SEO copywriting guidelines
I often work with clients who are in the process of rebranding and building a new website. Often, these clients have been in business for a while and are refining their business services and offerings after having worked with a business coach. This is the perfect time to start thinking about search engine optimization! While it’s always possible to incorporate SEO into your content later, after your site has already launched, it’s much easier and often more effective to start it at the same time you do your copywriting and web design / redesign.
(And remember, SEO isn’t something you do once. You should always be analyzing your website performance and making revisions. I always say that building a website is not like Field of Dreams: It’s not “if you build it, they will come.” You have to build it, and give it some time, and analyze it, and make revisions, etc,. etc. SEO is a continuous process.)
SEO copywriting: how to get started
In some cases, my clients will write their own content, some will hire a copywriter, or in some cases, I will write the content. Whatever your approach, before you start any writing, do your keyword research. And before you do keyword research, I recommend creating written buyer personas.
Not gonna lie, I find creating written personas to be kind of a drag. It’s a difficult part of the process for me. It often requires some research, and it can be a challenge to distill your marketing messaging down to address each individual persona’s needs and pain points.
But, creating written personas will make your copywriting process so much easier.
I’m going to discuss the keyword research process in another post, so for the sake of today’s blog, let’s assume you have that part finished and now you’re ready to write your content. Ideally, you should have a focus keyword for each page on your site that needs to be optimized. (Not all pages will need to be optimized, only the ones that you want to show up in search engines results pages.)
Note: a “focus keyword” is not necessarily one word, it’s usually a combination of words that describe your services or focus areas, such as nutrition therapy or complex PTSD.
You should also have metadata for each page, which includes things such as your SEO page title and meta description.
How to use your focus keyword
When you write your content, you will want to keep your focus keyword in mind and use it strategically. If possible, your focus keyword should appear in the page title, the H1 (your biggest heading on the page, this may be the same as the page title but not always), the first paragraph of your content, and in subheadings (H2s, H3s, etc.)
You should also use your focus keyword, if possible, in image names and image alt text.
But, and this is important, you should focus first and foremost on writing for the user, not for search engines.
That means write your content naturally, and avoid “keyword stuffing” or awkward phrasing. I’m sure you’ve seen websites that do this. It’s very obvious when someone is trying to write for the search engines.
If you take away nothing else from this blog post, remember this: What’s good for the user is good for SEO.
Google’s mission is to deliver the best content possible for the user’s search query. So focus on writing the best content you can that answers the user’s question or addresses their need.
5 tips for writing good website content
1. Make content easy to read
Use bullet points and short paragraphs to make content easy to scan. People don’t read web content, they scan it. You can also break up your text with images.
2. Use subheadings
Don’t just use bold text for headings; use the correct tags for H2s, H3, etc. Not only do they make content easier to read, they are an important SEO signal.
3. Determine the reading level for your target audience
The general rule of web content is to write at an 8th-grade level. But depending on your target persona’s education level, this may not be necessary. If your clients are all college educated, you can write at that level.
Hemingway Editor is a good tool for evaluating the reading level of your content.
4. Use language that your audience uses
The more you can align your messaging with the exact language used by your audience, the more it will resonate with them. The difference here may be subtle, but try to avoid industry jargon that may not have much meaning for your audience – especially when crafting your calls to action. (Side note: please don’t ever say call to actions.)
5. Aim for comprehensive content. (But not necessarily for every post.)
This may seem to contradict what I said above. If people don’t read web content, why make it longer? But remember, Google’s mission is to deliver the best content to the user, and Google prioritizes content that is around 2000 words long. I know what you’re thinking: That is long! That is a lot of work! I know. Don’t panic. I do not recommend trying to hit 2000 words with every piece of content you write. For one thing, not every piece of content will lend itself to this length. Don’t overwrite just to attempt to hit a word count.
Also, not everything is going to rank well, even if it’s really well optimized. A lot of this just depends on what’s trending in your industry. A lot of my clients hit on 1-2 topics that end up driving the bulk of their organic traffic, while their other blogs perform just okay. I recommend writing a first version of your content (maybe this version is only 1000 words or whatever is best for the topic), posting it, and letting it sit for a while. If you’re doing regular analysis, you’ll start to see which search queries are driving traffic to your site. Then you can go back and do some additional optimization on the queries that are already working, expanding the content if possible.
For most of my clients, optimizing existing content is more beneficial than trying to write new content all the time. If you already have a library of blog content that isn’t performing well or isn’t optimized for search, this is probably a good place for you to start.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I have more than one focus keyword?
Yes! The old-school SEO rule was to choose only one keyword. But Google is smart enough to know when two different terms mean the same thing. Your keywords should be closely related or variants on the same term. For example, you can (and probably should) use PTSD and post-traumatic stress disorder in a blog post about complex PTSD.
What if my keyword is something like “personal trainer near me”?
This is a tricky one. You do not need to use the words “near me” in your content to rank for this. Why? Because “near me” means something different to everyone who types this query into Google. (And that would make for some very awkward content. I’ve seen websites do this. That’s not how this works.)
Google knows that when a user types “near me,” they are searching in a particular geographic region. If you want to rank for local search queries, this is a whole separate issue of local SEO, which involves things like using the correct schema on your website and setting up your Google Business profile.
Need help with your SEO? Contact me to schedule a consult.
