Does your copywriter know how to write with search-engine-optimization (SEO) in mind?
Over the last few years I’ve done a lot of rewriting of existing copy for clients, often finding that the material I’m revising had been written by a professional writer, and oftentimes someone claiming to be familiar with SEO. Unfortunately, it seems that a lot of writers, even very talented ones, aren’t familiar with all the nuances of writing good SEO copy.
Use the keywords your customer use. Avoid jargon.
I was recently reviewing a website for a client and found that the copywriter had used a lot of terms that aligned with the product on the page, but none of those terms ranked highly in keyword searches. They were terms that someone who already knew what they were looking for would use, not terms that a customer would type into a search engine.
Blend keywords into your layout
There are many nuances to SEO copywriting. These range from writing copy in a way that’s easily read online to using headlines, bold and bullet points effectively enough to allow search bots to recognize the most important keywords on a page. There’s also the matter of keyword density and making sure that certain keywords appear throughout a site, not just on select pages, and that these keywords also make it into the meta-data.
Different social media sites have different styles of copy
Aside from keywords and layout, there’s also the matter of knowing what types of material search engines rank most highly. While most SEO professionals know that Google’s recent algorithm change tends to favor fresh copy, direct links and imbedded video housed at Youtube, a lot of SEO copywriters still haven’t familiarized themselves enough with how to blend their copy into social media tools like Facebook pages, Google+, Twitter and, to an extent, LinkedIn. By not knowing the different types of styles and word-usage methods particular to these social media sites, a copywriter can unwittingly write material that just doesn’t generate much interest among followers and fans.
Review your websites – and keep the copy fresh
The next time you’re reviewing the copy on your site, look at the amount of jargon that’s used or the ways in which keywords are interspersed throughout the page. Keywords should be part of the copy, the headline, the meta-data and even the images, but it should always flow first and foremost. If your keywords are just dumped onto the page pell-mell or repeated carelessly you run the risk of having a beautiful webpage with poor quality copy that gets ignored by the major search engines.
