There is one fundamental difference between SEO copywriters, and freelance writers who are not familiar with SEO. Skilled SEO writers are not writing for one audience, but two. Everything written for the web should be written for both readers and search engines. Most freelance copywriters are writing only for the client as an audience.

Keywords in Web Content

This distinction becomes most evident in the use of keywords. There is both an art and a science to the use of keywords for web copy. They must be grammatically correct, yet represent search terms visitors will actually use. Keywords should be unique to the website, and not overly competitive. Keywords that fit this criteria are hard to find, however. In addition, keywords cannot be over or underused in web copy, and should be placed in particular areas of the content for maximum affect. Writers who are new to SEO often have a hard time utilizing keywords with finesse. When used properly, readers should not notice them at all.

How Relevant is Your Web Content?

Relevancy plays an important role in page rank. Relevancy is used to describe how well the content of a page matches the search term that points to it. Highly relevant page content will be focused specifically upon the main keywords used. For example, if the search term used for a site is “Women’s wholesale clothing” then the content of that page should focus only on wholesale apparel for women. It should not mention men’s clothing, or anything that is not related to the keyword. By making relevancy a factor in ranking a page, search engines ensure that when users click on a result, they will actually find the information they are looking for.

Writing For Readers and Search Spiders

Writing content for spiders is not fundamentally any different than writing for readers. Copy should be written in full sentences, and should be grammatically correct. In addition, certain aspects of good SEO copywriting are beneficial to both audiences. Subheadings, bulleted lists, and other methods of breaking up blocks of text make reading easier. This kind of formatting helps leads visitors through the content, and the use of bold or italicized text indicates to spiders which areas of the content are the most important.

SEO writing is both a science and an art, and no good web content writer can function without knowing the basics of optimization, or knowing the client’s audience inside and out. It’s always best to work with a dedicated team of writers who take the time and effort to get to know the goals of the website, and the people who will use it.

New and fresh content is what the search engines are looking for to benefit their users with relevant and current content they are searching for. SEO writers make content creation simple for any business to create original quality content for your business to prosper in the digital era. Bringing organic traffic is the best way you can bring consumers to your site because it is free and once people continue to visit your site on a regular basis the possibilities are exponential. Having continual users will rank your site higher in the search engines that will lead to business growth and higher sales with the simple integration of SEO content to your existing site.

When planning website design for a new site or a site revamp, search engine optimization should be taken into account to improve future success of your business. The great part of utilizing SEO writers is that they can do all of the work for your company while delivering significant measurable results. It doesn’t matter the type of business you have because SEO content will benefit any industry with an increase in your website’s traffic. With more content on your site, users will spend more time browsing through your pages reading about your company and the services that it is engaged in.

SEO writers have helped bring sites around the world more traffic that include a broad range of companies small and large. The secret to a great site and one that search engines rank well is one that continually has new content posted that is relevant to what users are searching for. If a site were to go up with content and never change or add new things to the pages, it would start higher up in the rankings but would quickly drop down over time when search engines see it as a stagnant site that won’t be relevant to their searches.

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.

Your sales letter should address any doubts that the customers might have up front. This would prove that you care about your customers and understand what they are looking for. You should begin by creating a powerful yet short headline and ensure that the body of your sales letter is polite yet not too personal. You should also incorporate the special benefits of your company that would act as your unique selling point.

For a sales letter to be effective, it needs to get the attention of the reader and should have a “call-to-action” phrase in it. Further, it should begin with a very upbeat, promising paragraph and give the reader an enticing picture of the business.

The sales letter should be interesting enough to keep the reader’s attention. It should include engaging information that would benefit them. At this stage, the readers are more eager to learn what is in store for them if they use your business rather than what your business is about or how well it is doing. They are not interested in you or your products. They want to know why they should choose your business.

A good sales letter should be capable of creating desire among its readers. The sales letter should be convincing enough to entice them to use your business rather than your competitors’ and how they would benefit by choosing your business.

Make your readers believe in your business. You can incorporate certain field tests and studies of your different products in your sales letter that would make the readers trust you and your business. You can also include testimonials from your present customers and certain “call-to-action” phrases in your sales letter. Your sales letter can ask your potential customers to buy your product and click on your website.

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.

To start, you need to have a topic, keywords, and word count.  The keywords will be repeated once or several times throughout the body of the article, without making it obvious they are purposefully thrust into the article.  Sounds easy, right?  Consider this:  What you are reading has already used the phrase “how to write an article” twice, the word “write” three times, and the word “article” four times.   For SEO content pieces, the word count is usually 500; occasionally 300 or 1000 words will be required.

The next step is to research your topic.  Spend a little time finding some credible Internet sources, and copy and paste content into your Word document.  You will not be using these words to plagiarize!  Write your own copy, every time, but use the content to pull key dates, sources, or even the general tone of your article.  Never use the exact words expressed by another writer.  If you are going to plagiarize , find another business.  While you do not need to reference sources if you have sufficiently altered the text, attribute any direct quotes or stats to the source, as you would with any other publishable document.

Don’t spend a huge amount of time on research.  While you do want to sound educated on a topic and pass along correct information, you are not creating a scientific treatise on how to best treat lymphomas.  Your topics will generally be non-scientific, and not terribly technical.  Those types of articles are necessarily left to experts in the field, and if you are not comfortable imparting “wisdom” about a given subject, then either pass the assignment along to someone else, or make sure you give the subject the critical eye to detail it deserves.  Sometimes, even though writing SEO content does not pay a lot of money, you have to bite the bullet and do a little bit more research work than you had intended.  Hopefully, your professional integrity is such that you won’t pass off bad information as good; and that any statements used can be proven as fact, not fiction..

Articles shouldn’t take a ton of time to write.  If you are even marginally adept at stringing together sentences, you can learn to write around three or four 500-word articles in an hour. Each article should be researched, edited for spelling and content, and saved and attached for your employer.  You can expect revisions on the part of your editor; so do not necessarily have a hand in the finished product.  Hopefully, your raw text was adequate and does not demand a large amount of editing from your employer or proofreader.

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.

There are many factors to SEO writing that skilled writers are not aware of, while a SEO copywriter would have knowledge of how to develop better content. But just how does video and games affect SEO copywriting?

A World without Flash

Right now 70% of games and 75% of video on the web is Flash based. Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform that’s used to add video and animation to websites. But if you’re using an iPhone or iPad then you are missing out on a large percentage of the internet. As of press time, Apple and Adobe had not come to an agreement about installing Flash based platforms to their line of iPhones and iPads. Other smart phones still support Flash as part of their browser capabilities. But, Flash takes a long time to load and cannot be read by search engines. All info that is embedded in a Flash file cannot be indexed, and the whole point of SEO is to make your content visible and understandable to the search engines.

No where to go but Up?

How does this affect SEO writers if Flash goes away? Well, many people have thought about this and the answer is on the way. Right now HTML 5 is being developed to alleviate the shortcomings associated with Adobe Flash. HTML 5 in the proposed new standard for HTML, HTML is the markup language for web sites, it is said to reduce the need for plug-ins such as Adobe Flash and Microsoft’s Silverlight. Also, font and center tags are eliminated with the new format. The effect that HTML 5 will have on mobile devices is profound. SEO copywriters will be able to develop video and game content that the top search engines will actually be able to index.

How will this change SEO Copywriting

Right now, no one knows just how the change from Flash to HTML 5 will affect SEO writing. We know that video will be indexed and searchable, but how will this change the way writers go about creating content for websites? With new tags and improved page segmentation it should make writing for websites much more accessible. The important thing to do is make sure that you find a SEO copywriter who has the changes figured out.

Checking the competition is one of the best ways to find out what’s going on in the industry you’re involved with. What kinds of things are your competitors doing? What are they talking about? What are their worries and fears? If you know these things, you can use them to your advantage by telling your clients why your company is not worried about the fears of your competitors or why you can offer more than your competition can. Don’t just rely on your competition, though. Check unexpected places for sources, like the library. The internet is an incestuous place for information, because so many people borrow easy data from other sources. That’s why you can really bring something to the table by injecting new statistics and new lines of thought than what’s currently available.

You never know what you might find until you look. You might locate something that your competition didn’t bother to look for or locate. That could really make a difference in your SEO content research, what keywords you use, and how you present your company to potential clients. Be sure to use your newfound information to tell your clients and potential clients why what you offer is better than what others offer. It can be very difficult for some people to tell what’s different about one company’s product or service versus the product or service of another company. Don’t wait for them to figure it out. Tell them, instead.

Remember, if you don’t tell them why your company’s offerings are better than those that the competition has, your competitors will step in and explain why theirs are better. You don’t want to give them a chance to do that, and you want to be sure to counter anything that they’ve already said about their products with your own information about your products. If you’re offering a service, you can do the same thing – tell why yours is better, more reliable, less expensive, etc. Be creative with it. Consumers don’t want to read the same old boring things about company A, B, and C. They want to be entertained and enlightened at the same time, and you can give them that with good SEO writing and proper research.

Don’t slam another company if you find research that says it has done something wrong. Attacking your competitors isn’t the way to go. Instead, just show how your product or service is higher quality and/or better in some other way. You can’t always do that without solid research, but if you look around and make sure that you’ve gotten a great grasp of your competition’s offerings and the state of your industry, you can impress your clients and potential clients with a lot of interesting knowledge and get sales in the process.

Take a moment to check out some of the content that is currently on the internet. There are several excellent article resources like Ezine that online business owners use in their article marketing.  After reading just a few, you are likely to begin to notice the difference between quality copy, and downright horrible copy. This difference occurs for several reasons:  the author of a poor article is either not trained in SEO copywriting or does not speak English as a native language. The good copy is easy to read and conversational in tone. In fact, you are unlikely to even realize just what keywords the article is based on. This is the type of content you should include on your site. It takes a talented SEO copywriter, skilled in the art of content writing to create this sort of content.

While there are literally thousands of copywriters available on the internet, many of them are not qualified to write SEO copy.  When searching for a copywriter, consider a few important facts:

1. English must be their native language. Unfortunately, in most cases, English written by those who have learned it as a second language is often stilted and difficult to read. Even native level English may not be enough, however. If, for example, your audience is chiefly in the United States, British English and punctuation may be distracting to readers.
2. A complete understanding of keywords and keyword density is a must. It isn’t enough to simply sprinkle an article with keywords. Your SEO copywriter will be able to research relevant keywords and select unique words and phrases that will help drive traffic to you.
3. Engaging style and tone will make for better copy. Read several pieces written by a potential copywriter. The more engaging their style, the better.
4. Proper grammar and spelling is a must.

Many online business owners are hesitant to hire a ‘lay’ person to write their copy.  It is a mistake to think that only an expert in your particular field can write your copy. SEO copywriters will research a subject and break it down into common language that anyone can understand. You will find that it actually works to your benefit to hire an SEO consultant. Their ability to write for the masses can make even the most complex subject easily understood.

At its heart, SEO copywriting is based on science. Understanding how spiders crawl content and how people will search for you is all information that can be researched and proven. Truly great copy is more than just research. It is creative, thoughtful, engaging and easy to read. Finding a copywriter that can write copy that meets these criteria will make you and your company stand out from the crowd.