Six mistakes in SEO copywriting
One of the biggest challenges that site owners and marketers face is having to write content that’s not only optimised for search engines, but that will also appeal to people. That’s what search engine optimised (SEO) copywriting is about: creating content that ranks well in search engine results pages, builds authority for your brand and also persuades people to take action (whether that’s buying a product or signing up for your mailing list). If you want to attract and engage your target audience, you’ll have to get smarter about your website content. While there are no secrets to optimising content online, there are some basic rules you might consider following, as well as some mistakes you should avoid making. 1. Content is King. NOT keywords The first mistake in SEO copywriting is putting too much effort into on-page optimisation and too little into copywriting, the persuasive content that is supposed to answer questions and influence visitors to take a decision. SEO copywriting is optimised, attractive content that generates links and promotion from visitors, which can increase the authority of a website as well as rankings for certain keywords. This means that you can benefit more from a natural link – a recommendation from a user who visited your site and enjoyed your content – than if you were to stuff your content with keywords. Most users have come to realise by now the difference between quality content and content written specifically for search engines. 2. SEO copywriting is about conversion, NOT Google rankings Here’s a fact: ranking well on search engines does not guarantee conversions. Optimised content might catch users’ attention thanks to the top position in Google’s search engine results page, but it might as well lose the SEO advantage if it doesn’t accomplish its goal, which is to convert! In other words, there’s no point in putting a lot of time and effort into optimising your content to attract more visitors to your site if the content itself is low quality or lacks valuable information. Users won’t think twice about heading back to the search results page and going to your competitors’ sites instead. 3. Optimising a web page does NOT equal keyword stuffing There’s no reason to stuff your web content with keywords just to get your site to rank well in search engine results pages. Why not just use the terms that are relevant to your business and optimise your copy by doing a few basic SEO tasks such as: Including your main keywords in the title of the page, as well as in the first and last paragraph Making the URL SEO-friendly by including variations of the main keywords Optimising the H1 heading, subheadings and the ALT tag (the description text for the images). These are the essential optimisation elements that can help you rank well in search engines and, at the same time, inform your visitors what your site is about. Now that the SEO part has been taken care of, you can focus on filling your pages with some awesome copy that’ll entice visitors to buy from you. 4. Measure quality content through links and bounce rate, NOT traffic What does “quality” content mean? It’s content that users find informative and interesting enough that they’ll want to link to it on their blogs, comment and share on social media, or take any kind of action that you want them to take. Quality content keeps readers on your site, it engages them and makes them want to visit more pages. As a result, your site’s bounce rate decreases, which can help you rank higher in search engine results pages. Bottom line: quality content isn’t measured by traffic (because SEO spam can also bring in traffic) but by the level of engagement with visitors. 5. Don’t stuff your content with links As with keywords, try to avoid linking to too many pages from your site or from external site. While internal linking is important, only link when necessary and to content that is relevant. Stuffing your content with irrelevant links will make your web page (and entire website) look spammy and it can also affect the organic performance of that page. The key here is moderation. Internal links are important, just make sure the anchor text shows natural in the page and the information is relevant. External links are also ok as long as you don’t: Overdo it and include hundreds of links on a single web page. Include irrelevant information, stuffed with keywords. Link to sites considered spammy or with no connection what so ever with the on-page content Include paid links without marking it with a nofollow tag 6. Focus on your customers, NOT your business No one really cares about you or your company. Visitors want to know how you can help them solve a problem, if they can trust you and reasons they should buy from you. So when you write your website content, make sure you talk to them and about them. That means more “you” and fewer “we”. There’s a very cool copywriting tool called We We Calculator that you can use it to ensure your copy is customer oriented. It basically cleans up your website copy from all the “we”, “me”, “us” and reminds you to replace those with “you”. Did we miss anything? Let us know in a comment below.
Content is King and Images can be viral
Since Google Penguin at the end of April, the old adage of “Content is King” has taken a whole new giant step. The new ranking algorithm changes sees websites who publish lots of meaningless content just to get search traffic are now penalised, as are those found guilty of keyword stuffing on their pages. So effectively, the more natural your prose the less chance of it falling foul of the googlebot and with the increase in social searching the better your chances of ranking higher too. Good content, well researched, well written and well presented is ultimately more shareable and the more shares your pages get, the better for your page rank. Equally the more popular your content becomes on social networks, the less reliant on Google and its latest algorithm. The dust has begun to settle and the general consensus from those who have tested is that 800-900 words is the perfect length for the best rank. Yet while length it appears is now important, so originality and quality still rule. In terms of keywords, the cut-back in stuffing suggests keyword density shouldn’t hit above 4% nowadays so make sure you pick and choose those keywords and where they appear very carefully. Presentation is important too, and that includes images. Google has long been promoting the SEO of images in search and now, in the social sharing world, an image really can say 1,000 words and when you only have 140 characters anyway, that is like gold-dust. Images in the form of screen-grabs or better still fully-formed infographics attached to a tweet, Facebook post or pinned in Pinterest suddenly give you much more than limited text characters and a chance to explain and engage. Infographics are constantly being re-tweeted, shared and pinned in the modern social world and a video on YouTube is still by far the quickest route to securing big search traffic. Plus if your page contains something visual and has some dynamism to it, it is far more likely to attract customers back. Getting return visitors is the most effective way of improving visibility of your page. Like any aspect of your business, existing customers are always easier to convert to spend money with you than finding a whole new set. If you have a nice image on your page or social media channels, people will want to share it, so make sure that everything you do is branded too – you want people to know where it originated from and hopefully drive traffic back. Remember what you write on your pages will often be the first thing a potential customer sees about your company. Whether that is landing on your home page or as a search result on Google and the like, where those few brief sentences in your site description could make or break whether they click through.
Authority means top rankings
Trust builds trust and trust builds authority. Authority is an important factor that helps rise up the rankings, which means that, in terms of SEO, authority has a positive influence on search engine rankings. What does Authority mean? Authority refers to: the quality of a site. This can be a combination of the site’s relevance, importance, age, size. a niche site. Most authority sites are built around a particular subject and this helps them gain the status of experts in their field. Leading experts in a specific field are the ones that carry most authority because they are focused on a single subject, and don’t claim to know everything about everything. sites that rank high for a specific keyword or phrase. This means that authority sites are also popular. sites that are referred by other sites that consider them to be the most relevant in that domain or industry. Why authority sites rank higher Authority sites are highly appreciated because of the quality content that people find there. Site owners also ensure to constantly publish fresh and unique content because they know that new content will be spidered and indexed quicker by search engines. This will not only enhance authority, but also help them rank easier for specific keywords in their field. Aside from being rapidly spidered by search engines, authority sites also get links from other sites easier. Quality content gets noticed, shared and linked by other sites. If some of these sites that recommend your content are also authority sites, then the links are A list links, the best quality links one can get. They certify to the quality of the content and they recommend it to their readers. Search engines see that and it’s when they elevate the authority site to the top of the search rankings. How to achieve Authority Authority doesn’t necessarily mean having the highest page rank. It’s more about a mix of relevant, quality content that people find useful, as well as off page optimisation. Domain age is also an important factor because people often link authority to a website’s age. However, even with a domain that has been online for years, it’s still the fresh content, optimised around powerful keywords, that matters the most. If it’s not link-worthy, people won’t share it or link to it. The key to an authority site is to give people what they need, and that is well documented, unique content that they will want to share. It’s that type of quality and useful content that other authority sites would want to be associated with. To achieve that, you need to determine what the trends are in your industry and create relevant content around it so that other sites, authority ones especially, will want to pick up and promote. Once it becomes popular, your site will benefit from it by traffic increase and higher ranks. Social Media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon, are also good places to build links, as these sites already have authority which will be transferred to you instantly if the content you publish is relevant to their users. So, choose your sites carefully and ensure your target audience is there. You can also promote your content on other channels, such as directory submissions, blogs, press releases sites and more. Be an authority, not a crowd pleasure To be an authority and get all the benefits that come with that status, you should focus on a niche and demonstrate your expertise to your readers. When people deem you worthy of their time and consider you to be the go-to resource for solutions to their problems, it’s when you will win the battle for page rank.
Top six killer SEO tips for your website
Over the years we’ve covered the art of search engine optimisation (SEO) here in some detail. From understanding what search engine optimisation is to creating content which attracts lots of links, we have advice that can help. The thing is, we have so many blog posts now that it’s not that easy to find the key bits of SEO advice you need. That’s why we’ve decided to bring together six of the best SEO articles we’ve written – so you can find out everything you need to know about getting your website to rank highly on search engines like Google. Why you should bookmark Google’s keyword tool Google’s keyword tool has been around for years now, and it’s one of the most valuable tools you can use when you’re trying to improve your site’s rankings. Why? Because it can tell you what people actually search for online, helping to make sure you optimise your website for the right phrases. Learn about Google’s keyword tool > Top six examples of link bait Link bait is anything on your website that attracts lots of visitors and encourages other people to link back to your website. Because the number of links that point at your site have a huge influence on its rankings, link bait is a great way to climb the rankings. See how to write your own link bait > Big mistakes in SEO writing Writing optimised content isn’t rocket science, but there are some basic rules you should stick to – and some key mistakes to avoid. For a start, content is king, not your keywords – so always keep the people who’ll be reading what you write in mind. What not to do when you write for your website > Six questions to ask an SEO consultant It can be a good idea to bring in an expert to help improve your website’s search rankings. But there are lots of people out there who call themselves SEO experts – the trick is spotting the good ones. It’s vital to ask the right questions. What to ask an SEO consultant > What on earth is Google PageRank? There’s a lot of confusion about what Google’s PageRank actually is. Some people reckon it shows you how your site ranks in Google. Others reckon it’s meaningless. But actually, the truth lies somewhere in between. Find out what PageRange means > How to label your images Every element on your website matters, and images are no exception. Labelling them accurately makes your images more likely to show up in image search tools like Google Images – and that means you’ll get more visitors to your website. Read about labelling images for SEO > What are the key tips you’ve learnt about SEO? Share them with us in the comments.