SEO Copywriting The Ultimate Guide to Online Writing

Most will agree that SEO copywriting is a key element in every SEO strategy, but at the same time online writing can be quite the big challenge.

The challenging part of SEO copywriting is mainly due to the volatile nature of the algorithms of the search engines.

Luckily, this article outlines all you need to know about SEO copywriting, offering the perfect solution as you look to write quality and SEO readable articles that your website needs.

So let’s begin by looking at what SEO copywriting means.

What is SEO Copywriting?

SEO copywriting is quality writing that contains key phrases and helps online content to rank higher in the search engine results pages. Equally important, writing for SEO provides value, insight and is structured in a way to deliver information quickly.

Consequently, this type of writing drives traffic to your site and this is arguably one of the biggest advantages to SEO copywriting.

Many people hear the phrase SEO content and automatically think “stuffed with keywords”.

This is NOT what writing for SEO is about!

In fact, the kind of keywords you choose should never make your content repetitive, hard-to-read or lose its conversion focus.

So having looked at what SEO copywriting actually means, let’s get a better understanding of what the difference between this type of writing and traditional copywriting is.

What is the Difference between SEO Copywriting and Traditional Copywriting?

You might be wondering.

What makes SEO copywriting so different from the traditional copywriting?

And why is it becoming increasingly popular?

Well, the main difference between these two writing styles is that the ultimate goal of SEO copywriting is to rank in search for targeted phrases. The second big difference is the way this content is structured to deliver it’s message.

For example;

Did you know that long-form articles generate nine times more leads according to Curata?

If that’s the case, then why is the way your content structured so important?

Well, it’s because of how people consume content online.

According to Time Magazine, as much as 55 percent of the visitors only give a brief skim of 15 seconds on average to a page that they opt for.

 

If you actually Google, “What’s the difference between SEO copywriting and traditional copywriting”, you’ll instantly see a dozen different definitions.

Google reckons that your content should be authoritative and of the highest quality to fully answer your readers’ questions. It also has to be better than a variety of similar content that your competitors may have already posted.

I think, if you want to define SEO copywriting, you should do so using the following criteria:

• Clear and Precise Information
• Offers Actionable Steps or Insights
• Provide Examples and Statistics as Support
• Your Content Better Not Confuse the Reader

 

 Just remember, SEO copywriting is writing for people not spiders.

 

Why?

Well, Google stipulates that your content should be of the highest quality in order to rank on the top positions. Similarly, the same content needs to be of relevance and very resourceful to your readers in order to satisfy all their needs. You can’t really do one without the other.

Interestingly, SEO copywriting helps you achieve this feat without much hassle.

 

Do you really know what steps to follow to come up with great content?

Let’s break down the concept and elements of SEO writing. Here is what you need to know about the writing process.

Start with Keyword Research

Choosing your topic is probably more important than the actual writing itself.

Clearly, you will have to use the relevant keywords when looking to choose the most appropriate topic that will rank in the search engines. Proper keyword research entails the following steps.

1. Formulating a Mission Statement

We all know lots of keyword research tools online, but before embarking on the actual keyword research, you need to think about your mission statement.

Your mission statement is one aspect that will make you stand out from a crowd. With that in mind, your content needs to be providing insight for your customers to questions they have.

2. Making a List of the Relevant Keywords

After coming up with a clear mission statement, you can now list all the relevant search terms for your website. With the mission statement at hand, it should be much easier to come up with the relevant keywords that relate to your niche market.

3. Constructing the SEO Landing Pages

The last step of keyword research is creating killer landing pages for your keywords.

As mentioned earlier, a landing page is meant to drive visitors to your blog through a particular keyword. You should ensure that your visitors can easily navigate your blog from every landing page. Besides, it is advisable to have a landing page for every relevant keyword you have.

Elements of SEO Copywriting

To effectively understand SEO copywriting, it is essential to know some of the factors that influence search engine ranking. This brings us to the next aspect of SEO copywriting – the elements of SEO copywriting.

1. Your Headline

The fact that your content should have a catchy headline cannot be overemphasized.

Your content may truly be valuable but with a mediocre headline, your click-through rate will still be low. So to avoid wasting valuable SEO copy, it is all important to write a compelling title that will easily grab your readers’ attention and prompt them to click for further reading.

 

2. Content

Now, this is where the real value lies.

It’s common knowledge that people only conduct searches to find useful content. So what would happen if you created mediocre content for your readers?

Well, that would just be a waste of time now wouldn’t it?

So to come up with quality content, you should begin by understanding your readers’ needs after which you can narrow down to the specific problem they are struggling to solve.

Writing good online content takes a little practice:

1. First of all, you have to know who it is that you want to attract:
   Driving traffic to your blog doesn’t mean anything if it’s not the type of traffic you’re looking for.
2. Once you know who you want to attract – you need to know what kind of information they want: That means not coming up with random topics – you need purposeful content. 
3. SEO copywriting should be an intelligent, data driven approach:
   No reader online has time for fluff.
4. Your online content must be share worthy:
   If your audience isn’t willing to share your content – it isn’t good enough.

3. Meta Descriptions

Meta descriptions are still useful to guide the search engines and engage readers.

You don’t have to look far in search results to find good meta descriptions. Industry leaders have typically mastered the meta description. Just look at MailChimp, the message is pretty clear;

“We do email marketing better, so you can sell more stuff.”

In a nutshell, Meta descriptions play a key role in ensuring that your searchers and search engines understand your topic and keyword usage. The Meta descriptions on your page are what Google uses when readers search for the specific keywords that are relevant to your page.

These descriptions should be 150-160 characters for SEO purposes.

 

4. Keyword Frequency

Simply put, keyword frequency refers to the number of times your chosen keyword will appear on the web page. Unfortunately, keyword density and frequency are no longer as effective as they used to be but this does not necessarily mean that they are no longer an important aspect of SEO content.

Infact, it is true to say that keyword frequency still plays a significant role in ranking your content organically.

If you’re using WordPress to publish content, Yoast SEO makes analyzing your content and keyword density pretty darn easy.

 

5. Page Links

Page links complete the list of six elements of SEO copywriting.

Links are generally the basic building blocks of your webpage. One of the key roles of page links is to show Google that you are not only connected but also sociable and you have useful content that readers can access somewhere else. Linking out to other authority sites shows that you value other people’s content and Google can reward you for the same.

 

Last, note the Site Speed

Site speed has been one of the major ranking factors over the years.

The standard load time for sites is always 2 seconds and you should take the initial steps towards improving it in the event that it exceeds this limit. This is because readers never hesitate to leave your page if it takes a longer time to fully load even when your content is useful and interesting. If your website uses wordpress, we highly recommend you use a CDN to accelerate your wordpress load speed.

A content delivery network is a linked group of servers distributed around the world to deliver website content more quickly.

These elements of SEO copywriting are important aspects in the steps to writing quality and SEO friendly content.

 

Bottom Line – The Benefits of writing SEO friendly content

It is clear that SEO copywriting is indeed a process that works best if you follow a specific format to deliver the best content.

The benefits to taking a little extra time to write great content for your website is worth it if you want to:

• Get repeat visitors.
• Improve the stickiness of your website.
• Acquire a better market share.
• Increase the ability to capture your target audience.
• Increase your websites’ conversion rate and ROI.
• Build credibility.
• Increase your website’s page rank.
• And ultimately increase your customer base.

Not everybody is a gifted writer, but SEO copywriting can help you take your website to the next level. If you don’t feel up to taking on the challenge yourself, you can always outsource to a professional SEO copywriting service or even take a look at local universities for students eager to build experience.