Kuka Studios

What is an SEO copywriter?

An SEO copywriter should be a blend between an SEO specialist and copywriter. This means that that they should have all the technical know-how of what search engines look for when ranking a page, but also should have a gift for writing compelling copy and content for your audience.

Why is SEO copy so important?

“Content is King” may be a cliché, it is also true when it comes to websites. Text is the most important thing on the web. Once you have stripped away all the pretty images and dissected the latest gimmicks it will be information that you are left with, and that’s the thing that your customers come back for. Graphical trimmings and gimmicks will change with the seasonal fads whereas information will remain and be sought after.

Your site’s content will; determine how search engines rate you; bring visitors to your site; and determine what happens to your visitors once they arrive.

There are a lot of different factors that are part of the delicate what-makes-a-successful-website recipe:

• Good design
• Accessibility
• Good Navigation
• Sense of trust
• Functionality
• Quality images
• etc

For now though, we are just concerned with content.

SEO Copywriting gone wrong

We have all been there - the site at the top of the search results can waste hours of our browsing lives. A site that is so stuffed full of keywords that there is no longer any content to read, to make sense of. We are an educated audience and we have high expectations of what our web results should be. This does not include badly designed web pages with text that does not make much sense and ultimately makes us hunt for what we were originally searching for.

This is the perfect example of SEO copywriting gone wrong. Unless you are just selling impressions, you want your audience to find you, stick around long enough to see what you have to offer and ultimately complete what you define as a goal - whether that’s a purchase, a click or an enquiry. There is no point being at the top of the search results if you do not convert the traffic generated. I feel slightly dirty saying this but if Content is King, Conversion is definitely Queen. A good SEO copywriter will know how to make this relationship work for the search engines, the audience and for YOU.

Content Optimisation

Search engines are mainly interested in one thing “relevancy”. The trick to creating good content for search engines is to keep your page focused. Be concise, to the point and do not write in an abstract manner. Here are some more hints and tips on optimising your content:

1. Optimising Meta Tags
Meta tags are your chance to write for the search engines, to tell them what your web page is about. Although, these are becoming less important in the search engine battle they do still play a very important role.

2. Keyword Optimisation
The trick to optimising your content is using the correct amount of focused optimised key phrases, increasing relevancy for search engines but also remaining readable and informative for your audience. When writing for search engines keyword density is of great importance, search engines will use this to rank your page and determine its focus.

3. HTML Markup and Page Hierarchy
Search Engines and your audience like certain things. The web is an impatient environment and we must know what a page is offering in seconds or we will quickly move on. A good SEO copywriter will break your page down into well marked, bite-size sections with clear titles, take advantage of the header tags in HTML to format your page, and use formatting to emphasise your keywords.

4. Using Quality Content
The myth was that the bigger your site the better you were ranked, but this strictly speaking is not true. What is true, is that the higher quality your content the better you will be ranked. So if you combine quality content with a large website you give yourself the best platform for the optimum results.

5. Fresh Content
Try to keep your website up-to-date, fresh and relevant. Sites that have home pages that regularly change are visited more by the search engine spiders but also keep your audience coming back.

On this note blogs, rss feeds, forums and many other forms of social media allow you to keep your site fresh and continually changing. To find out more, visit our Social Media Marketing help.

6. Avoid Duplicate Content
Duplicate content can be heavily penalised with high ranking sites disappearing from the search results almost over night. We are all interested in unique quality information and the search engines are no different. Sometimes this can not be avoided but through the use of 301 redirects and the canonical tag you can make sure that you are not penalised.

7. Punctuation and capitalisation
This is less to do with search engines but makes a massive difference with your audience. Remember your punctuation, capitalisation and your overall grammar. There is nothing more off putting than some one saying “secure transaxions buy now”. Your copy needs to be professional or you will tarnish your own credibility and in turn your conversion rates. If in doubt, ask someone who does it for a living…a copywriter for instance!

So why are SEO Copywriters so important?

SEO copywriting was once looked down on as a spammy dilution of “true” copywriting. Now it is starting to be recognised for the art form it is, and has a justified place online.

Expert SEO Copywriters will be able to create content that both satisfies the search engines need for relevancy, tag hierarchy and optimisation flags whilst still appealing to the audience with compelling, exciting and informative copy that encourages call to action.

The professional copy writer knows the subtleties between “buy” and “buy now”, and the good copywriter will not only increase your search engine traffic but also increase the conversion rate of your website.

Find out more on how an expert SEO copywriter can improve your site content and increase conversion!