”

Oops! Didn’t think of that? Don’t feel embarrassed. Many people don’t. Developing SEO (search engine optimized) copy is like creating a complete circle. You have to have good keyword saturation in order to get ranked in those prime spots. You have to have keyword-rich title and description tags (mostly title tag) to land in top 10. Once you achieve that your site starts drawing in surfers. Now that they’ve clicked to your site, what happens? The copy has to give them what they want/need. That’s missing piece to puzzle and factor that causes so many people to scratch their heads in disbelief.

When writing SEO copy, you have to think of beginning AND end of process. You have to create copy that satisfies both engine and customer. Once you do, you’ll not only have boatloads of traffic, but you’ll have sales that go along with it. So, there… mystery solved! Or at least part of it.

We’ve covered “why,” now let’s look at “how.”

1. Know Your Target Audience