SEO Copywriting
One of the most important things you can do in a world where Internet searches are just a few keyboard strokes or finger swipes away is add value. This is the one thing that is guaranteed to get and hold the attention of the average computer user who literally has millions of options at his or her beck and call. Value can come in the form of education, entertainment or useful information, but the key thing is a user looks at the content being offered and feels like something worthwhile has been achieved by consuming it.
One of the key things to adding value to a user experience is known as SEO copywriting, and it’s a fusion of tried and true, established advertising practices with the new demands of 21st century online searches. Here’s how it works.
Classic Lessons Remain Relevant
The term copywriting may not seem to make much sense if you take it at face value. Copywriting does not literally mean that someone else’s writing is being professionally duplicated, though that was how the term first came into usage. When books were handmade, and printing presses did not exist, the only way that additional copies of a book could be made were by experienced monks who specialized in copying.
Today, of course, copywriting refers to original, professional content that is created—sometimes by a copywriter, sometimes not—for general consumer use. Copywriting is what people read in advertisements, brochures, and from many different sources on the Internet, such as commercial or business websites. The specific purpose of copywriting is to engage readers with the purpose of increasing brand awareness, or persuading readers to take action with a promoted product or service.
The Digital Maze
Copywriting, however, like many other traditional forms of media and communication, faces some new challenges in an online world. The primary function of copywriting remains the same. It must still be effective and persuasive, but it must now also be easily tracked by search engines like Google, in order to make sure that people that are looking for this content can easily find it.
This is what SEO copywriting is, which stands for Search Engine Optimization copywriting. It strikes a balance between fulfilling the very real need to inform potential clients and customers about the benefits of a product or service, while also creating the visibility needed to be noticed by Google and other search engines.
Careful Choice of Words
The proper use of “keywords” is an important strategy in effective SEO copywriting. It means that SEO copywriting effectively incorporates the most common words users will type in when they are searching for a particular topic on the Internet. For example, a business that excels at termite extermination ensures that in their SEO copywriting for their services, or even their blog posts, they make sure to use commonly employed terms, such as “termite extermination” and the name of the cities and towns they service.
However, one thing that is important to keep in mind with good SEO copywriting is to not overdo it with the usage of keywords. Google and other search algorithms are sophisticated enough to recognize the more natural usage of keywords. So, “keyword stuffing,” which is an older SEO tactic of simply taking an important keyword and using dozens—sometimes even thousands—of times on a webpage will not increase search rankings. It will, in fact lower your chances, as the search engine recognizes an attempt to exploit the system and ignores it.
Striking the Right Balance
The most effective SEO copywriting still puts the human user first, while not ignoring the needs of good SEO. It’s all about engaging, useful content that uses important keywords in natural ways, with a natural ratio of deployment.
By doing this, good SEO copywriting still manages to fulfill the needs of educating, persuading, or engaging people, and it does so in a way that encourages people to either look further, or even spread the content to others through links. This combination of working towards a positive, organic user reaction while still meeting the SEO needs of Google is where SEO copywriting does its best work.
Get Read By More People
Toledo SEO for Growth can help you to improve your website and your SEO copywriting if you need it for your website. We know the best ways to improve the search rankings of your content, and help you tweak the type of content and way you present it for better results that put more eyes on what you have to offer.