SEO Copywriting

Unlike traditional copywriting where authors strive to attract and persuade human readers, the purpose of SEO copywriting is two fold. The first priority is to increase the ranking of a website with the major search engines. The second is to persuade the human reader. To accomplish this, SEO copywriters rely on a variety of tools, the most important of which is keyword analysis and placement. When you think of keywords as the search terms your targeted demographic will use to find you, you will realize how crucial they are. Finding the most unique and relevant keywords to use for a given piece of content is critical and involves not only research but also analysis of competitors and some ingenuity. Keywords must also be strategically placed. It isn’t enough to simply stuff a website with large lists of keywords. Instead, they must be used correctly and flow naturally in the piece.

Finding a Copywriter

When you stop to consider all of the aspects that go into ideal content, choosing the best copywriter is often at the top of the list. Style, tone, skill and experience all play an important role in creating content that stands out. When selecting a copywriter for your optimization needs, be sure to not only consider their work from a ‘human’ point of view but also consider how well their work addresses the needs of search engines. Their research should clearly indicate the strength of the keywords used within each piece. The ideal copywriter will demonstrate an understanding of the various search engines and their guidelines regarding keyword density and placement.

Content Management

Content and copywriting is an ongoing process that must be carefully managed and regularly reviewed. Whether you choose to outsource all of your copywriting, including content management, or if you opt to manage your content yourself, it is a step that must not be overlooked. Regularly updated content is just one of the important management steps. Reviewing analytical data regarding keyword performance is just as critical. A talented SEO copywriter can handle all of these management tasks for you while providing you with fresh content on a regular basis.

While SEO copywriting is something that all business can decide to handle on their own, in most cases, it is a better idea to outsource this task to professionals. Talented SEO copywriters use their craft to persuade your human readers while simultaneously generating increased traffic from search engines.

A person can become a copywriter by having various qualifications. A copywriter might have prior experience in writing copy of offline ads. Some might simply be gifted with a creative mind and a strong grasp of language in order to draw traffic to the different sites. If a person is trained in literature or journalism, it would be an easy transition to become a successful copywriter. However, if one has a creative bent, he or she can easily become a good copywriter as well.

A good copywriter has a unique voice and a clear creative thought process. Further, he or she should have a strong command of the language and the ability to express him or herself in an engaging manner.

Grammatical errors are not acceptable when writing copy for various Internet sites. Writing content should be relevant and engaging but not too elaborative or repetitive. If the number of relevant visitors increases on your site, it is a good indication that the content is satisfactory and the copywriter has done a sufficient job.

A copywriter has the ability to build or ruin your business. If people do not find the content of your site relevant or engaging, they will go to a different site. On the flip side, if they enjoy the content, they will continue to use your website.

Copywriting is not only about using the right keywords in all the required places. It is also about using the best way to incorporate your SEO copywriting in order to present the right kind of content for the relevant website.

An expert copywriter can help the growth of your business in many ways. If the copywriter understands your business and needs, he or she can help draw traffic to your site. Above all, a copywriter should strive to churn out only that content that would help you prosper and gain prospective clients.

Write with the Internet in mind and with the understanding that readers are interested in the Web itself. Make sure that you weave Web-related content into your topic in order to hold a readers interest.  Also, since the Internet is an international forum, it is a good idea to keep your writing at a level that is easily understandable to everyone.

Your research is of tantamount importance to your Internet readership.  Writing and passing along misinformation is a grievous mistake; people’s lives can be impacted by what you write and impart as fact.  While it’s not usually dire, it is important to get the facts straight.  Start by doing a Google search (or use your favorite search engine) on your topic, and choose relevant sites with credible credentials, or vetted news agencies and information services.  Choose your sites wisely. While it might be easy to rely on Wikipedia, for instance, remember that the content is largely made up of user submissions and has not necessarily been fact-checked.  Never ever use someone else’s words as your own, but feel free to copy and paste dates, pertinent stats and quotes, as long as they are attributed to the correct source.  If you do copy and paste blocks of texts make sure you alter just about everything, in order to avoid any form of plagiarism.

Try to keep the content interesting.  Nobody wants to read dry, technical content, even if the topic is dry and technical.  If you can’t hold an online reader’s attention right off the bat, they’ll click another link and move on to something else. Break the content up into smaller paragraphs to keep the reader feeling like they’re moving right along.  A great big block of text, while interesting, might seem to a reader like he’s slogging through a large amount of content.

Again, keep your facts straight and try to explain the point of your topic clearly, with as few deviations as possible.  If it’s a relatively easy to understand topic, then 500 words should get your point across rather well.  If you need more words, you’re probably not getting to the point quickly enough.  Your editing should be tight; avoid run-on sentences, excessive commas, incorrect grammar and misspellings.

Keep in mind that while online writing is slightly different than traditional writing, the old rules always apply.  Facts have to be checked, rules of writing still need to be assiduously applied, and if it’s not interesting, no one will read it.

Article marketing will creative an interest in your topic and industry, and can be placed on article directories, which are important resources for targeted marketing.  However, placement on advertising directories with an article that is the same across the Internet usually catches the attention of search engines’ duplicate content filters, so slight tweaks can be made to each submission to make it just different enough to get published online in various locations.

Traditional print media can be approached (such as newspapers and trade magazines) with your article, for publication as a free service from you.  But even that “free” work you’re producing for publication is a great way to generate interest in your company or service; your name, address, telephone number and website address are usually included in the “attributes” area of the print article.

Remember for either print or online, the article has to be good.  If you’re trying to pass off bad writing just to get it out there, remember that editors are looking for well-written, interesting, salient content that their readers will pay to read.  If you are not a professional writer, considering paying for the content and editing it yourself.  Professional writers can take information from you and turn it into an industry-specific piece of content that is well written and cleanly presented, interesting to the public and others in your business.  Or, go ahead and write it yourself, but have it dispassionately edited by someone whose opinion and writing skills you respect.  Keep in mind that if you wouldn’t want to read it, neither will anyone else.

A great resource is your local newspaper, especially if you have a retail concern or a business where foot traffic means a lot for business.  Having a locally-relevant article that concerns your area of expertise or business acumen can drive bring in business for you, especially with contact information included in the article and the name of your company mentioned a couple of times in the content.  Trade magazines will often accept pertinent content, and again, mention of your name and business contact information will only aid in your general advertising and marketing scheme.

Ultimately, article marketing is yet one more great way to use the written word to drive home sales and generate interest in your business and your field.  Putting the word out there as often and well as possible should be an integral part of selling yourself and your company.  If you don’t tell the world about your company, the world certainly isn’t going to find out about you on their own.  Make it a priority to put your best written face forward, and take advantage of article marketing.

The first thing you need to do is make sure you know what you’re talking about. If you aren’t knowledgeable on the subject, do your research. It’s not a good idea to pick a topic you know nothing about and just write ‘on the fly.’ If you get your facts all wrong, you could end up looking silly, being discredited, and having to work twice as hard to get any kind of reputation back. You could also lose a lot of respect among your customers and potential customers, as well as among other people in your field. Don’t let that happen to you! Make sure you do research and get your facts from reputable sources.

Once you’re armed with the knowledge that you need, discipline your time. Know when you’re going to write the article and how long it’s going to take you. Don’t spend all day on it, but take the time to make sure you say what you mean and that you’ve included everything that’s important for the readers to know. Give them a reason to keep reading and offer them a call to action so they can take the information you gave them through your SEO and do something with it – preferably something that helps you to make money.

When you’re writing the SEO article, think about visual interest. In other words, don’t just write one big block of text. That’s hard for customers to read, and it can look unprofessional. Instead of doing that, break it up. Use shorter paragraphs than you might use for something that would be in print. Give your customers subheadings and bullet points, or a numbered list of things that are important to know. If your customers and potential customers find reading your article easy and fun, you’ve got a higher chance of making sales.

Last, before you publish that article on your blog or website, make sure you check your keyword density and placement. You should write the article naturally, but if you find you’re short on keywords you can always adjust something you said to include your keyword a couple more times. Proofread it, and have someone else look at it for further proofreading and editing. That person may catch something that you missed. When they send it back to you, make any needed changes and then publish. That will keep you looking professional and help you make an impact where SEO content is concerned, allowing you to be more successful.

Many online business owners get stuck on the first step of content creation:  what type of content to include. The truth is that all content is good – as long as it is properly written, keyword rich and relevant. Topics should be closely related to your product or service. It should be fresh, professionally written and include keywords that are both relevant and unique.

You may choose from several different types of content, each equally valid. Blogs are a popular addition. Easy to write, personal and a favorite hunting ground for spiders, blogs can be an excellent addition to almost any website. Another option is SEO articles. Unlike article marketing, an SEO tactic in which articles are posted to various directories for increased visibility, placing articles directly on your website gives you a chance to educate your client base, present yourself as an authority and increase your rankings.

If we have learned that the type of content we include on our website really doesn’t matter, we should also know that the form of the written content does. In order to obtain maximum benefits, you must tailor your content to appeal to both human readers and spiders. When writing or proofreading content for your site keep in mind the differences.

Content for Spiders

This content must be keyword rich. Focus on 2 – 3 keywords per page and mind your density. Keyword density, or the number of times a keyword is used compared to the total amount of text, should be between 3 and 5%.  Spiders also like fresh content, so be sure to plan on updating your website regularly.

Content for Humans

Humans don’t read articles like spiders – we look at more than how many times a given word or phrase is included in a piece of text. For this reason, your content should be easy to read. Here is how:

• Use bullets or numbering to make important facts stand out
• Write short paragraphs of less than 10 sentences
• Use shorter sentences
• Use flawless grammar and spelling

Always remember it is less about the type of content that you include and more about how you create it. Be sure to keep your content clear and concise. If writing isn’t your strong suit, you may want to find a qualified SEO copywriter to work with. There are many professionally trained companies dedicated to providing businesses with the best possible content.

Unnecessary wordiness. “A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery knew the value of a succinct writing style. If you feel like the writer is still talking, but not telling you anything new, you know that the piece has a problem. See also: using “to be” (or is, are, were, was) too much and general overuse of the passive voice.

No direction to the work. The level of involvement for every client/writer is different. Some clients want to simply be able to pass on a list of keywords, and get back useful articles. Make it clear that you expect your writers to develop the topic further. If you give them the keyword “Bandsaw,” make sure that they know you expect something with the title “How to use a bandsaw to build furniture.” Sometimes communication can make the difference between a good writer, and a bad one. Just make sure your SEO writer is both willing and able to develop your topics fully. If they can’t, it’s time to send them packing.

Failure to understand the purpose of the piece. You can waste a lot of money on copywriters if you’re dealing with ‘artists’ rather than commercial writers who understand your goals and objectives. If you need an article on the benefits of Vitamin B for an affiliate marketing site, and you get an article that says Vitamin B is useless, it won’t matter how well it’s written. If your writers don’t understand what the purpose of the piece is, then they’re not helping you.

Obvious grammar, spelling, and word choice mistakes. The good writer is constantly self-editing and striving to create the perfect sentence that communicates his or her ideas exactly. The bad writer does not reflect on their writing during composition nor does he or she comprehensively edit after writing. This is the sloppiness that creates bad writing. While even the best writers occasionally have a typo, consistent errors are a big red flag.

Figuring out whether what you are reading is “good” is a little more complicated. Bad writing loudly declares itself within a sentence or two, but often a work has to be read for a page or more before the reader can really discern whether it is quality writing.

However, there are a few important elements that are often present in good writing. A great piece of copywriting should not only be to the point, but have a clear point, and it should make that point with well organized, logical ideas. The reader should be able to read the work in the writer’s “voice,” which must be distinct and apparent. A good writer uses correct grammar and a varied vocabulary. Finally, and most importantly, good writing is interesting. The reader wants to read it – reading a well written piece is never work.

Well, there’s a short answer to your question, and a long one. I’ll give you both.

The short answer is that only well written content, plenty of high quality links, and maybe some Pay Per Click advertising will increase your traffic. It’s going to require some investment.

Here’s the long answer:

The Do It Yourself option is kind of obsolete in terms of SEO. Because search engines have gotten more sophisticated, there are a lot more facets of the process that you need to be familiar with in order to compete with the people who have good campaigns going already. There are definitely some things you can do yourself, but by and large, you should prepare yourself to get some help in dealing with all the various aspects of building organic and paid traffic. Here are some things you need to look into:

Content: This is something you can do yourself, but most people get tired of it after a while. It’s the most important aspect of your site. You need to make sure your site information is well written, and interesting to read. This is so much more than just putting in the right keywords. Even if something is stellar from an SEO standpoint, it won’t do much good if users aren’t really reading it. There are some good copywriting companies out there that can fill your site affordably. You also need to make sure that your content is going all over the web, and building good links back to you.

PPC : You’ll need pay per click ads with something like Google AdWords to get traffic to your site while organic traffic builds. This is something you need help with. It’s tempting to run a PPC campaign yourself to save money, but it’s really inefficient that way. You need someone who really knows how to find good keywords, manage bids, and change up the strategy constantly.

Links: Links are really big for getting you traffic, but they have to be in the right places. Google knows where all the spam is, so links that come from places like article directories won’t be as strong as a link that comes from someplace like YouTube. Try to get links posted on sites with a high page rank. That’ll help you out. Build links like crazy. You can do this yourself, too, but it does get really tedious.

Local Search: Make sure you’re doing some local SEO, too. Associate your site with your town, and put yourself in Google maps if you have a business. You can do this one yourself.

Long story short, if you really know SEO, then you probably didn’t learn anything new here, but if you’re kind of new to it, you might as well resign yourself to investing some money in marketing, probably with more than one company.

For more information contact the writer @ melinda@iwebcontent.com

As any SEO expert will tell you, all long-term organic results will rely on text, whether in the form of blogs, articles in directories, syndication through RSS feeds, social media, or even meta tags. For some applications, creating this text is as simple as researching keywords, and writing page descriptions. For the vast majority of web copy, however, the writing will be seen by end users, and as a representative of your client, it needs to be articulate, useful copy.

While some SEO firms have the manpower to employ a full time copywriter, most do not. This leaves the burden of content creation to employees that may or may not be equipped to handle it. Client work can suffer when the appropriate person for the job isn’t used. As any company providing a service to a client, it’s always a good idea to outsource tasks to the experts. Many search engine optimization companies have started to partner with SEO copywriters in order to ensure that clients have both the benefits of perfectly optimized pages, and thought provoking content that provides value to readers.

Of course, it’s important to choose copywriting services carefully. While there are many excellent writers out there, not all of them will understand the intricacies of SEO. They may not be able to juggle both writing toward the proper keyword densities and key phrases, and writing effective content at the same time. You should make sure that you use writers with a firm background in SEO and marketing, so that your text has the most impact possible. Text written by an unskilled writer will have no one to read it, and excellent writing that lacks the punch to sell a product or idea will be ineffective. You will need to invest in writers who understand the mechanics of search engine optimization, and have the ability to persuade your audience.

The cost of skilled writers can vary, so it’s important to choose a company that charges a fair price. The best way to determine your budget is to estimate how much time it would take you to write something. The writer should cost less to pay than it would cost to pay you in that time. Remember that in many cases, you get what you pay for with copywriting. Writers in India and Southeast Asia will write for pennies on the dollar, but the quality will not be suitable for readers, and will probably upset clients as well. The writers that you choose should have a solid background in the industry of copywriting and marketing both.

You will not find many individual freelance writers who have the entire skill set you need. Those that do will charge a premium for their knowledge. Copywriting companies will have qualified writers, and in most cases, will charge a standard rate for services. $18 – $25 per 500 words is a fairly standard rate for top quality content from ghostwriting services.