10 Tips for SEO Copywriting
I found a great article written by Christopher Conlan about copywriting tips. I couldn't agree better with what Christopher wrote about SEO Copywriting.
10 SEO Copywriting Tips
SEO Copywriting is a skill. For most people it's really something you learn over time by doing it, paying close attention to what your competitors are doing and reading up on how to write copy for websites, blogs, press releases and articles.
There are some simple rules that will help the beginning SEO copywriter and keep the experienced "know-it-all" like myself grounded!
First let's start by really defining SEO copywriting.
SEO copywriting is the art and science of combining three elements:
(1) Valuable Content: providing the reader with content that affords them the opportunity to learn, experience or clarify a product, service, position or opinion. Key factors in creating "value" in your content include organization, a high level of detail, a birds-eye view, reader perspective, usability and specific calls to action.
Your content must provide the reader with "news you can use" if you will. The overall reader experience must take into account a variety of different levels of knowledge/proficiency with the topic. Here's where defining and organizing your thoughts come in. Start with a bird's eye view of the Who, What, Where, When, Why and How, then expand into greater detail on a point by point or step by step basis.
(2) Readability: The user must be able to understand what the heck you are talking about. A good rule of thumb is to write for the reader first, then make a second and third pass for the search engines.
(3) Structure and Formatting: Search Engines are becoming smarter about assessing the "value" of your content, but they still rely on a variety of distinguishable factors which are outlined below. There is no hard and fast rule for any of these tips. Use them all "sparingly" and remember #1 and 2 above.
10 SEO Copywriting Tips
(1) Use Bold, and Italics: Just like a regular old human reader the search engines give more weight to words and phrases that are in bold or italics. Just don't go too crazy or you'll irritate the search engines and give your reader a headache (unless you're selling aspirin, but that's a different article on subliminal copywriting!).
(2) Internal Hyperlinks: You are your own best resource, so use and to a certain extent abuse yourself. Hyperlink to other resources/pages of your site which are relevant to the copy you are writing. This will benefit the reader, increase the amount of time they spend on your site and help you with the search engines. Don't forget your ALT tags.
(3) External Hyperlinks: Incorporating links to external resources which will benefit the reader can help you in two ways (a) they provide a third-party validation to a certain extent of your "expertise" and (b) afford you the opportunity to pick up some extra coin if that resource provides reciprocal linking or has an affiliate program.
(4) Use Bullet Points: Using a bullet point or numbered system helps break up your copy into consumable pieces, aids in the clean design of your page and makes it easy for the reader to "go back" and reference previous points without wasting time reading through dense copy.
(5) Content "Mass": Never have less than 400 words on a page. If the content you are providing is in fact valuable you should be able to come up with around 1,000 words.
(6) Use Examples to beef up your content with relevant keywords. (See #8).
(7) Keyword Density: I like to try for 7% density for no more than 4 sets of keywords or phrases per page. Segway to #8.
(8) Break your keyword sets/phrases into tiers or alternates to enable a better flow while maximizing density and penetration (based upon Yahoo!'s Keyword Selector Tool, WordTracker, WebCEO or a like keyword recommendation program).:
Example: Target: SEO Copywriting Tier 1: SEO Copywriting Tier 2: SEO Copywriter Tier 3: Writing copy for SEO Tier 4: SEO copywriting services
Example Sentence: "Instead of spending time evaluating SEO copywriting Services become a SEO copywriter yourself by following these guidelines and you'll be writing copy for SEO in no time."
(9) Write for what the reader is searching for, not what you think they should be searching for. Remember that your job is to provide the "solution" to the problem, not create a greater problem by making the reader/searcher feel dumb. If they are searching for Ham and Green Eggs instead of Green Eggs and Ham, give them Ham and Green Eggs – "The Searcher is Always Right" to paraphrase a service industry mantra.
About the Author
Christopher Conlan is Managing Director of Kaboodle Ventures, a SEO Specialist located in Scottsdale, Arizona. Mr. Conlan has over 17 years experience in direct marketing public relations, sales, web development and search engine optimization. Visit Kaboodle Ventures at http://www.kaboodleventures.com/SEO_Copywriting.htm
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By Vivid DVD, March 14, 2007 @ 6:22 pm
With SEO Copywriting, not only do you have to write expert content that will appeal to your reader, but you also have to make it appeal to the search engines.
By Andy, April 13, 2007 @ 8:19 am
I feel a bit cheated, I only see 9 tips.
By norvasc generic, May 7, 2007 @ 2:45 pm
You can create curiosity by asking a provocative question or making a seemingly outrageous statement. Word play, alliteration, or take-offs on familiar phrases or cliches can create some eye-catching and often amusing headlines.
By Patricia, May 16, 2007 @ 11:24 am
These are really helpful comments for anyone who wants to write content for their own site and isn’t sure about SEO. Good resource for newbies.
By meet2go.com, August 12, 2007 @ 9:43 am
Thank you for the advice, very helpful
By Thomas Sinfield, September 13, 2007 @ 4:42 pm
Content really is king with SEO. I have found if you focus on your target readers, and apply a few simple things like what you have suggested then your search engine rankings will rise without to much effort.
By Abdul Hayi, September 26, 2007 @ 8:31 am
Very informative tips. Nice tip about tiers or alternates.
By Analbolic, December 4, 2007 @ 5:13 pm
For me copywriting is more about selling a particular Product to a customer or even Preselling a product to a customer than SEO. These days it seems SEO is all in the Linkl Building & natural growth.
By Private DVD, January 2, 2008 @ 6:38 pm
I agree fully about splitting your keyword phrases up into components, there’s money in the long tail you know
By antonsulis, December 2, 2008 @ 7:05 pm
why in Content “Mass” point huge site like photobucket can be indexed and high pagerank ?
And better use keywords shotgun for SEO solution…
By CCR, February 12, 2009 @ 12:51 am
I’m confused. Everything I’ve read tells me no major search engines pay attentions to keywords. Why should I bother with them?
By mark, August 7, 2009 @ 10:23 am
great article! thanks a lot for the depth and understanding at which you covered the topic. it’s a useful piece of information not only for me but for many others. have read a lot on the topic at different blogs and books (download mainly from http://www.picktorrent.com but this piece is most helpful
By SEO Expert Online, September 8, 2009 @ 9:52 pm
I was looking for the 10th point. Couldn’t find in this post
By Max Rodriguez, November 5, 2009 @ 1:49 pm
definitely one of those practice things, great tips !
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By SF SEO Copywriting, March 11, 2010 @ 7:47 am
About your advice to have at least 400 words on your page, we also encounter very short texts with the right format (H1/H2 headers, title etc) to perform very well. It appears that mass has lower priority than density and format/ CSS.
By SEO Specialties, April 22, 2010 @ 4:22 am
7%? I’m not arguing an actual percentage for keyword density but I am wondering where you got this magic number from. I find that writing naturally while incorporating keywords will keep your content from looking spammy. When you shoot for a percent it tends to force keywords where they don’t belong.
By deepika, August 31, 2010 @ 3:59 am
excellent