I can’t recall the last time I worked on a website that was delayed due to technical issues.
Delays are almost never caused by coding.
The copy is always the culprit.
Until they’re faced with a blank page, everyone believes they can write copy.
Your employees may be subject matter experts, but that doesn’t mean they’ll be able to meet a copywriting deadline.
Copywriting is a difficult task.
It can be difficult to write SEO-friendly copy.
However, even inexperienced SEO copywriters can make a significant difference by following a few simple guidelines.
1. Choose 2–3 keywords or keyword phrases to focus on
Many inexperienced SEO copywriters make the error of attempting to target too many keywords or keyword phrases on a single page.
If you try to target more than two or three keyword phrases on a single page, your copy will sound disjointed, in my experience.
The best sales copy is usually laser-focused.
Even in long-form pieces, targeting too many keywords – especially unrelated keywords – results in copy that fails to pique the reader’s interest.
The reader will not take the desired action – in this case, the conversion – if the copy is not focused.
I recently participated in a Twitter discussion in which participants chastised a conference speaker for claiming that a blog post should be 2,500 words long.
It’s possible that the conference speaker is correct.
It’s possible that the conference speaker is mistaken.
There is no such thing as a “magic word count” for a post.
Your content should be as long as necessary to adequately answer your site visitors’ questions.
You may only need 50 words on that page if you can answer the question in 50 words.
You should be fine as long as both site visitors and search engine robots can determine the page’s context.
There’s no need to keep track of your words.
The length of your blog post is irrelevant to your visitors.
And, contrary to some conference speakers’ assertions, Google is unconcerned about the length of your post.
Copy that is “too big for its britches” is prone to being unfocused.
Long-form copy is ideal for customers seeking information or who are at the beginning of the buying process.
Visitors who are ready to buy or become leads, on the other hand, have most likely done their homework.
Rehashing information that the visitor already knows will cause them to lose interest, leave, and not convert it into a sale or lead.
Even the most seasoned copywriters benefit from focusing on just a few keyword phrases in their work.
The writing tends to become more focused and crisp.
It also has a higher conversion rate.
2. Dividing Your Copy
On a web page, large walls of text can be intimidating.
When a visitor comes across a page that is nothing but pixels and pixels of copy, it can be off-putting enough to cause the visitor to procrastinate and leave the page.
Including graphic elements like bulleted or numbered lists, pull quotes, and plenty of images, among others.
Webmasters can transform intimidating walls of text into appealing web pages that convert visitors into customers.
Simply by changing the formatting of a page, I’ve seen it go from not converting anyone into anything to being a sales machine.
One thing that perplexes me is B2B marketers’ aversion to including any images of a living, breathing human being on their pages.
On B2C pages, we know that images of smiling, happy people boost conversion rates, but we forget that B2B customers are just B2B consumers at work.
But how do I know that an image of a real, happy, smiling customer will boost your blog post’s conversion rate?
No, I don’t think so.
In fact, I’d want to try out a few different graphic tweaks on a wall of text to see what works best.
I was talking with some other agency owners the other day about our agency’s unique selling points.
My friend claimed that his firm had conducted more A/B tests than any other firm currently in operation.
That, in my opinion, is a fantastic selling proposition.
He is well aware that images of smiling, happy people are no longer limited to consumer goods.
3. Use a post-it note to keep track of your keywords
Everyone knows that tracking your caloric intake is one of the most beneficial things you can do when it comes to losing weight.
It’s critical to keep track of the words you’re writing when writing copy for SEO.
It’s particularly important to know how frequently your keyword phrase appears in your copy.
There’s no hard and fast rule about how many times you can use a keyword in a piece of copy, just like there isn’t one for overall word count.
Novice SEO copywriters have a tendency to stuff the copy with keywords, making it read like a catalog entry.
This isn’t the way to go.
The copy must be understandable to the end user.
The copy must appeal to search engine robots in order for them to understand what the content is about, but the context need not be telegraphed.
You don’t have to bombard the search engine with signals indicating that a page is about a specific keyword phrase.
Anecdotally, I advise writers to repeat each targeted phrase at least twice in a block of copy.
However, there are times when using a phrase more than twice makes sense.
I would be wary of using a keyword phrase only once.
With other signals, you can rank a page with just one keyword phrase mention for phrases that aren’t as competitive, but more often than not, it takes more than one mention.
However, this introduces the post-it note.
I keep track of my keywords on a post-it note next to my keyboard when writing SEO copy.
As I write the copy, I mark each keyword phrase with a check mark as I use it.
However, as I write the first draught, I try not to keep track of the keyword phrases.
Every time I use the phrase, I simply mark it with a checkmark.
I read through my first draught to make sure it makes sense, and I count my keyword mentions to ensure I’ve included everything.
I re-organize and start over if everything isn’t included, or if the copy doesn’t flow around the targeted keywords.
It can be a frustrating process at first, but you’ll eventually get to the point where you can make minor changes to the draught and publish a final version.
4. Read the text aloud
If you’re unsure, read your copy aloud.
If you’re still not sure, read it out loud to a friend.
When you read the copy out loud, you aren’t necessarily looking for ways to improve it – it should already be good by this point.
When SEO specialists and Webmasters read the copy aloud, they can determine if it flows.
We can’t put a round peg into a square hole because it’s too big.
When we try to target a keyword on a page where the context does not match the intent of the targeted phrase, the same thing happens.
If you read your copy aloud, you’ll almost always notice if it’s crammed with keywords.
What we’ve discovered is that you can fit a lot more keywords into the copy than you might think – and the flow will still work.
We usually find at least one to two more instances where we could logically use a keyword phrase in the copy by reading it aloud.
In Conclusion
Finally, any copywriter can take simple steps to make their content more SEO friendly.
And mastering those steps does not necessitate years of practice.
Always test, and remember that you’re golden if the search engines understand the context of the copy and users are persuaded to take some sort of the desired action.
Learn more from SEO and read You Should Know These 12 Essential On-Page SEO Factors.
