This article focuses on how to rank well in search engines through search engine optimization, while also maintaining the quality of your SEO copywriting.
If you’ve ever written for the web, you definitely know that search engines play some role in web copy traffic. SEO copywriting can maximize the number of visitors you receive from search engines, simply because visitors are using the keyword phrase of your article to search for content.
However, while ranking well on search engines does have its benefits, you can’t ignore your readers either. You still need to provide quality content in your SEO web copy to build trust, credibility and keep your readers coming back for more.
What is SEO copywriting for the web?
SEO web copy is web content optimized for search engine bots to increase your rankings on major search engines, like Google. By taking advantage of SEO web content writing tactics, search engines can better categorize your articles.
As your SEO articles climb higher and higher in search engine rankings, the exposure of each article increases and more visitors will see your content. The more traffic you receive, the more money you make, whether you intend to earn it from ads, affiliate sales, a product you created or your own services.
Many entrepreneurs, however, focus a little bit more on SEO, which can be a mistake if their readers are neglected. The purpose of this article is to teach you how to maximize your traffic from search engines, while also satisfying your readers and maintaining quality content.
Finding Keywords for Your SEO Web Copy
For any SEO web copy you write, you’ll need to research potential keywords to include in each article, whether you’re writing for yourself, for another company or client.
Many people use Google’s keyword tool to search for profitable keywords. When using this search tool, you’ll want to find keywords with a decent amount of global monthly search traffic (over 5,000 visitors), since it will be hard to receive much traffic from anything lower than 5,000 visitors if you rank well for the keyword phrase.
You’ll also want to make sure that the keyword phrases you use have few competing websites also trying to rank for those keywords. To do this, determine the Keyword Effectiveness Index (KEI), according to Michael Fleischner, marketing professional and author of the ‘book SEO Made Simple’.
What does this really mean?
The KEI or Keyword Effectiveness Index is actually a formula which helps compare the number of searches for the terms or word with the number of competitive pages. This Index points out which keywords have the higher search with lowest ranking competition which can be the most effective for your campaign.
The process is simple
To begin with, find the KEI of a certain keyword by first doing a search for the keyword phrase you want to use in your SEO Web Copy. Then, search for the keyword phrase on a search engine you prefer, whether it is on Google, or any other search engine. Finally, divide the number of global monthly visitors by the number of websites in the search results (these websites are competing for your keyword phrase).
A KEI greater than 1 is a good number, since fewer competitors are trying to rank for the keyword phrase, and you have a good chance of ranking well for the search term. Any keyword phrases with a KEI of less than 1 will be harder to rank well with, and you should find another keyword phrase to use in your SEO article.
Let’s take, for example, a hypothetical number of 300 searches a month for your specific keyword. Google shows 225.400 results based on that keyword. To understand the ratio of competitive pages versus popularity, just take the 300 and divide it by 225,400. The result is 0.0013, such a low KEI meaning that specific keyword is, most likely, NOT a good one for you to go for.
If you’re having trouble finding a good keyword phrase with lesser competition, try breaking up the phrase into smaller categories. For example, instead of using the keyword phrase “dog treats,” try using “cheap dog treats” or “nutritional dog treats”.
Maintaining quality in SEO web copy
As mentioned earlier, you need to write quality articles for the web copy to be any good. After all, why should readers read what you say and buy into the information you provide if you’re only writing for search engines? Put your readers before search engines and make sure that your SEO web copy sounds natural.
A good way to do this is to limit your keyword density to less than five percent. To determine the keyword density, just divide the number of keyword phrases used in the SEO web copy by the number of total words in the entire article. Then, multiply the resulting number by 100 to get the percentage.
According to Brian Clark, founder of CopyBlogger:
“The only way to tell if your repetition of keywords is super or spammy is to measure that frequency against the overall length of the content. A keyword density greater than 5.5% could make you guilty of keyword stuffing and your page could be penalized by Google. You don’t need to mindlessly repeat keywords to optimize. In fact, if you do, you’re likely to achieve the opposite result.”.
Backlinking SEO articles
Major search engines also look at how many links are pointing to your articles, so it’s a good idea to backlink your SEO web copy to increase search engine rankings. To do this, here are some “hints” for linking based on generally accepted best practices:
- Link back to relevant inner pages of your site or other sites.
- Learn from the biggest brands in your industry what kind of anchor texts that work for a long-term perspective …Keep it natural.
- Link “fairly early” back to relevant content in the body copy.
- Link back to relevant webpages approximately every 120 words of content.
You might also receive backlinks naturally if your SEO web copy provides the highest quality content. Natural backlinks are better than backlinks you create since people who are genuinely interested in your content will want to talk about it and share it with others.
These SEO tactics are obviously not the only ones to help increase your traffic, but they are certainly among the well-known to significantly influence the ranking by major search engines and help drive more traffic to your website. Therefore, by considering them, you stand the best chance of considerably optimizing the ranking of your website and build your traffic flow.
Jacob M. is a copywriter, marketing blogger, and inbound marketing consultant.