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SEO copywriting is one of those subject that always puzzles me. As a web copywriter, I’m often approached by business owners, marketers and bloggers about SEO copywriting.
My answer is always the same. Why do you want to spend so much time and effort on it? I think SEO copywriting is overrated. It’s probably not worth the time and effort you put in to get it done in the first place. Here’s why.
The biggest factor in the formula that search engines use to determine your position occurs off-page. That means it is outside of your website. It doesn’t how well you optimize your website, if you don’t consider off-page factors, then you’re probably not going to rank.
As for your on-page factors, the most important elements are your title, headline and keyword density. Do your keyword research and make sure you use your desired keyword in the title and headline at least once.
Then sprinkle them throughout your copy and aim for about 1% keyword density. Keyword density is the percentage of the number of keywords over the total number of words in your copy.
So if you use your keyword once and your copy is a hundred words long, your keyword density is 1%. By the way, the number 1% is highly debatable. Some recommend closer to 0.5% while some 3%. But I’ve used 1% with great results plus, keyword density is a very small factor in determining your rankings.
Now, do you think you really need help in achieving 1% keyword density. I don’t think so.
What Really Matters
If you want to rank in search engines, then you should focus your efforts on link building.
The more links you have pointing to your website and the higher quality those links are, the higher you’re going to rank. There are many instances where webpages rank highly for a keyword they are not targeting.
For example, Microsoft used to rank for “more evil than satan himself” because someone has been linking to them using that that as anchor text.
Now, before you go out and build your links, you should know that there are many elements to consider when it comes to link building. The main things you need to keep in mind when you are link building are:
1. The anchor text. What are the words people use to link to your website?
2. The PR (pagerank) of the webpage linking to you.
3. The number of of links in the webpage linking to you.
4. The nature of the link. Contextual VS list. Contextual is always better.
5. Whether or not the webpage is on topic.
6. Create a normal link profile. Don’t point all your links to your homepage. Link deep into various pages so that it appears as if someone finds your website interesting and links to it.
A Word On Buying Text Links
Google frowns upon buying text links. If you’re planning to do that, I’d highly recommend you to reconsider. If they ever find out, both the website linking to you and your website will get hit pretty seriously.
Personally, I find buying text links stupid unless those links bring you a ton of traffic itself. If you’re doing it for SEO purposes, then I think it’s not worth it simple because there are so many other ways to get good quality links (this is a subject for another post, subscribe so you don’t miss it).
Copywriting For Conversion
The purpose of copywriting is always conversion. Don’t try to re-phrase a sentence that appeals to readers for SEO sake.
A lot of copywriters I met forsake storytelling as a copywriting tactic because telling stories often means they can’t include their desired keywords early in the copy.
Please don’t fall for the same mistake. At the end of the day, what you want is a sale, not high rankings.
Thanks for sharing this. It’s really helpful, especially now that I am starting to learn SEO
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SEO copywriting is overrated. It’s probably not worth the time and effort you put in to get it done in the first place.
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