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Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
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The best thing you can do is educate yourself. Read
websites, read books, and asks questions of fellow
writers and desigers alike. Study websites that rank
high and ask yourself "why?"
"SEO for Dummies" by Peter Kent is a wonderful, fast
read that's perfect for copywriters AND web
developers. A must have in the library of any
copywriter who claims to know how to write optimized
website content.
"The Nitty-gritty of Writing for Search Engines: A
Special Report" by Jill Whalen.
This handy little guide gives tons of useful easy-to-
implement tips to make your SEO copywriting effective
without being clumsy. Jill is a master of SEO. Visit her
website at www.highrankings.com
WordTracker Tutorial (comes with subscription)
Yes, I did read it. While you may not use every feature
in WordTracker, it's important to have a good grasp of
the KEI (Keyword Effectiveness Index). WordTracker is
the premier tool in the industry -- and you don't have
to subscribe for a whole year. You can make a one-
time commitment and even test a trial version to see if
it's the right tool for you.
Check Out My SEO Copywriting Portfolio
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Dear Reader,
Over the last few months, I've received many questions
concerning search engine optimization, otherwise
known as "SEO." Simply put, SEO involves how search
engines (like Google) find websites. Try a Google search
on these words: freelance copywriter boston. You'll see
that my website (www.etrobbins.com) comes up on the
first page. Is this chance? Nope. It's SEO at work. And
believe it or not, SEO has a lot to do with the words
that appear -- and don't appear -- on the page.
It surprises me how many web developers and
copywriters ignore SEO. If you take the time to learn
some of these tips, you'll make yourself indispensable
to web developers...and your clients. For the next
couple of issues, I'll be talking about some SEO secrets
that I find helpful.
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| 1. Keyword Phrases | | | Keyword phrases are the words that appear not only on
the web page, but also in some of the designer's
coding. How do you come up with these phrases?
Research. And the research needs to happen BEFORE
the site is built and the copy is written -- not after.
Why? The keyword phrases go into the copy, but they
also need to go into title tags, file names, and image
alt tags. Retrofitting takes time, costs money, and is
just not necessary with a little preparation. Doing research requires surveying people as to what
keywords they would use when searching on the
product or service you're writing about, analyzing
competitors' sites for the keywords that they use, and
then crunching the "words" in a tool such as
WordTracker (www.wordtracker.com). WordTracker
helps you decide what keywords to target. There's no
point in optimizing a site for a certain word if no one is
searching on the term to begin with. | | |
| 2. Keyword Distribution | | | Once you have your master list of keyword phrases (a
phrase should be at least two words long; three to
four words are even better), you should distribute
them throughout the pages on the site. Use the
sitemap as your guide. Decide what phrases you'll use
on the homepage, the services page, the "about" page,
and so forth. Try optimizing each page for 2-3 keyword
phrases. On my site, I don't just talk
about "copywriting," I talk about "advertising
copywriting." Repeat the phrases as often as you can
before the writing starts reading awkward. In terms of
how many words you need to have on any given page,
I've heard everything from 200 words to 600 words per
page. I find that 200-350 words work well while still
being manageable for the viewer, especially on the
homepage. | | |
| 3. Bold & Bullet | | | Search engines like bolded text and bulleted text. In
the search engine's "mind," these visual cues indicate
that the content must be important. So it makes sense
to use your keyword phrases as headlines, in lists, and
within links to other pages. | | |
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