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Bust an
urban myth
The web is a great source of information, but sadly you can’t believe everything you read online — rumor, conjecture and inaccuracies pollute the world wide web. A good myth busting article can both help your customers, earn their trust, and attract search engine traffic.
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Successful myth-busting
If you are going to use a myth busting article to attract web traffic, make sure you lead with interesting content, not a sales pitch. UnBiased.co.uk is a UK- based company that specializes in helping people find mortgage advice. In July 2009 it produced a media release titled ‘ Myth-busting the Mortgage Market ’. UnBiased commissioned research to gauge how
British people felt about getting a mortgage during the recession. The research found that 33% of those polled believed lenders would only get a home loan of up to 2.5 times their annual income, when in reality lenders are offering four times annual income. So that’s the first myth busted. UnBiased does a good job of producing a myth buster which is related to its business (mortgage advice). It creates and uses up-to-date information (the research poll), promotes the article (through a press release) and publishes it online.
Not every company can commission research, but this example shows how statistics and analysis can debunk myths and misconceptions. It’s a good idea to keep an eye out for industry-related polls or statistics that you feel offer up an alternative view, or reveal something interesting about your business community.
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Myths and realities
Some myths develop out of a news story. Think of the global hysteria about swine flu — blogs, news articles and Twitter spread conflicting messages about how harmful the virus was. This led to a number of websites writing a myths and realities article on the subject, including the National Geographic’s news article on Swine Flu Facts, Swine Flu Myths
Each point is written as a question such as ‘How safe is eating pork?’ which is how someone searching for information might write it.
Add helpful links and contact details
In each case it’s important to show that you are helping your customer reach an answer. Include links to other articles and add your contact details at the end of the piece. Ask people to email any further questions, or provide them with the opportunity to arrange a
consultation if they want to discuss their situation further.
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Section 2: Recipe No. 3 | Bust an urban myth
Search out new material
Hot Tip
Most urban myths are borne from confusion over what to believe.
So, give your customers some straight facts: you’ll dispel an
unhelpful fiction and
generate trust amongst potential customers.
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Myths don’t all arise from news stories. Look through your emails and on-site searches for queries that refer to myths in your industry. The reason for writing these types of articles is to put your customers’ minds at ease and give them the facts.
Do your own research when busting myths. Keep an open mind and ask questions:
• Is there bias in the information you are reading?
• How can you validate the data, or test any claims made?
• What facts would prove the claims wrong?
• Give real life examples from your professional life that lead you to consider these statements as myths.
• If you are linking to research, a survey or news story, consider the source and make sure you trust it.
Expose poor advice
Another way of approaching a myth buster is to expose the bad advice given in your industry. PC World did this with its article, Busting the Biggest PC Myths . It exposed poor PC advice that wasted customers’ time and money. Subjects included ‘Magnets zap your data’, ‘Cookies track everything you do on the Internet’ and other common misconceptions. The article appears on PC World.com and on About.com; it ranks No.1 on Google for the query ‘What are the Biggest PC Myths?’
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Write a case study
For Judy Kingsbury her journey to becoming a healthy vegetarian was a rocky one. Growing up in the small town of Manitoba, 200 miles north of Winnipeg, she says the term ‘vegetarian’ wasn’t even part of her vocabulary.
In the late 1960s, Judy took her first tentative steps towards vegetarianism. But, a lack of nutritional education, along with the fact that there were so few other people she could turn to, meant Judy faced periods of ill health. She threw herself into a macrobiotic diet of low fat and high fiber foods, grew thin, and became dehydrated. Malnourished, she
sought help to restore her health and discovered more nutritious ways of living a vegetarian lifestyle.
40 years on, Judy says that starting up an educational website dedicated to vegetarianism and vegan lifestyles was a natural decision. In 2003 www.savvyvegetarian. com was born — a website that has taken on its own personality and continues to grow in popularity.
Judy has spent years building up the site’s content, it
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offers a plethora of information and tips on vegetarian living, and now receives 60,000 visits a month. So how has she been able to generate this level of traffic?.
Good story-telling sells
Many of us have an innate love of stories. They can create a magical sense of wonder, and teach us about
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Savvy Vegetarian uses Wordtracker’s Keywords tool for content ideas.
life, ourselves and others. Judy ’s story was the first case study I wrote for Wordtracker. I wanted to capture Judy’s personal journey to help draw in readers and humanize some abstract concepts — such as keyword research and search engine optimization (SEO).
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Section 2: Recipe No. 4 | Write a case study
Wordtracker’s case study
The term ‘case study ’ can sound clinical, but a well-written story about a successful client can be a wonderfully informative way of introducing yourself to prospective customers. It’s an opportunity for people to see the services you provide, and will help them gauge what kind of solutions you apply to specific problems.
For instance, I asked Judy to:
• explain in practical terms how she used our product in her business;
• outline the kinds of benefits that brought
• give me some real examples that I could write about
I was also able to include eye-catching headlines, like ‘Keyword Research Triples Sales’, without appearing to be selling the company ’s products. Another example: Spotty Gifts
In a more recent case study involving a company called SpottyGiftBoxes.com, we gave the article the headline ‘ How Keyword Research and SEO Increased Traffic to Spotty Gift Boxes by 228% ’. Again, this makes clear to our customers that there are real life success stories out there whose businesses are benefiting as a direct result of using Wordtracker ’s Keywords tool.
I identified that Caroline Blatchford who owns SpottyGiftBoxes.com, had a problem with competitive keywords. This led me to ask how she resolved this issue using keyword research. This kind of question is great for your readers, because it helps them identify problems that they might also be facing, and gives them an idea of how to tackle them. Caroline’s response was useful too: she outlined a five-step SEO process that readers could follow.
Customers who face similar challenges can share their experiences by adding comments, and will hopefully find inspiration and resolutions to their own problems. As one Wordtracker reader, Stephen Craine, commented , ‘Great article, really useful to see a real life example of how to use keywords. With the investment of time that it takes to build links and optimize pages to best effect, it’s motivational to hear what others are doing and the results they are achieving.’
Wordtracker.com
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Section 2: Recipe No. 4 | Write a case study
Write an overview of the case study’s business
Hot Tip
Preparation is essential. If you’re interviewing a customer, decide what questions you want to ask in advance.
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Here’s a step-by-step guide to writing case studies. First, write an overview of the company/client you are basing the case study on.
• What is their background? Which industry are they from? Describe the kind of
products and services they provide and the size of their business.
• Next, outline the challenge the client faced. Write from the client’s
perspective: what problems were they experiencing? How had they tried to overcome them? Why had previous efforts proved unsuccessful? What were they looking for? The bigger the problem, the more appealing your solution will appear.
• Contact your case study and explain to them that you would like to write about them. Outline how they might benefit from the attention. Will you link
to them from your site, offer a discount on their next purchase, or give them a free white paper you wrote?
Preparation
Preparation is essential — here are some questions you should consider:
• How the client learned about your company
• What problems they were having
• What services they were looking for
• Which products or services they chose and why
• How quickly was this service provided? How was it provided?
• How has their business changed since you provided this service? Has
it saved them money, time or space? Has it improved the way in which they provide services? Has it increased the volume of customers they have? Do they now have more unique visitors coming to their website?
• Would they recommend you to other businesses?
• Ask for a photograph of the person you are basing the case study on.
Failing that, ask if you can use their logo on your page with a link to their website.
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