SEO copywriting: a super-quick guide

SEO copywriting. You know you should be doing it, but it feels a little daunting, so it keeps getting shifted to the bottom of your to-do list. Maybe you’ll get to it one day… 

Here’s the thing.

The sooner you make your website SEO-friendly, the sooner you’re likely to capture more leads through Google. For free. 

I understand it can feel overwhelming, so I’ve put together a super-quick guide to help you understand what SEO copywriting is, how it works, and how it can serve your business. 

What is SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. You know when you type in some words to Google and then the search results appear? That’s the search engine (Google) trawling through all the websites in the world to find the ones that are most relevant to your search query. 

You want your business to appear in the first few results or at least on the first page. Most people only look at the first page (unless they have a lot of time on their hands). 

Note: The very first results are usually businesses that pay to appear there (you should see a little ‘Ad’ logo on the right-hand side of the URL). Paying to rank on search engines is known as Search Engine Marketing (SEM). 

How do you get on the first page of Google?

Google uses a lot of sophisticated algorithms to determine which websites are the most relevant for certain search terms. No one (apart from the Google Gods) knows exactly how they work. 

SEO specialists have a fairly good idea. Factors like site speed, bounce rate, and backlinks can all help your search engine ranking.

I won’t go into these here because it’s information overload (and a good piece of SEO content doesn’t overwhelm!). 

If you do want to learn more about SEO in general, I recommend looking into The Recipe for SEO Success by Kate Toon. 

SEO copywriting tips: your super-quick guide

SEO copywriting is writing your copy with Google in mind. You add several ‘signposts’ to your copy so that Google knows to associate your website with particular search terms.

These ‘signposts’ are better known as keywords or key phrases. For example, many people find my website using the keyword ‘Copywriter’.

Broadly speaking, the process of SEO copywriting includes:

• Copy optimisation. Adding keywords or key phrases to your copy. This is not about stuffing as many keywords in as humanly possible – it’s more about a smart sprinkling of the right keywords in the right places. Ideally, your readers won’t have a clue the keywords are even there. Incorporating keywords without disrupting the readability of the copy is a carefully-honed skill.

• Titles. Adding your keyword(s) to your page titles and subtitles. This can be tricky to get right, as titles can make or break whether someone clicks on your article. You want the title to be engaging enough to entice readers but informative enough to let Google know what your page is all about. Again, writing SEO titles is a carefully-honed skill. 

• Meta descriptions. A meta description is the little snippet of copy that appears under your website name in the Google search results. It doesn’t actually influence where you appear in Google, but it acts as a mini-advertisement for your customers, so it’s worth getting right. 

• Images and tags. Adding keywords to your image captions and descriptions is another excellent way to tell Google what your copy is all about. If you’re writing a blog post, it’s also worth adding your keywords as ‘tags’.   

Does SEO copywriting work?

Yes, but it takes time.

Take my business, for example. When I set up my website, I did some keyword research and identified the terms that I felt would work best. I optimised the bejeezus out of my website – then, I promptly forgot about it.

About 12 months later, I started getting more enquiries than usual. Sure enough, more businesses were flagging ‘Google’ as the answer to ‘How did you hear about me?’ on my website contact form.

Today, about 50% of my new business enquiries come through Google, with the rest through word-of-mouth. For me, SEO copywriting is a set-and-forget marketing strategy. 

 Yes, there are loads of ways I could do an even better job. I haven’t concentrated on backlinks. I could blog more regularly. But the point is, even without doing these things, it works. And given my top competition is other SEO copywriters, I must have done something right. 

Is SEO copywriting worth the investment?

Absolutely – here are three reasons why.

1. If you’re investing time or money (or both) in copywriting, you might as well give your website the best possible chance to rank with search engines. 

2. If your customers are searching the internet for answers that you can help them with, you’ll be doing them a favour by optimising your copy.

3. If your customers will find your competitors on Google, you want to make sure you’re right there alongside them (or, ideally, above them!). 

As an SEO copywriter, of course I’m going to encourage you to appease the Google Gods.

But what I’ll add – possibly to the detriment of my business – is that you don’t need to go the full bells-and-whistles. You can take a pragmatic approach. You can do it slowly, and test and learn. 

Want to know more? Let’s chat.