What You Need to Know About SEO Web Copywriting

When you’re looking to rank higher in the search engine results, SEO web copywriting plays a key part in that strategy. The way it works is simple. Google crawls the web looking for new websites and fresh pages.

The content on those pages plays a significant role in how that page will be ranked. When you write your web content, it ends up being a bit of a balancing act. Google looks for keywords to understand how your page ranks among other relevant content. But you also have to write content that appeals to your audience.

These opposing goals are now converging. The popular Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress offers readability criteria as part of the ranking algorithm that it uses.

Some SEO Web Copywriting Basics

Write with Keywords in Mind

It all begins with keyword research in mind. Google Keyword Planner is probably the easiest place to start with keyword research. Simply enter the keyword and Google will give you a range of searches, and the competition level.

There are some extremely detailed articles out there on the best strategies for keyword research. But it should go deeper than that. Think of your static web pages. They were probably set up with some combination of services that you provide and geography for the likeliest keywords.

Your blog posts should take a different approach. What are the subjects that people are searching for within your industry that you can’t rank for on these pages? What are the questions that matter most to the people who might hire you?

• I blog for an app developer client who is looking to educate midsize to larger companies about the ins and out of software development. Their topics are a mixture of why they may need a software app, how a well-developed application can transform their business, and what to expect through the development process.
• I blog for a company that sells wheelchair ramps. They’re looking to provide content that is useful to the elderly and disabled. A solid corner of that content is related to wheelchair ramps, and other safety products.
• On my site I look for informative topics related to blogging, copywriting, messaging. I am looking to provide key information to businesses who want to write marketing content that strengthens their businesses and resonates with their audience.

In each of these instances, the keywords selected should fit these themes. The goal is to drive new traffic to the site that will potentially convert as customers. You can develop a list of the keywords that fit this criteria, and are particularly strong to rank for.

The ideal goal is to find words and phrases that fit your overall theme, and can potentially lead to warm conversions. This is how you strategize a blog that can strengthen your company and help you build trust with your customers.

Creating Product and Services Pages

When you’re writing website content, you’ll also need pages that explain what it is you sell in an engaging manner. Your product and services pages should be built around the phrases that your customer will likely be searching.

When your business offers a variety of types of services, it can help to try and rank for each one respectively. The best way to do this is to have a page for each product or service that your business offers. For a business that sells hundreds or thousands of products, this can lead to a rather large site, but it offers a higher possibility to rank.

To use my own site for an example, my pages are structured around the services I provide. The keyword for each page is based on the service. So I have pages with keywords such as “landing page copywriter,” “sales letter copywriter,” or “website copywriter.” What this does is provide keywords that double on the other end as likely search terms for the particular service.

That way I’m not putting all my eggs in one basket as a marketing copywriter, Chicago copywriter, or freelance copywriter. All of these are exceptionally competitive, and only offer a limited scope of the available searches. I still try to rank for them, but I don’t put all of my eggs in any single basket.

Writing for People and Machines

Unless you’re lucky enough to count Google as a client, the search engines aren’t the ones opening up their checkbook to pay for your product or services. Your mortgage company isn’t accepting website traffic as an alternative to check or automatic money transfer.

Ultimately, you need to develop a message that resonates with your audience. No matter how much search traffic you ultimately receive, bad content is still bad content – and unlikely to help in the way of website conversions. This is why the Yoast SEO plugin started using readability tests as part of their search ranking checklists.

It offers a practical means for testing the readability of your content. You can sprinkle the keywords in throughout your content and still create a message that resonates with readers. They came to your web page or blog post for a reason. Make sure that you are doing what you can to solve their problem in a meaningful way.

Following a Checklist

I reference the Yoast SEO checklist because that’s what I use for pages and blogs. It’s an excellent resource for SEO web copywriting. It includes things like readability, your headlines, URL, and meta description. It prompts you to place the keyword in the alt description for the photos you use. It helps you remember to use a photo in the first place.

These 10 questions to answer can also help make sure you have well-rounded strong post.

Conclusion

It’s tempting to go with stilted, stale content as perfect your SEO web copywriting for your site. But remember the human element. Stuffing as many keywords as possible through the duration of your post won’t do anything to help your chances with the search engines – in fact it can hurt.

So make sure you are doing what’s necessary for a balanced, more holistic approach to ranking for your website. If you have any more questions about SEO web copywriting, feel free to contact me today!

Matt Brennan is a Chicago-area marketing copywriter and copy editor. He is also the author of Write Right-Sell Now.