SEO Copywriting
Search Engine Optimized (SEO) Copywriting -
The Down and Dirty Details
By Jon Wuebben | Professional Website Copywriter
http://www.customcopywriting.com
Today, being on the first page for your most popular keyword
phrase is like having the most memorable prime time television
commercial in 1973.
Essentially, that's where the power of advertising is going.
It's all about Search. And Search is only going to become more
important over the next ten years. If you can get on that
coveted first page organically, well then, more power to you! I
know you probably have read other articles about writing SEO
copy and how it relates to achieving high search rankings, there
are plenty of them to go around. But some of the articles are
complicated; some are too long, others boring. Still others
don't explain that great SEO copy is rarely effective just on
it's own - in order to get those high rankings (which is the
goal after all), you have to do other things too. So, we decided
that what most people really needed was a "down and dirty", easy
to understand, ten step method. You ask, and we deliver. Here
are the official ten steps in order:
1) Check your Competitors
Who are your competitors? Do you know? If you don't, you may
want to go online and do a search for your product or service.
Who is on the first two pages? That is your target. Those are
the companies that you want to compete with. Because right now,
they are getting your customers. Take a look at their website.
Notice the copy. Analyze their business. Are they successful?
What are they not doing right? Look for the holes. You're going
to meet the needs of their customers (that they are not
fulfilling) so they become YOUR customers.
2) Research your Keyword Phrases
Remember, Keyword Phrase research is critically important. It
can also be a little tricky. Do you know what keywords or
keyword phrases your customers search for when they look for
you? Are you sure? See what your competitors are using. You can
do this by right clicking on their home page, selecting "View
Source" and then checking their keyword meta tag. Next, go on to
Overture.com (Now Yahoo), click on "Visit the Advertiser"
section, and use their Keyword Selector Tool. Its great - and
its free. You can also use Wordtracker.com, but it does cost
$7.50/day.
3) Write Good Copy
Now it's time to start writing. Or re-writing. And if you can't
write, you can hire a website copywriter
(http://www.customcopywriting.com/) to do it for you. The
bottom line is to write about benefits, not features. Don't tell
them how great your company is. They will discover that for
themselves when you overwhelm them with your service and deliver
the perfect product that meets their every need. Make the copy
to the point and snappy. Make it sure it has impact, and asks
the potential customer for their business.
4) Integrate Your Keyword Phrases
After you figure out which keyword phrases you want to use on
your site, you need to integrate them into the copy of your
site. Think Home Page and Services page as the most important
pages to use them on. Essentially, you want to them to make up
5% of the total words on the page. It's not that hard actually.
Just don't use them all over the place like some stupid
copywriters do - you could get de-listed from the search
engines. Definitely use them in your headlines and sub
headlines. That will get you extra points, so to speak.
5) Check your Links, Build if necessary
Do you have any inbound links pointing to your site? If not, no
amount of awesome copy is going to get your site high rankings.
Links are very important. And even more so for Google. Go to
linkpopularity.com and see what you have. Also check your
competitors. If they have more than you, you need to get some
high quality links. You can either do that yourself or hire
someone to do it for you. It can be time consuming and
expensive. But you gotta do it. It makes you look important to
the search engines. A good way to do it is to make sure you are
listed on directories, including DMOZ and industry related
sites. Go to incominglinks.com to see which ones you should be
listed on. Then write articles and submit them to article
submission sites. That could potentially give you hundreds of
links for free.
6) Use Go Rank's Analytical Tools
GoRank.com is a fantastic free resource for SEO. They have a
Keyword Density Analyzer, Link Popularity Analyzer, Top 10
Keyword Analyzer, Research, News and lots of other great stuff.
It's a great tool and something I use every day. It will help
you in your SEO copy efforts.
7) Submit to the Search Engines
After you've ensured that your website copy and all the other
important SEO considerations have been completed, it's time to
submit to the Search Engines. Do it manually. Go to the search
engine and do it yourself. Definitely don't pay someone to do it
for you. You may have to resubmit a few times, but eventually,
your site will get noticed.
8) Tweak the Copy as necessary, Add New Content
After your site has been up for a while, go back and take a
second look. Ask friends and customers what they think of it.
Can anything be improved? You'll be surprised what you may hear.
If something isn't working, fix it. Make it sound better. The
other thing that you should also be doing is adding content
regularly. Build free resources into your website. This will
make your customers and potential customers happy, and it will
make you appear to be more important in the eyes of the search
engines. Adding articles to your site is a great way to give
your customers new, free content. Write about things that they
would find interesting.
9) Partner with a Great SEO Firm
You may want to also consider partnering with a great Search
Engine Optimization firm. There are probably a hundred very good
ones out there. There are also 1000 bad ones. For the good ones,
check out topseos.com. and marketingsherpa.com. They both list
reputable firms. Whoever you go with, make sure they have a list
of client success stories complete with stats to back it up.
10) Measure Your Success!
Finally, measure your success (or progress). Get a software
program that will provide you with some web metrics as it
pertains to your site.
Web Stats
is a great one.
There are quite a few others as well. As you can see, Search
Engine Optimized copy is only part of the overall SEO story.
There is a lot to it, so make sure you cover every area. After
all, we want to get your web site to the very top!
Jon Wuebben is a professional Website Copywriter, SEO Copywriter and Advertising Copywriter
with 10 years experience in
B2B & B2C copywriting and marketing. He has provided copy for a
number of organizations including Ford Motor Company, Kia Motors
America, Harmon Kardon, JBL, Infinity, Advertising Agencies,
small and medium sized businesses and pro bono for a variety of
non-profit groups. He can be reached at (909) 437-7015, or
online at CustomCopywriting.com for any copywriting
project you may have or if you would like more articles or a
Complimentary Website Copy analysis.
|
