2018 SEO Copywriting Strategy

Introduction

SEO copywriting is often considered by many as a challenge, but it can far easier than writing unfocused, generic articles. Web copy is written in a way that is easier to understand, is coherent and is the most effective technique of on-page SEO.

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Increase the authority, trust and ranking of your website

Contemporary SEO copywriting encompasses everything it takes to craft compelling content that people would like to read, share and promote. Engaging SEO content increases your authority, trust on search engines and helps in increasing the ranking of your website for keywords pertaining to your niche.

The following guide on SEO copywriting would take you through the process of creating SEO friendly and readable content, with techniques to generate effective keywords and ways to use them efficiently.

Before Writing: Purpose of Writing

The initial step of SEO copywriting has not much to do with writing itself. The first and foremost step is to decide a topic on which you plan to write. What would be the context of the content you plan to post on your site, today or next week.

The trick here is to remember that your readers would want some benefit from reading your post. The mistake people usually make in their posts is they write about things they think are good, and pay little attention to what the readers want to read. Make your audience the main target of your posts, rather than your own preferences.

Your write-up should do the following:

-       Solve A Problem: A step by step guide to clear the drain - a simple example that targets a set of readers and benefits them at the same time.

-       Inspire Action: Once you have compiled your content that focuses on the reader, it will have the power to inspire them towards action. By the end of your post, give an opinion or something that brings their attention back to you, hence making them remember you each time they use your advice.

Keyword Research

Once you have selected your topic, find a keyword that will help you rank your webpage. Begin with the keyword research, look for keywords that are relevant to your topic. Keyword research helps you compile a comprehensive list of key phrases and keywords relevant to your niche, on the basis of which you would be ranked.

Follow these three steps:

Step 1: Search

Go to Google, Bing or Yahoo and search for possible keywords that describe the topic of your content well. For instance, if you are writing on weight loss diet, search for “weight loss”. Observe how people have used the keyword on their website and what information they are providing to readers regarding that keyword.

Step 2: List Relevant Keywords

Going through these websites will help you come up with related keywords that can help you compile a list of search terms on the basis of which your readers would find your website. If the content topic is clear and well defined, you will have little trouble assembling relevant search terms and your selling points.

Get into the shoes of your audience, and think of all the possible ways they are likely to find you. What would be the keywords they search you at? List down all the relevant terms and related combinations.

You can also use Keyword Tool by Google, and look for keywords that will help you rank well in search engines. Try a combination of different keywords as well. Use the key terms to generate all the possible combinations of the keywords. Now list them as per priority. See which of the combination has the most potential to get you a better ranking? Selecting a unique and less competitive keyword may seem like a good strategy, but to pull it off, in the long run, can be difficult. Moreover, try to make use of long tail keywords, if you are to use less competitive keywords to generate higher traffic.

Step 3: Landing Pages

The final stage of keyword research is to develop best landing pages for your keywords. A landing page is a page designed to draw in the audience who arrived at your blog post through a particular keyword. This could be a blog post or a dedicated page optimized for a particular keyword. Ensure that your audience can locate their way through your content from each landing page. Also, confirm that there is a landing page for all the relevant key terms you provide.

Next, search your shortlisted keywords on Google. Scan the entire page for bold phrases and words that are not your keywords. The trick here is that Google makes these terms bold as it considers them similar or relevant to your key search. Select a few of them and sprinkle them all over the content to make Google happy.

The keyword research is the basis on which your content stands. It solves half of your SEO problems. The better your keyword research, the more relevant your key terms, the better chances you have to target a number of people and increase your PageRank.

Phases of Content Creation

Text structure

As you start writing, keep into consideration the structure of your text. The structure of the text has the most significant role to play in SEO. A clearly constructed text is your key to higher Google ranking. Those who think well about their text structure are always successful in achieving the expected results. Consider your text the skeleton that directly formulates the image of the body. Your text structure could be as flexible as you would like it to be. Therefore it is important that the entire design of the text is attractive and engaging.

Inverted Pyramid Approach:

Make use of the inverted pyramid approach to construct every post, paragraph and sentence.

If you have ever read a newspaper, remember how it covers all the important questions relevant to the topic from the beginning of the article to the end. The leading sentences, also known as the “lead” would answer questions such as: When, Why, What, Who and more.

The initial sentences of the post would give you a gist of what the writer plans to say next. Further, you find the secondary details. Then come to the stats, quotes and relevant supporting details. 

The process of providing preliminary information before coming to the secondary details is called Frontloading. It is also known as the inverted pyramid approach of SEO content writing.

Tom Tunguz, the venture capitalist who shifted from Google to Redpoint, claimed that his messages were not as convincing as they earlier were at Google. So he changed his style of communication to enhance the impact of his message while increasing the interest of the readers.

Here is how you will improve the readability of the post and make use of the frontloading principles:

Post Level:

Remember that as your keywords bring your audience to your post, you have 30 seconds to make an impression on them while they go through the introduction and decide whether they wish to read further or not. The key here is to make the most out of those first 30 seconds. Your introduction must be the most compelling. It is your story’s lead. Entertain your readers using infographics, quotes, attractive words, and by indirectly highlighting the benefit of further reading your post.

If you are aware of how advertising campaigns work, you will find that the introductory concept is very similar to that.

While designing a campaign, the designers and copywriters are advised to plan a benefits strategy or a strategy statement. The strategy statement highlights what the entire message of the campaign is about and what benefit would the product/service give. Similarly, when writing an introduction you design a strategy statement. Use a mix of key terms and the core message of your article to compile an introduction in either an entertaining, emotional or thrilling tone.

Paragraph level: Followed by the post opening, the first line of your paragraph gives a summary of what your paragraph would be about. To be more precise, you have to highlight the “point” in the beginning of your paragraph.

In simple words, you could use the very common yet effective structure:

-       Problem

-       Solution

-       Tip/conclusion

So now you have structured it so, but if the rhythm of the article remains to be the same, with no twists and turns, your reader would soon lose the interest. Note that you are not writing an academic paper that requires only stats and no fun. Your article could have any tone you would like it to have. It could be humorous, it could be serious, and it could be nerve wrecking. You can achieve this by using graphics, quotes, images, videos, etc.

Below we will elaborate the above-mentioned structure and what it should include, in detail:

The First Three Paragraphs

Most readers hardly take a minute to quickly review the first three paragraphs on the page. The first three paragraphs also refer to the content blocks. It is a pattern similar to that of their initial search: search engine results. Most of the clicks are based on the headings and the description given below, implying that it is the initial piece of information that passes by their eyes, compelling them to make a decision of selecting your website over the other.

To make the best of this reading pattern, create an outline of your post, allowing most informative sections of your post to appear. Structure your content in such a way that the most important points of your article are listed in the first three levels of your content. However, all these points must be unique. Always try to win over your reader and let them say “I have seen this before!”. Avoid making your post appear clichéd to them.

Jon Morrow, in his blogging course, explains how to write the most unusual, novel and unconventional content before repeating an already quoted fact. Pay attention to areas where the content could be unique, regardless of how common your topic may be.

Use a lot of Subheadings

If you know a little about SEO, you would know the rule of 80/20. If not, let us review it again. The rule states that 80% of the readers are always going to review the headings before they actually read the content. Half of them are going to read only those paragraphs of your article, the headings of which they feel are relevant to their search. Out of ten, 8 people read the headline while 2 read the entire post.

It is best to use the same principal for the subheadings. Think of every subheading and the section that follows as the complete post. Assume that more than 80% of the audience will read the heads and subheads. With attractive and engaging subheadings, you can draw the attention of your readers towards the independent sections of your post.

Keep Scanners and Skimmers in Mind

While it is true that most of your readers may not read the entire post, but there will always be those who will not just skim through it. Studies suggest that web readers keep switching between scanning to reading modes. Some posts, they would just go through in seconds while some posts, they would read carefully and attentively. Essentially, as they reach a section of their interest, they shift from scanning mode to reading mode.

As the scanners/skimmers use the subheadings as anchor points, it is essential to consider them while structuring your post.

When you structure your post, ask yourself: Is my post relevant to all kinds of readers? Both readers and skimmers? Are skimmers easily going to arrive at their point of interest?

If yes, then you have a good subheading, or else, try another one. This increases the attention of skimmers and brings faster shifts in their reading modes.

Block Quotes:

The trick with quotations always works best with readers. A block quote often works as bait to pull readers in. It increases the interest of your reader towards the information you are trying to give away. People also trust posts that provide references and facts. Other than trust, a quoted text authorizes the authenticity of your research. It creates an impression that you really know what you are talking about, and whatever advice/ suggestions you are giving to your readers are based real work/knowledge.

“If used effectively, block quotes can act as a significant piece of evidence, while lending new perspectives and voice to your narrative. While if used irrelevantly, these quotations can clutter and interrupt the flow of your text”

The quotation has another important purpose. It breaks the rhythm of your article, referring to the twists we discussed earlier. It keeps changing the psychological reading modes of the reader which is significant in keeping their attention.

Internal Cliffhangers

Bucket brigades or Internet cliffhangers are an effective way to grasp the attention of your reader. As readers come across them, they stay a little longer as these elements act as a call for immediate action.

Using the following phrases and terms always keep your audience engaged:

-       What is the bottom line

-       This is crazy

-       It gets worse/better

-       Do you know the best part?

-       Are you wondering?

-       What now?

-       But…

A Conversational Structure

Increase interaction. In communication skills, you are always advised to make your buyers and interactors feel like you are completely engaged with them, and their concerns are addressed by something alive. Similarly, your readers must feel like they are talking to you in real time. Use questions and answer style. Such a style of blogging with lots of “your” and “you” make your reader feel important.

Have a casual tone that draws engagement and interest. Nobody except a medical professor would want to learn about the scientific facts of diarrhoea, the rest would just want to know how many bananas to eat.

Including Interactive Elements

Tweet boxes, GIFs, surveys, polls, and calculators: elements that are not as common as pictures, however, you see a lot of them. Copywriters always consider these elements of significant importance. Open any blog and you will find 2-4 interesting GIFs.

Some people really disregard the use of GIF in the posts. It is your call to consider at what point would your readers accept or reject the use of GIF. 

Similarly, tweet boxes are interesting formatting tools. By developing well-designed tweet boxes, you not only make your content look great, but also increase the flexibility of your content being shared to different platforms. Calculators, surveys and polls also increase the engagement factor of your post and inspire the readers to stay interactive with the content.

Short Sentences:

Mostly, the length of the sentence is not an issue. As most good bloggers develop sentences longer than 15 words. As a matter of fact, average sentence structure comprises of 12-14 words and 90% of the readers would accept it. However, in 8 words though you can get better attention, so why not?

As mentioned, long sentences are not bad. But short sentences are interesting. They are increasing curiosity and encourage your reader to move towards the next line. Try short sentences. It increases clarity and makes the content look snappy. Also visually, they are less scary. To edit all your long sentences that you feel would take interest away from your content, use Hemingway app. It helps you rewrite the long sentences into short and readable sentences. Once you are ready with your post, paste it and highlight the good sentences.

Spacing:

Designers take years to learn good spacing techniques. For example, according to a psychological survey on Typography, different typefaces with different spacing were used for the same content to test is if it had any impact on the choice of reading. More than 70% of the people rejected reading an information in serif texts while the same text was read in Helvetica, a better-spaced font. The point here is that visual appearance of your text matters.

The cluttered and disoriented text is never appealing. People want visual breaks. Why is it so easy to read a slide show and so difficult to read a research paper with long sentences and long paragraphs? Similarly, the design of your web content is as important. You have created your content, it has followed the guidelines. Now, what if the visual representation makes them leave the page? Spilling water on the entire effort?

Title:

You have your research on the keywords, you have your content ready, and you have your paragraphs and your sentences. Now come back to your title and see if you still want to use the same title for the content. 90% of the people would want to change it at this stage. Here is why: The title now needs to have a direct relationship with the keywords and the content. It is like the quality of the packaging that attracts towards the product.

First of all, locate the page on your website with short title tags. Add additional words, one or two to the title tag that you feel your audience would use when they search for the target keyword. For example:

-       How to, Tips, Simple, Fast, Best

-       Guide, When, Review

Subtitle:

Use a long tail keyword in your subtitle. For example “Black Hat SEO case study: Generate traffic in 7 days” the keyword here is Black Hat. The title was used in the post but then “generate traffic” got us some extra attention.

Ask for Feedback:

To open yourself to criticism is often hard, especially when you work very hard at it. However, when you edit your text you should always ask for feedback. Before publishing your post, ask your friends or coworkers to read the post in the light of the listed SEO copywriting techniques. Feedbacks let you know what your audience or a third person feels about the post and it keeps you open for any improvements required.

Remember that your post is for the audience and not yourself, therefore, effective criticism is eventually going to fall in your favour.

Conclusion:

If you want to ensure that your content increases your web ranking, strictly following through SEO guidelines is very important. Writing is a technique that gets into your skin after a little practice. Once you start applying all the techniques you will see how your pace starts to increase and how your eye directly falls on the right keywords and the right structure.

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Author

Clwyd Probert

CEO & Founder at Whitehat Inbound Marketing Agency (Platinum HubSpot Partner)

Clwyd has been involved with starting, growing and selling multiple successful businesses both in the UK and the USA. He is the entrepreneur business owners turn to for strategic planning & business growth through his unique and innovative sales and marketing campaigns. 

He brings a multi-disciplinary background from the world of science & technology, sales & marketing and global professional services knowledge which has been gained in different industries and multiple countries. Most recently in London and prior to that in New York.

Clwyd works closely with in-house sales and marketing teams (VP marketing, Marketing Directors and Marketing Managers, sales directors and sales managers), PR agencies and in-house and external social media specialists to implement best practice Inbound Marketing strategies for small and mid-sized companies. Typical company size would be 25 to 200 employees with an annual turnover of between £2M to £50M.

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