On Tuesday, I was invited by Rob Hynes and Julio Aviles of the Crema de Nona networking group to appear on their weekly webcast. Enjoy...

Clearly, social distancing has become a new phrase in everyone's vocabulary as we all try to ride out the coronavirus storm. For those of us who are business owners and salespeople, however, we can't do business without networking. So at Impact Nona BNI, we have moved our weekly meetings online, starting Wednesday, April 1 at 8 a.m. and continuing until it's safe to start meeting in person again.

What is BNI? With over 9,000 chapters around the world, BNI has more than 270,000 members who have passed millions of referrals resulting in $16.7 Billion in closed business in the last 12 months.

So come find out what all the BNI buzz is about. Just register at the link below and we'll send you all the info you need to start networking online with us.

https://bniorl.com/en-US/visitorregistration?chapterId=24028

We look forward to meeting you!

There's been some debate over the years as to whether the length of a webpage, blog post, landing page, etc., affects the page's search rankings. Some have suggested that its specifically part of the criteria Google uses in its algorithm to evaluate the user experience a webpage delivers to the user. In other words, is it what the user is truly looking for?

As recently as August 2019, Google's John Muller went on Reddit and said, "Word count is not a ranking factor. Save yourself the trouble." So there we have it... end of debate, right?

Well, not quite. After all, whether word count is one of the 200+ Google ranking factors is a much different question than "Does word count positively impact a page's search ranking?" Why? Because lengthy, relevant content makes possible so many things that definitely do help your search rankings. Even in the article referenced earlier in this paragraph, the author included word count as #16 on the list without really saying it's part of the algorithm.

So let's take Google at its word ... that they don't count the words on every page they crawl  to use as a basis for their search results. The truth is, it doesn't matter if they're doing it intentionally. Study after study has shown that pages with higher word counts get the top spots, with some variation depending on the subject matter.

That means the longer content is doing something that appeals to the search algorithms. And while Google is pretty tight-lipped about what's actually in its algorithm, it's becoming clear that those extra words are helping out in some key ways:
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• Longer content means more opportunity to get your keywords and key phrases in. It makes sense that, if you have a handful of specific words and phrases you need to include for SEO purposes, you're more likely to accomplish that within 1,000 words of content, as opposed to 250. With shorter content, it becomes obvious that you're trying to pack your keywords in too tightly and it leads to poor writing that appeals neither to search algorithms nor human readers.
• Longer, more substantive content increases your backlinks. When other websites link to one of your pages, the Google search algorithms love it. It tells the algorithm that those websites think enough of your content they want to refer their own readers to it from within their own pages and blog posts. Getting backlinks is one of the hardest things to do in the SEO field because you have to create something other people want to link to. In most cases, 250 words just won't cut it.

So, now that we've satisfied the search algorithms' thirst for relevant keywords/key phrases and backlinks from other websites, let's turn our attention to the readers ... the human readers. The biggest challenge with writing long-form content is getting people to actually read it. People generally don't like to read, especially if they see a lot of text. This is where design comes in.

Think about how you feel when you pull up a website and all you see is text filling the screen. Top to bottom, left to right. For most people, before they read a single word, they  think, "Holy crap, what a chore this is gonna be!" This happens in a split second on a subconscious level and it's based on how the overall design hits their eyes.

So when putting your content together, find ways to incorporate one or two bullet-point lists. Place an image so it's nested within the copy. And break it up into short paragraphs with occasional subheads. This will look more inviting to the reader and pull them in to your content.

That's why the best strategy for creating written content is to write as many words as you need to communicate what you want to say. It's never a good practice to pad the writing with irrelevant fluff, but don't cut yourself short either. Focus on good writing and inviting design for the best results!

Earlier this month, it was my week to give a 10-minute presentation about my business to the members of the BNI networking group I'm in. For a few weeks, I thought about what I would say and how I could get people to understand the value of what I do. I decided that it had to start with a narrative - a story that has a beginning, middle and end. It's human nature to be drawn in by a story, with plot and characters.

So I introduced myself and said, "I am a freelance writer and so, naturally, I'm going to start with a story about ... plumbing."

This is, more or less, my plumbing story:

​So why did I start a presentation about my services as a writer with a story about plumbing? Because there are a few parallels between me, the lead character in that story, and business owners out there who know without a doubt that they should be blogging on their websites. That said, not everyone really understands why blogging is so important. Here are the three most important reasons:

• First, blogging drives traffic to your website because it keeps the content on your site fresh. That helps you rank better on Google and any other search engine. If you never make changes to your website, it will sink lower and lower in the ranking until it disappears from the page. Their search algorithm interprets the lack of new content as a sign that the website doesn't really provide value to the user. And that makes sense because it shows that the company doesn't really make their website an ongoing priority. Plus, the longer the site has remained unchanged, the more likely it is that the content is out of date. 
  
  Blogging helps with website traffic in a couple of other ways, For example, you can boost traffic even more by linking to the blog post in your social media. You can also re-purpose blog posts as articles on LinkedIn, which has its own publishing platform. These articles tend to be shared frequently if people find them interesting.
  
  
• Second, posting to your blog is a way to connect directly with your customer and provide something of value, which builds trust. By value, I mean information that is valuable to them, without trying to sell something. This is difficult for most business owners because it's not how how they're used to communicating with the market. Remember that you are an insider in your field and you have knowledge that can help other people. If you share it openly, without trying to leverage it to get a sale, readers are more likely to trust you.
  
  
• Third, you position yourself as a voice of authority. In other words, the market starts to perceive you as the go-to expert in your field. You become a reliable source for the knowledge people need about topics in your field if you do it consistently, which continues to establish confidence and build trust. For example, if you're an attorney and a new law is passed that is going to affect lots of people, post a blog about the law and what people can expect. Similarly, an accountant can blog about new tax laws that are about to take affect and what people should do.

So what does all this have to do with plumbing? Well, even if you're a good writer who got A's in English in school, writing a 500-word blog post is hard work because you don't do it every day. A lot of people start with good intentions and blog for a month or two, but then taper off or abandon it completely. In fact, go look at a handful of small businesses' websites and take note of when they're last post was. You won't have to look for long until you find one that's eight or nine months old. This happens not just because the writing is hard work for them, but because coming up with new ideas every week or two is also a challenge.

I'm like that plumber who came in, got the job done in a couple of hours and didn't cost me much money. I sit in front of a blank page on the screen at least once a day. And because I do it every day, I have a process that works for getting started, doing the research, coming up with a compelling introduction and writing the blog. That means what might take most people all day takes me a couple of hours and my clients are always happy with the results.

So if you know you need to blog on your website, and you dread the thought of doing it or simply don't have time, let's talk!

Next month marks three years since I started my full-time freelance writing business. It has been an adventure, filled with highs and lows, sometimes moving faster than I can keep up with and at other times scrambling to find more work.

I've often wondered, though, if I'm really getting the most out of my capabilities. I've got the writing part down, but what about the business part? What can I do to improve my business performance?

So starting next week, I am going to begin work with a business coach, Sanjay Parekh of FocalPoint Coaching. Coach Sanjay and I have had several informal discussions about what this coaching experience feels like, how it works and what we can accomplish by working together. I'm trying to avoid any preconceived expectations and go into it with an open and enthusiastic mind. As you can tell, I'm very excited.

​More posts to come...

If you want to improve your writing, here's an exercise. Take anything you've written in the last month or two and go through it, highlighting every adjective and adverb you can find. Then, delete them. All of them. Now re-read your writing and see if it's an improvement. If you find yourself wanting to put some of them back, push yourself to justify why you really need them. And the answer shouldn't be that it just sounds better that way.

​This advice actually came from book on writing fiction, but I think it works for most kinds of writing. During editing, see if you can get rid of as many adjectives and adverbs as possible. While you may have to make adjustments to maintain the meaning you intended, communicating the same information with as few modifiers as possible will make your copy stronger.

Here's why. Every adjectives and adverb is a shortcut that, even though it makes the writing easier, it can have different meanings to different people. If a writer describes a period of time as a "long" time, you might interpret that to mean six months, while someone else might think it means five years. However, if that writer had described it as "five years," there would be no disagreement.

Here's an example:

​You might see this in a memo or email introducing new policies within a corporation. All of the adjectives and adverbs are highlighted. Now let's take a look with all of them deleted.

While not perfect, this sounds stronger and more confident than the first version. However, some of those adjectives and adverbs did convey meaning that needs to be worked back in. There are also a few places where this exercise has revealed opportunities to clarify the message. Analyzing the first passage, we find:
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• "For many long years" - Not just vague, but why not be more precise?
• "Aggressively" - What does this even mean? Did they roll out a large number of policy changes all at once? Did they put out lots and lots of memos about the new policies? Or did they yell "aggressively" at the employees about the new policies?
• "Innovative, new" - Unless the changes had never been tried before, they probably weren't innovative. And do we really need to call new policies "new?"
• "Declining" - I'd have to know more about the context, but I doubt if it's important to point this out.
• "Inefficient processes" - How about "inefficiency?"
• "Traditionally" and "substantial" - These two words convey that the problems have been going on for a long time and that they are important, so that meaning is important to recapture.

​Here's how my final rewrite would look:

​Try it on your next piece of writing, even if it's an email or an internal memo. The result will be writing that makes you appear to be stronger and more confident.