Entries Tagged 'seo website copywriter' ↓

There you go, probably the shortest blog post in the history of blogging.

But, I guess you’re going to want more than just a resounding YES; you’re going to want evidence.

If you’re sitting comfortably, I’ll begin

There have been various debates about whether SEO copywriting is really so different to your normal, run of the mill website copy. Some people say there is no difference, whereas others say there is a vast difference between the two.

From my point of view, yes, search engine optimisation copywriting is very different from normal website copy.

For a start you are writing for two audiences simultaneously – your reader and the search engines. But the trick is to write your copy in such a way that your reader doesn’t pick up on your SEO.

Case Study: Landspeed

I was recently asked to write SEO copy for Landspeed’s new website. Landspeed is a car MOT and servicing centre based in Ipswich. They wanted copy that was easy to read, interesting and written to help their on screen SEO.

The copy had to target various keywords such as Ipswich MOT, Car servicing Ipswich, MOT Ipswich, Ipswich car servicing.

Less than a week after the site going live, it was on the first page of Google for all these terms (as at 1/4/10) – want proof?

Ipswich MOT                                  Car Servicing Ipswich

Ipswich Car Repair Shop           MOT Ipswich

Ipswich Car Servicing

And, that was achieved without doing any link building.

Take a look at the site…

…unlike the sample I showed you in my last blog post about how not to do SEO, the copy isn’t crammed full of keywords. It is readable, simple copy that tells the reader exactly what the company does. The keywords have been used where they are most effective – headings, sub headings and as internal hypertext links.

When writing SEO web copy another key aspect that your copywriter should know about, is the value of the title tags (or page titles). Getting your keywords in here (but in a natural way, not stuffed) will help your rankings no end.

Now I’m not saying that every website I’ve ever written ends up on the front page of Google within days. SEO can take time. It all depends on how competitive the terms are that you’re trying to rank for. Something as generic as freelance copywriter will take longer than a more localised term such as Suffolk freelance copywriter.

That’s not the end

But even when you do achieve front page rankings through your copywriting, it doesn’t stop there. You have to consolidate that position by building quality, inbound links to your site through:

• article marketing
• blogging
• inclusion to relevant directories

There’s a lot of competition out there. When you reach the top of the Google pile, someone will be waiting to knock you off. SEO is a constant process and one you can’t take your eye off for a second.

In days gone by, most ‘SEO copywriters’ thought it enough to achieve that magical keyword density within their web copy to keep their clients happy.

WARNING – if your SEO copywriter tells you keyword density is still important, get yourself another copywriter.

There was an ad in my local paper recently from a company looking for a freelance SEO website copywriter. Intrigued, I responded with a few examples of my work and a brief explanation of SEO copywriting and what I would be able to do for them. The next day I got a call from them wanting to meet up.

That meeting was very enlightening. The guy told me he had spoken with a few people who’d responded to his ad – most of the SEO ‘experts’ couldn’t write and most of the SEO ‘copywriters’ obviously had no idea about the whole concept of search engine optimisation.

I had been called in because I was the only one who’d mentioned in my email that keyword density was not an important factor anymore. We had a very enlightening discussion.

Just plain chicken for me, forget the stuffing

You still see today websites that have their content stuffed to bursting point with keywords. In fact the copy is so jam packed it is unreadable.

Sure keywords are still important – more so in where they are positioned – but you’ll find natural writing will attract the required frequency of your keywords anyway. What is more important is the construction of well thought out, relevant copy that will be of interest to your readers.

Today SEO is more about relevancy and popularity – your writing has to make you an authority.

Come link with me…

In today’s internet environment, if you want to get great rankings you have to get people to link to you.

Links from other sites are like gold dust as far as Google is concerned which could have something to do with the strong emergence of social media marketing.

Before you can get any links you have to get your stuff noticed – sites such as Digg, Delicious, Stumble Upon (there are loads more) are great for this. Self submission can be frowned on so get a friend to submit for you. Creating strong headlines will give your stuff a great chance of being picked up.

Use a blog, Twitter, Squidoo or Hubpages to generate more links too.

Basically the more links you have coming into your site from other websites (relevant to your field), the more authoritative Google will see you and the higher in the search engine results you’ll appear.

Concentrate on…

• Relevant copy that people will want to read
• Making sure your keywords are in your headings, subheadings, page tags
• Use social media marketing
• Blog, Tweet, Squidoo and Hubpage
• Creating copy that will attract links

Need advice?

If you’re not sure how good your webcopy is and just need a bit of advice or guidance, get in touch and I’ll take a look for you (no tricks, no charge, no obligation).

Sally Ormond – freelance copywriter

“Anyone can write – this copywriting malarky is money for old rope!”

Is that right?

Many people believe they can write sales copy. Others appreciate how difficult it can be to produce something that:

1. sells
2. is interesting
3. appeals to the reader and resounds with them
4. appeals to the search engine spiders

I’ve been a freelance copywriter for about 2 ½ years and I learn something new on every project I work on. There is so much you have to take into consideration when writing:

• what format will your copy take?
• what media will you be using?
• what message do you need to get across?
• who is your audience?
• what problem do they have that your copy will solve?
• what tone should I take?
• is there a ‘house style’ I have to stick to?

…and that’s just for starters.

SEO Website Copywriting

This is a biggy – everyone is beginning to realise their website has to work for them rather than just look pretty.

But if you want targeted traffic you have to appear in the search engine results.

In the past (and sadly it still happens today), some copywriters felt the way to achieve this was to stuff their copy full of keywords.

Wrong!

Keyword density isn’t important – what is important is writing in a natural style which your reader can understand and finds interesting. If you can achieve this, you’ll automatically include the optimium number of keywords in your copy.

To be a great SEO website copywriter you also need to know where the keywords should go, how to structure your pages, you need to understand internal linking structure….

See, it’s not as easy as you thought is it?

So I guess you’re wondering why the ‘Yoda-like’ title for this blog – well, after sitting through the recent re-runs of the Star Wars saga I came across a recent post on Copyblogger which made me smile.

In The Force is Strong With This One: 10 Ways to be a Copywriting Jedi, David Wright and Sean Platt take a Jedi look at Direct Response copywriting. Having gone through the stages of deciding to embark on a career as a freelance copywriter and building up my business to the success that it is today, their words of wisdom resounded with me and I thought you might get a lot from it too.

Copywriting demand will always be strong.

It doesn’t matter whether the economy is strong or weak. In past decades, it was easy to get away with a strong product and some marketing. But today there is far more competition in all markets and the way to stand apart is through marketing.

For many consumers, the only way to be able to discern the differences between competing products is through the marketing. This ensures that freelance copywriters are needed.

Any companies looking to send a consistent message to their targeted audience will employ copywriters. Some companies not looking ahead to the future may cut their advertising budget when they hit weak sales, but that is not a smart move as explored in my recent blog post 4 Reasons Why Copywriting Services Work.

There is a growing demand for copywriters in one particular area – writing for the Internet. With the Web up past four billion web pages, the demand for search engine copywriting has continued to increase. To do this, the search engine copywriters must write well to attract two different audiences – the people searching and the search bots.

Great copywriting will:

1. increasing your sales through targeted website traffic
2. creating continuity in your marketing materials on and off line
3. portraying an image of trust, credibility and confidence in the eyes of your customers

So it’s a no-brainer really. Companies that are serious about marketing and survival will see the benefits in utilising the services of copywriters. It’s the only way to turn a surviving business into a thriving business.

Search engine copywriting continues to develop each and every day.  Copywriting as a field continues to grow but this particular niche is growing at a much faster rate. As the Internet continues to grow, more and more companies are relying on it for a higher percentage of sales. This will ensure that search engine copywriting will continue to be in demand.

Why?

The number of searches done on the Internet is in the hundreds of billions annually. The way that most people are able to get to a website these days is through search engines.  It is much harder for your website to be highly ranked without being optimised for search engines.

The number of pages on the Internet has grown to over 4 billion so increasing importance has been placed upon the fact that your web page is easy to search and is indexed by search engines.  If not, you will find that you will not have the sales results that you would like from the Internet.

You can buy traffic to come to your website but you will find that you are missing out on an important piece of the sales ‘pie’ by not focusing on organic traffic.

How?

To get your website indexed within the search engines, you must have original content that is in high demand.  Search engines index web pages by sending their search bots through these different web pages.

The search bots are looking for many different factors but the key is your website’s content. The information must be valuable both to the search bots so that they index you as well as to your readers.

For more information about SEO, take a look at SEO, Keywords and Stuff – 3 Golden Rules.