Writing for the Internet can be difficult. Writing SEO content is even harder. Readers are getting more demanding—speed, ease and informative. Studies have shown that readers skim. When skim readers read an article, they expect content to be short and straight to the point. Don’t expect the reader to stay long if you beat around the bush. Now, the challenge is to balance good content with SEO.
Writing for the Web
It is important for your website to be informative. If you don’t offer readers what they want, they can leave quickly with a simple click of the mouse. How do you get readers to stay?
Short and Sweet: Don’t use fancy words to try to sound more profound when a simple word will do. If readers get confused, they will not read your content. Allow your content to flow smoothly so readers enjoy reading and stay longer on your website.
Paragraphs: I have seen websites that have pages and pages of information with no paragraphs. Paragraphs help readers understand your writing better through organized thoughts. When there is a new paragraph, it is a signal to the reader that the topic is either being developed or that the writer is moving onto another discussion.
Active vs Passive: The active voice is shorter, more assertive and easier to understand. Passive usually requires more cognitive effort from the reader—this stresses the reader and forces them to leave. For example, take a look at “My hard work was appreciated by my boss” (passive) and “My boss appreciated my hard work” (active). Which requires less effort to understand?
Scannable text: As I mentioned earlier, many are skim readers. Readers scan a page to find answers to their questions. It also helps them understand the topic better. When writing for the web, create text that is scannable—headers, bold, and bullet points.
SEO Copywriting
It is important to create search engine friendly content to allow your website to rank well on SERPs (Search Engine Results Page). To rank well, you need to have the following:
Well-researched keywords: You need to understand keyword research and select the ones that can help you rank. By ranking well, visitors can find your site, leading to conversions. Keywords need to be relevant to the content on your page—search engines look at this when ranking your website. This also helps readers understand your content better.
Keyword rich content: Through the effective use of keywords throughout your content, search engines can rank you better. However, a website that is covered with nothing but keywords does not provide readers with the information that they need. You are merely optimizing your site for robots—this defeats the purpose of having a website. Good SEO copywriting involves the proper use of keywords that flow with content.
URLs, titles, descriptions and headers: Your URLs, titles and descriptions have to be well used as search engines use these when figuring out the content of your website. A good SEO copywriter will be able to integrate keywords into them and the content.
Characteristics of a Good SEO Copywriter
Good SEO copywriters are a unique bunch of people and they tend to have the following characteristics:
- Deep understanding of keywords
- Inquisitive
- Able to tell stories
- Adventurous
- Deep digger
- Solves problems
- Able to surprise and delight
- Enjoys research
Smart Solutions’ SEO Content Writing Services
At Smart Solutions, our SEO team is able to balance good content with SEO. We have the right people with the right characteristics that can create great content for your website. Our experienced SEO content writers that can help you with the following:
Contact us now to find out how we can write SEO content for you.