Thursday, December 29, 2011

The Importance of SEO Copywriting

By Gary Klingsheim


Today, search engine optimization has taken a front seat in the brains of most business owners and managers. Staying ahead of the competition in the virtual forum is one of the best ways to secure a customer base and to continue the intended growth. Part of succeeding in the internet-based race is through the use of SEO copywriting. (55)

Define: Copywriting This form of content is simply written material that is meant - either directly or indirectly - to promote a company, a person, a product, or a service. That is to say that it can be a straightforward explanation of why he, she or it is better than the competition, or it can be content that is related to the industry and just meant as a lure to bring the person into the website.

What is the Difference? The difference between standard copywriting and SEO copywriting has everything to do with the way that certain keywords and key phrases are worked into the text. In addition to this, the use of meaningful tags is often incorporated. The content does not lose its meaning, its feel, or its rhythm, but does appeal to search engines when written in this format.

What the Search Engine Sees in Your Content The exact way that a search engine evaluates the worth of a webpage is not entirely known, but it is common knowledge that the 'spiders' of these sites are sent out each time an individual enters a query in the search bar. Those spiders are the detectives that pick up bits of information from millions of websites to be evaluated by the search engine. As these spiders crawl through the text of your site, they pick out keywords related to the individual's search and the more they find, the more likely it is that your page will be seen by that person.

Website Versus Web Page One important thing to keep in mind when creating SEO content is that search engine spiders do not consider a website as a whole for relevancy. Instead, they focus on each individual page. Thus, it is important that each page of the website be treated as a separate entity in the creation phase as well.

Advantages of High Quality SEO Copywriting With a better understanding of what it is and the general purpose that it is meant to serve, there are a few other things to consider when weighing the importance of SEO copywriting.

1 First and foremost, good quality content with attention to SEO best practices attracts the two most important audiences: the search engine spiders and the targeted consumers.

2 SEO copywriting is a great way to make a stand as an industry expert. If you have the information that others seek - even if it is someone else working for the competition - then you will slowly build a very positive and strong reputation.

3 Of course, one of the most important things that SEO copywriting does for your site is to make it easier to flood your site with keywords in an inconspicuous way.

4 As briefly mentioned above, the copywriting also gives your target audience a reason to stay and look around your site. When there is informative, entertaining material to read, the person is more likely to want to linger and may also return again in the future. Increased exposure drastically improves the chances of a sale.

Overcoming Obstacles Of course, writing content that is both relevant to the industry and also interesting is not easy. There are a few mistakes that can be made during this process that would lead to undesired consequences.

1 Overuse of keywords is probably the number one offense seen on the web. While this might pay off in the short term, it doesn't take long for the search engine algorithms to catch up. A page that has little in the way of valuable content, but the same keywords appearing over and over and over again will quickly be blocked and once that has happened, it is hard to come back.

2 Similarly, if the content is too much like a sales pitch, it can come across as pushy. Even worse, a reader might feel that it is phony and steer away to a competitor's site. It is not enough to create SEO content. You must write something that will get your target audience there and make them want to stay.

3 Poorly written content is also a big risk for a company. Though it is perfectly acceptable, and even recommended that these pieces be written in a voice that appeals to the targeted audience, they should still be proofread for grammatical and spelling errors.

4 Rarely updated sites can present challenges for the company as well. You may have found your way to the top of the ranks for now, but as the competition continues to work on fresh, new content, you can slip back down rather quickly. It is important to continually update websites with new and worthwhile SEO copywriting.




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