Copywriting for search engine optimization can do more than enhance one’s placement; it can help reinforce a brand and overcome negative comments made online about a company.
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When Chris Richardson from Murdok attended the afternoon session on Writing for Search Engines, he picked up a number of good guidelines from the trio of speakers about crafting copy in a way to make search engines happy right down to the machine code of their algorithms.
SuccessWorks International president Heather Lloyd-Martin made note of three secrets to creating effective copy:
1. savvy keyphrase choices
2. longer text
3. smart writing strategy
Keyphrase research is critical here. Misspellings and poor grammar damage the brand that displays them online. Promoting the SEO copywriting plan means reinforcing the need for care when writing the message.
By hitting in the area of approximately 250 words per page, brands give themselves a better shot at making the search engines happy. Pages in that range make it easier to include keyphrases while managing the marketing message.
Importantly, a 250-word range provides more content for the engines as well as the customer. People will not feel comfortable about buying your product if you have little or no content on your page. Content gives consumers a sense of security.
Those savvy keyphrase choices can’t be made without research. Once that research has been completed, place two to three keyphrases targeted for each page, and include them three or four times each within the copy. Don’t let a page become a keyphrase-stuffed spam presence; cut out some of the keyphrases.
In placing those keyphrases, integrate them throughout the page copy, from top to bottom, and don’t neglect the headlines and sub-headlines. Their best use comes as a call-to-action, by hyperlinking them to other content when possible.
Everyone knows how critical a page title is to SEO. It’s also the place where one makes a branding statement. The branding statement doesn’t necessarily need the company name, but it does need the main keyphrases being targeted for each page.
Think of titles like a headline: they have to be compelling and unique for each page. As a rule of thumb, titles should be a total of about 50 to 75 characters, and that includes spaces.
Attendees then turned their attention to Jill Whalen, owner of High Rankings. She also emphasized the importance of keywords and phrases, and noted keyword phrase-rich content is a third of one’s SEO plan.
Those phrases need to be descriptive. Terms like “our team” or “our service” should be replaced with “our search marketing firm” or “our event planning service” as examples. Single words tend to be too competitive, and advertisers should copywrite those into descriptive phrases instead.
Graphics and Flash content looks great onscreen, but search engines take a dim view of them. Alt tags aren’t a viable replacement for text content. When placing that text, Whalen recommended thinking like a reporter while working keywords and phrases through the content of a page.
Copywriters should be aware of the multiple spellings of some worlds when creating copy, because users might search for “fork lift” as well as “forklift” and both want to find the same piece of heavy machinery. Target the spelling that is more commonly used and use that phrase; don’t use both versions on the same page.
“You are writing for customers BEFORE you are writing for the engines… good copy is usually and already search engine friendly,” Whalen said. “Good web writing can help bring extremely targeted visitors, and then convert them into customers.”
David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business. Email him here.
