SEO Copywriting – Tips & Advice From Experience

I've been knee deep in SEO copywriting lately, that is, writing search engine friendly content. I like to write for the web so it's only natural that I'd want to appeal to the search engines with my writing, and actually I've gotten pretty good at it. The real excitement for me though, has been seeing traffic and sales role in without spending any money  

Of course I read a lot and listen to the SEO and copywriting experts I most admire, and we'll talk about them in a minute, but through it all I've learned some very powerful SEO copywriting techniques as well as some of the myths you can ignore.  

I have also noticed, however that the more I study and research SEO copywriting the more I realize how much 'bunk' and false ideas there are floating around out there from bloggers and even some of the so-called SEO experts.

For me, SEO copywriting and even basic SEO is more about common sense than it is about hard core optimization techniques. Sure, there are important techniques and strategies that you need to implement but I like to look at the practical side first, specifically looking at what the goal of a search engine is. 

For example, what is Google's primary mission?  If you know and understand that, it will become clear as to what you need to do to optimize your website.

According to Google's investor relations page, their mission, in a nutshell, is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible. They believe that the most effective, and ultimately the most profitable way to accomplish their mission is to put the needs of their users first by providing the most relevant and useful search results possible, independent of financial incentives.
 
Is that to say that everything you've searched for on Google has been relevant and useful? Probably not, but Google is striving for that.  So if your website has top ranking today but from a quality content perspective, doesn't actually deserve to be there, chances are it won't be there a few months from now. 

Myths and Negative Practices

The Duplicate content penalty. One of the biggest search engine optimization myths around today is the duplicate content penalty.  Actually there is no such thing. Google for one does not penalize your website for duplicate content, it may have an affect on how well your page or website ranks but Google does not penalize you.  If you have concerns in this area Chris Crum of WebProNews does a pretty good job of busting the duplicate content myth. 

Keyword Density.  How many times have you read content that compromises readability for search engine optimization? We see it all the time, webmasters think they need to meet the 2- 3% keyword density requirements only to make the content repetitive, boring and senseless, it's not necessary.

Take a look at this web page, it ranks number one for the key phrase 'build an internet home business'. Notice that key phrase is no where to be found in the content of the page. The content is what a human visitor would be interested in and that's what the search engines are after.  What good would it do you to achieve high search engine ranking anyway if your content isn't what the human visitor finds worthwhile?  You may get visitors but they'll click off just as fast as they clicked on.  

Start with Best Basic SEO strategies First

Good keyword research. This is about finding the keyword phrases for each of your web pages that are descriptive and relevant.  Once you find your best keywords, use them wisely in your title and description tags. 

For example, let's say your best keyword phrase is 'scented soy candles', use that keyword phrase in your title and emphasize a feature like this:

      "Scented Soy Candles – Intensely scented, natural candles."

Next, your description should expand on your title but this time stress a benefit,

      "Shop our aromatic, handcrafted, scented soy candles and get free delivery." 

Your title and description are what the search engines will display in the search results so use these tags must not only describe, they need to compel. Write them like you would a sales ad.  It's the best chance you have to get the attention of your readers – it's like a free ad, so take advantage of that.  

Build link popularity. This is the number of quality links pointing to your website. Both internal and external site links build link popularity as does using relevant contextual links.

Properly generated internal links and building quality link popularity is what the search engines look for. It's what weaves you into the world wide web.

In days past, it use to be that reciprocal link exchanges were enough to get your site noticed among the search engines; today it's more about achieving one way links from other sites. From a search engine point of view, if others find your site interesting enough to link to without reciprocation then your site deserves their search engine love

Write Conversationally.  Last, but certainly not least, one of the best pieces of advice I've received with regard to SEO copywriting is to write in a conversational tone.  

If you understand that the search engines consistently strive to deliver unique, interesting and useful content, writing conversationally helps you fill that requirement. There aren't many topics that haven't already been written about in some form or another but writing conversationally on a topic that includes your personal insight, emotion, advice and experiences means you've got original content.  Combine that with reliable search engine optimization strategies and good linking practices and you'll begin to see your content rise above the noise.

Getting back to SEO experts I most admire, there are two of them. Dan Thies, author of SEO Fast Start Guide. If you don't read anything else for optimizing your website, read this guide – it's free but it's packed with the essentials you need to optimize your website correctly, nuff said. 

Secondly, I was hugely inspired by Michael Masterson, a copywriting legend and creator of the AWAI copywriting course.  His course is geared more to developing copywriting skills in general but on or off the web, you'll find plenty of golden nuggets for developing your SEO copywriting skills as well.

If you're going to write for the web, get the attention of your readers first, once you have their attention the search engines won't be far behind.

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