SEO Copywriters can help businesses attract customers to their websites, resulting in more online transactions and increased revenue. For any company with an online presence, the utilisation of these capabilities can be the difference between success and failure.
Within this guide, you can learn about organic SEO & Copywriting through a Web Surfer’s online journey. Along the way, we’ll be divulging SEO secrets about search engines and show how a business can rise to the top.
Before this adventure begins, it would be shrewd to start with a simple definition of SEO Copywriting:
- Copywriting (also called content writing) is the art of writing readable text. First-rate online copywriters produce website content (the readable text) which demands a customer’s attention, skilfully presents the product and encourages sales.
- If a Copywriter makes use of “SEO” (or Search Engine Optimisation), they can take this process one step further. By including SEO keywords and keyphrases within the text, an SEO Copywriter can improve a website’s rankings on the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo! or Bing. What does this mean? With higher rankings on the search engine results page (or SERP), more customers will organically find the website, resulting in higher website traffic and revenue.
Web Surfers click on the top Google result 36 % of the time
Within this guide, the protagonist will be a Businesswoman as she searches for hotels in London. Like most Internet experiences, our Web Surfer begins with a search engine – in this instance it is Google. She enters her query, which constituting a series of keywords: “5 Star Hotels in London”. For a website to be recommended by Google, these keywords must be employed in its content. Having previously explored millions of websites, Google checks its database before displaying the most appropriate options in order of relevancy and trust.
This screenshot shows an archetypal Google results page:
As a rule, Google provides a broad selection of results, from geographical locations to weather reports and blogs. Above and alongside the results (highlighted in pink) are pay-per-click advertisements. Unlike organic results (highlighted in green) these companies continuously pay for this prized position. The Web Surfer’s gaze will typically begin from the left and scroll downwards as demonstrated by the area highlighted in yellow. Crucially, a Web Surfer typically ignores the large section of pay-per-click ads on the right-hand side.
For this search there are over 21 million pages of results, with 10 options on each. With over 210 millions options, the Web Surfer could end up anywhere on the World Wide Web! Or could she?
The significance of a website’s search engine rankings becomes clear when considering this defining fact (as revealed in a study by Optify). The site ranked 2nd receives an average click-through rate (or CTR) of 12 %, while the 3rd site receives 9.5 %. Problematically, a site ranked 15th, for example, has a mere CTR of 1.2%. This is a huge drop in comparison, powerfully demonstrating the implications of a website’s rank. This graph shows the average CTR against rank for the top 20 results on Google USA:
The Web Surfer chooses an article about “5 Star Hotels in London” for two reasons: it is relevant, whilst also appearing on the first page of results. Whilst superior articles are surely available, if ranked poorly they will be overlooked. Fundamentally, if a website isn’t ranking highly for its keywords, customers will shop elsewhere. For all businesses that struggle with this problem, there are solutions:
How can SEO Copywriters improve Search Engine Rankings?
SEO Copywriters can move a website higher than other listings, therefore improving its online visibility and attracting new clientèle. To achieve these goals, SEO Copywriters utilise three major techniques:
1. Unique content
It doesn’t matter if content is needed for a website’s homepage, blog post or press release – the principles are consistent throughout. It’s simple: fantastic, unique copy will attract customers and improve sales.
Professional SEO Copywriters will always provide website content that:
- Demands attention
- Focuses on the benefits of your service
- Promotes a succinct brand identity
- Introduces your services in a clear manner
- Encourages website transaction
2. Optimised content
Websites receive improved rankings if they include SEO keywords. By researching the marketing strategy and key services of a business, SEO Copywriters can create a tailored keyword strategy for each and every client. The following image is a screenshot of a typical web article with highlighted keywords. As you can see, the keywords are intelligently scattered throughout the article. This is crucial, as search engines are suspicious of any “keyword cramming” tactics. With any SEO technique, balance is crucial.
3. Link building
Having found the article exceptionally useful, the Web Surfer wants to make it accessible to her clients and friends. This is accomplished by including a link on her personal website or social media wall to the published article. An example of an outbound link is:
We’re a professional team of content writers in the UK.
The publishing website now has an additional inbound link from an exterior website. In effect, a link is a vote of confidence that search engines use to evaluate if a website is trusted. A site with multiple links is judged to be more trustworthy than a competitor with fewer. To attract natural links, websites must provide compelling, unique content that people actually want to read – not self serving advertisements and promotion.
The effectiveness of a link depends on the several factors, including trust, relevance and authority. In opposition, second-rate tactics such as bulk link building, hiding links in forum signatures or reciprocal linking can result in punishment. Unless a business has an extremely powerful brand, it will fail without a high-quality link building strategy.
In conclusion…
Hopefully, this article reveals some of the basic components of an SEO Copywriter’s arsenal. Through a combination of these elements, a business can increase its online visibility, which in turn improves website traffic and sales.
As a by-product of this process, a website will attract inbound links,
resulting in higher ranks and yet more traffic!
As you can see, the duality of organic SEO and Copywriting creates a self-perpetuating cycle towards success. This “snow balling” of positive results is illustrated below:
Whether a business wants to boost website traffic or manage their online reputation – a professional SEO Copywriter, using these techniques, can develop a package to suit every goal.
