Copywriting: Level Up your SEO and Content Marketing
A Practical Approach
Every successful ad tells a story, but not every story automatically makes an ad successful.
Copywriting skills ensure that you find the right words so people respond to your message. It ensures not only that you are understood, but more importantly that your readers feel understood.
Writing compelling content is both an art and a science that professional copywriters use to improve the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.
Is copywriting really always needed when creating content for your brand? No!
But is it necessary to successfully guide your customers through the customer journey? Yes!
So let’s take a look at how it works and how you can combine it with SEO.
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What is SEO copywriting?
SEO copywriting refers to the combination of SEO and copywriting techniques. SEO copywriting basically combines the best of both worlds:
It is all about creating content that ranks at the top of Google AND persuades your ideal customers to take your desired action (newsletter subscription, booking of a demo version, a purchase, etc.).
But let’s have a look at the terms separately.
Copy convinces
Copywriting means persuading people with words in the right context as part of marketing and promotional materials. These persuasive texts are called “copy”.
Copy usually ends with a clear, unambiguous call to action (CTA), motivating people to engage with your message.
The purpose of promotional copy is to convince readers to take action. Usually it provides an incentive to buy but sometimes the message also includes an aim to get clicks, download or demo requests or a newsletter subscription.
This is usually done by tapping into the emotions of the reader. After all, 95% of buying decisions are known to take place in the subconscious.
Copywriting is everywhere, online and offline, not only in ads and commercials, but also on the radio or in videos.
It’s also used in:
- Newspapers
- Websites
- Flyers and brochures
- Social media
- Emails
- Speeches
- Billboards
SEO is the business of getting found (by the right people)
Search engine optimization (SEO) refers to all organic measures to improve the rankings of a website and therefore its visibility in the search engine results lists. It aims to improve your organic (unpaid) traffic.
Together with search engine advertising (SEA) SEO forms the large area of search engine marketing (SEM).
As SEO only deals with unpaid or organic search results the consequences usually only become visible with some delay. That makes SEO a lengthy and complex process.
For many companies, search engines are the most important channel for attracting users to their website. Especially Google owns more than 90% of the search engine market share worldwide, which obviously highly contributes to a company’s visibility.
Users who reach a website via search engines usually also have the intention of carrying out a desired goal on the website.
This goal depends entirely on the intention behind the search and can be, for example, merely information but also the purchase of a certain product.
SEO also plays a significant role for the acquisition of new customers as search engines are often the most important source for bringing new users to a website via generic search terms.
Why the combination of copywriting and SEO is so important for your content marketing success
Both content marketing and copywriting should be done according to SEO criteria.
The quality of your copy influences SEO performance. So if you take the time to do proper keyword research and write content that is optimized for search engines like Google and Bing you can increase the visibility of your message.
SEO is important in copywriting for the same reasons it is important in content marketing:
- It brings relevant, high-quality traffic to your website or landing page.
- SEO helps you build trust by presenting your content to the very users who are looking for solutions like yours.
- It generates long-term traffic and qualified leads.
- Most importantly, SEO improves conversion rates by getting your message noticed by people with a genuine interest in your product or service.
But why exactly take the time and effort to do SEO rather than counting on paid ads?
SEO copywriting is especially important if you value long-term profit increase through digital measures. It can take several months to show results but once this happens, it’s a very sustainable method to continuously attract streams of visitors.
SEO copywriting success can be measured transparently via Google Analytics and the Google Search Console, among others.
After all, your copy is only effective if it reaches the right target audience. If you ignore SEO principles and focus solely on catchy copy, you’ll generally limit your reach or reach a whole different audience than the one you are trying to target.
Organic Search Traffic Growth © Patrick Mitter
10 Practical tips for effective SEO copywriting
SEO copywriting is the art of writing web content that is optimized for both search services and human readers.
If content is not optimized for both audiences, it will not rank well, nor will it be read and shared. The following 10 tips will help you to do effective SEO copywriting:
1. Write clearly and understandably. Use simple words and short sentences. Nobody wants to read overly complicated articles.
2. Know your competitors. What is their content like? How do they communicate with their audience? What could you do differently or even better?
3. When doing research, don’t just focus on search volume. Before doing a detailed keyword research you should find out which topics are most relevant for your target audience. Based on these topics you can do profound keyword research. Search volume alone won’t bring you your desired results. If you don’t use relevant keywords you won’t be able to target the right people.
4. Pay attention to keywords. Think about what keywords your target audience might use to find your content and use them often. However, you should make sure that the text sounds natural and does not seem contrived. After all, your texts are supposed to touch humans not machines.
5. Everybody always says, it’s better to write longer texts. A longer text has more chance of ranking well than a short text. We say, don’t overdo it. Your text shouldn’t just be long to rank well. It should have a good length to give readers value and offer all the information that is needed.
6. Don’t be shy and put your own spin on your texts. Nothing is more frustrating for readers than finding the same texts over and over again. People like to read new, refreshing content pieces. Share your point of view or unpopular opinion. As long as you find good arguments that underline your core message, people will appreciate it.
7. Be careful about the structure of the text. Divide your text into paragraphs and subheadings to make it easier to read. Also, make sure that the first paragraph is particularly relevant, as many users will only skim it.
8. This brings us to another important topic: the headlines. On one hand you should put important keywords in your headlines and subheadlines. On the other hand it should still sound catchy so the reader is eager to keep reading.
9. Link your texts to other relevant websites and content. This not only increases the added value of the text, but also the chance that other websites will share or link to your text.
10. Last but not least: Don’t forget your CTA. Because what is not communicated cannot be perceived. So whatever it is you want your readers to do, let them know with a clear statement.
How to master the art of SEO copywriting
The good thing is, writing SEO texts can be learned, it just takes time and practice. Unfortunately, there is no clear-cut way to become a SEO copywriter.
Writing for search engine optimization is a combination of art and science that needs to be learned and perfected.
However, most people who work as SEO copywriters have one thing in common: They are creative and analytical.
SEO copywriting is not the same as traditional copywriting. The target audience is different. It usually consists of users searching the internet for something specific rather than general reading.
And the challenge is to write the right content for those searches. This often means writing texts with a strong core message and focusing on keywords that still sound very appealing and hit a certain spot for readers.
Don’t be sad if you don’t master the art of SEO copywriting within one article that you write. Perseverance is key to perfecting your skills and achieving good results with your SEO content marketing strategy.
SEO Meme © Brafton.com
Summary [TL;DR]
SEO copywriting refers to the combination of copywriting skills and SEO techniques. It plays a major role in successful content marketing. It’s especially important if you want to generate long-term profit increase through sustainable SEO methods.
Since the costs of SEO copywriting are usually lower and the results come over a longer period of time but are very consistent, it makes a good alternative or even addition to SEA.
If done correctly SEO copywriting can give an increase in organic traffic, qualified leads and therefore higher sales volume.
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