The Secrets of Ecommerce Copywriting—Revealed!

In Wordtracker’s e-book, “Wordtracker Masterclass: Ecommerce Copywriting – Proven Strategies for Boosting Sales & Search Rankings,” you’ll discover how to:

• Write sizzling website copy that turns more visitors into buyers
• Integrate keywords without overwhelming visitors with content
• Structure your site content from the ground up, step-by-step
• Creating compelling PPC landing pages that convert better than you imagined
• Overcome the challenges some Content Management Systems impose

Does This Sound Like You?

“I have a fabulous-looking ecommerce site, but just can’t seem to get good rankings.”

“My ecommerce site ranks well, but my sales are less than impressive.”

If either of the above sentiments strikes a familiar chord, you’re not alone.

The reason for these challenges is simple. Since ecommerce sites are typically light on copy, they can be more difficult to rank. Yet if you make your site too content-heavy, it can compromise its usability, causing some visitors to hastily click away. What’s more, if you’re not sending the right message with your copy, you’ll fail to engage prospective customers and lose the sale. Game over.

The truth is that aligning high search engine rankings with favorable conversion rates requires an understanding of both SEO mechanics and basic sales psychology.

To explain a bit further: search engines like Google are copy-hungry machines. They base your rankings almost exclusively on text elements, from your title and description tags to your product descriptions to your external and internal links.

There’s much to consider when it comes to writing ecommerce copy. So how do you strike that delicate balance between form and function? How can you create content that pleases the search engines while inspiring your visitors to click the “Buy” button again and again?

Well, take heart, because we’ve got the answers to these questions and much more. In our e-book, Wordtracker outlines a simple, step-by-step system for writing high-converting content that garners great search engine positioning. Intrigued? Read on for further details!

Introducing a Practical, No-Nonsense Guide to Writing Profitable Ecommerce Content

Wordtracker’s “Wordtracker Masterclass: Ecommerce Copywriting – Proven Strategies for Boosting Sales & Search Rankings,” shows you how to lay a rock-solid foundation for your website’s success through content-building processes that have been proven time and again to deliver results.

Penned by web copywriting guru Karon Thackston, “Wordtracker Masterclass: Ecommerce Copywriting” teaches you sound and highly effective website and SEO copywriting strategies, using easy-to-follow lessons, assignments and examples.

You’ll learn:

• Best-practice SEO copywriting techniques that cover keyword research, keyword selection, internal linking, copy development and more.
• How to smoothly integrate keyphrases into your site without bulking up on the content your visitors will read.
• Powerful selling principles that you can easily incorporate into your content to build consumer trust and boost revenues.

Throughout the book, Karon shows you how to weave search engine keyphrases into several layers of each page – so you can maximize your chances of ranking well and driving hungry buyers to your site!

Here’s a Sneak Peek at What’s Inside the Book

As with any critical marketing project, developing the copy for your ecommerce website takes careful preparation and planning. But don’t feel intimidated: in “Wordtracker Masterclass: Ecommerce Copywriting,” Karon defines a clear, intuitive process that will help you determine:

• What pages to include on your website
• How they will be organized (grouped)
• What each page will sell or what information it will provide
• The precise process visitors will take when shopping and checking out

Once you have this information, you’ll be able to visualize the customer’s path as s/he enters your site (from any number of pages) and works his/her way through to the final conversion point. You’ll also be able to create wireframe plans that will help you develop copy for each step of your customers’ visit.

Karon even provides screenshots of actual ecommerce websites and offers her professional critique, so you can see what works in real life – and what doesn’t.

According to Jupiter Research, 81% of internet users rely on search engines to find the websites they’re looking for. And everything within the search engine optimization process depends on keywords and phrases.

Chapter 2 of “Wordtracker Masterclass: Ecommerce Copywriting” outlines a keyword research strategy designed with copywriters in mind. You’ll learn:

• Which search terms are worth targeting. It could be that people do type in “purple and pink polka dot rubber ducky” when looking for children’s bath toys. However, if only one person a year does so, targeting this keyphrase is unlikely to be a good use of your time and effort.

• The competition you face for phrases you’re targeting. On the other hand, perhaps “purple and pink polka dot rubber ducky” is wildly popular and thousands of potential customers shop using this phrase every day. The problem is, other websites found this little gem long before you did, so the competition is fierce. Thus, the phrase is not worth your time.

• How to organize the list of phrases for which you want to be found. Once you’ve gone through the steps above, you can use keyword research tools to compile a list of good prospective terms that can be included in your site copy.

Then, once you’ve compiled your list of relevant keywords, Karon explains how to determine which ones should appear on your home page and which should be included on your product pages. You’ll also discover the importance of long-tail keywords – and exactly when and how they should be used.

Links are the roadways of the internet. When we – as surfers – go to Google, Yahoo!, Bing or some other engine to conduct a search, we click on links on the search engine results pages (SERPs) to get to the sites that interest us. Once on a website, we click links in the navigation bars or the body copy to get to the specific pages we want. If we see a referral to another website that catches our attention, we click a link to travel to the next site. Simply put, without links, we’d go nowhere on the web.

You can see, strictly from a searcher’s point of view, how vital links are to the entire shopping process. So it makes sense that Google and other engines would hold links with a high regard as well. And indeed they do.

Why? Because not only are links pathways, they are also considered copy. They are text and are therefore readable by the search engine ‘spiders’. That means you must carefully select what you use as anchor text (also called link text) throughout every page of your site.

While most of the instruction we find online deals with external links (those pointing to one of our site’s pages from someone else’s site), internal linking (links on our own pages that point to our other various pages) is just as important.

In Chapter 3, you’ll discover:

• Why keywords are essential in your internal linking text

• The six primary places where you must include keywords in your links

• Why search engines love your navigation bar

• How well-written breadcrumb trails can help your search rankings

• How and when to include even more keywords into your links (without affecting your site’s usability)

• The importance of “alt” tags

• How to use your site map to give your rankings an extra boost

Once you’ve planned your site properly, you can at last start thinking about writing the copy!

Making sales is rarely a one-step process. You have to bring a visitor to your site through some method – whether it be banner ads, pay-per-click (PPC) ads or organic/free search engine listings. Then you must provide a solution to the needs/wants your customer is trying to fill. Since many people comparison-shop online, you’ll need to offer compelling reasons why visitors should purchase from you – instead of the hundreds or thousands of other ecommerce sites they have access to.

Not only that; you must also build trust and credibility and reduce friction in the buying process. Finally, after all of this has taken place, you will have the opportunity to make the sale.

Whew! That’s a lot of steps. Sometimes they happen within minutes of one another. Other times, the process takes several visits over the course of multiple days or weeks. In Chapter 4 of “Wordtracker Masterclass: Ecommerce Copywriting,” Karon takes you through every step of the sales process and helps you write killer copy that moves the user swiftly towards the sale. You’ll learn:

• When to use graphics and when to use text on your home page

• The DOs and DON’Ts of writing title tags (and how to write a great title tag – it’s really an advert in itself!)

• Why your description tags are vital, and the ideal length for a description tag that sells

• How to make your company stand out from the competition

• How to write engaging, keyword-rich category pages that turn casual browsers into cash-paying customers

• How to pen product descriptions that motivate your audience to buy while staying within space constraints (which are often very restrictive)

• In addition, you’ll get helpful, quick-reference worksheets that make fast work of developing copy for every section of your website

Using manufacturer copy for your product pages–or worse, using very similar copy across all of your product pages – may seem like a smart shortcut, but it comes with a price: it can compromise your search engine rankings and even send potential customers packing.

In this chapter, Karon reveals the truth about “duplicate content” and gives you clarity on this very gray area of SEO. You’ll discover:

• How duplicate content is defined

• Why duplicate content is not the rankings-killer people assume it to be (hint: Google won’t ban your site forever if you use it)

• Why “canned copy” is actually worse for your shoppers than for your search engine rankings And if you do ultimately choose to use manufacturer copy for your website, Karen gives you tips on turning it into original, relevant content that ranks high and converts like crazy.

With scams, phishing schemes and scores of other goblins lurking online, customers can be hesitant to buy from just any ecommerce site. Today’s savvy shoppers look for specific clues that let them know a site is reputable and offers quality products.

In Chapter 6, Karon gives you specific, proven techniques for building trust with your audience and answering the questions that stop customers from buying (without them even having to ask).

You’ll learn how to create policies (shipping and delivery, returns, privacy) that make your customers feel safe and secure. And happy customers, of course, lead to more sales.

Since rankings can be tough to achieve for ecommerce sites – and because online stores want to drive traffic to specific products or category pages quickly – pay per click ads are often used to generate qualified traffic. However, many website owners make the critical mistake of thinking that a regular product or category page is automatically a good landing page for PPC. This is unequivocally false!

A PPC landing page must have very specific attributes in order to build customer trust and increase conversions. In this chapter, Karon tells you exactly what these attributes are, and also shows you:

• How to ensure consistency between PPC ad headlines and landing page headlines and content

• How to write clear, riveting PPC headlines and ads that garner more clicks

• How to incorporate design elements into your landing page to boost credibility and attract visitors’ attention

• Tips for cutting your AdWords costs while increasing your traffic

Once you incorporate the elements Karon recommends, you’ll have a ready-made template for successful landing pages for all of your PPC campaigns!

Cross-selling (offering items related to a product, like accessories and warranties) and up-selling (suggesting more expensive alternatives) are time-tested merchandising tools, both online and offline. You might think of cross-selling as a retailer’s version of “Would you like fries with that?”

Customers these days are smart enough to know that printers need paper and ink, right? Of course they are. But customers are also very busy, and frequently rush around making spontaneous purchases. Perhaps the ink cartridges they use for their current printer won’t fit the new printer (even if it’s the same brand). Or, it could be that a specialty printer only takes a particular type of paper, without which the printer won’t work properly. So, if you’re selling printers, you should also be selling ink and paper.

Time and again, marketers have proven that up-selling and cross-selling boost profits. An airplane manufacturer stated in a white paper that up-selling brought a whopping additional 15% in annual revenues! And one office furniture company claims that cross-sells bumped up their bottom line by over 30% (we’ve seen stories of revenue improving up to 50% through up- and cross-sales).

Introducing products or services related to the product or service the shopper is buying gives you yet another way to earn more revenue from your ecommerce site. Cross-selling and up-selling have a number of benefits, and can increase:

• Average order value

• Conversion rates, by guiding customers to appropriate alternatives if a product they’re viewing isn’t right

• Exposure for high-margin items

• Customer satisfaction, by suggesting related items to enhance or augment the product and user experience

• Awareness about the depth of your product offerings

In “Wordtracker Masterclass: Ecommerce Copywriting,” Karon introduces 23 practical cross-selling DOs and DON’Ts and shows you:

• The ideal time to make your up-sell/cross-sell offer
• When cross-selling can actually harm your profitability
• The cross-selling tactics of top online retailers, using real examples
• How to communicate additional value, so your clients know why they must buy – now!

Who is This Book For?

“Wordtracker Masterclass: Ecommerce Copywriting” is aimed at people of all levels of ability and involvement in web design, publishing and marketing – from small businesses building their own ecommerce sites to people who already spend most of their time writing for the web. It’s even ideal for offline copywriters who need to brush up their skills for digital selling.

Below is just a cross-section of people who will benefit from this book:

• Website owners planning a new site
• Businesses that have a website that simply isn’t attracting much traffic
• Someone looking to start a copywriting career
• Existing (offline) copywriters looking to take their skills online
• Site owners who want to improve conversion rates
• Web designers who want to write better (selling) text
• Anyone with a website, period!

Learn from a Copywriting Master

Karon Thackston, author of “Wordtracker Masterclass: Ecommerce Copywriting,” is a copywriting master who is widely respected in her field. In addition to running her own full-time copywriting agency, Karon has written and self-published four books, including the popular “Step-by-Step Copywriting Course (5th Edition)”, “Writing With Keywords”, and “How to Write Successful PPC Ads”. She has also been a featured speaker at several prominent SEO conferences on the topics of search engine copywriting, PPC copywriting and ecommerce copywriting.

Karon has used her expertise to help thousands – from individual entrepreneurs to major corporations – grow their online sales and revenue through strategic SEO copywriting, and now she shares her “secrets of the trade” with you.

And we’re not the only ones singing Karon’s praises. Here’s what people have said about her books:

“I’ve been reading through your PPC book and I’m loving it. Even advanced PPC markets should look at pages 19 and 20 for ideas on new ads for their optimization and a/b testing.”
Matt DeYoung, PPC Strategist & Landing Page Design Professional

_”What I like most is that this book walks the writer through an actual process or method that he/she can use for writing PPC ads.”
Karri Flatla, Snap! Virtual Associates

_”I finished reading your books and really enjoyed them. Your books had more meat in the subject matter than all 8 of the books I read by another famous copywriter.”
Dale Glaspie – Website Owner, Financial Advisor

“I love it! Your e-book helped me create keyword-rich copy without sounding unnatural or spammy. I just wanted to thank you for writing such a clear, easily understood “how-to” on one of the most important, and challenging, aspects of great web copy.”
Ian McAnerin, www.mcanerin.com

“Karon certainly knows her stuff – she gives a step-by-step guide to writing targeted copy as used by the professionals. You will be surprised at what you didn’t know!”
Kate H.

“I just wanted to tell you that the course was a big help to me, and that my (wife’s) website traffic has increased in number of visitors, increased time on site, increased referral $$ generated plus lower Adwords cost-per-click (by 25%) due to better relevancy to search phrases. The site has a ways to go, but is in much better shape today thanks to following the suggestions in your course.”
Skip Jentsch, Website Owner/Coach www.suzannecorcoran.net

At 155 pages, “Wordtracker Masterclass: Ecommerce Copywriting” is as comprehensive as e-books get. But don’t let the length scare you. This handy guide is incredibly easy to follow – even if you’re new to copywriting! To help you quickly grasp key concepts and immediately put them to use, the book:

• Gives you checklists to make sure you don’t miss any key steps in your content planning strategy

• Sums up each chapter with a list of critical points to remember

• Includes useful worksheets that help you organize your keywords and develop targeted content for each page of your site

• Walks you, screenshot-by-screenshot, through real websites, showing you where they succeed and where they fail (so you can avoid making the same mistakes)

• Gives you actionable steps you can take to dramatically improve the effectiveness of your website content and generate more traffic, sales and revenue for your business