What is SEO copywriting all about? Is it at all different from traditional copywriting? After all both of them involves writing good copies! As a novice writer this was a question that often plagued me and I wondered how both forms of writing were different? Are you a new writer in the field? If you have similar doubts then let me enlighten you about a few basic differences between SEO copywriting and traditional copywriting.
First and foremost remember SEO copywriting is essentially a marketing ploy. So unlike conventional writing, in SEO, the writing does not begin with conventional mode of idea generation. Rather it starts with research of the keywords. Keywords are basically terms by using which the readers search your services or services similar to those offered by you. So while writing an SEO copy you should begin framing your article from the keywords.
While writing an SEO copy it is very crucial to understand the demands of the target market (the customer’s psychology and its co relation with the features of the product or service being written about) and accordingly include the right density of keywords in the right places. This will allow you to attract your target reader. Having said that it is also essential to mention the fact that the target reader will hold your site in high esteem only if the information is relevant and valuable. Therefore the topic of your article’s subject needs to be relevant to the keywords and provide valuable information about the topic. For instance if your topic is content writing services you can frame an article about “Benefits of Content Writing Services” or “Why Should You Hire Professional Content Writing Services?” and provide informative content about the same.
Keywords are important, but over stuffing your copy with keywords will not help and it will be considered to be spamming. The readability of a website is what makes it popular and viable in business terms. Thus, to make a good, catchy webpage, the prose should be good, lucid and fluent and without any spelling or grammatical errors.
A good SEO copy should always speak directly to the target audience, grabbing their attention within a minute and leading them to some immediate decision. So what are the factors that make a good SEO copy and demarcate it from traditional copywriting?
1. Always keep in mind to include the key phrases of your SEO copy and add them to your title tag.
2. In an SEO copy headlines are very important. Try to make them catchy and include a brief idea of your subject because often the header is all that the visitor notices before going through your copy.
3. Always keep the target audience in mind when you are writing an SEO copy. Add your keywords and phrases in a bulleted list to emphasize the content of your webpage. Also format the keywords by highlighting or hyper linking them so as to always keep the main subject in view.
4. Have a clear concept and idea of your subject that you are writing about. Your article needs to be informative and explain the facts clearly. Remember even if you manage to get many visitors through search-engines by adequately using keywords, you won’t benefit from them if they click away from your website because it is not well-written. So keep your copy simple, compact and effective.
5. Unlike conventional copy an SEO copy needs to address to the reader directly.
To sum up SEO copy and traditional web copy writing are similar as both of them aim to provide informative and well written content. However in case of SEO copy, the content is provided with an intention of drawing traffic and so it incorporates relevant key phrases within its body.
