Copywriting Tips for SEO

Michael Buczek - September 8, 2008

When people write content for their website, they may not be taking Search Engine Optimization into account. SEO copywriting is a technique in which you target a specific keyword and write the text in a way so that the searcher can understand it and search engines can find and index that page. This can be a daunting task for most web copywriters.   With the tips below, you will be on your way to having a more SEO friendly website.

Keyword Research — Do a little research before you start writing.   Do your products or services go by a more common name?   Are people searching for these terms? How competitive is it?   These are all questions that can be answered by doing keyword research.   Think about your products or services and target the most relevant keyword for that page.   A good starting point is Google’s free keyword tool. https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal .   This will help you to find the most relevant keyword for each page.

Amount of Text — Each page should contain 200-600 words.   This is the right amount of text to get your message across and to insert your keyword enough times (Keyword Density).   I recommend staying below 600 words, because readers tend to have a short attention span. Keep your text short and to the point and you will find you are better off

Keyword Density — Keyword density is a measure of how many times a specific keyword appears in the copy of a page.   A good target to have is 4% keyword density.   To achieve a 4% keyword density on a page of 200 words, you would need to use that word 8 times.   You might think this is a lot, but you can use the keyword phrase in titles, sentences and in bulleted lists.   To check your keyword density as you write your page, you can use this cool tool: http://live-keyword-analysis.com/ .

Page Purpose — Think about the purpose of each page on your site.   Is the information useful and something your users would want to know, or is it there just for the sake of having a page?   If each page has a specific purpose and keyword target, that page will have a better chance of being indexed and becoming a conversion point for the user.

Write for your user – Some people will comprise page copy to appeal to the search engines.   This is not the best idea.   You ought to think about who is using your site and write for them.   Search engines aren’t buying your products or services, people are.   Take them into account when writing.   After all, what good is being number one if you turn your customers off once they get to your site!