Many people are afraid to write the Meta tags for their websites, thinking that they would have to be search engine optimization specialists in order to do it properly. While you may not have any special expertise in the field of search engine optimization, you should be an expert in your own business’s area of activity, and, if you combine this knowledge with some simple guidelines, you can write accurate Meta tags. Let us see how to write one of the most important Meta tags, the description tag.
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The description tag is one of the “big three” Meta tags, which also include the title tag, and the keywords tag. These three meta tags along with other tags are located in the html code of your website between the sections marked and while this information is not seen on your web page when someone views your site with a browser, the head section is read by the search engine “robots” and helps the search engines to “understand” what your web page is all about.
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Writing the description tag is a good exercise because it will force you to become clear about what you are doing and what you are offering to your viewers. A description tag is in fact like a short mission statement, explaining your enterprise in a nutshell. If someone wakes you in the middle of the night and asks you what your website or your business is all about, you should be able to answer with a concise two or three sentence description without any hesitation.
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Below is step-by-step guide to creating and using effective description tags:
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1. Write like a journalist. Mention the important W’s, such as who, what, where, when, why. In a description tag, the “what” is the most important element? What do you do? What do you sell? Where do you do it? What is this page all about? Describe what you do in a simple sentence and be sure to incorporate the words and phrases which are most likely to be used when people search for your product or service.
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Suppose your business is the Kenosha Wisconsin Window Cleaning Company. A description tag for your main page might start off like this: “The Kenosha Wisconsin Window Cleaning Company provides window cleaning services for residences and businesses in the greater Kenosha, Wisconsin area.”
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2. Include your Unique Selling Proposition or USP: The USP is actually the “why” of the classic “who, what, where and why” formula. Why should someone use your service and not someone else’s? The USP is what sets you apart from the others.
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Remember when someone makes a query in a search engine yours will not be the only site that comes up. Your competitors will also be there, and they will offer similar products or services. In many search engines the description tag or part of the description tag is displayed in the search results. If your description tag provides some distinctive information, conveying a unique benefit that you provide, then the likelihood that a searcher will click-through to your site will increase.
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Let’s go back to the example of the Kenosha Window Cleaning site and add the USP to the description. The first lines of the description read: “The Kenosha Wisconsin Window Cleaning Company provides window cleaning services for residences and businesses in the greater Kenosha, Wisconsin area.” Another sentence saying “We guarantee a great job every time at a price you can afford,” could be added to give more detail about the quality, guarantee and the affordability of the service.
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3. Put this description in the Meta tag section of the head and in the text of the page itself.
You’ve just taken some time to explain what your web page is all about, and have included some compelling reason why someone should buy your product or service. Don’t hide this information in a place where your readers cannot see it. If you only put the description in the meta tag section, then the search engine robots will see it, but many of your visitors will not.
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Rather, use your description as part of your first paragraph or even as part of your opening headline. Your description contains your important key phrase and key words. If you place it in the opening paragraph or somewhere on your page, then the search engine optimization value of the description is doubled or even tripled. A big mistake in search engine optimization is to use meta tags, but then have no descriptive text on the page, relying on images to convey the message. Use the description tag to begin your text, and add some more to amplify it and expand on what you have written.
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4. Write a distinct description tag for each of your pages, focusing on the unique content and purpose of that particular page.
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Another big mistake on many websites is to use the same Meta tags on all the pages. Each of your pages is different. Each page has or should have a special item of importance. Look at your pages and think of the special part that the page plays in your overall marketing effort, and make a unique description tag. As with the description tag for your main page, put this description within the text of the page itself.
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Even if you get a professional search engine optimization service to write the main Meta tags for your site, you can put this knowledge into practice whenever you add new pages to your site. Good description tags will help your site to be found in search engine queries, and when used as part of the main text of your pages will also help your web visitors to quickly understand your most important marketing messages.

By Donald Nelson

It is a funny thing with pay-per-click marketing…Marketers spend significant time and money increasing their traffic volume (click-throughs) yet very little on the performance of their individual pay-per-click keywords.
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Why is this funny?
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Because in essence, a “click-through??? places money in the pocket of the pay-per-click search engine — while only a sale or lead generates money for the marketer.
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Your “click-through rate??? is really the percentage of times your “FREE LISTING??? (called an “impression???) is clicked on to generate a “PAID??? visitor. By increasing your click through rate and correspondingly your traffic volume, you pay more money to the pay-per-click search engines. You literally BUY each Visitor from the Pay-per-Click Search Engines. When you “buy??? something - don’t you try to get the best thing for your money?
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For example, when you are buying fruit at the market – don’t you want to buy the juiciest and freshest fruit? You search through the stand for the fruit with the best shape, colour, and texture so that only the most refreshing and exceptionally tasting fruit ends up in your shopping cart, right? Of course you do! (Or you waste a lot of money throwing out bad-tasting and rotting fruit.)
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So why not “qualify??? every potential visitor BEFORE you exchange money with the pay-per-click search engines? In a marketer’s utopian world, every “click??? produces a value-oriented action on their website. But in reality, “success??? is simply when…
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The money generated from the clicks is GREATER than the cost for the clicks.
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NOTE: In the beginning of your pay-per-click campaign, ALL visitors have an “intangible value??? because they tell you which keywords not to bid on, how to write your ads to negatively-qualify visitors and how to effectively bid on keywords by the value they produce on your website.
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Initially your Click-Through Rate is IRRELEVANT.
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When you are first setting up a pay-per-click campaign, you should not be overly concerned with your click-through rate unless you fall below the pay-per-click search engines’ minimum requirements. Instead your focus should be on determining your “web’s conversion rate.??? This is when your “paid-for??? visitor becomes a sale or lead - the “point of action??? when you make money.
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After you determine your web conversion rate and the keywords that sent the visitors who converted to sales or leads, then your focus shifts back to increasing only these specific keyword click-through rates.
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Think about it as a valve on a water faucet. You turn it on slightly until you reach the right temperature and then you turn it up to get more water.
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Likewise, for your pay-per-click marketing, you slightly “turn on??? your pay-per-click traffic (without regard to CTR) to identify which keywords produce the right web conversion rate and then you turn up the click-through rate to produce more visitors that convert to sales or leads.
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How Do You “Turn-Up??? Your Click-Through Rate?
Here is a quick “how to??? list for writing titles and descriptions for pay-per-click ads:
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1. Stay within the boundaries of the pay-per-click search engine’s editorial guidelines. Some of the most common editorial problems (outside grammar and spelling) are:
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- Do not use superlatives like “best??? or “lowest???
- Do not use excessive capitalization
- Do not write misleading titles or descriptions that do not describe accurately what you are offering a customer.
- Do not include contact information in your title or description like “call 1-800.???
- Do not use numbers in place of words like “4??? instead of “for???.
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2. Always use the keyword in your title (and if possible, description). Industry research indicates that the “perceived??? quality is approximately 60% higher in listings where the search term is included.
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3. In the description, include short, concise statements communicating your customer benefits. If you have limited room, then prioritize them.
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4. Because you have limited character space, you must choose your words wisely. Certain words like, “Maximize???, “Exclusive??? and “Indulge??? have a positive persuasion affect on potential visitors versus negative ones like “Difficult??? or “Expensive???.
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5. If you have an e-commerce website include a product’s model number, your shipping incentives and shipping reach (nationwide or international), any guarantees, the price, potential inventory restrictions or other specific product or service information.

6. Test, test and test again - you simply never know what one word will have a powerful persuasive appeal for your most qualified potential visitors.
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Your mission is to “negatively-qualify??? who clicks on your fee ad by explicitly stating discriminating product or service attributes. For example, if you sell luxury watches like Cartier, you may add a price qualifier, like “starting at $2,100??? to minimize bargain shoppers who may not be familiar with the brand name.
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Marketers tend to let their websites negatively-qualify visitors instead of their ad. Although you cannot avoid all poorly qualified click-throughs, you can reduce their burden on your marketing budget and directly increase your web conversion rate as an outcome. What happens when a specific keyword regardless of how the ad is written and tested still does not generate a sale or lead?
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The answer is simple…GET RID OF IT!
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Unless the keyword has some significant and justifiable “brand appeal??? then do not continue fuelling the pay-per-click search engine’s revenue machine without ever having a chance of fuelling your own.
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In summary, focus on “qualifying??? your clicks BEFORE buying a visitor who has no intention of putting money into your pocketbook. The pay-per-click search engines may get a little upset but your accountant will certainly pop a smile.

By Kevin Gold

The basic lead generation process is pretty much the same from company to company. Inquiries come in…they’re qualified…and then sent to the sales team. Some turn into customers. Some don’t.
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Which means that, over time, every organization ends up with a pile of prospects that either disengaged during the sales cycle (for whatever reason)…or decided to go with a competitor.
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So here’s the big question: is anyone in your company following up with these potential future opportunities?
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I can tell you that very few companies I’ve worked with have systems in place to nurture these longer-term prospects. Yet, the potential for increased sales is significant, and can be very cost-effective.
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Why Are They Ignored?
Here’s one reason these prospects don’t get much attention: good salespeople tend to spend most of their time on higher-probability opportunities with the best chance of closing the quickest. And who can blame them? Reps are under constant pressure to close business and meet quotas. That means there’s little time for lower-probability prospects.
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But that doesn’t mean you should throw these leads away. There can be tremendous long-term value in these opportunities…if you can set up a system that allows you to follow up on them consistently—and without breaking the bank.
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I call this strategy “lead recycling??? because, in essence, that’s exactly what you’re doing—you’re “recycling??? these longer-term prospects back through a targeted lead generation process.
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The payoff? I’ve seen this strategy boost sales by 5% (even 10% or more) over the course of a year—all from qualified prospects that would have normally been ignored!
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In fact, one of my software clients recently tested a new “lead recycling program??? as part of an effort to grow sales to record levels. As a result of this new initiative, they were able to increase sales of one of their solutions by 13% over the course of a year!
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This company was generating an average of 600 inquiries per year for one of their products. From that point:
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• Some 450 of those 600 inquiries turned into appointments
• Nearly 90 of those 450 appointments eventually turned into sales (over the course of a year)

This was good enough to meet budgets. But it also meant that over 500 “inquirers??? were NOT buying from them every year!
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They knew it wasn’t practical to expect sales to follow up on every one of these “lost??? opportunities. So they implemented a system that funnelled these longer-term prospects back to marketing, using a combination of email and direct mail.
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The results were outstanding. Over the course of a year they were able to close an additional 12 new opportunities just from this list—a lift in sales of over 13%.
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You’ve done The Hard Work Already
Here’s why this strategy works so well: When it comes to prospects you’ve engaged with in the past, you’ve probably done most of the heavy lifting already. You’ve done the hard work of getting them to respond to a campaign. You may even have established a certain degree or rapport and trust with many of them. And you’ve educated them on your offerings and how they can solve their business problems.
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Therefore, when a prospect disengages because of “bad timing??? or “budget constraints??? or other reasons, if you don’t stay in touch with this growing list, you risk losing them to a competitor—someone who will greatly benefit from the time and effort you spent educating these folks.
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4 Keys to Successful “Lead Recycling???
Thinking about implementing a lead-recycling program? Here are some key items to keep in mind:
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1. Get “buy-in??? from sales. That may not be easy at first, but explain that you’re trying to make their jobs easier. By setting up this program, you’re taking away the burden of following up with lower-ranked leads. This gives them more time to focus on higher-probability opportunities. And best of all, you’ll be able to deliver them a handful of well-nurtured leads every year.
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2. Consider qualifying more thoroughly up front. This places a bigger burden on marketing. But in the long run, everyone wins. Leads that are simply inquiring at this point and are months away from seriously evaluating options should all go straight into this nurturing program. They’re just not ready to be turned over.
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3. Set up systems that allow sales to easily forward prospects that need to be recycled. They should include “lost??? opportunities, delayed decisions, and warm leads that have turned cold.
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4. Lastly, “seed??? this prospect list with a steady stream of value-added communications. Consider launching an e-newsletter in order to gather more opt-in email addresses. Also, try direct mail targeted at specific groups within this list. And as long as each of these communications has an appealing call to action (demo/presentation CD, white paper, an invitation to a Webinar, and so on), you continually increase your chances of creating top-of-mind awareness with these prospects.
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Bottom line: These days, it takes tremendous effort to generate qualified leads. Don’t let any of them fall through the cracks. By setting up a “lead recycling program??? you optimize your efforts and help generate sales that would have never closed otherwise.

By Ed Gandia