How To Write Great Copy

Writing great copy not only motivates readers to take action, but also inform search engines of what your site consists of. However, taking a poetic approach and writing a Shakesperian epic is the absolute worst thing you can do. while it may make a great blog post, it won’t fly with Google which stops reading after a certain amount of characters.

There are a variety of resources you can tap in to learn about what makes web copy tick and how it influences visitors. A personal favorite is Smashing’s eBook “How to Write Great Copy for the Web.” I’ve read this eBook multiple times and it comes from a great site – Smashing Magazine – which is an amazing resource for designers, bloggers and programmers alike.

Using Call To Actions

A Call To Action gives users the incentive to complete an objective. Most commonly used with e-commerce sites, Call To Actions can used on any kind of website that requires user interaction. Recognizing what action you want a user to take is the first step in crafting a Call To Action. If you’re running a blog, you may want readers to subscribe. An e-commerce site will call for users to purchase a product. An information hub will want users to share their content. Knowing what you want to accomplish with your site

Who To Turn To For Copywriting

Girard Brewer wrote how much of an impact effective copy can make. It will either entice visitors to take action or turn them away. If you don’t know how to write copy that persuades and entices users or which keywords to use, where do you turn?

Choosing the right copywriting service is essential to creating effective copy that generates results. However, most agencies only focus on one aspect of the process: writing. DigitalEYE Media integrates copywriting in to advertising and social media campaigns.

That means the copywriting we do for our clients is very tightly integrated with SEO keyword research and optimization. The great thing about this is the advertising and blogging campaigns we create are integrated in SEO keyword research to ensure consistency in the image created for our clients online. The end result is consistency in content that generates results: increased page views, conversions and more loyal followers

What advertising agency can do that? Talk to us on Facebook and Twitter to learn more about how much of an impact copywriting can make on your site.

Simplify!

Many social media campaigns fail before they even take off. Most people think that by simply signing up for Facebook and Twitter accounts and sending out updates, they’ll have an effective campaign. On the flip side, people inundate themselves with a plethora of social networks they want to target yet have no specific goal in mind. The most effective way to operate is to simplify your campaign. Ask yourself: what do you want to accomplish and who do you want to reach? If you’re marketing a new kind of business suit that is extremely light and comfortable to wear when it’s hot, you’ll obviously want to target businessmen that can afford this kind of technology. Where do you think your target audience will be? Hint: it’s not Facebook. Try LinkedIn, a social networking site tailored to professionals, in order to be really effective.

Drawing up a battle plan of whom you want to target and which social networks may cater to that demographic gives you some more control. Just because social media is intangible doesn’t mean it can’t be used effectively. Don’t get overwhelmed, just simplify!

Interact and Follow Up

You’ve got the networks you want to use in order market your new suit all figured out, now you’ll have to interact with people and follow up with them. If you’re messaging a man who travels to Spain frequently, make sure he knows why he should use your suit the next trip he takes (don’t forget to mention that it’s wrinkle resistant) and why it beats suits from Armani (you’re bound to save some money). Don’t spam him, but don’t forget about him either; follow up with him by finding out how he likes the suit and any improvements he would make if he were in your position.

Social media is a two way street, it is best utilized when you use it to create a conversation, particularly when that conversation is about your product. Social media transcends the normal advertising experience by creating a personal and imitate relationship with the clientele you are trying to sell to and breaks down some barriers. It forces you to be human which creates trust in your audience.

Track Your Return on Investment

Return on investment for social media marketing is the hardest factor to track for any campaign because there are so many kinds of metrics you can factor in and not many people are quite sure how to do it. Using the advice of simplifying your social media campaign can really help you track ROI. When you were first conceptualizing your battle plan, you should have realized your ultimate goal — to generate profit or interest in your product. If your investment is “X” amount of dollars, you’ll want at least “X” plus $1 so that you won’t lose money on your campaign. You can very easily track your ROI using Google Analytics.

Google Analytics allows you to create tracking URLs that show where visitors come from and whether they buy something from your online store or even participate in an action that leads to a sale in the future. If your site received 1,000 visits per month before you started your social media campaign, and you only add 80 more visits per month from social media sites, ask yourself how many of those 80 bought a suit? If it’s your original investment plus $1, it’s effective but has room to grow.

If 10 of those people bought a suit at $400 that’s $4,000 generated just from social media — a profit of $1,000 from a very low number of people visiting your site or e-store. This means your campaign has room to grow and even while it’s in its infancy, it’s already making you money.

Using social media along with your current marketing campaign doesn’t have to be difficult. When you simplify things, you can interact with anyone and make it a genuine, personalized experience. Even more important, tracking ROI is easier when you simplify the process and clearly state your goals early on. Now that we’ve broken down some of the concepts of creating a great social media campaign, we’d like to know how you can implement these tactics. Maybe you have more questions? Either way, visit our Facebook or Twitter and let us know, we can’t wait to hear from you!

In the video, I interviewed Neil Patel about his experience as an entrepreneur and Blogger. Neil details why it’s important to Blog and how it can massively impact your brand, the advantages of being an entrepreneur and how now, more than ever, it’s easier to start your own company on a small budget.

Neil also founded his first company while in high school and has since launched a comprehensive data analytics service called Kissmetrics.

Neil Blogs about startups, the importance of relevant content and SEO on his blog Quick Sprout.

This list takes a look at the top 5 SEO and Social Media experts on Twitter and their Blogs. You’ll find insight on anything from keywords to interacting on Facebook to creating more followers on Twitter.

The Top Social Media & SEO Blogs To Read

1. Copy Blogger is a great source of inspiration for writers everywhere. Billed as the go to source for fresh knowledge and an expert in writing compelling content, Copy Blogger is one of the best Blogs on this list.

2. Soshable delves in to the realm of human interaction online through social media. The Blog features posts from guest writers to compile the best content from notable experts such as Erin Ryan and J.D. Rucker.

3. Quick Sprout is run by Neil Patel, a young, knowledgeable entrepreneur who details his experience with SEO, Blogging and start ups.

4. SEO Steve is an extremely well-versed SEO expert from Orange County who can create results as fast as he can Tweet. His SEO tips are top notch and his blog is a great resource for any SEO expert or wannabe.

5. Mashable is one of the best Social Media Blogs. There is always something new and fresh for anyone interested in Social Media. Mashable is a great source of inspiration when you want to find what’s going on in the world of Social Media.

The Top SEO Twitter Profiles To Follow

6. SEO Rock Stars is a great Twitter profile to follow for SEO advice and insights.

7. Andy Beal posts advice for managing your reputation online and is CEO of trackur.com.

8. Pro Blogger which is run by Darren Rowse, details his experience as a full-time Blogger. Rowse made a name for himself by becoming one of the few people who could make a living purely from Blogging. He often posts insights in to freelance Blogging to help other accomplish the same goal.

9. Kevin Rose is the founder of Digg.com and an entrepreneur based in San Francisco. While Kevin is known for his work at Digg, he invests in small startups which he discusses on Twitter combined with his witty remarks about social media.

10. Tech Crunch is run by Mike Arrington and features breaking technology news in Silicon Valley. Tech Crunch is notable for its insight in to business deals of Social Media companies before they go public.

Making these ideas a part of your writing process will require a change in your mindset on content creation, but changing your mindset on writing will enhance your content dramatically Most writers rely too much on the process of creating content instead of the results said content should bring. Don’t focus too much on the thrill of writing but rather what you hope to achieve with it in the long run. Do you want to educate readers on your product or are you simply filling content on your corporate blog?

Writing Informative Content

If I were writing a story on the iPhone 4, I would create a title like “iPhone 4:  Apple Revolutionizes The Phone, Again.” Assuming my readers are interested in technology in some way, they will be compelled to click on the link because it tells them Apple introduced a new iPhone, (specifically, the fourth one). Readers also learn that the iPhone is a great product because it is revolutionary. I’d follow up with a short, Twitter-esque description that tells the reader what to expect while making them want to read the content:

Today, Apple introduced the iPhone 4, which revolutionizes how you call, use apps, and surf the web. It’s powerful, fast, and beautiful and we’ve got all the info.

This short, 163 character description expands on the title, tells the reader what the iPhone does, summarizes its attributes and most importantly tells them how it will impact their life.

When creating your content, you must keep in mind one simple rule: you are not writing for the sake of writing, you are writing to inform, engage and to captivate. Many bloggers make the mistake of writing words without meaning, including text that does not inform nor engage. Changing your preconceived notions about how and why content will be created is crucial.

Conceptualizing your content beforehand makes it extremely easy to create an outline and structure your content accordingly. A simple structure makes your writing more accessible, captivating and informative for readers. Following this structure will also make it extremely easy to write content, whether you have any background in the topic or not.

Write Engaging Content

Content engages your reader in many different causing them to possibly reply, and give feedback or simply generating interest about your work within their network. Using a “call to action” makes your content most engaging; these could be in the title, the body and the description in your post. However, you could insert questions or make the content relevant to your readers’ personalities.

Keeping your mind on what you want to achieve will help your writing workflow. I’ve had to adjust from the preconceived notion of great content is wordy content. Great content is content that informs, captivates and engages. If your post is 3,000 words and informs me on a particular subject without boring me and follows up with questions, that is good content. If your post is 300 words and tells me what I should know, tells me why its relevant and tells me why I should care, that is great content. If your post is however many words but fails to engage, inform or make me notice, I will not care.

Most writers focus too much on inserting personality and opinion over information. A balance of both is needed but one should not over ride the other. You’ll see throughout this post I mention my previous freelance exploits as examples. I could use examples of other writer’s techniques but I have more experience in detailing how I progressed. This inserts my personality in to the content but gives you information at the same time.

Saying I changed my writing style to engage readers does not inform, it tells you what you want to do but does tell you how. Writing about the process of my editor lambasting me about not writing good content inserts too much of my personality and not enough information.

Keeping your eye on what you want to convey throughout the content compiling and content creation process will make your content good because your writing will be compelling, informative and engage me.

Following the sample scenario of the iPhone 4, I’d want to apply the idea of this post to a piece of news from Apple: Steve Jobs has announced a new product, the iPhone 4. It includes a 960 x 480 retina display, Face Time webcam, Apple A4 processor and iOS 4. As a technical writer I would be hooked instantly, I have my product info ready to insert in to my content but I’m already making one fundamental mistake: writing content aimed for technical people and not the mass populace. However, by changing my mindset, I can not only engage the technical demographic but also everyone else. I need to focus on what the product does, its end result and answer the question ‘what does this mean for me?’

What does the iPhone 4 do? It allows me to video chat with my family and friends. Its new display doesn’t cause eye strain and text looks like I’m reading it from a book. The new processor makes games and surfing the web much faster. The new Software lets me run more than one App at a time and has a more intuitive mail layout. That tells me right there what the iPhone 4 will do, how it will enhance my life and what I should buy it.

Being more technical oriented I want to know how it accomplishes this. I’d follow up with  “The iPhone 4 uses a front facing 0.3 megapixel camera to enable video chats. Its 960 x 480 has a resolution of 321 pixels per inch, a higher resolution of printed text which is 300 dots per inch. The included A4 processor runs at 1 GHz and has access to 512 MB RAM. The Phone’s Software, iOS 4 includes multitasking support, the mail App has thread view support and a unified mail box. Including that information along appeals to the tech oriented readers but tells no tech savvy readers why the iPhone is great.

The Basic Structure Of Your Content

Your structure should follow the rule of three by focusing on three main points you are discussing. These main points should be created from three words you’ve used in your description so the reader will be familiar with what you’re talking about. If you must use more than three points, do not go beyond five- the reason for using only three points is that it will be easier to read your content and actually retain the information. You’ll find that spewing bullet points no longer works for writing. If you were to really read what you wrote from months back, how much of it would you retain? Keep this in mind as you divide your post in to distinct sections.

To tie the summary in to the rest of the content. I’ve used the words ‘powerful’ ‘fast’ and ‘beautiful’ to describe the iPhone 4. I’ve also described the basic functions of the iPhone 4 as being able to call, use Apps and surf the web. I have to remember to use those three adjectives to describe the iPhone’s basic functions. Using those three adjectives to create three distinct sections would make my post look like this.

iPhone 4, A Beautiful, Stainless Steel Design

This explains why the iPhone is beautiful, it uses a stainless steel design which I would elaborate on why Apple chose a stainless steel design and discuss other design elements which make the iPhone 4 beautiful like this: The iPhone 4 is a strong departure from its previous design of plastic  by embracing a stainless band around the glass backing and front display. To improve signal strength Apple has placed the antenna in the steel band.

The Apple A4 Processor: All The Power A Phone Could Want, And More

This explains what makes the iPhone 4 powerful; a processor called the Apple A4. However, those who are tech illiterate may not understand what the Apple A4 is or even what it does. I’ve appended a description in the section name that explains its a very powerful processor. I would expand on this and detail what makes the Apple A4 a great processor, why Apple chose that specific processor and the advantages it offers: The Apple A4 was built specifically for the iPhone, iPad and future Apple devices that require speed while maintaing a long battery life. The processor runs at a speedy 1 GHz without encroaching on battery life; at 6 hours of 3G internet usage the iPhone 4 is an improvement over the iPhone 3GS it replaces.

Faster Wireless Speeds: 3G, 802.11N WiFi And Bluetooth 2.1

This sentence also builds upon the previous statement that those who aren’t tech literate may not understand the complete technical nomenclature such as 3G networking, 802.11N Wifi or Bluetooth. I started off with the statement of “Faster Wireless Speeds” which tells all my readers that the iPhone 4 networks faster and has faster wireless speeds. I’ll elaborate and explain which wireless functions are faster on the iPhone. Since this is the most technical portion of my iPhone description I will need to describe what 3G networking is (It is a standard which denotes wireless upload and download speeds between a mobile device and a wireless network when communicating with a cellular carrier) what 802.11N Wifi is (802.11 N is an improvement upon previous wireless standards and offers increased download and upload speeds between the iPhone and your router) and what Bluetooth 2.1 is (The newest version of Bluetooth 2.1 brings enhanced security when pairing with mobile devices.)

iPhone 4 Makes Apps Faster And More Powerful

Since I discussed the iPhone 4 revolutionizes how you use Apps and surf the web, I’ll want to create a fourth section that describes how the phone does this and build upon what I talked about previously: the iPhone 4 energizes App usage using the speedy A4 processor and its spacious 512 MB of RAM. This allows the iPhone to run more than 1 Application at any time without lag. The phone’s built in Web Browser, Safari, renders pages faster and download content faster thanks to the upgraded 3G and Wifi connections. You’ll be able to run multiples Apps and read your favorite Blog while on a conference call without any degradation in quality.

Grow Your Audience

Even though you may write a niche blog with a specific audience in mind, don’t alienate readers. There is a reason the topic you’re focusing on is a niche; not enough people know or care about it. If you can create content that engages people who are new to the topic you will be more likely to grow your readership and interest new people.

While I could restructure my post to talk about different keywords relating to the iPhone such as usability, battery life and emailing capabilities, I’d engage, inform and captivate readers the same way as long as I used the basic structure of three simple talking points. I’d still have the opportunity to discuss what makes the iPhone great, why readers may want to use it and how it improves their lives; essentially, it doesn’t matter what points I want to make in my bog if I’m organized and follow the rule of three.

You’ve seen blogging demystified and broken down into a simple, three point outline that will make your content engage, inform and captivate. These guidelines can be applied to your writing without any learning curve whatsoever; simply change your state of mind and your writing will improve.

This is the transcript from an audio interview that took place August 31, 2010.

What is Digg to you?

Digg is always in my eyes. I’ve always enjoyed Digg as a news aggregator. At first that was my appeal. I came to it as a website where I could see content and breaking news stories; it was a little daily newspaper for me. The whole thing, after I got banned and even more changes, I didn’t want to contribute to the site and I was moving around millions of pages views per month. I thought “Why try to get back on and give them the good press?” Maybe it’s a little arrogant, but I really did feel that I was giving them some free love, so why try to get my account back on? I didn’t have the same kind of passion as before. That’s why I moved to Mixx and ultimately  Twitter looking for a site—not only for great news but somewhere that’s fun and has a different dynamic and different social media feel. Because social media is fun for me.

How do you view Twitter in regards to Digg?

The news breaks faster on Twitter than anywhere else. You’ll see correspondents from CNN to any Blogger for any company out there looking toward Twitter to find out what’s happening in the world. You’ll have someone posting a car bombing that recently happened and you’ll see it instantly on Twitter, then it’s broadcast and amplified and, then the big media sources are right on it saying “breaking from Twitter.” That’s why I say Twitter is actually breaking news faster.

Do you think Twitter could overtake Digg or will they remain coexisting?

Digg is your daily newspaper and its goal is to pick the best stories. Breaking news that is 4 hours old isn’t considered “breaking” anymore on Digg. Sites like Facebook and Twitter try to incorporate real time feedback; that has been going on for a while now. They’re two different animals and Digg is trying to incorporate the best features just like Facebook is from Twitter.

What do you think of the new Digg redesign and the user revolt? We’ve seen it happen with every major revision of the site, but what makes it different than previous Digg redesigns and user revolts?

I haven’t been on Digg. I wasn’t visiting it everyday looking for top news stories or even looking for a feel of the front page. What I would go there for is the upcoming stories; and the majority of that was coming up from friends. That was really enjoyable because I would see Andy Sorcini (MrBabyMan), Muhammad Saleem and other people and I knew. It’s in upcoming and it’s only been popular for 8 hours, it’s still breaking news and that’s where I find a lot of the Digg breaking news. Even if those stories don’t make it to the front page, I know they picked some good content. What happened with the new Digg redesign is they let in the big fire hose—CNN and Mashable, specifically. I love Mashable and I love their content but they were able to push Digg to pull in every single story that they’re throwing out there. It’s like a zillion followers here and a zillion followers there; they’re pulling that content in and people are voting that up rather than going to Andy with his 20,000 followers because Mashable is a big brand name and they’re being pushed on to the front page. I think that was the complaint many of old time and new users (like top Diggers and non-top Diggers) had. Now all these big guys are able to force feed and push their content to the front page of Digg. At least before it was fair up to a point with the Digg algorithm picking and choosing the content that is coming from not only top submitters but then lowly, normal submitters.

New Digg

Old Digg

With the “big fire hoses” overtaking Digg, do you think it is redundant to see a story from Mashable and then go to the Mashable website?

It doesn’t really make it redundant, but here is where the problem lies and I think I have a better handle on it. If you talk to Muhammad Saleem and J.D. Rucker, they might have a better feel and better answer. If you’re a normal user on Digg and you see that Apple is having a special event September 1st, you’re more apt to click that than little Johnnie who submitted the story that came out an hour or even a day earlier. To address your question, again will it just make Digg a placeholder for these larger firms? In fact, that was the problem. Mashable got on the front page. 4 or 5 posts were Mashable stories just a few days early on in the redesign. Just recently, Digg users revolted and so they hopped on board Reddit’s news feed and started promoting Reddit’s stories so every single top Reddit story was now on the front page of Digg. I guess users were trying to show Digg and the populace of users out there just how silly the redesign is, where you can actually force content from a competitor onto the front page because of the way they’re aggregating news.

Since users are revolting and promoting top Reddit stories on to the Reddit front page, do you think Digg is going to notice this and make changes?

Yes. Kevin is on top of it. I’ll tell you why: he doesn’t know I’m not a regular on my old show called “The Drill Down” where we could talk about Digg specifically and talk about Social Media in general. So when I told Kevin and other people “Hey I’m back on Digg” but I have a little fake account with my name, Kevin Rose welcomed me back. He also talked to J.D. Rucker and a few other people who mentioned him specifically about the new Digg redesign so he knows we’re influencers in Social Media. I think he was trying to nip some of the bad press. He’s being proactive. I don’t think he knows where all the fires are at right now, I don’t know if he’s not getting good feedback from his users or if he’s not listening to the end users. I think he is now—initially he wasn’t. I think they’re going to bring back a lot of the popular features that Digg had tossed out in the redesign, I just don’t know if they know how to properly address the problems that have arisen and have forced them down Alexa wise by a third when it comes to traffic volume.

Where do you see Digg going in the future? Whether it’s a revamp of V4 or a whole new system for version 5, and in the next few years in terms of redesigns and content distribution.

My comment to Kevin Rose: You want to listen to your popular users, the people that make your site what it is. I don’t care if you think a small percent of the top Digg users control the front page. I specifically said this to Kevin: “You don’t want to be a Blockbuster, you want to be a Netflix.” That means listening to your people.

With that said, the only way I think Digg can stay relevant is to push in or embrace the people they pushed out before. Top Diggers: these are people who are passionate about content; they have a great feel for it. Just like Twitter isn’t kicking out Lady Gaga because people like her, I really think Digg should do the same thing and give Andy some love and everyone else out there who has been passionate about their content. Obviously the users have spoken and made him number one on Digg and everyone who’s 2 all the way down to 2,000 should be getting some love because these are unpaid content/social media experts trying to submit the best content that they can find to Digg.com. If it’s spammy, other users will call them out. If you work for Time magazine, or you’re doing a social media promotion and say you’re a top Digger promoting it, the users will call you out. The Digg community forces you rise beyond mediocrity. But now with the revamp, they came in and said “Hey Mashable, Time, Newsweek, all you guys: we’ve got some good news! We’re going to get your content on the front page every day. We’re going to make it front and center, we’re going use your influence.”

They’re going to have to go back to their old business model to get breaking news on to the front page. At best they will have a 3-4 hour lag time. They have to move that up to 15 minutes to half an hour, which they haven’t been able to do. They just don’t know how to do that with the new Digg and they haven’t been able to do so.

So that’s the new Digg, all that matters is timeliness, control people and timing. News is dead. If you go to CNN.com and you already heard about a story on Digg, people are going to stop going back.

“I developed this website to help you get the most from your Internet Marketing Strategy,” explains Steve. “While I’ve emphasized ‘blogs’ as a medium for marketing your business online, they really only make up for about 15% of this entire website.”

Steve is giving away free 1-year subscriptions for signing up for his SEO Services. Hurry while they last! http://www.blogmarketingtoolkit.com/

Sometimes a basic, free keyword suggestion tool just isn’t enough. If you’re ready to move beyond the limited functionality of most online tools to do more in-depth keyword research for SEO and pay-per-click campaigns, here are five advanced keyword research tools well worth checking out.

SEMRush: SEMRush is a competitive research tool that’s useful for both SEO and PPC keyword research and analysis. It has several pricing levels; most of the keyword information is available in the free version, but paid versions return more results. SEMRush offers several features that can help you determine the value and competitiveness of keywords:

* Keyword Trends, Cost and Volume – SEM Rush scrapes data from Google to tell you the average and current monthly search volume of a keyword, whether the keyword is trending up or down in use, and how competitive it is.
* Top Competitors for Your Keywords – You can view a list of the domains that rank for the same keywords as you, and you can also see how much overlap in keywords you have with a given domain.

This data is helpful for determining how you measure up to competitors for your top keywords. If you’re falling behind, you may need to drill down into your keywords and determine where you can increase relevance—potentially by expanding mid- and long-tail keywords. The downside is, all competitive tools have limited use, since what your competitors are doing isn’t necessarily going to work for you.Independent keyword research is crucial for gaining a competitive edge.

Compete: As the name suggests, Compete is another competitive intelligence tool. A Compete account allows you to compare traffic and engagement metrics for competitive sites as well as analyze competitors’ keyword strategies.

Analytics tools include:

* Search Analytics: Find search referrals for a given site or category or enter a keyword to see which sites get traffic from it.
* Referral Analytics: Enter a site or category to see which websites send traffic to it and get traffic from it.

With a Pro account you can also create custom ranked lists based on growth trajectory, upstream and downstream traffic and more. As with SEMRush, Compete can give you a better idea of how your keyword marketing measures up to that of other businesses in your space. However, you’ll need to supplement this data with your own, personalized research.

Rank Tracker: Rank Tracker is a keyword rank checking tool offered by Link-Assistant.com. After you’ve done some initial keyword research and begun applying your keywords in search campaigns, you can use Rank Tracker to monitor the placement of your website in search engine results. Some of the key features include:

• Unlimited Keyword Tracking in Over 600 Search Engines
• Integrated Keyword Suggestion Tools
• Auto-Pilot Tracking
• Historical Rank Tracking
• Customized Reports

It’s important to keep track of your search engine rankings so you’re aware of sudden drops (which can lead to huge losses in traffic) as well as discrepancies in performance across different search engines. But rankings in themselves are not as important as actual traffic and conversions, so you’ll need to supplement a rank checker with in-depth analytics and more discovery-focused tools.

WordStream Keyword Management for SEO: This product is similar to WordStream’s PPC keyword management software, but minus the PPC campaign creation tools and offered at a lower price point. It offers the same keyword suggestion capabilities as traditional tools like Wordtracker and Keyword Discovery, but layers on some great extras for roughly the same price. These extras include:

• Personalized Keyword Suggestions
• Keyword Analytics
• Keyword Grouping and Organization
• Content Authoring Tools

The benefits of WordStream arise from having your keyword research/discovery tools, your workbench (the database structure replaces Excel), and your analytics dashboard integrated in one platform. And the content authoring tools help you act on your best keywords by getting them live on your site. What’s missing, of course, is the ability to apply those keywords in paid search campaigns within the same tool, but you can get that functionality with the upgrade.

Raven: Raven is an SEO tool with several monthly pricing plans and a number of helpful features for search and Internet marketers. Features that are most relevant to the keyword research stage of your search campaigns include:

• Paid and Organic Competitive Keyword Research
• A “Keyword Manager” with Tags for Organization
• A SERP Tracker for Keyword Rankings

Additional functionality includes website setup tools, link building tools, and content management features. This is a lot of functionality in one SEO tool, but with such a broad focus, you may find that Raven doesn’t meet all your specific keyword research needs.