SEO Copywriting - Must Know Digital Agency's Secrets

Imagine giving your friend your home address without the street name. They might reach the area but likely wouldn’t find your home. 

Similarly, writing content can deliver the message to an audience, but without SEO optimization, you might find it difficult to deliver it to the right audience. 

Are you still wondering if SEO copywriting is important for your website?

What is SEO Copywriting?

In simple terms, SEO copywriting is enriched writing where there is a fine blend of readability and marketability. It is about improving the quality and value of content with the right keywords, making it useful for your audience and helpful for your brand.

SEO copywriting:

• Comprises keywords that your target user is most likely to enter into a search engine.
• Optimizes your content to be of value and attract relevant traffic to your website. 
• Helps improve your position/search ranking on search engines (the most relevant being Google).

Having said that, using the right key phrases is not enough. How and when to use these phrases also determine the quality of your content. 

• Say no to ‘stuffing’ and instead weave keywords naturally into your sentences.
• Use these keyphrases across your content, instead of sticking to the first paragraph for visibility. 

How does SEO Copywriting Differ from Traditional Writing?

SEO copywriting is peppered with key phrases, and traditional writing is focused more on the substance versus strategy. 

However, there is more to SEO writing than inserting keywords. This type of content is great for improving your site’s Domain Authority (DA); i.e., its strength among competitors. 

Google’s new BERT update checks into the content’s relevance and keyword strategy that provides readers a wholesome experience. If your content passes the test, it will be duly rewarded with a higher search rank. 

In a nutshell, your content needs to satisfy your readers in terms of engagement and information as well as Google in terms of right content practices and key phrases. 

This is where SEO copywriting takes the cake when compared to the traditional format of writing. 

Here are the 5 Must-Know Tips on SEO Copywriting

These 5 tips will help you rank on Google as well as improve your conversion rate. Blend it with on-page optimization, and you shall strike gold!

Tip # 1 – Write Compelling Headlines to Rank in Search Engines

As per Copyblogger, 80% of your visitors will read your headline, but only 20% of them will ever go beyond reading the whole article. 

A good headline is a concise version of what your article will be about and whether they should be spending their time on your article when there is a ton of content to choose from. 

Adding data or stats can also pique interest and bring in a visitor. Of course, adding your focus keyword to your title is a given.

Tip #2 – Know Your Audience

We spoke about the BERT update that looks for content relevance. So, how do you determine whether your content is relevant or not? Simple! You undertake an audience analysis and tally it with what they are looking for. Do they complement each other?

Congratulations! You have an engaging and potentially viral copy in your hands. 

Having relevant content ensures that your reader does not leave your article midway because it isn’t what they are looking for. As a result, you have higher engagement, session duration, organic traffic, and aren’t too reliant on paid ads to get your word out.

Tip #3 – Understand Search Engines 

SEO optimization heavily relies on search engines and the way they work. One of the best things you can do is write a concise SEO title and meta description to direct the search engine to your content.

Another way of achieving search engine favor is by segregating your copy into specific headlines, namely H1, H2, H3, and so on, which improves the reader’s experience and crawl-ability of your page. 

An additional element you need to understand about search engines, especially in the case of Google, is it understands keyword stuffing. Hence, make sure that your keyword placement across your copy is well-placed and optimized.

Tip # 4 – Call Your Readers to Take Action on Your Message 

As a part of your SEO copywriting process, it is your job to drive engagement through content, and a clear, concise CTA (call to action) makes a world of difference in converting your reader into a customer. 

Your content is most effective when it drives action on behalf of the reader. It can be a link to another article, a link to check out a product, a lead form, or inviting the user to join a newsletter – whatever the CTA maybe, an action by the reader is an absolute must.

Tip # 5 – Use Keyword Tools to Choose the Best Keywords in Copywriting

Using a reliable keyword search tool like Ahrefs, SEMRush, or even Google’s keyword planner will help you find great keyword ideas. These can be seed keywords or long-tail keywords that are based on your niche – those that can help you attract your audience to your copy. 

In addition to relevance, these tools also help you determine the keyword metrics that can optimize your content and rank it high in a short amount of time. 

The Importance of Keyword Research for SEO

Now that you have the five must-know tips for SEO copywriting, let’s take a deep dive into the world of SEO. 

This is where the story begins. Keyword research is the primary step you take while crafting an SEO strategy for your content. The origin story for any website, keyword research sets the foundation for your website/blog/article, based on your target audience’s search activity. 

Keywords are essential to add value to your content. Since all good things take time, keyword research also takes a lot of digging into the customer psyche, search engine trends, and your competitor’s ranking. 

Should you go for a long-tail keyword? Should you focus only on catchphrases? All this can be answered during your keyword research and can help you generate quality content and garner attention.

Essential Concepts of Keyword Research 

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of the process, let us understand a few essential concepts that will come up during keyword research. 

• Focus Keyword of Keyphrase: As we have discussed above, a keyphrase or focus keyword is the high target element that resonates with your business. It is also what your potential customers are searching for. Various SEO tools help you determine the right key phrases for your business.
• Keyword Strategy: This process revolves around taking steps to make your content more SEO compliant based on keyword research. When performing a keyword strategy, you will determine the type, flow, the need for visuals, and keyphrases (along with their positioning) you will be using in your content. 
• Long Tail Keyword: The idea behind using a long tail keyword is to encompass specific as well as remotely similar searches under one phrase so that the chances for your content popping up upon that word search will increase exponentially. With long-tail keywords in your copy, you can also gain an edge over your competition and gain greater visibility. 
• Search Intent: Simply put, this step goes beyond just adding keywords to your copy but also determining the tonality and the perception you want to convey to your readers. If you are looking to educate your readers, setting an educative tone with relevant information should be key.

How to do Keyword Research

Let’s dive straight into it.

• Study Your Niche: Once you know what you are looking for, it is easy to look for relevant keywords and strategize a vibrant content design. Once you have determined the niche, you can make a laundry list of keywords that resonate with your business and help build the foundation for your keyword strategy.
• Start with Seed Keywords: An extension to your business aim, seed words are the first step towards content development. They are the direct link between what your target audience is looking for and the copy you will be creating. It is great to define your niche, and your competitor’s as well. For instance, while music is your seed word, it is extremely competitive. You can extend from it to keywords like ‘music theme for Game of Thrones’, ‘music lovers group’, and so on. 
• Generate Keyword Ideas: Now that you have a list of keywords, the next step is to generate keyword ideas – the knack of knowing which keywords you should use to gain traction and how you can implement them into your copy for SEO optimization. See what keywords you and your competitors are ranking for, and cherry-pick ones you can use to bolster your growth. 
• Know Your Keyword Metrics: Metrics like keyword volume, keyword difficulty, clicks, organic search, traffic potential, and cost per click are some of the most important metrics that can help you determine which keyword you should go for. For instance, keyword difficulty determines how hard it will be to rank in Google and the number of backlinks you would have to create to bring it to the top. Going for less difficult keywords means a higher chance to rank and get more readers. Similarly, volume determines the traffic that keyword attracts.

What are the Three Phases of Writing an SEO Article?

Step #1 – Preparation

This involves preparing your text where you are planning your entire article. Even though you have a topic in mind, look for answers for the following questions for more clarity:

1. Why are you writing this article? What is your purpose behind crafting this copy, and what do you wish to achieve?
2. What is the main message of your content, and how would you like to convey it?
3. What questions are you looking to solve via this article?
4. What is the intent of your content?
5. Have you determined your target audience? Do you know the type of content that is normally consumed by them?
6. What will the structure of your piece be?

Step#2 – Writing

Now that you have your structure in place, it is now time to get down to business. It is surprisingly easy to write your piece once you are prepared with facts and flow. 

Do not think about how you will place your keywords or what should be integrated where. The key to SEO copywriting is to simply start writing! If you feel that the introduction is a bit tricky, leave that and work with the next paragraph. 

However, it is important that you stick to the structure that you drafted in your outline. Digressing will confuse your mind, and you will be back to square one. Sometimes, an abundance of creativity while writing will delay deadlines. 

Step #3 – Correcting

Proofreading and reading your content out loud is what you will be doing in this phase of your SEO copywriting process. This step is especially helpful for editing the unnecessary verbose and, of course, the dreaded grammatical mistakes. Don’t be wary of throwing stuff out if the piece is too wordy. This step will make your content more legible and crisp – both huge pluses. 

Conclusion

The best thing about SEO copywriting is that it requires constant innovation. Writers always find themselves breaking old rules and creating new techniques to help their articles get the crown. It requires writers to be vigilant of search engine algorithm updates and keep optimizing the content. But if you have content that can add value to the customer anytime they look for it; you have a goldmine. 

Always remember – Relevance + Value + Optimisation = SEO copywriting!