Digital Lab

1 What is SEO Copywriting?

SEO copywriting is writing website copy that helps search engines like Google and Bing understand what your website is about. When you use the right keywords or phrases throughout your website content, search engines can easily understand your website’s offerings and show your website in their search results when people search for similar services or products.

So is SEO copywriting writing for the search bots?

No.

SEO copywriting is writing in a way that’s both search engine- and human-friendly.

Back in the nascent days of SEO, when businesses understood how SEO copy impacted rankings, they started repeating their keywords and phrases several times in their copy to maintain a certain “keyword density.” This enabled them to manipulate the search engine rankings. But as this good SEO practice evolved into keyword stuffing, search engines started penalizing webmasters who did it.

2 Why does your business website need SEO copywriting?

At 2Point, where we offer SEO copywriting services, we’ve seen that business websites that use the right SEO copy rank even for competitive keywords in competitive niches. What’s more, they do so even without investing too much in SEO.

And how is that possible?

That’s mainly possible because Google doesn’t discriminate as such in websites. Even if a relatively new website has a page with the best content/copy for a certain keyword and appears to be the most relevant resource for it, Google will rank it.

That makes every landing page on your website a chance to grab a bunch of organic leads. With that in mind, let’s look at how you can approach SEO copywriting and write landing pages that generate organic leads and boost conversions.

3 Step #1: Perform competitor analysis

The first step to SEO copywriting is performing competitor research, because SEO copywriting is fairly technical and not as creative as you might assume it to be. Your findings from this step work as the foundation for your SEO copywriting.

To perform competitor analysis, just Google the term you’d expect your users to use to search for you. For example, if you’re a biotech research business offering 3D cell culture testing services, search for terms like “3D cell culture testing services” or “3D cell culture modeling services” or just “cell modeling services” to see which competing websites rank well. Next:

• List each landing page that the high-ranking websites have and the primary term each targets. You, too, should create as many landing pages as you need to cover all your primary target keywords.
• Put your competitors’ copy into a word cloud tool like this one to discover the keywords they use. You need to use these too. Complement this keyword research with your own keyword research.
• Note the average length of the landing pages, the length and depth of the different service and product pages, and their structure.

4 Step #2: Write the copy

Now that you know how long your website copy should be and what primary and secondary keywords you need to use, you’re ready to get to the writing part.

Copywriting, unlike blog content writing, needs to move the readers to take a certain action. Even blog posts are optimized for conversions these days, but they differ. For example, from a blog post, you’ll refer your readers to your service pages. However, your service pages need to get them to hit the “Contact” or “Sign up” button. So your website copy — while being SEO-friendly — still needs to convert.

Here’s how you can outline your copy so it drives readers to work with you:

Start with a strong hero area. Write a clear headline, a subhead (your UVP), and a CTA button for your hero area.

Add a testimonial to offer social proof.

Add a section to explain your service’s features and benefits. Make sure to address the key pain points that your service resolves for your customers.

Add testimonials — again, for offering social proof.

Add a how-it-works section. Explain your product or service delivery process. If you have any FAQs, address them here.

Add a CTA section. Repeat your key call to action. (You can have multiple CTA sections throughout your copy.)

If you aren’t a copywriter, it’s best to use web copy frameworks or formulas to support your SEO copywriting; they offer a conversion-friendly structure to build your messaging.

5 Step #3: Review your copy for on-page SEO

Once you’ve written your copy, make sure that it uses your target keywords in all the important on-page SEO elements:

• Do you have your primary keyword in the title of your page?
• Do you have your primary keyword in a bunch of subheads on your page?
• Do you have your primary and secondary keywords placed adequately within your page copy?
• Does your page URL have your primary keyword or phrase?
• Do you have an SEO-friendly meta-description?

Wrapping it up…

SEO copywriting is more than simply inserting keywords into every sentence of the copy. You have to craft each word carefully to ensure that it’s relevant to both the search engines and your target audience.

The right SEO copy doesn’t just make you more discoverable in search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo! but also moves your business metrics such as conversions.

If you’re looking for SEO copywriting services that work, check out 2Point. Our copywriters use proven SEO copywriting frameworks that don’t just result in organic lead generation but also conversions.