A Guide to Writing SEO Copy

Most people make the mistake of thinking that Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) copywriting is about stuffing as many keywords into every sentence as possible. While this tactic may have worked in the early years of SEO, Google became aware of this and started to demand high quality content.

So how do you apply SEO in your copy? In order to write good quality content, you need to follow these five rules:

Keyword Research: The first step to writing SEO content is to research which keywords people use when searching for your topic. This can be done by using the Google adwords tool.

{postcript - since this blog was published Google's withdrawn free access to its keyword tool...you'll now need an account to access it}

In order to make this process simpler, put yourself in the mind of the searcher when picking keywords.

For instance: when people look for ‘A Guide to Writing SEO Copy’, focus on key phrases like these:

• SEO content
• SEO Copy
• How to write SEO content
• Content writing for SEO
• Writing SEO Copy

Once you have your keywords, you need to then move on to your next step. Remember to add keywords into your blog title and post, otherwise your article will never rank.

Find The Perfect Topic: Once you have your keywords, the next step is selecting the correct topic - one that interests both you and your audience. This topic will shape how your blog post turns out, so do not be afraid to spend a little extra time perfecting your idea.

Here is an example of how to fine-tune your topic: if your post is about obtaining traffic from Google, ensure that you cover all angles, namely: SEO friendly content, link building, technical onsite SEO and meta tag optimisation.

Once you have an idea of your topic, narrow it down to areas you wish to focus on. This is the key to writing highly-focused and in-depth content.

Pick a Heading: The third step is to pick the headline of your blog post. It needs to be both SEO and user friendly. The bottom line is, if your user is not interested in your headline, they will never read your article.

When making your headline SEO friendly, ensure that your title contains the keywords you are targeting in your blog post. If you are looking for inspiration, look at these ten headline formulas for bloggers.

Writing Your Blog Post: There is no set amount of times that you need to mention keywords in your blog post to make the article rank on Google. As you read this article, you may have noticed that I have used SEO copywriting and SEO content throughout the article- this is because these are the keywords that I am targeting.

An example of ‘perfect’ optimisation is to have a mix of keywords in your blog title, in the body copy, in the Meta description, in the URL and via an image attached to the blog post.

The Final Touches: Making the final touches - refers to reading through the article to ensure that the content is of high quality, readable and SEO friendly. Remember, even if your article is of value to the reader, you still need to link to a number of different websites to make Google believe your article is of a high standard.

Writing SEO content is simple; all you need to do is follow these five steps. However, if you are unsure or unable to produce high quality content, contact us and let us help you create it.