SEO Writing: 6 Simple Steps to Better Conversions
We have to make sure that our post content is entertaining, informative and easy to read, and on top of all that, copywriting has to go hand in hand with SEO. (SEO), or search engine optimization, as it relates to copywriting refers to the practice of loading your content with relevant keywords without distracting from the topic at hand. Why is this so important? More than two billion people use the Internet. Most of them, the vast majority, I bet don’t go to your website directly from their address bar. No, most web traffic comes from search results, and if you’re not writing search engine friendly content, you won’t see the results you want.
Copywriting services used for search rankings can be a tedious task for writers, but it’s not difficult and certainly worth the effort it takes. Once you start using these techniques while writing, it will become second nature to you. Let’s take a look at these 6 simple tips you can use to improve the SEO value of your copy.
1. Start at the top
Your title and headline are the most important part of your post. If you have direct control over your HTML, or can set your page title, make sure it matches your title. As far as the title itself is concerned, remember that search engines only index the first 65 characters, so the sooner you can work on those keywords, the better. For example, the title of this post originally had one of my main keywords, SEO, at the end of the title. I noticed this and repositioned it for better search results. Small steps like this can make a big difference in the effectiveness of your writing services.
2. Think like a reader
When you are starting your writing task, many times your client gives you keywords. Sometimes though, you have to do some fishing and think for yourself. Ask yourself: if you were looking for an article like this, what would you look for? Think in terms of longer tails, rather than just keywords. For example, for an article about how to cook fish on an outdoor grill, you could use “grilling,” “fish,” and “cook” as keywords, but also think about the longer question “How I cook Tilapia on a grill?” and write for it, too.
3. Marry your thesaurus
Search engine bots are getting smarter, and while they’re not geared up to take over the world Terminator-style, they’re quite capable of recognizing when a word like “win” has a similar meaning to a word like “win.” Use a thesaurus and use not only your main keywords, but also synonyms and different forms of your words. In the case of this article, I am using not only the word “copywriting” but also “copywriter” and simply “copywriting” where I can maximize the results.
4. Find your inspiration
When I blog, I often write about a movie I just saw, a book I read, or a commercial that made me laugh. When you’re thinking about your next writing assignment, see if you can relate it to something in the real world that was especially inspiring, maddening, or memorable to you. Now be careful not to stretch things too a lot – I don’t believe an anecdote of how much you liked the My favorite villain The sequel could very well tie in with a post titled “10 Tips for Better Hygiene,” but perhaps an article about the unfortunate personal habit of the person next to you at the movies might. One of the first posts I wrote professionally was for an automotive blog. I like comics and I came across an infographic of the Batmobile through the centuries. It was a perfect introduction, and it was quite a successful post.
5. Go for the long haul
Take any search result that appears on the Google front page, and you’ll see that the content behind that search result is, on average, 2,000 words long. Content that is thorough and in-depth ranks better in SEO and will earn more organic shares than content that is shorter and less informative. I never write less than 500 words on any subject, and 1000 is generally the “standard” length I use when writing.
6. Write for the people; optimize for robots
Finally, remember that when using these tips, you should always be careful not to end up with content that reads as if it was written for bots. Repeatedly inserting keywords at the expense of fun, concise, and easy-to-read content won’t win you readers, and it probably won’t serve you well in search engines for long. Search engine bots are very good (and getting better) at finding “keyword spam” and removing those results, dooming them to languish in the dark pits of poorly ranked pages forever and ever. Good writing services are used to deliver compelling human appeal, with subtle touches for keyword optimization. When you write, write for people first, then go back and read what you’ve written, looking specifically for places where you could tweak a sentence to make your content a little more keyword-rich. Use tools like Google tilde (search for any term on Google with a tilde “~” at the beginning of the word to get a list of related keywords) and keyword counters to make sure your content is liked by everyone, humans alike. like robots.
We hope this list helps you continue to use writing services in the future. SEO is a moving target, so be sure to follow relevant blogs (like this one, shameless plug!) to keep up with the latest thinking on how those pesky bots work. Stay tuned with us, and we promise you’ll be among the first to be invited into the bunkers when search engine bots become aware and try to take over, and together we’ll beat the SEO apocalypse. You bring the champagne; let’s bake the cake. Happy writing!