| Copywriting is often referred
to as salesmanship in print. It's the craft of attracting
attention, engaging an audience and persuading them to
buy or act. SEO copywriting is different in only one respect
- it's a service that's informed by the criteria that
the search engines use for ranking websites in their search
results.
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a relatively new
service but in the last five years it has evolved into
a complex combination of research, content development,
technical expertise and linking knowledge. To get your
site well ranked in the bad old days, it used to be
enough to put a few keywords in a meta keywords tag
and submit your site. Unfortunately, such a simple system
was always going to be abused and it didn't take long
for the search engines to realise that many sites were
cramming their tags with irrelevant search terms defeating
the object of the search engines - to deliver relevant
search results.
These days SEO services are more sophisticated, copywriting
being just one element. The areas of SEO in which copywriting
can make a serious difference are:
- content development
- calls to action
- meta title, description and header tags
- internal and external linking.
CONTENT DEVELOPMENT
Possibly the hardest aspect of running a successful
website is adding fresh, regular content. Unlike a static
medium such as print advertising or brochures, websites
are never finished. They evolve and if you want your
pages to rank well in the search engines, your pages
need to be seen to be evolving by the engines.
Businesses or organisations who rely on search engine
traffic are therefore becoming online publishers. Whether
they write the content themselves or use an SEO copywriting
service, they're acknowledging that search engines reward
sites that offer dynamic content.
A good SEO copywriter will know how to weave your target
keywords seamlessly into your content so that the search
engines can detect the right level of 'keyword density',
while readers are not put off by 'spamming' the text
with keywords.
You can use SEO copywriters for content that's going
to appear on your site or for your off-site optimisation
activities such as article writing and press releases.
Well optimised articles can be very effective in building
both traffic and those precious inbound links from relevant
web pages.
CALLS TO ACTION
SEO is a means to an end. The benefit is not the ranking
in the search engines per se but the sales that should
ensue by attracting people to your site who are looking
for what you offer. In the same way that a good salesman
knows how to close, a good SEO copywriter will ensure
that the reader is directed to take your primary and
secondary desired actions - to buy or subscribe perhaps.
META TITLE, DESCRIPTION AND HEADER TAGS
Every page on your site should have specially written
tags to achieve two things. Firstly, they help the search
engines to understand the nature of the content on a
page which helps them deliver relevance in their search
results.
Secondly, the text that appears in the search results
is often derived from the meta title and description
tags. The messages that you put in those tags are therefore
influential in persuading the searcher to click on your
link rather than the other nine on the results page.
A title tag that reads 'Welcome to ACME widgets' is
an example of a wasted tag. It doesn't attract attention
or compel action.
INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL LINKING
Another significant difference of writing for websites
is that you have the opportunity to send readers to
pages within your site and to other sites. Websites
are not linear and the way that we use sites is less
predictable than the way we use offline media.
A good SEO copywriting service will therefore include
thoughtful text linking within pages so that you keep
the visitor on the right track towards the sale.
To find out more about our SEO copywriting services
please call Paul Lock on 01242 234 056.
To find out more, call us on +44(0)845
456 5342
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