SEO copywriting is harder than it looks
When I first started working as a website copywriter, I knew relatively little about search engine optimization (SEO). I understood that keywords could open the door to search engine traffic, but I didn’t realize just how much effort was involved in successfully finding and implementing those keywords using SEO.
In hindsight, I entered the SEO copywriting niche almost by accident. Back then, I provided general copywriting services for online and for print. As I settled into my newfound profession and increasingly focused on web content writing, I noticed that I was receiving more and more requests for “keyword articles.”
The premise was simple: Write an article (or ten) and use a particular keyword or keyword phrase a predetermined number of times. Some clients wanted the keyword to appear five times in an article. Others specified that the keyword must appear in bold, headings, italics, or near the beginning of a paragraph. Often, the keyword also had to be included in the title.
These assignments made me curious, so I started researching SEO to better understand my clients’ goals. After realizing how SEO could positively impact traffic to a website, I started testing SEO copywriting on my own sites, and finding the endeavor successful, I eventually added SEO services to my repertoire.
What is SEO Copywriting?
SEO copywriting is the practice of writing material for online publication. It includes strategically placed keywords in order to attract traffic from search engines. The most targeted search engine is Google.
Ideally, extensive research is conducted to determine which keywords are a good fit for the website to which you want to draw traffic. This should be done before the SEO copy is written.
Also, there should be a strategy for implementing the keywords not just in the copy, but in the website’s code.
Understanding Keywords
Many business owners request written copy for their website and when asked about keywords, they just list keywords off the cuff, without truly understanding that in website copywriting, a keyword is more than a word from the dictionary that relates to your website or your business.
For example, a restaurant owner might suggest the keyword “food.” I don’t even have to research this keyword to know that it’s highly competitive, and it would probably be impossible for a small business to rank on a search engine for this keyword. Also, it’s extremely nonspecific. Folks searching for “food” could be looking for a grocery store, recipes, or nutrition information. In fact, I’d guess it’s quite unlikely that a searcher looking for “food” is actually seeking a restaurant.
Keywords can’t be pulled out of thin air, and website or business owners should never make assumptions about keywords. Take an entrepreneur who calls herself a beautician. She’s attached to that title and requests it as a keyword in her site without doing any research. Would she be interested to learn that the keyword “beautician” generates about 110,000 searches per month through Google alone?
How would she feel about her keyword choice if she learned that “hairstylist” gets 165,000 searches a month? Or if she were to discover that “hair stylist” (two words) gets 368,000 searches?
Imagine her surprise when she finds out that “hairdresser” is searched 823,000 times a month.
Which keyword should she use?
Keywords, SEO, and Assumptions
It’s easy to assume that the beautician should target the keyword “hairdresser” because it gets the most searches. However, a good SEO specialist continues to ask questions.
- How competitive is the keyword?
- How much research, copywriting, and other resources will it take to rank for this keyword?
- Can my business handle the amount of traffic that this keyword could potentially draw?
A large chain of salons might have the budget and resources to hire an extensive SEO campaign in the tens of thousands of dollars. Such a chain could also handle the number of customers that a massive campaign could attract.
However, an independent, self-employed beautician may prefer another strategy. It could be more beneficial to rank high for a beautician-related keyword that gets a lower number of searches and for which it will take less time and resources to achieve high rankings. This is especially true if she is intent on remaining independent and cannot handle a clientele roster that numbers in the tens (or hundreds) of thousands.
The Art of SEO Copywriting
The actual practice of SEO copywriting involves writing copy that contains keywords. This is neither as simple nor as straightforward as it sounds.
A good copywriter knows that the first priority is to create copy that compels. That means understanding the primary intent. Should this copy incite website visitors to buy a product? Encourage them to hire someone for a service? Register for membership? Click to another page?
Compelling copywriting is clear and easy to read. It speaks to the target customer and it is concise. Usually, it’s formatted to be scanable. Often, it’s balanced with descriptive and interesting images (or video).
Keywords have to fit into good copywriting, which requires a significant aptitude for writing. If you build copy around keywords, then the copy will be keyword-driven rather than customer-oriented. A talented or skillful SEO copywriter knows how to work keywords into great copy, much like a chef works herbs and spices into a gourmet recipe.
Hiring an SEO Copywriter
The goal of SEO copywriting is to increase a website’s rank in search engine results pages (SERPs). A professional SEO copywriter understands this and wants her clients to succeed.
A good SEO copywriter may or may not provide keyword research and other SEO services. Some copywriters only do the writing. However, any professional SEO copywriter should have a thorough understanding of how SEO works.
When you hire a copywriter, you may already have a list of keywords. Perhaps you hired a professional SEO and just need someone to write the copy. Or maybe your site has been optimized for some time and now you just want to update the written content.
In any case, both an SEO copywriter and a client should understand that SEO is not as simple as plucking keywords from one’s vocabulary and then casually strewing them throughout the written copy.
Online marketing: think like your customer
With all the available outlets for online marketing, many small business owners are confused and overwhelmed. There are blogs to post, social media profiles to update, and newsletters to send out. Coupons, directories, search engines, ads. The online marketing strategies you’re supposed to be engaged in never end.
To make matters worse, small business owners have a hard time latching on to a clear and meaningful message. Their websites are full of industry jargon that customers can’t relate to. Their tweets are self-indulgent braggery (we’re number one!) or pleas (please buy from us!). They’re increasingly being seduced by wily SEO firms that promise “Number One Ranking for Over 500 Keywords!,” a promise that may be fulfilled but is unlikely to bring new customers to the business.
The entire purpose of online marketing is to reach out to your prospective customers and attract them to your business. So, why aren’t more small business owners thinking like customers?
Whether you’re running your own online marketing campaigns or hiring consultants and marketing firms to handle them for you, it’s essential to look at your business from the customer’s perspective so you can make smart decisions about how to spend your time and money.
Step Into Your Customers’ Shoes
What do your prospective customers want? What problems are they facing, and how do your products and services solve those problems? What makes your business the best one to patronize? Most importantly, how are your target customers using the web?
These are simple questions that any small business should be able to answer without second thought. In fact, if you’re already in business or if you’ve started laying the groundwork for your small business, then these are a few of the first questions you should have addressed in your business plan.
But all business owners lapse into industry thinking. We get caught up in our own fields of expertise. We forget that the consumer sees from a different point of view and speaks a completely different language. Take the website designer who gushes about his clean code or the restaurant that taunts its new, industrial oven. Customers don’t care about that stuff. They want to know the designer can build a sharp looking website and the restaurant serves up tasty food. They don’t care what code or ovens these businesses use.
The best online marketing campaigns speak to customers from the customers’ own perspective. Once you step into your customers’ shoes, you’ll be able to craft a clear and meaningful message that speaks to them, and you’ll be able to create quality content for your online marketing campaigns.
Using Your Expertise and Experience
One of the most overlooked facets of online marketing is expertise. A realtor knows the ins and outs of the real estate market, knows about home loans, escrows, and can tell you every step involved in the process of buying or selling a house. But first-time home buyers (or sellers) have no idea what they’re getting into. So, a realtor’s online marketing content can bring value to prospective customers by publishing tips that clearly explain the processes in laymen’s terms.
You’re a pro at what you do, but your customers are novices. Don’t ever forget that. In addition to the products and services that you sell, you can give away your knowledge (advice) to make the customer’s experience more pleasurable. Let’s say you’re an electrician. You can just go to people’s houses and fix their wiring or you can leave a lasting impression and give your customers a branded flyer that offers some tips on how they can maintain their electrical devices. Now, post those tips to your website and you’ve just added some useful content for your website visitors.
And the grateful public will respond. Whatever your profession, you have acquired expertise and experience. It’s likely that your knowledge about your industry has become so second nature that you take it for granted. So, if you can step back and look at things from a novice’s prospective, you’ll find that in addition to your products and services, you possess knowledge that has value.
The Inside Scoop
On Facebook, a local restaurant can regularly post updates about their menu and specials. Anyone who “likes” the restaurant will get the inside scoop on special meals and sweet deals. A popular performer (comedian, musician, etc.) can set up a newsletter letting fans know about secret or low-profile scheduled appearances.
These types of communications achieve two things. First, they make customers feel like they are in the know, or in on a good secret. Second, they encourage buzz. When customers have “secret” information that their friends and family don’t have, they’re more likely to share that information. Broadcast a commercial on television and they’ll assume everybody knows about your big, Labor Day sale. But utter a secret deal to your subscribers or followers and they’ll go out of their way to spread your message for you.
For a small business, the best customer is a loyal customer. These are not only the customers that come back again and again, they’re also the customers that run around telling all their friends how great you are. They send you a lot of referrals. The most loyal customers are the ones that follow your business or post positive ratings and reviews. Reward these customers and they’ll not only continue to patronize your business, they’ll bring their friends and families with them.
Case Studies and Storytelling
Too many businesses talk about their products and services from a technical perspective. Instead, you need to think of your products and services as solutions. And you also need to think of your customers as people with problems — problems that need solutions. Now, all you have to do is explain to your customers how you can solve their problems. One of the most effective ways to do this is through case studies and storytelling.
Our friend the electrician has a website that lists all of his skills and services. He does residential and commercial, he can replace and upgrade electrical components, he offers energy-saving solutions, retrofitting, troubleshooting, and installation. Most of his services are useful but they way he’s explained them on his website mean nothing to the average consumer.
The electrician should certainly list these services somewhere on his site, but the front page needs to help visitors understand what he’s offering by telling a story: Power outlets not working? Did you know faulty wiring and broken outlets can be a safety hazard? I’m here to help keep your family safe and make sure your electrical wiring works.
Once you’ve been in business for a few years, you’ll have some stories to tell. You’ll have stories about customers who benefited greatly from doing business with you and stories about customers who suffered because they didn’t. In the meantime, be creative. Use storytelling to show (not tell) people how your business offerings will improve their lives.
Online Marketing for Customers
Building an effective online marketing campaign can have an exponential impact on the growth of your business. Think like a customer to create engaging and meaningful content, then use social networking, blogging, and other online marketing efforts to bring visitors to your site and then convert them into customers.
How the website copywriting process works
I’ve already touched on the basics of website copywriting. Now, I’d like to present a more elaborate explanation of exactly what website copywriting entails.
Why should I do such a thing?
For starters, I think it’s only fair that my clients understand what I do for them, what they’re paying me for, and how I handle their projects.
Also, I’m discomforted by the idea that some small businesses are paying for website copy that’s thrown together in a matter of minutes. That gives me the shudders. If you hire someone to write your copy and pay a fair rate, you deserve quality service. You deserve someone who will put time, effort, and energy into your project.
I’m a methodical person, and I use methodology to my advantage in the services that I provide. Over time, I’ve developed a process that allows me to tackle website copywriting projects in a way that is both efficient and effective. Basically, I follow a series of steps, but they are flexible and allow room for creative thinking and word play. I find that using this process makes the work flow more smoothly while simultaneously making it more fun. Yep, I love what I do.
Because I know which steps I need to take and the order in which I need to take them, I can focus on creating quality content instead of worrying about how I’m going to get it done.
Here’s how I do it:
Step One: Understand the Project
The first step in any website copywriting project is simple: understand the clients’ needs. I need to know where the copy will be published, whether there are any space limitations, and if I should be using any keywords for SEO. I also need to establish the desired call to action. In other words, when website visitors read the copy, what should it encourage them to do next?
Step Two: Get to Know the Client’s Business
I can’t write a single word until I have a good, thorough understanding of my client’s business. It’s not enough to know that they sell carburetors. I need to know what kind of carburetors they sell, to whom their carburetors are sold, how much they are sold for, and whether or not they offer carburetor installation or just the actual carburetors. I also like to know how the business got started, who runs it, and their mission and philosophy.
Step Three: Collect and Review Materials
Before I start writing, I usually collect all my information into a single file. Sometimes it’s just a Word document filled with notes, links, and other tidbits that I’ve copied and pasted from email communications with my client. Just before I start composing, I like to go over everything so it’s fresh in my mind, and then I’m ready to write the outline.
Step Four: Outline
I love outlines. Some writers refuse to outline, and that’s okay too. But an outline usually only takes a few minutes and provides a road map for the rest of the project, which means I can travel through it quickly without losing my way or getting off track. Basically, it allows me to complete the work much faster, and this is a saving that I can pass on to my customers.
Step Five: Draft Copy
The outline is like a skeleton. When I start drafting, it’s much like filling in the skeleton — putting meat and muscle on the bones. This is where I get creative and have fun choosing the perfect language, images, and style to properly convey my clients’ message. This where I get to tell their story.
Step Six: Revise, Edit, Repeat
In order to let the light of creativity shine while I’m composing the rough draft, I cannot get hung up on technical details. If I’m worrying about commas and apostrophes or spelling and grammar, I cannot keep my attention focused on crafting sentences that compel website visitors. So, once the draft is done, I go through it several times to clean it up and make sure it’s grammatically correct.
Step Seven: Polish
Here’s a little writer’s trick: After you have revised your copy, let it sit for a few hours, preferably overnight. Then, come back with fresh eyes and give it a final polish. Invariably, you will find some unnecessary word that can be cut, some gap that needs to be filled with a catchy adjective, or even an empty space where a comma should be. Polishing leads to website copywriting that sparkles and shines!
Step Eight: The Send-Off
Once the copy is buffed to perfection, it’s ready to get sent off to the client. This is always a good feeling, the delivery.
Step Nine: Revisions
Everybody has personal preferences, and I’m no mind reader. Sometimes, in the initial project plan, a small but important detail gets left out. Like including a phone number in the website copy. Or using a special phrase (a tagline or slogan, perhaps) in the text. Maybe I used a word that rubs the client the wrong way. We all have our language peeves, and small business owners are no exception. I always invite clients to request a round of revisions to the final copy. This is usually a quick process and involves going through and changing a few words or adding a line or two. Most of the time, revisions aren’t necessary at all, but I still like to give everyone the option.
That’s it. My entire process. It might sound long and tedious with all those steps, but it’s a clean and proven way to provide the very best copy possible.
Website Copywriting
Scribizzy offers a full suite of website copywriting services.
Small business website design tips
When you’re shopping around for a small business website design, do you know what to look for and what to avoid? Do you know which design elements will make your site more appealing and which elements will turn visitors away?
If you’ve spent much time surfing around the web, then you’ve probably noticed that some websites have design elements that are distracting, annoying, or just plain ugly. We’ve all bumped into a few websites that make us want to scream. Luckily, escape is just a click away.
But if you’re a small business owner, you definitely don’t want visitors clicking away from your website, especially if they’re seeking escape because the design is unappealing or irritating.
9 Small Business Website Design Elements to Avoid
Here’s a list of design elements that people frequently complain about. Most of these recommendations have been on web designers’ things-to-avoid lists for years, but these frustrating features just keep showing up all over the internet. Be smart and avoid these small business website design faux pas:
- Automatic-playing Music: This is number one on the list for good reason. Nothing startles a website visitor more than loud audio suddenly protruding from the speakers. Maybe the visitor is already listening to background music. Maybe they’re trying to focus on your content (and if your content is not centered around music, the sound is just a distraction). Maybe there’s a baby sleeping nearby. Be considerate and make audio optional.
- Flashing, Blinking, or Scrolling Text: If it’s subtle, you might get away with it. But like audio, moving text is nothing more than a distraction. Sure, you might be using it to get the visitor’s attention, but once you do and they start seriously perusing your site, it’s just going to become an annoyance.
- Animations: Some animations work well with a design. If you’re an illustrator or an animation cartoonist, go for it. But if you’ve got a website that’s centered around some product or service that doesn’t include art or animation, then keep your content static.
- Pop-up Windows: No. Just no. I don’t care if your windows pop up in front, in back, or right on the page. Don’t do it. Some websites are still using pop-ups or have returned to pop-ups. They will never be sustainable because they’ll ultimately annoy people, especially your repeat visitors who have to face the dreaded pop-up every time they are kind enough to visit your site.
- Image Backgrounds: This one almost didn’t make the list because there are a lot of image backgrounds that work well, especially textures. So this is not so much a design element you need to avoid as one that you need to use judiciously. As long as the images are small and fast-loading, you should be okay. But if a solid color will work just as well, then get rid of your image backgrounds. And do note that most major (and hugely successful) websites don’t use them (Google, Amazon, etc.).
- Frames: These days, with CSS and other design technologies so readily available, frames are just an unnecessary and outdated technique for organizing the content on a site. The problem with frames is that they are not compatible with all browsers and may render differently on different computers. So opt for a content management system (like WordPress) instead.
- Excessively Wide or Long Pages: This should go without saying, but I still run into these types of websites on occasion. I always wonder if the designer is using an enormous monitor and has forgotten that most people use 15- to 17-inch screens. And try to remember that visitors don’t like to scroll endlessly down (or across) the page. Except on archived sections of your site, keep scrolling to the length of two or three pages.
- Indistinguishable Links: Have you ever hovered your mouse over a web page and it caused a window to open or carried you off to some other page? That’s just plain weird. Links are meant to be clicked so make sure they’re clickable and make sure that visitors can distinguish a link from regular text.
- Opening a Link in a New Window: There are some instances in which I don’t mind links opening in a new window, but usually I prefer to make the decision myself. All I have to do is command-click (Windows users can right-click and choose “open link in new tab/window”). When web designers use this functionality, website visitors end up with dozens of open windows, and there’s a good chance the window with your site on it will get lost in the fray. Let people use the back button. That’s what it’s there for.
Exceptions to These Website Design Tips
These design elements should be avoided, but not always. Whenever you’re reading a list of tips, it’s important to remember that there are always exceptions. In the list above, I’ve pointed out some obvious exceptions, but you should remember to use your best judgment and keep in mind that sometimes breaking the rules or defying convention is a good thing.
If you’re not sure about whether a particular small business website design idea would have a negative impact on your site, ask your website designer or consult with an online marketing specialist. Also, ask friends, family, customers, and professionals in your network. Nothing beats user feedback!
Tips for choosing the right website manager
Many small business owners find website ownership to be frustrating, which is understandable. After all, not all entrepreneurs are IT professionals, website designers, or marketing experts.
These business owners encounter problems with web design projects and have to overcome challenges presented by technology, not to mention the increasingly murky waters of online marketing.
They just want their businesses to succeed, and they know that a website is mandatory. These business owners often ask: who is responsible for my website?
The answer is simple: the business or person who owns the domain is ultimately responsible for all aspects of a website, from software updates to content changes, and this is usually the business itself or its owner. On the other hand, few business owners have the time or know-how to manage a website and require assistance in this area, which is where problems start to arise.
One small business might have an IT specialist who handles the in-house network or various electronics systems as well as the website hosting. This business also has a website designer and works with a couple of different marketing consultants. But there’s a lot of crossover between hosting, design, and marketing.
These professionals are expected to work together as a cohesive team but often, their ideas clash. The designer wants to maintain a certain aesthetic appeal whereas the marketing people insist on loading the site with links and streams from social media. The copywriter has worked hard to produce clear language and now the SEO strategist wants to pepper the copy with keywords. The business owner is writing weekly blogs that merely document the goings-on in the day-to-day business and since she’s not a trained writer, the work is peppered with bad grammar. The IT guy is responsible for publishing the blogs, but he’s not an editor. The designer is in charge of adding content to other areas of the site, but he usually pushes back in an effort to maintain the integrity of the design. Meanwhile, nobody’s tracking the number of visitors to the site or making sure the software is getting updated and nobody’s making backups.
I’ve seen this happen, and it’s not pretty.
Unless you have a minimalist website that never gets updated and a barely-there presence on the web, there needs to be one person designated to oversee all aspects of your small business website. And this person needs to be knowledgeable in all of these areas, which means in most cases, the business owner is not the best person for the job.
Understanding Your Website Management Needs
In order to choose the right website manager, you first need to determine what your needs are. Is your site running on software that needs to be updated periodically? Does your hosting provider run automated backups or do you need to make sure someone’s taking care of that? Are you publishing new content on a regular basis? What other online marketing strategies are you using and how do they impact or interact with your website? Are there metrics in place to measure your site’s performance? And most importantly, how are each of these efforts contributing to the success of your business?
What happens if there is no website manager? Many small business owners hire various consultants and specialists to handle different aspects of online marketing. As a result, there is zero oversight in ensuring that the site’s content is consistent and basic maintenance tasks get neglected.
For example, I worked on a website that had received a lot of input over the years from various marketers. The copy had been written by a bunch of different people so the business didn’t have a consistent voice. The imagery was mismatched. Worst of all, the logo on the site was different from the logo on the business’s stationary. And in almost a decade of having an online presence, not only was nobody monitoring the site’s performance — tracking tools had never even been installed.
Choosing a Website Manager
Some small business owners let the responsibility fall, by default, to their IT professional or website designer. But an IT consultant may know almost nothing about online marketing. In fact, their area of expertise is with hardware and software, not with marketing, advertising, or sales. A website designer is often the best person to task with updates, but many designers are just that — designers. They are not marketers or business consultants. Their expertise is in aesthetics (although I would note that many of today’s designers are quite savvy in business and marketing).
The ideal website manager tends to be well rounded in all things that are internet, business, and marketing related:
- Fair understanding of internet technology, hosting, and domain registration and an ability to use technology required to update and backup the site (such as a content management system or if necessary, code)
- Good eye for effective website design and an ability to recognize well crafted copy
- Familiar with standard online marketing tools, such as search engines, social media, directories and review sites, newsletters and email campaigns, and various advertising models
- Also somewhat familiar with offline marketing, including business cards, brochures, coupons, ads, etc.
- Most importantly, a good website manager is attuned to the business’s goals and never forgets the ultimate purpose of the site is to keep existing customers coming back while attracting new customers
An Advocate for Your Business
Over the years, I’ve worked with small businesses who either didn’t have a website manager or who had one who lacked several of the qualifications listed above.
One of my client’s websites did not have tracking tools installed, so after three years, nobody knew how many visitors had been to the site. Another had a site that used a plugin to generate the contact form. Nobody updated the plugin to its latest version and the contact form stopped working — they might have missed months of incoming communications from potential customers. Yet another client had hired two SEO firms — one to handle on-site optimization and another to handle optimizing off-site presences (like directory listings), failing to realize that they were both essentially doing the same job and costing the business a lot of money.
Because the vast majority of today’s small business owners are not experts in website management, they may save time, money, and trouble by choosing a website manager that can oversee all aspects of the business’s online presence, including the website itself and various other marketing outlets.
Final Tips for Choosing a Website Manager
Once you have established your needs, you can shop around for the right website manager, but your number one criteria should be choosing a website manager who will work as an advocate for your business and who will consistently appeal to your customer demographic. Look specifically for someone who is enthusiastic about helping your business succeed, not just excited about finding ways to make money off you.
If your site is small and static, you might want to pick up a book or take a class on website management and do it yourself. If you have employees, you may be able to either hire someone or leverage an existing employee who has the right skills.
Many of today’s online marketing firms (ranging from website designers to email marketers) are providing various marketing services and will include website management services or consults to teach small business owners how to oversee their own sites.
Your website is an integral tool that should contribute to the success of your business. Yes, it costs money to build, promote, and manage a website, but this is a cost that should result in increased revenue. If your website seems to just cost you a bunch of money but never bring in business, it may be time to conduct an audit of your online marketing efforts or bring in an experienced and knowledgeable website manager to help you move forward more successfully.
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