Web copy has evolved from the “early days” of SEO. Back then (3-4 years ago) doorway pages were all the rage because they could be auto generated on the fly and were built to rank highly on the search engines.
The problem was that these pages, while highly ranking, did little to help convert visitors into buyers. In fact more often then not turned people off websites.
Today however search engines put much more stock into the content of page, not just counting occurrences of phrases but actually understanding what the page is about which is why effective web copy is even more important than ever.
Just what is effective?
Trying to balance the need for effective web copy that ranks well, as well as converts traffic is an ongoing task. This is because both the search engines and the site’s visitors change over time. A page you wrote today won’t likely be as effective a year or even six months from now.
In fact I know from experience that page rankings change monthly across most of the engines. A well optimized page that was re-optimized in May is just now starting to show good rankings while pages which haven’t been touched in more than six months are beginning to drop in the rankings. This is the cycle of the search engines. As they find content which they deem more effective they will gradually refresh the index, dumping those pages which aren’t as effective and replacing them with ones that are.
Effective copy is found on pages that both rank highly and helps convert visitors. That means they are written to rank but are compelling enough to encourage users to first click on the listing and then stay and read the page and click through to other pages, hopefully converting in the end.
Now I can’t tell you how to write effective copy but I can give you some tips on how to optimize it so it will rank. Therefore, if you are reading this to learn how to write I’m sorry I can’t help you.
This is because to me writing is just one of those things that come naturally. You can either write or you can’t. Mind you, you can practice and you will get better over time, but I wouldn’t expect that the average person can just sit down in front of the computer and bang out web copy at will. As I said, it takes time, trial and error to learn how to create effective web copy.
That being said, I can give you pointers on optimizing your copy to make it effective from the search engine point of view.
Step 1 – choosing keywords
There are two ways you can go about creating effective copy – the first involves creating content around keywords, while the second involves optimizing content after it is written.
Let’s start with the first type of SEO copy:
Writing Around Keywords
Often, you will have an idea of the keywords you’d like to position your site for, so you just need to have appropriate content to support it. That means writing around the words or phrases you have in mind.
To do this, I like to take a look at a few of the sites currently ranking for those phrases. These sites can give you an idea of the writing style that is used, as well as the approximate word count on the pages. Remember, its a combination of factors which got those pages to the top of the rankings, so analyzing them can help give you an idea of just how they got there.
Once I have a “feel” for what’s required, I begin writing. Sometimes I take a block of text from a ranking site and copy it to a document for reference. For example, if a government site is occupying a top spot and it has statistics relevant to what I’m about to write on, then I copy the stats into a document for later use.
One thing to be careful of is to NEVER EVER COPY directly. It is OK to copy and use as a reference but your pages should never be the same as someone else’s for many reasons including legal. If you are struggling creating your unique content consider hiring someone (I’m always available :) ).
As I said, if you can write, by now you should have a good idea what the tone and style of your writing should be, and you already know what keywords you are using so its a matter of doing it.
Like I said, I can’t tell you how to do it. I don’t even know how I do it. All I know is I can sit in front of a keyboard and the words start to spill out onto the screen via my fingers. Sometimes I can’t type fast enough to keep up with my racing brain.
In the end, though, I get a page there. I don’t always get the important keywords out in the first try, but that is ok. I go back and revise the page as needed. The important thing at this stage is to be sure your page emulates those pages already ranking.
Once the page is created (it could take only a few minutes, or it could take days depending on your creative ability, but don’t let that stop you – practice does make it easier) it is time to optimize it.
As a guideline I like to keep my pages between 400 and 500 words, with 2-3 occurrences of any given phrase. I also like to try and keep my pages to 2 or 3 phrases per page. For more details on the perfectly optimized page, be sure to read my other article on the topic of Perfectly Optimized Web Pages.
As with creating new content from scratch, you need to keep your keyphrases in mind when optimizing new or existing content.
Using the same guidelines as found in my Perfectly Optimized Web Pages article you can optimize your existing content around your chosen phrases.
Sometimes that means rewriting parts of the text, while other times it could be a matter of changing synonyms to the phrase you want to position for.
If you need to, now is a good time to split up larger pages into that 400-500 word range. This also gives you more pages to optimize for those phrases which helps show your authority status on that keyphrase to the search engines.
Know your audience
While nailing the tone and style of the currently ranking pages is key to helping you achieve rankings, it is equally important to write for your target audience to help them stay on your site, ultimately converting.
That means writing something that is compelling for them. But in order to do this you need to know just who they are.
As I mentioned in a previous article you want to be as detailed as you can in knowing your target customer. That means getting as much realism as you can into your profile. Don’t just settle with the demographics (ie. 30 year old male, 45,000 annual income) but get into the details as well – is he married or single? What kind of car does he drive? Does he own or rent? What does he look like? Answering all these questions to the best of your ability can help you write content that is compelling to this person.
Test your content
Once you’ve chosen your keywords and written and optimized your content it would be a good idea to test it out on some visitors.
What I’d recommend here is talking to your friends and family. If they fit the profile of your target audience then get them to browse through your site, making notes about things they liked and didn’t like as well as any improvement suggestions they have. A lot of the time these people will give you an accurate idea of your average target audience. A warning though, you may have to be a little thick skinned. But keep in mind that all the criticism is good for your site in the end.
The advantage of recruiting friends and family is that you get instant feedback – you don’t have to wait for the engines to re index and re rank the pages. While you could do this, and then monitor your analytics to note any changes, this process could take months.
There you have it – a somewhat brief introduction into effective web copy.
Granted it is difficult for me to tell you what effective is. Really it is up to you, the website owner, to know what is effective and what isn’t. And as I mentioned above, a good way to do that is get someone you know to give you an honest evaluation of your site.
It is also important to write for your target audience. If they prefer highly technical commentary, and lots of details then don’t be afraid to give it to them. If they prefer a story behind every product or service, then give them one.
Let me tell you a little story about effective copy. A while ago I was researching a purchase. I want to buy a big screen TV. My current TV is pretty small and old, so I thought it would be time to upgrade. While I could find tons of generic information on which type to get, when it came to the specifics I needed to help make the final decision on what make and model to buy I found the information greatly lacking.
While there was lots of this type of information out there, I found that the dozen or so sites that I visited had EXACTLY THE SAME INFORMATION. And worst of all, it wasn’t what I wanted. If I were to buy online it wasn’t going to be from one of these sites because they didn’t answer the questions I was asking. If they can’t answer my questions before purchase, what are they going to be like after the purchase?
Whatever you find that your target wants to see should be incorporated in your site. Because this is the only way to get these visitors to stay on your site once they’ve found it in the search engines.
Remember, getting your site found through effective SEO is only part of the equation. The real trick comes in the conversion cycle, and what it will take to turning visitors into buyers. One important element in this cycle is the effectiveness of your content.
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