Testimonials Are Content Too

Using the infomercial model to make a website "search-engine worthy" (Part Two)

If you've read my article "Why Content Is Still King in SEO" you know I advise mimicking what makes infomercials and QVC-type shows so successful. The way they exhaustively examine every minute facet and possible application of a product is very persuasive.

And just in case you weren't already persuaded, they trot out "real people" to give their testimonials about how the product changed their lives. Yeah, I know they're probably paid actors, and I hope you would never pay someone to fake-write your online testimonials. I just want to point out that if producers of infomercials — who really know how to sell — rely so much on testimonials, it does demonstrate what  an important role they have in selling a product.

In addition to affirming what the seller says about their product, testimonials add a human element: storytelling. Who doesn't love a great story, especially one that's nice and short?

Yet too many websites (mine included, but I'm working on it) neglect to feature testimonials as part of their content.

It's time we stopped being shy about asking our customers to write a testimonial.

Years ago, when I had a web development business, my first client was the owner of a very successful carpet-cleaning business. He instructed all of his technicians to wait for customers to complete a comment card after every job was completed. Over the four years he had been in business at that point, he'd collected hundreds of accolades. To be sure, most were not that articulate. It's hard to get people to say something interesting when you ask them to scribble a quick note about how clean their carpets are now. But every once in a while, someone would write a testimonial that managed to transport you right into their life, and everyone who reads it learns something they didn't know the product or service could do.

This client had me create a few dozen pages of 20 testimonials each. When we analyzed his server logs each month, we were surprised to see how many people visited each and every page. Even the last few pages. And very often the next page they visited was the form to request an appointment.

And that's how I know that testimonials are a powerful sales tool.

But this article is about how they are also content for your website. Oftentimes they can be tweaked slightly to use your keywords. When writing to the business entity, people tend refer to product or service using noun antecedents because we're just naturally less description when we know the person we're addressing already knows what we're writing about. For instance, their testimonial might read, "Your people did a wonderful job." It's obvious that by "people" they mean "carpet cleaning technicians" or "carpet cleaners."

But it's crucial to edit sparingly! I believe in correcting bad spelling and grammar so as not to make the writer look foolish, but it takes considerable skill with words to preserve the unique voice of each testimonial. And you have to take into account the other testimonials on the page. If they're all vague and lacking descriptive keywords, choose just a few at random to edit. (And it would be very good to send the writer a note to alert them to check out their words, slightly edited, on your testimonials page. This way, if they notice a change they wouldn't want to put their name to, they'll let you know.)

I know it's tough to come up with volumes of keyword-rich material on your own to make up the content on your site, but the good news is that you don't have to. Your satisfied customers are just waiting to be asked to tell their stories!