We all know that Google likes to tweak their search algorithm, this constant improvement is great for users but if your business is SEO and copywriting then it can cause a great deal of stress. If something is always changing then how can you put together a strategy which is going to work?
In 2018 69.03% of the US search market share was dominated by Google. No surprise there with the likes of Yahoo coming in at 1.57% and Bing 1.48%.
It’s not all bad, there is some good news. Thankfully the fundamental rules of SEO copywriting are here to stay but the most valuable skill you will have is learning to adapt.
Here are some essential rules of SEO Copyrighting:
Keyword Intent
This refers to the reason that people may search for the keyword you are thinking about targeting. Here are three broad types of keyword intent –
Informational – This is where the user wants to learn more about a particular topic, for example, “History of St. Patricks Day”
Navigational – This is where the user already knows which website they want to visit.
Commercial – This is where the user wants to purchase a particular product or service.
It will always be in Google’s best interest to perform and deliver first-class results, in fact it will reward marketers who closely match keyword intent. In order to have effective SEO copywriting you must understand the importance of keyword intent and think carefully about what users are searching for and then do your best to give it to them.
Get straight to the point
When it comes to SEO copywriting the key is not to write lengthy introductions but to get straight to the point and create relevant content. After all, this is what Google puts at the top of the organic results.
As important as relevant content you must also prove to Google that your content is pertinent and the only way to do this is to target your main keyword as early in the coy as possible.
Stop keyword stuffing
This is where you would excessively target your main keyword with the sole aim of improving the organic search results. It has been proven to be a waste of time as Google is way to smart to fall for a trick like this. Another reason to avoid keyword stuffing is that it can make your user experience quite horrendous, no-one wants to read something that has been clearly created to please an algorithm. If you do this, then don’t expect people to stay on your site for long.
Language is key
There are lots of helpful tools out there, the keyword search tools are brilliant. These apply if you are a content marketer or even pay per click (PPC) specialist. A really good free tool is WordStreams.
Another great tool that some online marketers don’t use to their advantage is the related searches that appear at the bottom of the Google SERP. For example, you might be a marketer for an email marketing software company and you’ve been asked to create a blog around the keyword “does email marketing work?”
If you go to Google and scroll right down to the bottom of the results page, you will find some highly valuable information. There will be a list of frequently searched queries that are relevant to your main keyword. This is all at no cost to you and what you will have found is the related searches that give you the power to speak in a language that your audience will understand.
If you can incorporate some of the suggestions into your content and SEO copywriting you will see a huge boost.
The importance of a headline
There is absolutely no point in spending hours on a 2000 word blog post only to give it a less than worthy headline. It’s like spending hours getting ready to impress a new date only to tell them they can’t look at you. Bad headlines mean that nobody is going to click through to your website. It’s so important to set aside time when creating a blog post to think of what your headline is going to be.
So we have mentioned the importance of a good headline but another thing to keep in mind is if it’s longer than 60 characters, Google will likely truncate your headline. So it’s not just he meta tag in need of optimization, you will also need to be considerate of the description. This is the text that displays directly below your URL. Not everyone reads this but there are users who will indeed read your description and based on this decision whether or not to click. Another thing to note is that Google will look here to find indicators of relevance (i.e keywords).
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