Why Hire an SEO Copywriter?
Writing excellent copy is hard. Even if you have a lot to say and enjoy writing, you still must balance writing copy that satisfies the search engines and appeals to your audience. So, you need to work smarter, not harder and the best way to do this is with SEO copywriting
Anyone can write random content, but the best content solves a specific problem that your readers have and is appealing.
Now you may think that SEO is incredibly complex and something you’d rather hand over to an expert. Fair enough, I hear you. Yes, you could hire an SEO copywriter to create content that Google loves and resonates with your clients. But I have some advice that’ll help you create tasty, magnetic content and do it on your own.
But first, a little overview about SEO and what it means for your business.
What Is SEO?
When you use Google or any other search engine, you type your query into the search bar and, in return, receive a list of relevant results.
But what determines the order of these results? And how does Google know what you’re looking for?
Well, the results appear thanks to search engine optimization (SEO).
Essentially, SEO is how you optimize your content for Google to help it rank better than your competitors that are targeting the same search terms.
Although the Google algorithm is in parts a mystery, we know that web pages in the search results appear based on something called authority and relevance to the search. So, how are these two factors measured?
Authority
Nobody knows for sure how Google determines authority, but SEO tools (Ahrefs SEMRush, Moz, Ubersuggest, etc.) have their own methods to determine your website authority.
Ahrefs for example looks at the number of backlinks you have from other websites that point to a particular page. Think of links or backlinks as votes in your favor.
However, it’s not just the number of links that matter, but the quality is super important too. Spammy links are a no-no and your backlinks should naturally and steadily increase over time. Never consider purchasing thousands of backlinks in an attempt to raise authority and improve your SEO. This is a blackhat technique, and it’s not recommended.
Relevance
Relevance is based on how you use certain words in your content and how relevant it is to what the user was wanting when they typed in their query.
For example, how often the keywords appear and where, and any associated language relevant to the topic of research.
A bit about copywriting
Ah, my favorite subject! Copywriting is a beautiful blend of word art and the science of psychology. It involves creating content that sways in prompts the reader to take action.
Copywriters are highly skilled professionals — even if I do say so myself — who create copy, aka words, for a whole host of marketing material from emails to adverts.
The greatest copywriters understand psychology. You know what makes people tick, their likes and dislikes, the words that appeal to them, their problems, what keeps them awake at night, and then most importantly, how a specific product or service provides the solution. Then, and only then, to prompt people to act.
SEO copywriters also understand how to entwine specific words and longtail phrases into the copy to please Google.
The resulting copy should be engaging, resonate with the audience, and be well optimized for Google.
What is SEO Copywriting?
SEO copywriting is a continually evolving landscape as Google rolls out updates regularly. SEO copywriting must consider Google’s ranking algorithm to succeed in the SERPs or search engine results pages.
SEO copywriting involves creating valuable content that includes and targets specific keywords and is deliciously shareable.
When people share your stuff, this boosts the authority and relevance of your content, improving its Google ranking for those keywords.
SEO copywriting helps you find and target your ideal clients and then solve the problems with high-caliber content they love.
What happens when you hire an SEO Copywriter?
An SEO copywriter can help you create content that your clients and Google drool for. There are various SEO best practices they should follow to boost your content in the search results and increase your traffic.
Here are some elements of SEO copywriting that count:
1. Headline
“On average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.” —David Ogilvy, the father of advertising.
No matter how awesome your content, if your headline sucks, so will your click-through rate. Although creating the perfect headline may be time-consuming, it’s also time well invested.
In SEO copywriting, your headline should stop people in their tracks, turn their heads and compel them to click and find out more.
Headlines that include numbers are always a good choice, and people enjoy sharing them on social media. Some people refer to these as “listicles.” For example:
- Don’t make these 3 mistakes when you hire an SEO copywriter
- 5 compelling reasons to hire an SEO copywriter
- 7 powerful headline writing tips the “experts” don’t want you to know
- 50 ways to leave your lover
People love headlines that explain how to do something, promise a helpful list, ask a question, shock, highlight mistakes or hint at hidden knowledge.
2. Content
Your content is critical to successful SEO copywriting. Think about when you search for something. What are you looking for? Usually, you’re looking for helpful content that answers your questions.
Another biggie is being fresher than the Prince of Belair. You need to continually update your content as Google doesn’t enjoy the old and stale. Plus, people are more likely to click on up-to-date articles. Think those that include the year in the title.
You must also target longtail keywords, also known as keyword phrases. They should appear in your headline, and wherever seems natural throughout the body text. They should also appear in your compelling intro that entices the reader to continue.
Remember, you’re writing for the readers primarily.
The Google Panda update meant that shorter content suffered in the ranks. Therefore, you need to make sure your blogs and articles are long, i.e., at least 1000 words, detailed, and valuable.
Before writing your SEO content, you need to think about your ideal client avatar and double down on their problems. What are they struggling with right now? And how can you solve it? You also need to consider keyword intent, but more about that later.
3. Keyword frequency and density
Keyword frequency simply means how often your keywords appear in your content, while density means the ratio of the target keyword to the other words.
This subject has been a contentious issue for a while. When I started SEO copywriting at an agency, I remember being told strict parameters for the number of times each keyword should appear. And it was insanely high.
Although keywords are still essential, their frequency and density are no longer as important as they once were. As a result, Google now penalizes over-optimization, in other words, keyword stuffing or placing those darn things everywhere.
The general rule now is that keywords still matter, but don’t go overboard, as this can be harmful. Don’t mindlessly repeat keywords and aim for 5% or less on the density.
4. Meta description
Meta-descriptions don’t appear as part of the content but they’re essential for guiding the search engines. They help them understand the subject of the content and why the keywords appear.
A meta description is an HTML attribute that provides a short summary to the search engines about your page’s content.
Also, Google uses the meta description as a snippet that appears in the SERPS.
Your meta description should be 150 – 160 characters, and it usually looks like this:
To write a good meta-you need to understand the keyword intent. This is the primary purpose or reason behind the keywords. That said, you don’t necessarily need to include your exact keywords in the meta if it doesn’t read well.
Here’s a meta-checklist:
- Aim for fewer than 150 characters, including spaces, or 113 characters for mobile. Although if it makes sense, you can run over as in my example above. The ellipses might well tempt the user to click and read further.
- Craft a short description of the content and include a call to action to get those fingers clicking.
- Includes target keywords if they read well. When your target keywords appear in the description, they’ll appear in bold.
- Create fresh and exciting metas for each page as duplicates might upset Google.
Here are a couple of examples:
CBD company
Stressed, overwhelmed, tired? If you want to regain balance, add natural hemp CBD to your daily ritual. Choose from our soothing premium CBD products.
Length – 150 characters.
Telemedicine provider
Looking for expert health advice without needing to leave home? Choose an affordable, convenient video or phone appointment with qualified doctors.
Length – 147 characters.
The things an SEO copywriter can’t help with
Although we are magical, we can’t work miracles. Your website and content’s success depends on a ton of SEO factors that a copywriter doesn’t play a part in, including:
1. Site Speed
Site speed has been a ranking factor for over a decade. A worrying 40% of website visitors abandon pages if they take more than 3 seconds to load fully. Almost half of users expect web pages to load in two seconds or less. Two seconds is the standard load time for sites.
If your site speed is more tortoise than hare, you need to do some work. People have tiny attention spans, and if your pages load slowly, they’ll leave due to a poor user experience.
You can check your site load time with Pingdom’s website speed test.
How’s it looking?
If you need to improve your site speed, the GT Metrix site speed guide is a great place to start. It’s easy to use. Simply enter your URL and aim for a grade of C or above.
There’s also Google Page Speed Insights, but GT Metrix goes into better detail and gives suggestion on how to remedy performance bottle necks
And yes, if you want to sky-rocket your conversion, you need to have a healthy site speed.
2. Page Links
Google loves links. Links are the information highways of your website. Page links let Google know you’re connected and sociable and have valuable content that people enjoy.
When you use links to other authority sites and pages, it shows that you value quality info. This pleases Google, as its mission is to organize information and make it accessible. Therefore, when you contribute to the mission, Google rewards you.
Although a copywriter can help you by crafting well-researched and compelling content that links to other authority sites, they may not help you build your entire linking structure. So that’s something you need to consider.
Links should connect relevant pages within and outside your site and use appropriate anchor text that feels appropriate for the content.
Backlinks also matter. These incoming hyperlinks from another website to yours tell Google that other people approve and enjoy your content. And remember, any old backlink won’t do. They need to come from reputable, authority sites. So, avoid spammy backlinks like the plague.
Spammy backlinks? Yep, these are links to your page from low-quality, irrelevant websites with random, irrelevant anchor text.
3. Presentation
Generally, your copywriter has no control over what you do with the content once they hand it over. So, although a decent copywriter should submit correctly formatted copy, you still have a job to do.
For example, you must format your headers using the correct H1, H2, and H3 tags for SCO. These tags tell Google about the importance of the topic. H1 tags are the most important, followed by H2 and so on. You should have only one H1 tag on a page, usually as the main title. You can then use the other tags to arrange your content into correctly formatted subheadings.
Also, you need to use images, infographics, or videos to break up the text. No one enjoys reading a solid wall of text, and people will click away no matter how good it is. It’s a no-no.
4. Keyword research
You need a solid keyword strategy to reveal essential information to help you grow your business. Keyword research tells you the terms users are actively searching for, how competitive those words are, and can help guide your content marketing plan to boost your organic search visibility, rankings, and traffic.
It’s a complex business that I won’t go into in this post, only to say it doesn’t involve plucking words out of thin air. You need to consider metrics such as monthly traffic volume and competitiveness for your target keywords. Not all keywords are worth optimizing for, and there are some that you won’t stand a chance of ranking for depending on your domain authority.
When you start in-depth keyword research, you could end up with tens of thousands of keywords from the seeds. It can take days of research to narrow down the field to valuable keywords for which you stand a chance of ranking. But if keyword research is worth doing, it’s worth doing correctly.
5. Off-page Optimization
It’s your users who determine how valuable your content is, meaning that Google also considers off-page factors when it ranks your pages. Although some of these factors are out of your control, there are things you can do to help.
These include building engaged communities on social media, guest posting on other people’s sites, taking advantage of local SEO, and networking.
Hire an SEO copywriter for the win
Complex, isn’t it? Yes, you can learn to create amazing SEO optimized content, but it’s a time-consuming process, and there are lots of factors to consider. When you hire an SEO copywriter, they can take that work off your desk, leaving you to concentrate on your zone of genius.
If you want to hire an SEO copywriter, here I am. Send me a message. I’m always here to help.
0 Comments