Entries Tagged 'SEO copywriter' ↓

The way we read is being revolutionised.

With advances in technology it is now ‘cool’ to read our favourite books on a Kindle reader:

“A revolutionary electronic-paper display provides a sharp, high-resolution screen that looks and reads like real paper”

No, I’m sorry but that’s just not right.

I don’t want to hold an inanimate object and read from a screen. For me reading is about connecting with something tangible. I like to hold a book, feel it’s pages, listen to the gentle sound as each page is turned, see the creases in the spine – I WANT TO TO TURN PAGES!!!

On holiday I’ll take several novels. Yes they take up space in my luggage but I don’t care. I can read them anywhere without fear of getting a flat battery.

There is something special about a book – whether it’s new or second hand – that can never be replaced by a screen.

If the text in my book is small, compact and endless, I don’t care. I’ll read it. But if writing on a screen is small, compact and endless I won’t read it.

It’s just like websites and blogs that you see which are crammed to the rafters with copy. They are so difficult to read. Writing copy for the web is very different from writing for printed media. Most people find reading from a screen difficult and if they are faced with a wall of text, they probably won’t even bother.

Make your writing look interesting

Content has to look attractive to make someone read it.

Creating space around your words is more likely to encourage someone to read them.

Rather than writing long paragraphs of text, break it up into chunks separated by white space. Insert sub headings to signal to your reader what each section is about.

Basically, if you want people to read the content on your website you have to make it look inviting. Your copy has to be interesting, relevant and search engine friendly. Getting the right amount of content on your page is vital – but good SEO Copywriting doesn’t necessarily mean writing thousands and thousands of words.

So what is the optimium amount of copy? Well the simple answer is it depends.

You’ll need enough to get your keywords in and enough to make sure you get your message across to your reader. At the end of the day it will depend on the competitiveness of the keywords you have chosen and what you actually want to say.

Getting your web content right is vital for your search engine optimisation so it pays to invest in the services of a good SEO Copywriter who understands how to write great content  that is appealing to your reader and the search engine spiders.

For me, no amount of electronic gizmos will ever replace a good old fashioned book. Reading from a screen is always going to be difficult so if you want people to read your material make sure you follow the advice in this blog post.

Sally Ormond – freelance copywriter

Search engine optimisation is huge these days.

If you have a website, having an SEO strategy is a must if you want to develop those all important organic listings. Yes, you could opt for PCC (pay per click) advertising, but why pay for short term gains when you can develop a long term winning strategy?

To make your SEO work you need three things:

• An SEO friendly website that is easy to navigate (for the reader and search engine spiders)
• Great content written by a professional SEO Copywriter
• Back links

To get the first two, it really pays to find an expert in  their field. Yes there are cheaper options out there, but if you cut corners you’ll end up with something that doesn’t work. This is especially true when it comes to the copywriting. There are a lot of people out there who will claim to understand SEO, but few copywriters do. It pays to shop around and ask to see examples of work they’ve done.

When it comes to backlinks, you need to think long term. You can buy them in, but that often causes more harm than good. So the best option is to build them yourself. But that takes time and is often too much for one person alone.

Therefore why not bring in your team to work on this for you?

The best way to make this work for you is for you to create a team of link builders within your company.

I stumbled across this post on Seomoz.org which gives an example of how this can work. Take a look at Rob Ouseby’s post “Create A Link Building Team Within Your Organisation” and see what tips you can pick up to make your whole organisation a continuous link building machine.

A big part of any search engine optimisation strategy is building quality links.

How do they help?

Well, think of it this way – every web page has page rank (0 – 10 depending on your web page’s value with 0 being the lowest) so when another site links to you (assuming it’s a follow link) part of that page rank filters through to you (what I like to call link juice). So, the more good quality websites you get linking to you, the higher your page rank will go. And the higher then page rank, the more authoritative your website is, so the higher it ranks.

By far the best way to link build is by doing it organically:

• Write great content that people will want to link to
• Submit your website to directories
• Blog linking back to your website
• Write and submit articles

Although this takes time it is very effective and you won’t fall foul of Google.

Is there a quicker way?

If you are the type of person who likes to take short cuts, yes, there is a quicker way.

You can always buy links but, as Julie Joyce on Search Engine Journal explains in her post “4 Huge Mistakes to Avoid When You Build Links“, if you do you’ll be going against Google’s guidelines and you’ll be risking your website.

So if you want your website to climb the rankings safely without upsetting Google, go organic – it’s the only way.

Every now and then it’s a good idea to give your website a fresh look. Whether it’s because your company focus has changed, you’ve undergone re-branding or simply that your old site is looking tired, a fresh new image will breathe life into your online marketing.

Of course, along with a new design, fresh content is always a good idea so hiring a good SEO copywriter is always a great investment.

But getting back to your website – there are certain things that really should be avoided when you are considering a revamp:

Don’t over complicate

We all like an easy life so your website has to be simple to use. If your reader lands on your site and they can’t navigate around it, they’ll leave. Make sure your navigation is clear and very easy to follow. Also don’t over do the number of links on your website. There’s nothing worse than being faced with text littered with links and – more to the point – vast quantities of boxes in the sidebar containing links and asking them to do umpteen things.

You don’t want confused readers, you want relaxed readers.

Make your navigation simple and logical.

Dare I say it? Flash

Once upon a time, Flash was unreadable to Google and therefore did nothing for your SEO. Today, although Google has developed the ability to crawl some Flash, it will still limit the effectiveness of your search engine optimisation so it’s important to keep its use to an absolute minimum. So rather than filling your site with it, how about utilising your white space to add some great content instead.

Images

Everyone loves pretty pictures but, just like Flash, you can over do it.

Images that enhance the text are great. But if you have too many your reader won’t know where to look first. Keep them to a minimum and make sure you choose wisely. A bad image can kill a website.

When used well, images can also help you with your SEO.

Loading

If your website takes a long time to load it will turn off visitors faster than Jonny Vegas in a jock strap, and it will also have a detrimental effect as far as the search engine spiders are concerned. Google likes sites that load quickly as this post from the Google Official Webmaster Central Blog shows.

What’s your offer?

When redesigning don’t get so wrapped up in making it so pretty that you forget what your website’s there for in the first place. Many website owners are so obsessed with SEO they completely forget what is it they want their readers to do. Yes, SEO and organic search results are important, but so is your offer and call to action. If  you neglect those you will end up with an ineffective website.

Keeping your image fresh is very important but just make sure you always have your website goals in mind when redesigning your site. Don’t be tempted to go OTT – simple and effective is the best way to do.

In the red corner is your reader, in the blue corner are the search engine spiders – so who will win?

Well, sadly, when companies create their own website copy the spiders tend to win.

Every business owner wants their website on the front page of Google for their identified search terms. But the belief is still that this can only be achieved if you stuff as many of your keywords as possible into your copy.

Will this get you good rankings?

Possibly.

Will it get you loads of traffic?

Probably.

Will it get you loads of sales?

Most probably not.

How to get great rankings, more traffic and a boost in sales

Those three things are at the top of every businesses wish list.

But to achieve them you need a great website that is SEO friendly, loads of backlinks, and some great SEO copywriting. For the purposes of this post I will concentrate on SEO copywriting.

But before we even consider the SEO aspects of great copywriting, it’s time to go back to basics.

Q: Who will visit your website, read your content and use that as a basis to decide to get in touch and buy your product? Your readers or the search engine spiders?

A: Your readers.

So if you know that, why isn’t the content of your website written for your reader? When they land on your website the only question  they want answered is “what are you going to do for me?” Therefore the type of information they won’t want to read about is:

• When your company was established
• How many staff you have
• What your premises are like
• Anything else that shouts about you

Your website pages have to be all about your reader and what you’re going to do for them.

Take a look at your website now. How many ‘we’s are there within your copy? If there is more than 1 there are too many. If you want your copy to resonate with your reader you must talk to them, and that means using ‘you’ and ‘your’. This writing style isn’t something that comes naturally but it is the only way to engage with your reader and drawn them in.

But if you stuff your copy with keywords your reader won’t be able make sense of it. It will come across as clumsy and unprofessional – not someone they would want to do business with.

Take a look at this example:

Can you believe it? This was taken from an actual SEO Copywriter’s website! They have squeezed the term ‘search engine optimisation’ into that small piece of copy 17 times! The result is unreadable. Would you want to do business with someone who writes like that?

Absolutely not.

Yes your keywords have to be present but not at the expense of clarity. The location of your keywords is far more important as any SEO Copywriter worth their weight in gold will tell you. They have spent many hours studying SEO and understand what it takes to write great copy that will ‘speak’ to your reader whilst providing enough tantalising keywords to keep the search engine spiders happy. So don’t take chances with the effectiveness of your website. If you’re serious about internet marketing and getting the most out of your website, invest in a good SEO Copywriter who really knows what they are talking about.