The Google Panda update has changed the world of web copywriting. Here’s what that means for your site’s product pages.

With web copywriting, there are two audiences:

• Human site visitors (most important)
• Search engine spiders (of secondary importance)

Although what pleases one audience often pleases the other, that’s not universally true. In this post, you’ll get an overview of what to do to satisfy your prospects while also doing what makes sense, given what is known about the current Google algorithm.

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Including product benefit statements in your web copywriting helps prospects see how your products and services can help them solve problems.

It’s easy to list features of a product: it’s smaller than a breadbox, it comes in 14 different colors, it’s crafted out of plastic and so on. Those features might be important to a potential customer – but what’s even more important is how your product can help others fix a problem.

Let’s say that your company sells clothes hangers. Not just ordinary clothes hangers, but extra-thin hangers with a velveteen coating. It might be tempting to focus your web copywriting on the width of the hanger or the colors of the velveteen. Instead, craft product benefit statements that focus on product benefits to help prospects understand why your hangers are the perfect solution for them.

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Standards of web content writing have skyrocketed after the Google Panda update. What’s an ecommerce site to do?

Earlier this year, the Google Panda update affected nearly 12% of websites, sending many sites into a tailspin and causing widespread panic. What do these sites need to do to rank well in Google again?

On May 6, 2011, Google published a blog post with a long list of factors of what they consider to be signs of quality for web page content.

If you’re creating articles, this is a helpful list, with questions such as these to ask yourself about what you’ve written:

• Does this article contain insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?
• Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?
• Does the page provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?

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Fair use copyright law: when do you need to ask permission before quoting someone else’s writing on your website or blog?

That’s an excellent question – and, if you have a specific situation about fair use copyright law that you need resolved, it would be best for you to seek legal advice. In general, though, the law does permit writers to borrow small portions of copyrighted work without asking permission or paying a fee to do so.

How much text, though, is considered a “small portion?” Now, there’s the million dollar question!

Over a decade ago, I was fortunate enough to interview Attorney Lloyd Jassin, the coauthor of The Copyright Permission and Libel Handbook: A Step-by-Step Guide for Writers, Editors and Publishers (Wiley Books for Writers, 1998) – and, although this book was written before too many sticky Internet copyright law questions had time to surface, it is still extremely valuable and I encourage every writer to read this book. From him, I learned that “fair use” is, in fact, a defense that can be used when a person is accused of a copyright violation.

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Google indicated that quality web content writing will be rewarded, while shallow content will reduce rankings. So, what is quality content?

In the February 2011 Google algorithm change, the search engine spokesperson stated that Google will reward quality content, so it makes good sense to focus on creating that for your website.

There are many types of useful, worthwhile content that you can include on your website and the best strategy would be to mix and match several of them. These pieces of content can appear in many different formats, including as articles, blog posts, or e-books, to name just a few. Read on for more info about the types of content that will enrich your site.

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