Search Engine Marketing for small business requires the mastery of 5 simple skills necessary to dominate the search engine page rankings.
In the first post of this series we covered the first skill small businesses needed to master for better search engine rankings. If you have not yet read the first post, please do so now before continuing on with this post. It provides a compelling discussion of how to best use keywords to have a truly effective impact on your search engine marketing efforts.
Simply writing content for your website is not enough to gain the attention of search engines. You need to learn and apply a few simple techniques to grab the attention of search engines as well as your readers.
In today’s post we’re going to continue our discussion of these 5 simple skills to master Search Engine Marketing by covering the topic of SEO Copywriting.
What Is SEO Copywriting
SEO Copywriting is defined as textual composition for web page marketing that emphasizes skillful manipulation of the page’s wording to place it among the first results of a user’s search list, while still producing readable and persuasive content. (resource: Wikipedia)
Bottom line, SEO Copywriting is the art of writing compelling content that gets noticed not only by search engines, but also by others who then syndicate your content through various resources to include blogs, social bookmarking sites and social networks.
Effective SEO Copywriting is indexed by search engines and syndicated by others, who’s sharing of your content is also ranked by search engines, creates coveted backlinks to the original article on your website. This has a dramatic impact on your search engine marketing efforts and is guaranteed to get you a page one ranking in search results. We’ll discuss backlinking in a later post for this series.
How Do You Do SEO Copywriting
SEO Copywriting is not all that difficult, especially if you understand how to use keywords effectively, as we discussed in the first post of this series.
The basic structure is as follows:
- Create a compelling headline that attracts attention
- Write your article effectively using your keywords and anchor tags (links)
- Make sure your article is relevant to your keyword usage
- Make sure you have a beginning, middle and end
That’s really it! No much to it I know.
The key is to simply write your content in a way that communicates your point to your readers, but also effectively uses your keywords to get attention from the search engines.
Let’s talk further about how to write SEO copy.
Write A Compelling SEO Friendly Headline
Your headline is by far the most important piece of SEO Copywriting content you can create. It is your attention grabber. It’s the marketing message all wrapped up into one line.
Proper use of keywords within your headline is essential to your Search Engine Marketing strategy. Here are some things to remember when creating a comelling SEO friendly headline.
- Always use your primary keywords within your article headline
- Place your keywords at or near the beginning of your headline
- Your headline should be relevant to your actual article
- Your headline should make its point quickly
- Your headline should leave your reader wanting more
- Your headline should draw your reader in to read your article
As you can see, a lot goes into a well thought out headline. Your headline is a vital part to effective Search Engine Marketing and SEO Copywriting.
SEO Copywriting Done Right
Now that you’ve got your headline, it’s time to write your content!
You are the expert here. When it comes to what you know, the best person to write about it is you. But simply writing about what you know and are passionate about won’t get you ranked high in search engines and may not get you many readers as well.
The key is to ensure you write SEO friendly content that not only gets the attention of search engines, but also grabs the attention of your readers.
By now you should have read the first post in this series and gained an understanding of how your keywords play an important role in gaining you a page 1 ranking. That knowledge is extremely valuable when it comes to SEO Copywriting.
To write compelling, SEO friendly content you must take your understanding of keywords as well as other Search Engine Marketing techniques and apply that knowledge when creating your content.
Here are a few key points you need to remember when writing your content.
SEO Copywriting With Keyword Prominence
Place your primary keywords at or near the beginning of your content. This helps indicate the relevance of your content to specific keywords when served up in search results.
If your primary keywords appear at the very beginning of your written content and is presented in a way that makes sense to your reader, you will grab the attention of both your reader and search engines.
SEO Copywriting With Keyword Density
Keyword placement or density is extremely important when writing SEO friendly content. Dispersing your keywords throughout your written content will establish its relevance in relation to your keywords. Write your content for your readers, but make sure to use your keywords frequently throughout your article.
DO NOT KEYWORD STUFF… Keyword stuffing is the act of frequently writing keywords into your content whether they have relevance or not. To many keywords can be a bad thing and can get you black listed. Make sure you use them wisely and that they relate to the point you are trying to make in you written content and make sense to your readers.
SEO Copywriting With Links
Links are another important part of a sound Search Engine Marketing strategy. You should include links to relevant content that supports or relates to the article you are writing. The standard rule is 1 link per 120 words.
For example, if your content is 1000 words in length, you should include a minimum of 8 links dispersed throughout your content.
Make sure your links are descriptive in nature. Link words that describe the page they are linking too.
Here’s an example:
Search Engine Marketing and Keywords
The links above describe the pages they link too. This helps search engines find new content, but also tells the search engine and the reader what the page is about.
Dispersing supporting links throughout your SEO Copywriting will help search engines find new content and help your readers find information.
The Beginning, Middle And End
Your SEO Copywriting should be clearly defined with a beginning, middle and end.
The beginning of your written content should illustrate the problem or issue that your readers face, while the middle of your content should cover various solutions to the problem.
The end should simply bring it all together and summarize the discussion you’ve just had with your reader.
SEO Copywriting Resource
How To Create Compelling Content That Ranks Well In Search Engines
This free 27-page report written by Copyblogger founder Brian Clark provides you a step-by-step strategy for creating content that scores links, is highly readable and engaging, and ranks well in search engines. You’ll discover:
- Why SEO Copywriting Still Matters
- How Search Engines Work
- Why You Have to Spoon Feed Search Engines
- The 5 Essential Elements of Search Engine Keyword Research
- How to Create Cornerstone Content That Google Loves
- Five Link Building Strategies That Work
- Five Areas to Focus On for Effective SEO Copywriting
- Why Writing for People Works for Search Engines
- How to Make SEO Copywriting Simple
Copywriting 101: An Introduction To Effective Copy
A 10-Step Copywriting Tutorial
This tutorial is designed to get you up and running with the basics of writing great copy in ten easy lessons. Afterward, you’ll get recommendations for professional training, plus links to tutorials on SEO copywriting and writing killer headlines.
- Don’t Read This or the Kitty Gets It!
- To Be or Not To Be?
- How to Write Headlines That Work
- Why Writing Headlines Deserves a Second Installment
- The Structure of Persuasive Copy
- Now Featuring Benefits!
- “Kids Eat Free†and Other Irresistible Offers
- This Article Rocks. . . I Guarantee It!
- The Long and Short of Copywriting
- The #1 Secret to Great Copy Is. . .
Summarizing
SEO Copywriting is an important factor to help you reach your goal of mastering Search Engine Marketing. You’ve learned that to simply write your content is not enough to gain you a number 1 ranking on the search engines. You must take the time to apply the SEO methods and techniques discussed in this post and in the previous one, as well as the various resources provided to truly see positive results.
Once you’ve learned these skills and apply them regularly, you will see a dramatic change to your search engine ranking and experience an increase of substantial traffic to your website.
What’s Next
In the next post we’ll continue our discussion of 5 simple skills to master search engine marketing by discussing backlinking, to include what it is, how it will help you and how to do it.
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