SEO Copywriting Strategies

If you are like most internet marketers, you probably write most of your sites’ content yourself. It is likely that you have one or two people who contribute to your websites and blogs now and then. But nothing beats doing it yourself – if you have time. There are many ways to improve your SEO copywriting skills.

Some of these include getting expert coaching, testing for results, and simply experience. The process starts with understanding the company’s products/services, its strengths and weaknesses, as well as differentiating factors. Then, make it a point to emphasize the factors that make you unique from all others.

Make SEO Copywriting Simple

After awhile of experimenting with different SEO copywriting techniques, you’ll get a sense of what works for you and what doesn’t. Whether you are a professional marketer or just a beginner though, the following tips below can give you a solid foundation to get started:

Study the Competition – conducting a simple Google search will enable you to identify the strongest competitors in your niche. Use the most relevant keywords for your business and then examine the copy of the top ten sites on the search engine results page (SERP). Ask questions like:

• Do you have the same target market as these sites?
• If you have the same market, do you have the same offers? What do they have that you don’t and what do you have that they don’t?
• Does their website have an “authoritative” feel? Identify the factors that make it so if yes.
• Do you like their writing style?
• How effective is their copy in terms of conversion?
• Are they posting fresh content like blog posts, product reviews, and how-to articles?

SEO Copywriting Still Matters

Perform SWOT Analysis – it was mentioned earlier that you need to investigate the “differentiating” factors that make your company unique. It is recommended to go one step further though. By conducting SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats), you’ll get a thorough view not only about the business landscape but also on SEO best practices. Identify popular and interesting topics for website content and blog posts.

Send Your Message Across – become a master copywriter. Aside from writing well, it is also about satisfying the need and intensifying reader curiosity. Determine the top reasons why people will benefit from doing business with you and go from here. Make sure to send get the message across! This can be done through effective SEO copywriting.

Good copywriting can make a huge difference to your online success.

Use This Simple Formula To Write Your Own Winning Sales Copy to create great seo copywriting.

A website can be considered relatively successful if it receives several thousand visitors per month. But majority of websites will fail to reach that 1 million mark, even if they had been existing for years. So what differentiates sites like HubPages, which pulls in 39 million visitors a month, to similar sites that fail to match its number? While some of the company’s success ingredients will, of course, remain as their secret for some time, CEO Paul Edmondson shared 5 steps that have enabled the company to reach this height of success:

Optimise for the Search Engine – anyone engaged in internet marketing would know this already. So consider if the strategy you’re implementing is appropriate. For HubPages, they recruit freelance writers and allow these authors to create their own “hubs”. Sufficient support is given to guide contributors through the process. The HubPages platform encourages authors to include tags, links, and more content.

Identify Key Business Competencies – every business can develop a competitive edge. In the case of HubPages, the company has determined that “hubs” production by the authors and the appeal of revenue share is enough for many contributors to sign up. For every thousand of page views, contributors generate passive income from this model. The company also identifies how much revenie an author can pull in through “sophisticated micro-marketing”.

Create Acceptable Quality Standards – unlike other sites that scrutinises every detail of an author’s submission (syntax use, possible spelling mistakes, etc), HubPages allows contributors to writer what they want. But it has introduced mechanisms that will prevent spam, porn, and duplicate content from appearing on the websites. Though traffic significantly dropped (as much as 30%) after the mechanisms are introduced, both traffic and revenue started to grow over time. In addition, HubPages was able to establish itself as a reliable source of information.

Encourage Contributors to Public Popular Content – the company runs contests to encourage people to write about more popular topics. This will increase website revenue and the author’s earning potential. The platform also allows contributors to track their traffic.

Focus on the Needs of the Authors – by letting authors “own” their content and write what they want, the website has built a loyal base of writers. Goodwill in the community is also established because the company encourages interaction between authors through “following” and “complimenting” each other.

Interestingly, HubPages has noticed that three-year old content pages tend to be more popular in the search engines. In fact, the site saw a 140% increase in traffic over the last 12 months. And the company is just 4-years old!

Writing for online readers is very different from writing for an offline audience. A good article won’t necessarily be suitable for internet users. In the same way, a “successful” online article may not be that compelling when taken off the web. There are innate characteristics you should take into consideration when writing for an online audience. Keeping the principles of web marketing in mind is important. Below are some tips that will enable you to write articles that are more relevant to the target audience:

Know the Reader

Write and edit with the readers’ internet behaviour in mind. For example, usability tests reveal that readers tend to scan rather than read web pages. Because so much information is available, people who use the internet often tend to dig deeper to find information. This is unlike television viewers and print readers who passively take the information presented in front of them.

Think Different, Be Different

Literally all kinds of information are available on the internet these days. So think different. What will make you stand out? Find out the best story to tell and think of a compelling way to tell that story. Include videos, audios, graphics, links, etc. when appropriate. If necessary, collaborate with graphic artists and video producers to stress your point.

Customise News Gathering

Ask yourself, “What kind of website am I running?” TV reporters tend to look for sound bites and videos that capture emotion on camera. Journalists conduct research and interviews to find information. As a website owner, determine which type of medium will suit the audience best. It can come in the form of videos, audios, articles, or a combination of two or more of these methods.

Write Tightly

It is always best to write in active form when you’re talking to an online audience. The content should be tighter than print materials while at the same time it should be more detailed than short news reports. Use simple and declarative narration to avoid long clauses. Each conveyed idea should flow logically to the next. Keep in mind that it is important to use strong nouns and verbs to write a lively prose.

Take the Time to Explain

With other website owners scrambling to post the latest news on their website, you may feel pressure-bound to do the same. Yet, this 24/7 mentality might not get you anywhere. Speed is important but an even more critical factor is for readers to understand what’s going on. People want to know not only what happened but also why it matters to them.

Digital products are the “in” thing on the World Wide Web. In particular, ebooks have become particularly popular for a long time. However, no could have imagined how big the industry will be with the introduction of gadgets like the Amazon Kindle and the Apple iPad. Now it seems that the demand for information products will even be bigger. Now, for those who want to sell ebooks online, the question is: what should you write about?

The internet provides a deluge of easily accessible and free information. The ebooks you sell online needs to offer something unique in order to stand out. There are many factors to consider if you’re looking to launch an ebook. Some questions to ask include the following:

How sizable is the market for your product?

Is there actually a market for the product you’re interested in creating? One quick way to find out if there is a demand for your ebook is to conduct a simple keyword research. If there are a high number of searches related to the topic and its niches, then the next step would be to determine what information to give and how to distribute the product.

Do you know enough information on the topic?

It is one thing to be interested in a certain topic and it is quite another to know enough about it to write an ebook. If you want to pursue with this project and sell ebooks online, conducting research is important. It may also be a good idea to outsource the writing part of the project and concentrate on marketing it. Find distributors who are willing to sell your product for commissions.

What differentiates your product from the rest?

Can you produce a product that delivers superior value to customers? People won’t just hand over their hard-earned cash for something they’re unsure of. Be clear on what makes your product unique. The more beneficial it is, the more people will want to buy it. An added benefit would be people’s willingness to spread the word about your ebook.

How will you distribute the product?

Once the target market is identified and the product conceptualised, another concern would be the distribution method used. Ebooks are obviously sold on the internet but there are still many options. For example, you can optimise your site for certain keywords to rank well on the search engine. Choosing pay-per-click (PPC) advertising can also be considered. Then of course, you can also get affiliates who will sell your products at a commission.

It pays to answer these questions before launching an ebook in the market. It will help you maximise the profit when you sell ebooks online.

The internet has opened up a whole world of opportunities. However, with it come risks, scams, and fraud as well. It is important to protect yourself from these issues if you want to be successful online. While we are all familiar with security risks (ie. hacking, phishing scams, etc) seldom is the topic about unethical marketing discussed. Remember that this is a risk to your business as well.

Intellectual property and copyright are most vulnerable to abuse on the web. Literally anyone can take advantage of propriety information once it is posted online. Take the example of E. Brian Rose; he came up with a product known as the: Google News: Your Untapped Source for High Paying Keyword Traffic. It was highly successful. The problem is, someone else saw it’s potential and marketed it has his own.

Brian’s experience is not uncommon among internet marketers. In fact, a lot of unscrupulous individuals take the content of others, repackage it, and sell it as their own. Your ideas can be taken advantaged of right under your nose. If the shady individual is good enough, he may even make more money from your ideas than you.

There’s almost nothing you can do if someone else wants to rewrite your ideas. That’s why when you launch a product that contains propriety information or highly useful content, it is important to be sure that you are prepared for any eventuality.

From Brian’s account, this is an excerpt from his experience:

“I received a message from one of my students asking if I had anything to do with a new Google News course that is being sold for $497. My students pay just $19 or $29 a month for their membership, so clearly, this was not mine. The student sent me a link to the webinar where he had learned about this new course.

I watched the full two hour presentation and was floored by what I saw and heard. Well known Internet marketer X. introduced his good friend, Y., who was selling a product called “XYZ”.

It is essentially a course on how to get into Google News and profit from it. That was not the part that floored me, as I knew that I would not be the only one selling this method forever. The part that floored me was that Y. was claiming to be the only one on the planet that is teaching this method.

It is easy to think that Y. simply didn’t know about me or my course, but Y. bought my book in May 2010. He joined my support forum within a couple of days of purchasing the book. When I launched Google Red Carpet, Y. was one of the first students to sign up. He clearly knew that he was not the only person teaching these methods. He even named the webinar presentation ‘Top Secret New Method Revealed’.”

This is a bitter lesson for every marketer to learn but it is an essential one. When you post anything online, always be aware of its risks. Be proactive in promoting your products and ideas in every possible medium. Ultimately though, it all comes down to how viable the ideas are. If it shows a lot of potential, expect copycats.

Protect your content by including a legal form at the end. It should state that anyone who copies from your ideas directly can be liable for prosecution. Technology can also work to your advantage. Save all files in read-only formal preferably in PDF or similar other applications.

How does one go about writing good web copy? Some people will say that using proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation is a must. On the other hand, a dissenting view states that for sales copies to be effective, the writer needs to speak the customer’s language. So the rules regarding double negatives, commas, and sentence structure don’t really matter. But for a marketer, the question is simple, “Which rule should I follow?”

Let’s talk about writing smart web copies. The goal of any article, blog post, sales copy, or newsletter is to encourage the target market to take action. The “action” can come in the form of a purchase, sign-up, or referral. Whatever, the case, it is crucial to make the copy compelling enough to make them do it. Now, digging deeper, the key is to find out what “triggers” people to do something after reading your message.

It might fall under the market research category but it actually comes down to finding out what your target market really wants. Here, we will talk about translating your knowledge into content. Create a copy that will make a difference. “Dialogue” is a key ingredient in writing a web copy. When you look it up in the dictionary, it is defined as the “conversation between two or more individuals”. As a noun, it means “verbalisation” or “utterance” of opinions.

These descriptions describe exactly how the flow of conversation between you and your reader should be like. Instead of thinking of it as you telling them something, write the copy in such a way that it feels like a conversation. Only then will most people find your content interesting and worth reading. One way to determine if your writing offers good “dialogue” is if it reads easily out loud. Make it feel like the message is crafted especially for them. It is easier to gain their trust when the article feels like their friend or someone they personally know has written it.

So what about the tension between writing proper English and writing casually? There is no clear answer. It actually depends on the niche you’re in and the people reading your content. For example, if you’re marketing to truck drivers, factory workers, and other people in blue-collar jobs, then writing casually may be better. On the other hand, if your visitors are professors, researchers, and medical practitioners, they might appreciate reading in correct English more.

For the general reader though, people are not that discriminatory. As long as the content is easy to read, has a friendly tone, and sounds like a “dialogue”, there will be no complaints.