Boosting your SEO should be a top priority when writing digital copy for blogs, articles, and web pages. Why? Because it increases your chances of driving traffic through organic searches on platforms like Google and Bing, as opposed to using sponsored or paid advertisements. To learn more, keep reading the below blog.
Table of Contents
- Section One: What is SEO?
- Section Two: The Importance of Copywriting
- Section Three: SEO Keywords
- Section Four: The Role of Internal and External Links in SEO
- Section Five: Extras
- Final Thoughts
What is SEO?
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is a set of practices for improving the quality and quantity of traffic to a website through organic results from search engines like Google or Yahoo. These search engines use bots to gather information about online content, such as company websites, news articles, images, and videos. They then apply complex algorithms to select the content that most closely corresponds to the keywords used in searches.
The two greatest determining factors in what appears at the top in search results are relevance and authority. Relevance is determined through the scrutinizing of content based on factors including where and how often certain keywords are used. Authority is measured by the number of links directing to the content and the trustworthiness of those links.
The results that search engines deem most relevant and authoritative are found through organic searches — not sponsored or paid advertisements. The point of incorporating SEO copy in your site is to improve your organic search rankings. If your content appears on the first page of search results, people are more likely to see it.
The Importance of SEO Copywriting
One of the fundamental means of achieving search engine optimized content is through copywriting. Copywriting is the creation of written content that calls readers to take a specific action, such as buying a product or subscribing to a newsletter. At the end of every SpeakClear blog post, we include a call to action (CTA) line of some sort, such as subscribing to our newsletter or contacting us for more information. Including a CTA is a best practice for almost all marketing content, from blogs, to webpages, to videos, to datasheets.
SEO copywriting incorporates both relevance and authority through the use of keywords and hyperlinks. You can improve your SEO through the correct keywords and judicious placement of links to both your own content and external content.
SEO Keywords
Keywords play the most essential role in SEO, as they are what search engine bots use to determine relevance. However, just sprinkling keywords throughout your content is not enough to boost your SEO. There are several factors to keep in mind as you determine what keywords to use, and how to use them.
Intent
People tend to use search keywords for three reasons: to learn more about something (informational), to visit a specific website (navigational), or to buy a product or service (transactional). Knowing which reason matches your goal will help you align your keywords with the intent of your target audience. For example, if you are selling a product, it would be best to include words or phrases that your audience might use when looking for a product like yours — such as their pain point or your general product category.
Research
Before you can begin to incorporate keywords to generate SEO traffic to your website, you need to do keyword research. This tells you which keywords and key phrases are most likely to boost your status among organic search results. It is best to find keyword niches where a high amount of searches already occur. While there may be more competition for these keywords, there is also a greater likelihood of a match between what the searchers are looking for and what you are offering.
One way to research keywords is to scroll to the “related searches” at the bottom of the search engine (such as Google, in the example below). These suggestions give you insights into what your audience is searching for in terms of commonly used words and phrases.
Frequency
Once you know which keywords to use, you need to know where and how to use them in your content. It is best to use them frequently throughout your content, but also important to avoid sounding stilted or overly repetitive.
For example, on speakclear.org, you will find the keyword “media” approximately 70 times spread throughout the website. The same rule applies for a single piece of content, such as a blog post. Within this blog post, you will find “SEO” mentioned approximately 25 times. This frequent mention increases the chance of this post being found relevant by search engine bots when someone searches “how to boost SEO.”
Although, make sure not to “keyword stuff” or “over-optimize” by incorporating your keyword over and over again. It needs to flow in a cohesive manner. Otherwise, Google overlooks it due to its recent Panda 4.1 update, which penalizes poor content from ranking well — and even if someone stumbles across it, they’re less likely to stick around if your copy is poorly written.
Placement
Placement of keywords within your content or website is also important. The earlier you incorporate your top keyword or key phrase, the higher the chance Google will decide your content is pertinent to searches for that keyword. In just the introduction of this blog, the keyword “SEO” is mentioned 3 times. This tells search engine bots exactly what this blog discusses and where it should fall in the relevance.
The Role of Internal and External Links in SEO
Including links to other sites or pages within your content can greatly boost your SEO. As long as the external pages are relevant to your content and support your claims, including hyperlinks helps show search engines that you are reliable and trustworthy.
For example, you can link to more detailed descriptions of something you briefly mention, or link to other pages on your website. There are approximately 15 links embedded within this blog post. Five of these are links to other pages on the SpeakClear website and the rest link to information sources or more in-depth perspectives on the particular topic referenced.
Also, having external sites link to your page is an easy and excellent way to boost your SEO. It establishes with Google that you are a trustworthy site. It can be helpful to partner with another company that offers complementary services or products, to feature links to each other’s content.
Extras
Headline
Having the perfect headline plays a fundamental role in both SEO and user attraction. Regardless of your search placement, if you have an attractive headline, you will see an increase in organic visitors to your site.
Headlines with numbers, like in SpeakClear’s “5 LinkedIn Post Ideas to Boost Your Engagement” article, do particularly well in attracting readers. Numbers capture a reader’s attention as well as informing them and Google exactly what the copy is discussing. If numbers are not applicable, focus on conveying a specific idea that will best resonate with your target audience.
Headings
Headings break up your copy and structure it for readers. Identified as h1-h6, heading tags enlarge your font size, making it clear to readers what the next section of the copy discusses. Within this blog post, the larger headings (“Keywords,” “Internal and External Links,” etc.) are classified as h2, while the subheadings under each (“Intent,” “Headline,” etc.) are h6. This allows easy navigation throughout the content as well as informing Google about the specifics of your page.
Alt Text for Pictures
When you insert a picture into your copy, there is often an option to add alt text for the image. Doing this boosts your SEO by encouraging search engines to look at your images in addition to your copy. It also increases the chance of your being featured higher on Google Images.
Meta Description
A meta description is the snippet under the headline which appears when you search for keywords. It is an HTML attribute which concisely explains to search engines what your content is. Typically 150-160 characters (including spaces), the short description should include what the page is about and include a call to action to entice searchers to visit it.
Be sure to include keywords to boost your SEO in addition to letting searchers know your page is relevant to them. Also, the description for each page of your website should be different; otherwise, they are overlooked and flagged by Google.
Final Thoughts
SEO plays a crucial role in attracting a higher quality and quantity of visitors to your site through organic searches. Through the use of keywords, hyperlinks, meta descriptions, and more in your copywriting, you can boost your content’s SEO. Fresh and current SEO content attracts search engines the most, so be sure to consistently update your site.
For further assistance on generating high quality SEO for your site, contact our experts.
