Successful SEO copywriting is more than creating content for promotional purposes on billboards, brochures, advertisements, catalogues, emails and the web. It involves improving the search engine rankings of these materials as well.
Good search engine rankings help to drive traffic to your website, and this blends well with copywriting since copywriting is more of persuasion. Copywriting centres around persuading readers to take some form of action depending on the information they interact with on a particular email or website.
SEO Copywriting involves attracting many readers as possible to your content, and converting them to clients of a product or service. It also involves attracting visitors, retaining them, and getting them to recommend the content to other users as well.
Not all copywriters are SEO copywriters since some do not understand the fundamentals of Search Engine Optimization. SEO copywriters write copy that meets SEO requirements, which enable it to get higher rankings in search results.
This article highlights the steps you need to take if you want to be a successful SEO copywriter.
Understand SEO
For you to become a successful SEO copywriter, you have to understand the basics of Search Engine Optimization. Writing promotional material is different from optimising it for search engines, and while a particular piece may appeal to visitors, it may not look well in the eyes of search engine algorithms.
Plain copy for advertisements boosts customer engagements and helps market a product, and an SEO copywriter will further customise this content for the web so that it becomes visible to search engines. You have to understand how Search Engine Optimization works, the various components used by search engines to rank results and how to write copy that meets the requirements of these search engine algorithms.
Understanding SEO does not mean shifting the focus from Copywriting to SEO but optimising copy for high rankings on search results.
Use Keywords
Keywords are terms that users on the web search for to access content on a website. There are specific words, terms and keyword phrases that users are likely to type when searching for particular information. Good SEO copywriting involves placing and repeating keywords and keyword phrases strategically in the article.
However, it is not a good idea to use too much of them, because this will put off readers. Proper use of keywords will make your website copy visible to search engines, and this will increase the site’s ranking in search results.
For example, a sites like Rated by Students will make use of keywords and keyword phrases like ‘reviews’, ‘essay writing services’ and ‘quality’ to get the audience to know about it and improve its rankings on search results.
Focus On Your Target Audience
As a copywriter, you should keep in mind the audience you intend to reach with your work. You should write content specifically for that audience. This is important since it ensures that the content on the website reaches the right audience, thus increasing traffic and reach of your copy and advertisements.
When you tailor content to a specific audience, your site is highly likely to receive spikes in traffic from those people. The more people visit your website, the more people get to know and recommend it to others. Search engines rank such sites high on search results, and this is an effective technique if you want to succeed as an SEO copywriter.
Write Rich Content
You have to write content that is rich and fresh to attract readers on the web. People value well-written content, and not only does rich content attract new visitors to your website but also increases its visibility in search engines.
This is a win-win situation since the promotions get to reach the target audience and at the same time, the website gets to improve in search engine results. Writing rich content will also make your site to stand out from other sites, and this could lead to increased viewership and clientele.
Provide All Relevant Details
To persuade people online to use a particular product or service, you need to provide all relevant information relating to that product. This way, readers will have an overview of the product and its benefits. Online users are likely to search for product information using terms that relate to the important information or features of that product.
The Headline Matters
A good SEO copy with a weak headline will have a low click-through rate regardless of the quality of the copy. Many online users judge content by their headlines. A headline determines whether the text is worth reading or it will be a boondoggle.
This may not sit well with you, the copywriter, but at the end of the day, you have to attract readers to your site to get the word out on the products you promote. Spending time refining your headline is worth it since it has the effect of increasing your click-through rate as well as improving your rankings on search results.
To sum up, if you want to succeed in SEO copywriting, you have to strike a balance between the promotion part of your copy, and its optimisation on search engines. A good SEO copy carries the relevant promotional message and has the right layout and content to interact with search engines.