SEO copywriting technique is a special form of online writing. The content contains keywords that your target readers search on Google to find the information they want. Learning SEO copywriting helps your web content rank higher in search results, which helps drive more quality traffic to your site.
Therefore, SEO copywriting technique is quality writing. It shouldn’t, however, use keywords to make your content hard-to-read, sound repetitive, or lose its conversion focus. Typically, SEO copywriting is one aspect of the diverse field of search engine optimization.
A good overall SEO strategy uses wide-ranging tactics, such as link building, load speeds, mobile optimization, and content strategy techniques to make sure your website is mobile and user-friendly. This promotes the creation of unique and valuable content, while providing crucial details.
How Does SEO Copywriting Technique Differ From Traditional Copywriting Techniques?
The primary difference is that SEO copywriting technique focuses on keywords.
Typing keywords into popular search engines, such as Google, is what Internet users do every day. People type words into Google’s search box to find answers to their questions.
SEO copywriting is more than just adding keywords to make SEO friendly content. Google also wants authoritative and relevant content that fully answers your target audience’s questions and stands out from competing content.
Gone are the days when you could shove a bunch of keywords into content and still rank high on search results.
Search engines have become much smarter, and thus things have changed. Today, your content must be high quality for Google to put in the top spots. Also, your audience must respond to your content. Your content must be high quality and a valuable resource for your audience to enjoy. Something that entertains, educates, or enlightens your readers.
Further, you must write your content in a way that Google understands what the content is about. Knowing how to do this can help your content compete with other pages for ranking. That’s where the best SEO copywriting techniques come into play.
Where Should You Include SEO in Your Content?
You should aim to include SEO in the following places:
- Page title/header title;
- Subheadings;
- The URL address for each specific web page;
- Meta descriptions;
- Alt text on images; and
- Content body of your blog posts, landing pages, and product descriptions.
WordPress is often considered the best blogging platform for SEO, and you’ll find that there are many tools to help you optimize your content. Yoast SEO is one such plugin. It’s like a traffic-light system and it turns from red to green, informing you when you’ve included your primary keyword in enough places.
It’s imperative not to go overboard. As long as you’ve included your keyword into your content at least once and in heading/URL/meta descriptions, you should be good.
How to Perform Keyword Research for Effective SEO Copywriting?
Performing keyword research is an essential part of creating SEO-optimized content that drives organic traffic to your website. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to perform keyword research effectively for SEO copywriting:
1. Understand Your Target Audience
Before you start researching keywords, it’s important to have a deep understanding of your target audience. Ask yourself:
- Who is my ideal customer?
- What problems are they looking to solve?
- What specific language or terminology do they use to describe their needs? This will guide your keyword research in finding relevant phrases that your audience is likely to search for.
2. Use Keyword Research Tools
There are many keyword research tools available to help you find and analyze keywords. Some popular tools include:
- Google Keyword Planner: Provides keyword ideas and search volume data directly from Google.
- SEMrush: Offers comprehensive keyword research, competitor analysis, and keyword difficulty data.
- Ahrefs: Great for finding keywords and analyzing how your competitors rank.
- Moz Keyword Explorer: Helps discover new keywords and assess their ranking difficulty.
- Ubersuggest: A free tool that offers keyword suggestions, search volume, and competitor analysis.
Using these tools, you can gather keyword ideas, check their search volume, and analyze how difficult it will be to rank for specific keywords.
3. Brainstorm Seed Keywords
Start with a few basic or “seed” keywords that relate directly to your business or industry. For example, if you run a fitness website, your seed keywords might include terms like:
- “fitness tips”
- “workout routines”
- “weight loss plans”
Input these seed keywords into keyword research tools to generate a broader list of related keyword suggestions.
4. Focus on Long-Tail Keywords
Long-tail keywords are longer, more specific phrases that tend to have lower search volume but higher intent. They’re easier to rank for and often attract more qualified traffic. Examples of long-tail keywords include:
- “best home workout routines for beginners”
- “affordable personal training services in NYC”
These keywords may attract users who are further along in the buying cycle and more likely to convert. Using tools like Ubersuggest or Ahrefs, you can find long-tail variations of your seed keywords.
5. Analyze Keyword Metrics
When choosing keywords, it’s important to analyze the following key metrics:
- Search Volume: Indicates how many people are searching for a specific keyword each month. Aim for keywords with decent search volume to ensure your content reaches a larger audience.
- Keyword Difficulty: This metric measures how competitive it is to rank for a keyword. Tools like Ahrefs and Moz provide a difficulty score. Target keywords with lower difficulty, especially if your site is new or doesn’t have a high domain authority.
- Cost-Per-Click (CPC): Even if you aren’t running ads, CPC can indicate how valuable a keyword is. High CPC usually signals that the keyword attracts users who are likely to convert.
- Search Intent: Beyond volume and competition, focus on the search intent behind each keyword. Does the keyword indicate a user looking for information, products, or services? Matching content to the right search intent will improve rankings and conversions.
6. Analyze Competitors’ Keywords
Understanding which keywords your competitors rank for can give you insight into potential opportunities. Tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs allow you to enter a competitor’s website and discover the keywords they are targeting.
- Look for gaps: Identify high-traffic keywords your competitors are using but that you haven’t targeted yet.
- Evaluate keyword difficulty: Analyze how hard it will be to outrank competitors for certain keywords and adjust your strategy accordingly.
What Makes Good SEO Copywriting Technique?
It’s impossible to differentiate between good copywriting and good SEO copywriting techniques. That is because both techniques should be error-free, benefit focused, and appeal to your target reader. The only difference is that the SEO copywriting technique is optimized with the use of key phrases. The content should flow naturally, not be stuffed with keywords.
The Balance reports that current SEO focuses on tactics, such as making sure each content piece has appropriate title tags and the content is not ‘low quality’. High-quality content is authoritative, original, factual, grammatically correct, and resonates with the target readers.
Further, in reputable sites, SEO copywriting technique goes hand in hand with quality link building. According to WordStream, when it comes to SEO, your content is likely to rank higher for key phrases you’re targeting if you can get external sites to link to your content.
Your content strategy must think about interacting with other influencers and reputable sites on the web and social media, through guest blogging or networking.
Also, you can leverage a pay-per-click (PPC) strategy to complement your organic SEO. This means you can feature an ad to a specific key phrase on search engines and pay a fee every time someone clicks on it. This helps you to rank on the first page of search engines easily; however, it’s costly and is only effective as long as the ad is there. Thus, this technique doesn’t have the same longevity as an organic SEO copywriting technique that’s incorporated throughout your online presence.
What are Examples of Bad SEO Copywriting Technique?
According to The Balance, SEO has evolved significantly over the years. As mentioned above, during the early days of SEO, web designers would “stuff” key phrases into their content to improve search engine rankings.
Fortunately, smart business owners and copywriters know how to stay ahead of the curve and are aware that keyword stuffing won’t make their content rank higher on search engines results pages.
Poorly edited blog posts full of grammatical and spelling mistakes will be penalized by Google.
Final Thoughts
Typically, SEO copywriting technique is all about creating compelling, useful, and relevant content that targets specific key phrases so that your target audience will find it.
That improves the relevance and authority of your content, improving its ranking on Google for selected keywords. SEO copywriting technique helps you reach your target customers and solve their specific problems with high-quality content.
