Effective Search Engine Copywriting

The Foundation of Website Success
There are but two purposes of a website. Branding an image, cultivating customers or both. Success requires a continuous flow of qualified traffic that is convertible to action. Since 80% of websites are initially discovered through search engines, prominent positioning in the natural (free) search results should be a priority. Leads referred by a search engine are highly qualified since they are preconditioned for some type of action.

Therefore, the simultaneous role of website copywriting is moving human emotion to your revenue advantage and optimizing copy messaging to positively impact search engine ranking criteria. No matter how compellingly powerful, motivating and persuasive web copy may be, if your targeted keywords are not strategically placed where they are impressive to search engine ranking algorithms….your web pages will never be highly ranked…period.

Optimized content by itself will not get your site to the top of the search results. But well-prepared content is the base foundation that permits all other ranking factors to perform in-unison. Since our customers’ success is our priority focus, we’re going to give you the basic fundamentals of writing website copy that will gain meaningful prominence across the major search engines.

First and foremost, ranking criteria is all about satisfying relevancy to a particular search query. Those websites that best satisfy relevancy according to the scoring standards of each unique search engine will be rewarded with the highest ranked positions in the search results.

What’s most important is what works and not why. Therefore we’re not going to confuse you with theory. What is known about proprietary ranking algorithms is complicated stuff much to lengthy to discuss here. Besides, the engines continually modify the criteria to improve search results.

Engines Do Not Read Graphics
This fact is important to web design concepting and message presentation. Search engines read html content and not graphical type or images although naming those images with keywords adds scoring value. Design esthetics must be balanced with html readable words. Use graphics sparingly and only to package the content and to add attention-grabbing impact to important points. Simplified source code is a ranking advantage.

Keyword Selection Process
This is where is all begins, well strategized copywriting requires identifying your most valuable and productive keywords. We offer an affordable Keyword Research and Analysis Report that will help you select targeted keyword phrases that will be most productive to your objectives.

• Generally, people search for specific information, solutions and products. Therefore, they enter multiple-word search queries. Your targets for ranking should be multiple-word phrases and not single keywords.
  
• Your traffic objective is reaching audiences that are preconditioned to act on your services, products and solutions. Higher conversion rate is the goal. Therefore, choose phrases that are most productive towards moving customers to action.
  
• Frequently it’s wise to target “less competitive phrases”. It’s easier to achieve higher ranking with more narrow search phrases simply because there are fewer websites competing for those terms.

Here’s an example. Targeting the single word “website” would be highly competitive. If you were to get ranked highly for that one word, it would only bring a lot of “junk traffic” that is likely “unqualified”. The multiple two-word phrase “website design” would be less competitive with an enhanced degree of qualification. However, focusing on “Phoenix Website Design” is even less competitive and hones closer to a more desirable lead. Traffic volume would be lower, but conversion rate would be typically higher.

Here’s another example. “hotels” versus “Sedona hotels” versus “discount hotels in Sedona Arizona”. I’m sure you get the point.

Notice in the above examples that “Phoenix Website Design” and “Sedona Hotels” are direct links to other web pages. One internal to this site and one external to a third-party site. That’s called “anchor text” which uses keywords to describe what a surfer will discover at link destination. That contributes ranking scoring value for both the “sending” and “receiving” web pages. Keywords used in anchor text are significantly valuable to higher ranking potential. The engines give even greater value when other keywords are used “around the anchor text”.

Writing Page Headings
Website visitors typically scan headlines looking for clues to satisfying their interests. They want to know what content is about before wasting time. As well, search engines want to discover quickly what the primary subject is about to rapidly establish context match to a search query. Therefore, greater scoring value is given to page heads and sub-heads that contain keywords. Making those heads larger and bolder than text areas delivers benefits. Applying the header codes <H1> through <H41> in tiered order of importance is an advantage. Helpful hint. Do not use more than one <H1> header tag.

Main Text Copywriting
First and foremost, write compelling copy that flows smoothly in natural form. Use keywords and keyword phrases where they make sense to a visitor and add impact to messaging. Don’t be concerned with ratio of keywords to the total number of words. Use your primary keyword phrase a couple times and “sprinkle” supporting and trailing keywords reasonably throughout web page text. Keyword stuffing could result in over-optimization scoring penalties. Write for the benefit of your visitor and make sure your targeted keywords are viewable by your audience.

A few high points:

• Keywords near the end of content provide advantage.
  
• Try and include anchor text keywords within text that link to internal and external web pages of similar and compatible content.
  
• Bold and italic keywords score value versus regular type. Avoid overzealous treatment however.
  
• Apply “alt attributes” to important graphical elements that accurately describe the element. Keywords in alt-attributes of linked graphics are important, but accurately describe what the user will discover at the link destination. Make them brief and do not overzealously try and use the attribute to “stuff keywords”.

Writing Web Page Title Tags
Search engines read page title tags and meta descriptions first to determine what a web page is all about. Your web page is not likely to be ever highly ranked unless keywords are contained in title tags. The title tag is the linking anchor to your web page in the search results. Therefore it must be compelling enough to entice click through. Limit the tag to about 80 to 100 characters and include an exact match to your primary targeted search phrase. Use trailing keywords to widen the potential of ranking opportunity for other “stemmed” phrases.

• The earlier keywords appear, the better.
  
• Including your company name consumes valuable space. If you must use it for branding, place it at the end of the title.
  
• Create a unique title tag for every web page to cover a wider-range of keyword coverage.
  
• The engines are not case-sensitive. Consider using both singular and plural word forms and synonyms…(car) auto, etcetera.

Writing The Meta Description
The same basic principles that apply to the Title Tag, also apply to the meta description. Make it compelling, integrate your targeted keywords and limit its length to about 25-30 words. Some engines will use the meta description in the search results to describe your web page while other engines will “snippet” portions of page text, or both.

You can often “force” an engine to display your meta description with this approach… Include your primary keyword phrase within a continuous sentence. This gives you the potential of delivering a more compelling enticement to the surfer versus page snippets that sometimes form unintelligible “gibberish” as a description.

Sculpting Meta Keywords
Meta keywords provide miniscule value to ranking potential. However, always include important keywords in the tag. Separate keywords with commas and include multiple keyword phrases. Avoid excessively repeating keywords. Do not use keywords that are not related to your topic.

Value of Theming
There is evidence that some search engines reward topic-theming across on entire website with extra scoring value. The subject of what constitutes and creating theming value is complex. However, here is a basic approach to help gain potential…identify your three or four most valuable keywords and try and incorporate them into the important locations previously discussed across all web pages.

Phoenix Arizona Web Design, Graphic Design,
Internet Marketing & Search Engine Optimization