B2B copywriting can be quite challenging. Instead of your regular consumer marketing lingo: “Everything you need, all here, and 20% off today,” B2B copywriting requires your message to be crafty, intuitive, and all the while persuasive. Now, copywriting for SEO in a B2B market can be even tougher. If this is where you find yourself, here are a few tips to help you succeed.
Watch the lingo – Seek to use generic terms on the page. In most cases, B2B searchers are more likely to use generic terms than brand names. Branded names tend to be unusual and unique to your offer, so a user looking for one of your brand names will likely find your site quite easily.
Focus page copy – Search Engines seek to classify a page by its main focus. After you have determined the keyword or phrase for your web page, keep the content focused on that keyword. If you have multiple products or offerings, it is better to create multiple pages to focus on each. You will just spin your wheels if you try targeting multiple keywords on a single page.
Don’t forget long-tail key phrases — If you decide to target a page to multiple, themed keywords, look toward a broad keyword and an exact phrase (i.e. long-tail). While the keyword focus of the page may be “green energy,” your target prospect for that page may also be entering words like “solar panel,” “environmentally friendly,” and “renewable” when searching for their solution. Good B2B SEO copyrighting seamlessly includes these long-tail words.
Detailed copy is good – In the B2B arena, having detailed, on-page content is a good thing. It gives you the opportunity to explain the features and benefits that may distinguish your offering. Also, longer copy is good for the search engines. It gives them a better opportunity to determine the focus of the page, and they really like that.
Keywords in the headers — Search Engines place emphasis on H1 headers. It gives the search-bots the opportunity to get a better idea about the content and focus of the page; thus, when possible, it is a good idea to incorporate your page’s keyword in the header tags. In some cases, the keyword may not work in the header, so incorporating an image underneath the header with your keyword in the ALT tag is a good alternative strategy.
Internal linking and anchor text – Internal linking is a good tactic. It helps bots find other pages on your site, and, in doing so, the anchor text used for text links can help with SEO. Before you start writing, know what pages can fit with the content you are about to write. Then see if you can craft your content to incorporate related keywords of your other pages within the anchor text of the hyperlink. Remember, you want to make it seamless, so ensure that you are not just stuffing in keywords. Good B2B copywriting flows smoothly through the desired anchor text.
Using the above mentioned methods should greatly support your B2B SEO copywriting. Above all else, make sure you lay out a plan for your on-page content beforehand. When in doubt, defer to your company’s message to communicate with your target audience. A site that reads well should always be the top priority.
Google released a way to submit new and updated URLs for indexing within Google Webmaster Tools. Using the Fetch as Googlebot feature, the search engine will be promoted to crawl the URL that is submitted. Google doesn’t guarantee that every page they crawl will be indexed, but this new feature seems to speed up the evaluation process.
The new solution can help in several situations:
That said, XML Sitemaps are still the best way to provide a complete list of your website’s URLs to Google and encourage The GoogleBot to crawl and index those pages. However, this new feature is ideal for times when you add new pages to your site or have a major update.
How to submit a URL
First, use Diagnostics > Fetch As Googlebot to fetch the URL you want to submit to Google. If the submission is successful, you will see a new “Submit to index” link appear next to the fetched URL.
Once you click “Submit to index” a dialog box will be displayed and allow you the option to choose whether you want to submit only the one URL, or that URL along with all the pages linked to it.
You can submit up to 50 URLs a week via Fetch as a GoogleBot within the Google Webmaster Tools platform. Though, Google does limit URL submissions that link all of the pages listed within that URL to 10 per month.
This new feature is not the “end all” solution to getting your pages indexed, but it shows how Google is continuing to make strides toward interacting site owners.
If you have ever worked with an SEO company, you know it is said over and over that content is king. Content is the food that feeds search engine crawlers. Having between 200-300 words, per page, of unique content is considered an SEO best practice. However, there is more to it than just the amount of words on a page. As with everything surrounding internet marketing, there should be a strategy for the content you write.
Incorporating quality content that is well researched with proportionate keyword density is a great way for your site to get recognized and ranked by search engines. Taking the next step to ensure your content is fresh and engaging will help lead to clickthroughs and conversions. Nevertheless, the foundational steps to optimizing content are paramount. There are strategies that are more scientific, and then there are those, which are more artistic. Let’s discuss…
Writing quality content is extremely important. You want your content to read well and be free of any spelling or grammatical errors. Some questions you might what to consider when writing content for your pages are: Does it offer a reason for people to spend time reading? Does the content I am writing offer real value?
Good keyword research is also important when drafting your page’s message. You want to create content using keywords – “the search terms people are using to find your website.” Doing this, in effect, optimizes your page with content that actually “answers” a visitor’s query. From there, look to craft your message with language your industry would use.
Moving on, we come to keyword density — “the amount of keywords used in correlation to the total amount of words on any given page.” In this strategy, you want to be careful not to overdo the amount of keywords; rather, you want place them in strategic places, such as the h1 tag, and use the remaining text to compliment the keyword theme. A good keyword ratio for “best practices” keyword density is 2.45%.
Once you have completed the above steps, you will want to start incorporating your message into a flow using your own words. This would be having fresh and engaging content – the art of SEO. This strategy is what is going to give your visitors that extra motivation to “convert.” Likewise, it is going to distinguish your website in the eyes of the search engines. As this approach is more fluid, it is difficult to provide detailed insight. Rather, I can offer a few thoughts to consider when writing:
Be human when writing. Think about why people are visiting your website. Do not try to overdo, such as crafting a message that attempts to over sell a visitor. Also, refrain from copying what another site says. Simply share your message and include calls to action, such as “contact us today.” This should take care of the engaging portion. Being authentic in your writing style and that will take care of having fresh content.
All-in-all, content is king when it comes to SEO. Take your time when drafting the text for your pages. Allocate time for research before and during your writing, and be sure to get feedback from others around you. At the end of the day, the science is the science. It is pretty straight forward, but taking the science portion and making it read well, while engaging the audience to convert is the art of good optimization writing.