How to Write SEO-Friendly Service Descriptions that Convert Visitors into Clients

Following on from our recent blog about writing SEO-friendly product descriptions, we’re bringing you the next instalment: how to write SEO-friendly service descriptions.

Writing for product and service descriptions involves distinct considerations due to the inherent differences in tangible goods and intangible offerings. In our last blog, we explained that product descriptions typically emphasise features, dimensions, and attributes, aiming to provide a comprehensive understanding of the physical item. Describing how a product meets specific needs or solves a problem is crucial.

On the other hand, service descriptions focus on articulating the value and benefits of intangible offerings. You must highlight how a service can address a client’s pain point, solve their challenges, or fulfil their desires.

Storytelling and emotive writing become more prevalent in service descriptions, describing the feelings that the service can evoke, and helping the client to imagine the impact that the service could have on their life or business.

However, there are many similarities between writing product and service descriptions, because ultimately, you have the same goals: conversions; appearing in search engine results; brand awareness; and sales growth.

Incorporating keywords into service descriptions is equally crucial for SEO, but the emphasis should be on conveying expertise, reliability, and the unique advantages of the services you can provide. Being aware of the nuances and copywriting techniques needed ensures that your descriptions resonate effectively with your audience and maximise the potential for conversions in both product and service contexts.

So, why are SEO-friendly service descriptions important?

Service descriptions play a crucial role in informing potential clients about your offerings and persuading them to choose your services over competitors. Crafting compelling service descriptions is your opportunity to deliver your best sales pitch. It’s not just about what you offer; it’s about why clients should choose your services and how your business stands out.

Providing a great service has little point when selling online if your visitors cannot find you. Playing the search engine’s game of satisfying their rules is necessary to get the reward of visibility, particularly if you want to be at the top of the page. While visibility is essential, your focus should also extend beyond simply attracting visitors to your website. Your website needs to convert those visitors into clients once they’ve discovered you.

Here are our tips to ensure your descriptions enhance visibility, outshine the competition, and persuade visitors to choose your services.

How to write service descriptions that convert

Consider the following factors for creating impactful service descriptions:

Begin with keyword research

Conducting thorough keyword research will help you to identify relevant and high-performing keywords related to the services that you offer. You should also consider long-tail keywords that reflect your specific services.

Ensuring that you use the right keywords will help you attract the right visitors to your website, increasing your conversion rate and decreasing your bounce rate.

You should be as descriptive as possible, and always make sure that your content makes sense – simply incorporating your keywords is not enough to build trust and credibility with your audience.

Address your target audience

Craft your service descriptions with a tone and language that resonates with your visitor. Understanding their pain points and needs is crucial for standing out and establishing a connection. Speak directly to them in simple terms, addressing how your service will make them feel, without adopting a pushy sales tone.

It can be very useful to develop a customer profile; give them a name, interests and buying habits, etc. This will help to guide your writing, imagining that you are addressing a typical person who would be interested in your services, and you should tailor your descriptions accordingly. Writing with a consistent tone of voice that is representative of your brand will strengthen your identity and help to form a rapport with your visitors.

Identify and promote your USP

USP in marketing refers to your unique selling proposition; the very reason your customers should choose you over your competitors.

When writing descriptions for services instead of tangible products, it’s even more essential that you clearly communicate and identify the exact reason your customers should choose your service. You cannot simply show them a photo of a product and let them see that yours is better. You need to be descriptive.

One of the ways to do this is by conducting a SWOT analysis of your services versus your competitors. What are your competitors getting wrong, or not offering that you are? Is there a gap that you can exploit? For example, we often see banks or insurance companies discussing how customers can pick up the phone and speak to a real person instead of a bot, or a call centre in another country. Highlighting key differentiators is what will make you stand out in a crowded market.

Similar to product selling, where we advise you to discuss features and benefits, it’s important to do the same for your services. Outline the features of your service and use emotive language to describe how it can solve problems, or provide value to your audience. For example, if you provide a holiday booking service, you would focus more on the feeling of relaxation or excitement, and how you can remove the stress of booking a holiday yourself. You’re selling a feeling, rather than a tangible asset.

Use social proof such as testimonials and case studies to describe how your service made others feel. This will build trust and credibility in your content.

Consider the user experience and ease of reading

Ensure your descriptions are easily accessible by using clear language and a well-structured format. Maintain proper spelling and grammar, keep sentences concise, and use bullet points and headings to break up text.

Be aware that there are two types of readers – those that are interested in all the words on your page, and those that just want to skim read. Use headings and pull out important pieces of text to make it easy for the latter to connect with your writing.

For more expensive services, consider longer descriptions. You may need to use more technical language if you are offering a premium service where the audience might require more detailed information before converting. Always consider your customer profile. In most cases, keep descriptions clear and simple while covering all necessary information.

Think locally

If your service has a location element, now is the time to take advantage of local SEO. Include the name of your city or region in your descriptions to enhance the visibility of your service in local searches. Reference local news or history to demonstrate that you have knowledge of that area and boost your chances of success.

We recently wrote an article explaining the benefits of location-based pages – give it a read and then give it a go!

Answer questions

Have you ever typed a question into a search engine and been instantly presented with a snippet containing the answer? That’s a prime search engine results location!

Including FAQs on your website can enhance the user’s experience, meaning they can research your service without leaving your page and conveniently, without having to speak to anyone. It will also show the search engines that you know what you’re talking about and that you know your audience too – win, win.

Addressing frequently asked questions or concerns about your service demonstrates your commitment to your customers and can save your team from dealing with individual queries. Not to mention the benefit they have in search engine optimisation. Implementing an FAQ section is another opportunity to utilise valuable keywords and build trust with both your audience and search engines.

Use persuasive language and storytelling

Appeal to your audience’s emotions by incorporating human-driven stories that showcase how your services have positively impacted lives or produced positive business results. This will help you to connect with your target audience and encourage them to take action. Here is a great place to use customer profiles to guide the creation of persuasive stories.

Use a variety of media

It can be difficult to choose the right type of media to incorporate when you are selling a service rather than a product. However, that doesn’t mean you should avoid it. In fact, it is equally as important. When you’re selling a service, it is likely that you have a team that carries out that service. Now is their time to shine! Show how you stand out by using video and imagery of your people and processes to connect with your audience. Show your personality by building a picture in your audience’s mind of what it will be like to work with you.

We work with multiple service-led clients, in fact, we ourselves are mostly service-led, so we’re well versed in the need to demonstrate personality through photos and videos. For one of our software service clients, we spent time with their team and placed photos of them on every service page. Their friendly faces and laughing images helped us convey their personal touch and sense of friendliness, which encourages visitors to get in touch.

Another of our clients provides a bid management service, so we utilised candid photos of them in client meetings and conducting their rigorous processes to build trust with their audience.

As always, the inclusion of media on your service pages is not just for your audience, but for the search engines too. Providing a variety of media to accompany your text is an essential tick in the box for SEO.

Consider technical SEO

As part of your service descriptions, there are technical SEO elements that you should also consider. These include making sure you use appropriate headings, meta titles and descriptions that serve as snippets in search engine results. These play a crucial role in attracting clicks from your target audience.

Building a selection of internal and external links into your content will help to add credibility and secure essential backlink equity to your website. Where possible, cite trustworthy, well-ranking sources with external links (eg. government websites) and use internal links to take your reader on a journey, telling them exactly what to read next, all whilst keeping them on your website for longer. This will increase your chances of conversion.

Finally, be sure to write your copy for mobile optimisation. Many readers will visit your website from their mobile devices, so keeping your copy well structured and laid out will help them to navigate your content and remain on the page. — In conclusion, crafting SEO-friendly service descriptions involves careful consideration of specific keywords, understanding your audience, highlighting features and benefits, prioritising readability, incorporating FAQs, leveraging storytelling, using a selection of media, and understanding the importance of technical SEO. By focusing on these aspects, you can drive relevant traffic, improve search engine rankings, and ultimately boost conversions.

Don’t forget to read our blog on writing SEO-friendly product pages and visit our Knowledge Base for more insights on conversion copywriting or guidance on producing high-quality content. If you’re unsure how to begin with service descriptions, let’s have a chat.