A quick guide to SEO copywriting
Search engine optimisation (SEO) and beautiful copywriting can be conflicting players in the marketing world. SEO focuses on pleasing the search engines, whereas copywriting focuses more on pleasing readers (giving them the information they want in an easily readable format).
Five top tips to ensure your SEO copywriting gets you to the first page of Google.
Put them together, and they create a whole new playing field. An effective pairing of SEO and copywriting can elevate your marketing campaigns and generate website traffic. You might have a great website, with pages and pages of fantastic content, but if you don’t get your SEO copywriting strategy correct, who’s going to read anything you post? It’s crucial to get the pairing between SEO and copywriting right to take your website content and search ranking to the next level. Here are a few ways of doing just that…
1) Write just the right amount
This can be tricky for those of you who are keen writers, but it’s well known that many readers tend to switch off after just a few paragraphs of text. Keep it simple, and don’t write too much, or too little. A minimum of 350 words is a good starting point for SEO copywriting purposes, whilst you probably shouldn’t go over 900–1000 words if you want to keep your readers interested. Don’t ramble on too much either; focus on the message of your post, and remember the basics of storytelling:
Introduction – key points – explanations – conclusion
Having a catchy title is also key as your readers will instantly want to know what the article is about, but don’t give too much away. Ask a question or strike a chord to get them interested.
2) Use your keywords wisely
It is recommended that the keyword density in your SEO copywriting should be around 1.5–2% across the entire copy. Don’t overdo it on the keywords though, as Google will pick up on the overkill and penalise you, placing you lower down on the search rankings. Plus your keyword stuffing will be so obvious that your readers will end up switching off and losing interest altogether.
3) Use the correct headers
H1 and H2 headers (titles and subheadings) are recommended SEO copywriting tools when posting content, and these should contain your keywords. Plus, your H1s and H2s still need to be readable and punchy enough to draw readers in and increase clicks to your website.
4) Use relevant links
Using the correct links, subtly and carefully, can help with the SEO optimisation of your page. Using ‘outbound links’ to other websites tells those sites that you are writing about them. As a result they may repay the favour, link to your site and write about you. They may also share your post on their social channels, encouraging their followers to read your page, increasing website views and visitors, and opening up your target audience.
Using ‘internal links’ is another way of increasing website page views by linking to another area on your site, or a previous blog post you published. New readers may not have checked out other areas on your website, so you can make the most of their visit and showcase what else your site offers as well.
5) A picture speaks a thousand words
Images allow your readers to visually understand what it is you’re writing about by seeing it for themselves. If implemented correctly, the right images will draw readers in, increase clicks and enhance your copywriting. Adding images can also hold extra SEO value. Rename the file to something relevant (don’t just leave it as IMG0001) as the text will be picked up by Google, ranking it higher. Using a caption will double its value entirely.
So why not get started using these top tips? Align your text to these SEO copywriting techniques to transform your website and elevate it on the Google search pages. Given time you will see the rewards and your website visitors should increase dramatically. Be consistent – continue to implement SEO into all your copywriting going forwards but don’t focus solely on this. Keep your loyal readers happy with content they want to read too.
If you get stuck or you really don’t have time to get started, contact us and we can work on SEO copywriting for you.