The Bare Bones Basics of Writing SEO Copy

Effective web sales copy incorporates psychology, knowledge of consumer behavior, and mastery of language to build irresistible desire for your product. Combine this with search engine optimized text and You’ve got a formula for boosting search engine ranking and conversions.

What is SEO Copywriting?

SEO Copywriting or Search Engine Optimized Copywriting incorporates words and phrases that your target audience is likely to enter as a search term for the purpose of boosting search engine raking. Search engines rank sites by evaluating the density of words and phrases repeated within the copy to determine relevance.

Keyword Repetition

Search engines look for the exact words entered in the search, preferably in the same order. While your English teacher taught you to use lots of different word variations, repetition is the key to boosting search engine ranking. By carefully selecting your word choices, you can build pages that rise to the top of the search rankings without paying for advertising. Opera offers an excellent free keyword selector tool that shows statistics on the keywords and phrases people are searching.

Keyword Density

In the past, creative people could attempt to beat the system by adding repeating keywords on pages in an attempt to boost search engine ranking. Now search engines are keen to this and become suspicious when the ratio of keyword to text is too high. In an attempt to truly relevant content, search engines discern the percentage that certain key words and phrases appear within the text, known as keyword density. A keyword density of around 2.5% is the optimal ratio for keywords and phrases. A helpful tool to quickly calculate keyword density is Live Keyword Analysis from EasySEO.

How to write reader and SEO friendly copy

When writing SEO copy, it’s important not to get so carried away with inserting keywords and phrases that it takes away from the reading. After all, if visitors can’t connect with your message because the writing seems contrived then you’ve wasted your efforts. To avoid this, write your text first, then go back and rearrange sentences hear and there to fit in keywords and phrases where possible. You can also add paragraph headings like the one above this paragraph that keep the search terms out of your text.

Questions to ask when writing for search engine optimization:

• Who is your target audience?
• What terms would someone enter if they he or she a problem that your product or service could solve?
• Identify buzzwords that appeal to your target audience

Chunk writing to encourage reading

When people read online, they tend to skim pages for new and relevant items. Studies from Eyetrack III also show that people are more likely to continue reading if the information is broken in to small, topical chunks. Give each topic a highly relevant title so that readers can skim the page and spend more time on relevant pieces.