Category Archives: SEO

My thoughts on SEO Content Writing

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Recently a client approached me with a requirement of hundred articles for his various products and he needed me to write a small sample to help him make up his mind. Generally I don’t send samples because there are enough samples on my website but sometimes the requirement is unique enough to warrant a sample and in such cases I don’t mind providing it. He liked the sample a lot and then asked me whether I could provide him SEO content. I told him that the sample article that I had sent him was in fact an optimized article and he should get some good traffic for the chosen keyword. He was quite amused and happy that I had sent him an “SEO article” even when he hadn’t asked for one.

Although elsewhere I have explained the difference between normal content and SEO content if you ask me, frankly every well-written article is a search engine optimized article. Still, there is some difference when the relevant keywords come in focus. Clients often ask for a percentage density for the keywords of their choice. For instance many clients want the density of the keywords to be around 3% to 4%; this means of the total number of words existing on a page the keyword should take up 3% to 4% of the total number. Does it matter?

Nobody is sure. What matters is the relevance. Using the right words you need to explain the right thing. For instance if I want to talk about SEO content and if I want people to find my page that talks about SEO content then I should use this phrase at least a few times on that page. This has to be done till the semantics used in search engine ranking algorithms become highly intelligent. They have already improved a lot but you still have to use the exact keywords. Here I would quickly like to add that sometimes when you are looking for a writer Google also shows the results that contain the word “writing”.

So how do you create SEO content?

  • Use the keywords: If you want to be found for a particular keyword then you have to use the keyword on the webpage but you shouldn’t overdo it because that proves counter-productive. Instead organize your content in such a manner that your important keywords get highlighted naturally.
  • Organize your content logically and highlight important portions: This is very important especially when you are writing for web pages. The reading on your webpage should be as seamless as possible. Highlight the most important portions of your content using headings, subheadings and bullets. Use your keywords in headings, subheadings and bullets. Repeat your important key phrases and keywords at least once or twice in the first paragraph and definitely include your keywords in the title of your page.
  • Stay away from creating abstract text: Being a writer I love literary experiments but not at the cost of my clients. When you are writing copy, SEO content, use precise phrases and use the exact words. Straightaway say what you mean to say and never leave scope for confusion. Why is it necessary to stay away from abstract style of writing? Straight writing is friendlier towards both your human readers and search engine crawlers; they can easily make out what you’re trying to sell and what you’re trying to promote.
  • Research your keywords: It is very important to know for what keywords you want a particular webpage or the entire website to be found on the search engines. For instance if I want my website to be found for the term online copywriter then I must optimize my content for this particular phrase. But then I need to be sure whether people looking for me use this expression or not; maybe they are using something totally different that I am not aware of. So I have to find the keywords and key phrases that are actually being used and shouldn’t optimize my content for the keywords that I think people must be using. In fact researching your keywords should be the first step you should take before starting to generate optimized content for your website or blog.

SEO tips you should know as an online copywriter

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As an online copywriter you not only have to write well you also have to write search engine friendly content because the search engine crawlers are as important as human visitors for every website and blog. You have to make sure that your content is easily accessible to the search engine crawlers and most of your pages are index and ranked for the right keywords.

This can be really difficult if you have no clue about what sort of search terms users are using to find the website or blog you are writing for. You can use your common sense, advice from your visitors and friends and keyword analysis tools like WordTracker and AdWords to find out all keyword combinations and phrases that you may prefer to optimize your content for.

Once you have made a list of relevant keywords and key phrases you start building your content around them and this is where SEO tips can come handy for you as an online copywriter. Here are a few things you can take care of while generating content for your website or blog:

Create highly relevant content

It is a misconception that if you use your keywords in your copy again and again it will fetch you higher search engine rankings. Of course the keywords and key phrases must be present on the page in order to get some ranking for that page but they don’t have to occur needlessly. As an online copywriter you should know how to creatively use keywords and key phrases to come up with compelling and interesting copy. Stick to the topic, don’t write less and don’t write more than required and stick to the subject; this is very important for SEO. Nothing compares to relevance.

Use keywords and key phrases in the title

The title is a unique identity for your webpage; it tells both your human visitors and the search engines what sort of information that page gives. By merely looking at the title people should be able to make out whether they want to read your webpage or not. The title of your webpage also appears wherever its link appears; for instance, if somebody sees your link on the search engine result page he or she will see that link with your page title as the hyperlink. And they are more prone to clicking the link if they see the expression they have just used do conduct the search.

Even if some other blogger or website publisher links to that page there is a great possibility that he or she will use your title as the hyperlink. So you can easily make out how important it is to have a unique page title for every page on your website.

Use headings, subheadings and bullets to organize your content

Headings, subheadings and bullets help you organize your content logically and it is easier to quickly go through your webpage both for human visitors and search engine crawlers. When a particular webpage is being crawled your headings, subheadings and bullets are closely considered and checked for relevant keywords and key phrases. They basically sum up the entire message of your webpage and in fact a person should be able to make out 50% of your message by simply going through your headings, subheadings and bullets.

Focus on the main points in the beginning itself

People are in a great hurry on the Internet. They don’t want to read the entire page in order to make out what you intend to say. They would rather read the first headline or the first paragraph and if they cannot make out what the page represents they quickly leave to explore other websites. Hence it is extremely important that you come to the main point as early as possible and most preferably in the first paragraph. This also gives you a chance to use your important keywords and key phrases in the beginning of the webpage without sounding spammy. Webpage crawlers generally don’t go through the entire page; they read the first 250-300 words and then move on to the next page. So the expression "save the best for last" doesn’t hold good for an online copywriter who intends to write SEO content.

Do lots of interlinking

This doesn’t come under the realm of copywriting but wherever possible link to other pages under the same domain because it helps the search engine crawlers find other pages easily. A network of interlinking makes every page under your website or blog indexable.

SEO is not merely an online copywriter’ job because it also involves tweaking the source code and including the necessary meta tags. But as an aware online copywriter with little study and learning you can provide complete SEO services to your clients besides writing content for them.