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Preparing to Write Killer Web Copy for SEO and Visitors Alike

Guest post by: Christine Slocumb

Article Overview: Writing website copy which appeals to both your website’s visitors and search engine robots is part art, part science. In this article, I detail a step-by-step preparation method for writing copy that both visitors and search engines find compelling. This is the exact process our agency has used to write copy for dozens of highly successful websites.

Preparing to Write Killer Web Copy for SEO and Visitors Alike

Step 1. Determine your overall goals for the site. Even if you do not conduct online transactions, there should still be clear visitor goals for the site. Are you trying to educate customers or trying to get them to call your business development team? Are you attempting to increase the perceived value of your company or products? At this stage you should decide if catchy copy or search engine rankings are more important to your overall goals, because at times during the copy writing process you may have to choose one over the other. At this stage, you must also determine which pages on the site you would like to be the top landing (entry) pages. Having clear positioning goals for the site leads to more effective copy. Step 2. Compile a key phrase list. We highly recommend a comprehensive key phrase analysis which looks at monthly search volumes for each key phrase related to your offering in addition to how difficult it will be to rank for these terms. Many internet marketing firms offer a keyword analysis service. However, if you cannot afford this step or you sell into a very niche field, you can create a key phrase list yourself. Come up with a list of 25-50 seed phrases you think prospects would type into a search engine in order to find your products or services. Try to think like your buyers, not your product development team. Note the phrases your competitors are using on the headlines and title tags (first line in the browser) of their sites. You can also enter competitor website URLs into Google’s Keyword Tool and it will extract keywords used in that site. Step 3. Create a master web copy template. Now you should create a master copy template. I recommend you setup a master copy document in a word processing application. I create a new page for each web page and insert a table with the following headers at the top of each page. Page Name Call to Action for this Page URL Title Tag Meta description Key phrases to use Here’s how to complete each field in the table. Call to Action for this Page – Earlier you determined the overall goals for this site, now it’s time to figure out what you want the visitor to do as a result of visiting this page. Example Calls to Action: Go to request proposal form, check out our clients, or view a demo. b) URL – Use your primary keyword phrase in the URL. If you do not already own a domain name, it will help your search rankings if you can obtain a domain containing the key phrases. However, if you already own a domain and you have for a long time, you can use the key phrase at the end of the URL separated by underscores. There’s debate in the search engine community on whether dashes are better separators than underscores. The consensus seems to be dashes are better, although we have not seen a detrimental effect using underscores. c) Title Tag – Although visitors don’t often know where to find the title tag, it’s one of the most important pieces of information in the eyes of the search robots. It’s located at the very top left of your browser window and it’s the first line you will see in a search engine results page listing. Use the title of your site or your company brand at the beginning or end of every title tag. If you are working with a nationally-known brand such as IBM or Apple, put the company name first for brand awareness. For all other companies, I recommend the putting the brand at the end of the title tag. Limit the length of the tag to 65-70 characters (including spaces) or less. The search engines limit the number of characters they display on the results page listings. Incorporate key phrases into the tag. Incorporate your primary and secondary key phrase in the title tag without keyword stuffing. Use different key phrases or variations in every page’s title tags. This is one rule we see violated all the time. If you use the same tag on different pages you’ll force the search engines to decide which page is more relevant. For example, on the Clarity Quest site we use “technology marketing agency” on one page and “high-tech marketing firm” on another. This way I’ve used each page of real estate to my full advantage. Use a divider symbol to separate your brand name from the rest of the title tag. We like to use the “|” (pipe) symbol but the forward arrow “>” or hyphen “-“ also work effectively. Use the title tag key phrases in your headlines. Re-using the key phrases in your H1 and H2 header tags makes search engine robots happy because it is confirmation you didn’t falsely keyword stuff the title tag. More importantly, it makes visitors more comfortable when they land on your page and it actually has something to do with their search term. d) Meta description – The meta description tag is most often seen as the descriptive text in a search engine ranking page listing. If you do not provide a meta description tag, the search engines will scrape the content off your page that most closely matches the search terms. However, if you provide the meta description you can target your key phrases within the descriptive text. This tag is not so important for the search rankings, but it makes a big difference in click-through rates. Here’s where you can write the eye-catching, ad-like copy that is compelling and gets attention. Remember there are 9 or so other listings on the search engine result page and you want your site to stand out. The tag should describe your page clearly and accurately. Google allows the fewest number of characters at 160, so use this as your limit. There is controversy in the internet marketing world on whether or not you should always provide a meta description. Here’s a general rule. If you are targeting 1-3 high-volume, highly-targeted key phrases on the page, then write one. If your page is a blog or product model catalog with many possible long key phrases, then let the search engines scrape the best descriptive text off the page. As with many aspects of web copy, it’s always best to test for the best conversion rates. e) Keywords to use - I like make a list of primary and secondary keywords to use on the page just so I have them staring me in the face when I go to write the body copy for the page. Once you have your template, you’ll be ready to start writing super-effective copy.

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Article Tags: copy, copywriting, design, internet, marketing, online, search engines, SEOweb copy, website, writing



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