B-to-B Insights : Writing for the Web

Four easy steps to successful SEO copywriting

“Over the years, the tactic I found that works best is to have the most targeted keywords towards the top of the page and work your way down, like a reverse pyramid,” says Internet marketing consultant Wendy Montes de Oca. “The entire page should be keyword-dense, and there can be some repetition, but from my understanding of search engine spiders, they like more organic content. So, what I found that works is to make a list of the top 10-15 keywords and use that naturally, organically and reader-friendly in the content. And, of course, use your top five keywords in the alt, meta and title tags. For instance, if there’s a picture of Bob, don’t just have ‘Bob Bly’—have ‘Bob Bly, freelance copywriter.’”

Easy Optimization
Do you want to write Web pages that sparkle with style, persuade your prospects and please search engine spiders all at the same time? Here’s a simple four-step SEO copywriting process that has worked for me:

1. Keyword research. Come up with a list of keywords and phrases for which you want to optimize the page you are writing. These should be the keywords and phrases people use when searching for your product or service on the Internet.

You can brainstorm what these words might be, then use any number of online tools to find which ones are the most popular. Two tools I use are www.wordtracker.com and www.spacky.com. For detailed instructions on how to conduct keyword research and discovery, visit www.thekeywordmoneymachine.com.

2. Write the best copy you can. Don’t even think about keywords as you write. Concentrate 100 percent on sounding like one human being talking to another about a subject he is enthusiastic about and wants to share.

3. Insert keywords from your list. Do this wherever and as frequently as you can, without disturbing the style, tone, meaning and persuasiveness of the copy. If forcing a keyword disrupts the flow of the copy, don’t do it.

For instance, on bly.com, one line of the original homepage copy read: “Call on freelance copywriter and Internet marketing strategist Bob Bly.” I like the sound of strategist. But keyword research showed that people search for Internet marketing consultants, not strategists. So I changed the copy to read “Internet marketing consultant.”

4. Write keyword-rich meta tags for each Web page. The most important meta tags are the title and description tags. The title tag is what your visitors see at the top of their browser windows when they visit your site, as well as what they see in their bookmark lists. Failure to put strategic keywords in the title tag can result in pages being poorly ranked. The title tag can be a maximum 95 characters, including spaces.

When your Web site comes up in a Google search, the description tag is what the user sees on the search engine results page. It should incorporate strategic keywords and clearly communicate what you offer, who it is for and the key benefit. Your major keywords also should be placed in the keywords meta tag, though Google pays less attention to the keyword meta tag than to the title and description tags.

When you go to bly.com, you see that I violated the rules of SEO copywriting by not having the keyword “copywriting” in the headline. But not revealing what you are selling in the headline can be an effective way to engage the reader. So in this case, I chose the human reader over the search engine spider. You can visit the site and decide whether it works.

Bob Bly is a freelance copywriter and the author of more than 70 books, including “The White Paper Marketing Handbook” (Racom). You can find him on the Web at www.bly.com, e-mail him at rwbly@bly.com or phone (201) 385-1220.

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