In this section I will not only explain exactly what SEO copywriting is, but how you can do it yourself, the things you’ll need to be successful and what the benefits are.

What is SEO copywriting?

I’ll start by explaining the (very) basics. SEO means Search Engine Optimisation which is anything you do to a website to improve its visibility on search engines like Google, Yahoo or MSN.

A website that does well on search engines (mainly Google) will get thousands or even millions of visitors a day so SEO is a huge market as you can imagine, particularly for advertisers trying to sell their products online.

Copywriting is one way of improving a sites SEO performance because search engines work out the best sites based on written content (as well as more technical aspects of the website design).

SEO copywriting is basically writing content for web pages that targets a specific set of words, so that when people type in these words on Google (and other search engines) it is your website that gets displayed.

SEO copywriting jobs

There are many companies that will hire people to just do SEO writing on their website and nothing else and this shows how important SEO writing actually is. Speaking from personal experience, my first writing job was as an SEO copywriter, even though I didn’t know it at the time. This has since developed into a strong interest of mine, hence why this website you see now stands before you.

Many SEO copywriters work on a freelance basis for different websites, so if you’re a writer and have some spart time or want to make some cash, this is certainly something you should look into.

Is SEO copywriting hard?

No is the simple answer. If you can string coherent sentences together then you already have the ability to do well with SEO copywriting. However, sometimes your integrity as a writer might become compromised because you’re asked to write quickly and not always to the highest standards. This is because a website needs a lot of pages to perform well on search engines. Hundreds, thousands or even millions of pages are required so often speed is of the essence with SEO copywriting.

Basics of SEO copywriting

What you’re trying to achieve with SEO copywriting is telling the search engine exactly what a particular page is about. So, if you’re writing a page about red curtains you need to damn well make sure that the search engines know your page is about red curtains.

The title of your page should always be the main phrase you’re targeting e.g. ‘Red Curtains’

The first sentence should always include the exact phrase you’re targeting e.g. ‘If you’re looking to buy red curtains then there are many styles to choose from…’

You should look to repeat the exact phrase at least 3 or 4 more times on the page in different sentences.

If you can’t find a way to fit in the exact phrase then use parts of it e.g. ‘Red is a great colour for any room’ or ‘Buying curtains isn’t always easy’.

To place further emphasis on your target phrase so that search engines know it’s important you can make it bold or italic or both.

Advanced SEO Copywriting

I call this section advanced because it probably goes beyond what has to be done to be successful with SEO copywriting. However, this advice will certainly be of use if you’re starting your own website or looking to boost traffic on an existing one.

Keyword research tools - Keyword research tools are huge online databases that track what people are searching for. You can use them to find out how many people are searching for your target phrase and similar ones. So for example if you typed in ‘red curtains’ you might get results like this:

red curtains - 52

red curtain - 37

spotty red curtains - 20

dark red curtains - 17

etc

etc

The benefit of these keyword research tools to SEO copywriting is that you can find other popular phrases to use. So you might include the phrase ’spotty red curtains’ in your writing to target another phrase other than just ‘red curtains’. Including all (or as many of) the words in your writing that a keyword research tool shows you will almost certainly boost the number of visitors you get from search engines.

Link text - If you use your target phrase as link it puts further emphasis on it so search engines are more likely to take notice. This is much the same as making it bold or italic but far more effective. So, if I mentioned ‘red curtains’ I would make that phrase a link to another page about ‘red curtains’.

SEO copywriting mistakes

Many people think that search engines punish websites that deliberately have SEO writing on their pages. However, the opposite is actually true. Search engines like to be told exactly what a specific web page is all about so repeating phrases and making things bold actually helps them and they reward you for that with higher rankings.

OK, you shouldn’t just repeat phrases over and over again like a huge list and write things that don’t make sense, but as long as you’re sensible, you can write uninhibited in whatever style you want.

I hope this has proved helpful (to someone). Hopefully you’ll have found this very page through a search engine which will prove my competence and also provide you with some light irony.