SEO Copywriting: Elements & Best Practices

SEO copywriters create content with two objectives in mind:

• Content should be valuable, compelling and useful in some way to the reader
• Content should build the credibility and ‘domain authority’ of the underlying domain for specific phrases, which is achieved by seeding the content with carefully researched search terms

Search Engine Optimization copywriter creates content which is valuable, compelling & useful by seeding the content with specific keywords which help to improve the content’s ranking in Google for selected keywords.

Copywriting for promotions, advertisements & articles, while balancing the two above objectives, a skilled copywriter incorporates some of the best SEO practices to tailor the content to meet the audience’s search behavior & carefully embeds words in the content that will appeal to them. The important thing to stress here is the relevance of the content. The content shouldn’t read like it’s been written for the sole purpose of SEO by maximizing the use of keyphrases – a ‘black hat’ practice known as keyword stuffing.

Importance of SEO friendly content

SEO’s purpose is to increase the quantity and quality of inbound traffic to your website. Content quality has been found to be one of the most important ranking factors in Google’s ‘search algorithm’. Google and other search engines are continuously striving to make their algorithms ‘non-gameable’ – which means they try to dissuade websites from manipulating search results to the extent that a more relevant competitor website might lose out. To that end, search engines stress the importance of creating natural content, the focus of which should be readability by users and NOT search engines.

While we strongly encourage content creators and SEOs to generate content with that guidance in mind, it’s pointless to ignore the necessity of having relevant keywords seeded in your content. Even though your webpage might be the most detailed, informative authority on a given subject, if people are searching for term ‘Xerox services’ – a trademark that’s been genericized – and you make no mention of Xerox and instead solely use the phrase ‘photocopy services’, as smart as the algorithm is to consider both words interchangeable, there is a good chance you’ll still lose out on SERPs. This is a simplified example, but the underlying idea is the same when it comes to the importance of optimizing content from an SEO perspective.

Elements of SEO copywriting

The key elements to consider when optimizing your content from an SEO point of view are:

• Title or headline:

  
  

  Give your article a crisp, catchy title or headline, while trying to ensure the keyword you’re trying to optimize for is part of this H1 title. H1 titles tell crawlers the primary purpose of the page.

• Content:

  
  

  Prioritize generating content that truly benefits the user in some way, the objective should be to meet a need, to solve a problem. Also, try to mix in long and short tail keyphrases into the content.

• Meta-description:

  
  

  When users search for keywords relevant to your page, search engines look for meta-descriptions to understand the content topic. These meta-descriptions are usually placed (as concise explanation) in the <meta> tags in the HTML code of your page.Keep the description very relevant & up to 160 character long, with keywords placed tactically in it.

• Keyword frequency:

  
  

  When users search for keywords relevant to your page, search engines look for meta-descriptions to understand the content topic. These meta-descriptions are usually placed (as concise explanation) in the tags in the HTML code of your page.
  Keep the description very relevant & up to 160 character long, with keywords placed tactically in it. These meta descriptions also appear as the descriptions you see below the links in search results. So ensuring they immediately convey relevance to a searcher is essential to maximizing click throughs.

• Page links:

  
  

  Page linking tells search engines that your content is sufficiently connected to other relevant pages and content, whether on your own domain or on external ones.Internal and outbound links – especially the latter – tell search engines you’re not afraid to redirect users to other places where they may find other relevant information and resources.

7 Best practices for SEO content writing

1. Add bucket brigades:

   
   

   These are words that impart conversational value to your content, making it easier to read and relate to. For instance, writing ‘here is the deal’ in a content meant to go live for flash sale of particular brand of clothes, adds urgency to the experience of user and nudges it closer to make a purchase.

2. Use longform content:

   
   

   A very direct correlation has been observed between the length of an article and its ranking position. Given two articles on the same topic, the one that is ‘feature length’, or simply put, longer, will almost always rank better.

3. Some interesting sub-headings:

   
   

   So we know long-form content is essential. Obviously, people would spend more time reading a bigger article if it was broken up into sections and not just one big wall of text. Breaking up your article well into subsections with clear, descriptive H2 & H3 headings is very useful.

4. Call to action buttons:

   
   

   Adding CTA buttons like ‘click to share’ at the end of the content, prompts the user to share your content with somebody else that might it relevant quickly and seamlessly. The bigger your potential audience for a particular piece of content, the wider reach simple CTA buttons will enable.

5. Copywriting:

   
   

   Use lists whenever you can! Write with a target audience in mind – consumers are different from professionals, b2c content writing is different from b2b. Use a combination of short and long sentences, space out your content, readers shouldn’t be overwhelmed visually. Use simple, easy to read fonts like Roboto and Open Sans instead of flowery ones that just ‘look nice’.

6. ‘Here’ & ‘Now’:

   
   

   ’10 Crazy Steps To Boost Your Conversion Rate Right Now’,‘Learn to Improve Your Page Rank in 5 Minutes HERE!’ – these kinds of headings immediately draw audiences in. We hate clickbait as much as you do, so we really don’t advocate making it seem like you have a magical answer for something from the outside while in reality the base content is but a shadow of that magic. Use catchy headings, but back them up with substance.

7. Keep tabs on keywords used by users:

   
   

   You can use Google Keyword Planner to know what keywords are being searched for in your industry.

   Also spend some time researching how people talk about topics related to you on social channels, on forums and message board like Reddit, etc.

   For instance, before publishing a content on ‘best home redecorating tips’, look up this topic on Google and glance through the first few search results to get an idea about keywords.

If you found this information useful and would like to learn more about our SEO services, and how we can help increase the visibility of your brand online, do get in touch with us. We’ll love to learn about your objectives and create a customized, free SEO audit report for you.