First things first: SEO, or search engine optimization is a specialized skill. Companies looking for an SEO copywriter often are conflating two roles into one. Dig into the job description, and you may have a bit more clarity on what they want. But, often, you may be asking clarifying questions to the hiring manager as to what, specifically, they want this role to tackle.

There’s a lot of debate about if copywriting and content writing are two separate things. And, the answer is very much yes. (You can read more about the differences here >>)

Here’s the thing: there are some people who will continue to conflate the two—to their own detriment. This could be business owners who don’t understand the goals of copy vs. content. Or this could be content writers who apply for copywriting jobs and are surprised why they’re not getting calls back.

Copywriters are writing to persuade. To get people to take action. These are your billboards, emails, banner ads, sales pages, and more.

Content writers are writing to inform, entertain, or inspire. Sure, there can be calls to action within content. But it’s supporting the purchase process; it’s not a direct link to a purchase. These are your blog posts and ebooks.

With that foundation, let’s dig into what people are really asking for when they’re wanting an “SEO copywriter.”

What is SEO Copywriting?

SEO copywriting is taking all the principles of copywriting (features versus benefits; clear call to action; writing to a brand’s voice; speaking to the target audience) and adding a layer of SEO keyword research.

But, if you read our intro, you know it’s a bit of a misnomer.

Think of SEO as the alternative to paid ads. If you can rank in the top 3 results for a given search term on Google, then people are going to click that page. It will build trust and authority in your brand because you’re ranking high on Google, so more people are clicking on it. And more people consuming it makes the algorithm think it’s more valuable than less-clicked content. (There are, of course, a lot of other factors that go into the algorithm. Google isn’t sharing how it algorithm works!)

Keywords are just one piece of SEO (more on that to come). Keywords are one small piece of a blog post or specific web page ranking higher than others that feature similar keywords.

So, for example, let’s say you’re writing a blog post about glow in the dark dog collars. Your keyword may be “glow in the dark dog collars.” You’re naturally, going to work that language into the post; you can’t talk about glow in the dark dog collars without saying “glow in the dark dog collars!”

Outdated tactics like keyword stuffing (again, more on that to come), don’t work anymore. Search engines are much savvier at detecting what is helpful content versus what content is trying to game the algorithm by packing in a ton of the keyword. For example, if you have a 400-word post, and you use “glow in the dark dog collar” 20 times, it’s going to sound unnatural.

As a copywriter, you’re going to be using your creative brief to guide your word choices and the information you’re including in a given project. If you’re writing a homepage for a plumber in Boston, for example, you’re naturally going to be including the words “plumber” and “Boston” throughout in a compelling way that doesn’t feel forced.

Read more about the truth behind SEO “copywriting” or watch more below!

5 Things to Know About SEO Copywriting

As noted earlier, many clients may know know what their expectations are when it comes to an SEO copywriter. They know they need to “do SEO,” but don’t actually know about SEO beyond keywords. And, again, keywords are just one small part of SEO. You may be educating your clients.

Here are some key things to know.

1. Many Elements of SEO Have Nothing to Do With Writing

Too many people—many copywriters and even some of your clients!—make the mistake of thinking SEO is 100% about keywords and words on the page in general.

But savvy marketers know that this is just one piece of the SEO puzzle. Think of SEO in two parts: on-page SEO (sometimes called content SEO) and technical SEO.

The elements of technical SEO include:

Ensuring the sitemap for your client’s website is submitted to Google

This is how Google understands your website and all the pages that make it up. If you don’t submit a sitemap, Google may not find all the pages of the site and may only return some of them in search results some of the time—if at all.

Improving a website’s speed

Google doesn’t like website that load slowly! There’s a lot that goes into the speed of a site. For example, are images super high resolution or set to condense? Is the page set to lazy load? Is there extra code on the website that doesn’t need to be there? These are all elements that can impact SEO, but that will be handled by a developer versus a copywriter.

Creating an SEO-friendly site structure

How pages on a website relate is important to how Google crawls them and ranks them in search results. Websites should be, first and foremost, easy for a user to navigate. Users need to be able to find the information they’re looking for. So, if you have a blog post about glow in the dark dog collars, you may link off to a post about the safest dog collars for your pet. The topics are related and users may be curious about other collars to keep their dog safe.

Building a mobile-friendly website

Many websites are “responsive,” which simply means they adjust based on the user’s screen. So, if they’re using a large desktop monitor, a laptop, a tablet, or a mobile phone, the content adjusts accordingly.

However, sometimes websites are built for desktop first and mobile gets left behind. Search engines penalize sites that are not mobile friendly. As the majority of Internet users are accessing content from mobile phones, more emphasis has been placed on making sure the user experience is just as good on mobile as it is on desktop.

Avoiding duplicate content issues

If a website has the same content on multiple different URLs, it’s going to prevent both of them from ranking. An SEO expert needs to determine if the pages should be consolidated and one redirected or decide if one page should be marked as canonical.

Depending on your client, these elements can have a much bigger impact on the page ranking than any on-page SEO.

Think of it like an old sports car. You can paint the sports car and make it look shiny and new, but if the engine is broken, the paint isn’t going to make that car run any faster (or run at all!). That’s what technical vs. on-page SEO is like. You can add subheadings and pick a keyword that you

2. SEO is More Content than Copywriting

The goal of copywriting, at least for the web, is typically to turn traffic to a website into leads and sales. But where does that traffic come in the first place? Content.

Search engine optimization is really about attracting more organic traffic to a business’s website.

And, when it comes to copywriting, you’re going to naturally be incorporating keywords into a webpage anyway! If you’re writing for a plumber in Boston, it’s likely “plumber in Boston” is going to work it’s way into some of your headings and subheads naturally.

Here are a few SEO writing tips to get you started >>

3. SEO is a Long Game

If you or your client are looking for fast results, SEO is not it. That doesn’t mean it’s not valuable; it certainly is!

But it can take months for you to see a page rank on Google. Of course, the algorithms are not transparent. And they’re changing. All. The. Time. So, even once you rank for something, it could change next week or even the next day. Rankings fluctuate often.

Blog posts are something you can continue to update over time and has a long lifespan—years! In fact, sometimes refreshing content can have a bigger impact on SEO than creating new content (though, ideally, businesses will be doing both).

4. You Need Some Technical Know-How If You Want to Track Results

If you’re not tracking results, it’s hard to know whether what you’re doing is effective. That goes for copywriting and content. The difference withe SEO is the timeline. Unlike an email where you can see the open and click through rates after you send it, you’re going to need to monitor your metrics over time.

Google Search Console is free to set up and your client should be able to grant you access that will allow you to see what pages and keywords they’re ranking for. This can help you pinpoint holes or gaps in content.

And you can compare rankings for pages and keywords over various periods. This allows you to see if your SEO efforts are having an impact.

Tools like Semrush give you even more insights, but are paid. If you’re offering content services for clients (and you’re earning money!), these tools are a worthwhile consideration. You can roll the cost of the tool into your rates and/or use it as a tax write off.

But if you’re not yet earning (and even if you are), these tools aren’t necessary. In fact, your client may already use one and be able to give you access to it.

5. Beware of Outdated Tactics

You’ll see a lot of things like “You must write between 2,500-3,000 words.” Or “you have to use your keyword 5 times (more on keyword stuffing below).”

The truth is, everyone wants an easy-button formula. But it doesn’t exist.

They key is to answer your audience’s question. If that takes 400 words, great. If that takes 1,500, great. you can always (and should!) update content as you gain more information or hear back from your audience on what would be helpful to answering their query.

A Note on Local and Off-Page SEO

There is also local SEO and off-page SEO. Local SEO is aimed at improving SEO results locally. So, back to that plumber in Boston. They’d want to focus on local SEO since finding an audience in California isn’t necessarily going to help them.

Off-page SEO are actions that someone takes offline. For example, a phone call. Or your client does an interview with a media outlet. The media outlet quotes your client and then links back to your clients’ site when they publish the piece.

You can also reach out to sites where you think it would be helpful for them to link back to your site.

How to Become an SEO Copywriter

The process of becoming an SEO copywriter looks the same as it does for any career change.

1. Get training
2. Get experience
3. Get a job

Here’s the dirty secret: companies looking for an “SEO copywriter” often don’t know what they’re looking for.

They know SEO is important. And they want to “do SEO.” It’s a buzzword.

Maybe they think a writer can solve all the issues. Or maybe they know they need someone who can write and understands the principles of SEO that a writer does have some control over.

You want to look at the job description very carefully.

Key SEO Copywriting Tactics

As with any project, start with a creative brief!

Keyword Research

You’ll want to incorporate a relevant keyword into any piece of content. The good news is, you will likely do this automatically if you’re following best practices of summing up what your piece of content is all about.

There are tools to help you with keyword research, such as Ubersuggest (free option available) Google’s Keyword Planner (you’ll need a Google Ads account, though you don’t have to run ads). But you can also use related searches in Google or “people also ask.”

These tools can help you get a sense of keywords and related keywords, as well as how competitive they are. For example, while “glow in the dark dog collars” may have a ton of competition, something like “LED dog collar” or “lighted dog collar” may have more or less competition.

This is the difference between short and long-tail keywords. Short keywords are the most searched—which makes it harder (though not impossible) to rank for them. Long-tail keywords are typically between 3 and 5 words and let you hone in on a specific audience or niche.

Now, some teams you work with may have someone doing keyword research and suggesting a target keyword, and potentially even secondary and tertiary keywords, to consider including in your writing. Other teams looking for an “SEO copywriter” may expect you to do the keyword research.

Where to Use Keywords

As mentioned above, there’s no perfect number of times to use your keyword. You’ll naturally incorporate it as you’re writing based on the

You’ll also want to incorporate it in the meta description, page titles, and page URLs when possible. You can provide this in the copy doc, or, your client may give you access to their content management system (CMS) for you to input this information

(Pro tip: never write directly in an CMS. Technology fails all the time and there’s nothing worse than writing a piece of content … and having it go “poof.” Keep a Word or Google Doc and then copy/paste into the CMS.)

A Note on Keyword Stuffing

There are a lot of outdated SEO tactics, but you will still see people talking about getting a certain number of keywords into a post. Why? They haven’t kept up with the ever-changing marketing landscape.

This is going to hurt you significantly. Google even has rules about it .

Internal Links

As a copywriter, you’re likely already doing this. If you’re writing a homepage and you have a section that introduces the team and has a CTA to learn more that drives to the “About Us” page, then that’s your internal linking.

For content writers, there’s an opportunity to keep an eye out for what text you can link to other posts on the company’s website. This helps Google understand how pages are related on a website and it helps the user more easily find information they’re looking for.

You’ll want to keep an eye on the anchor text. Overusing keywords in the anchor text of the links you build can also hurt you.

SEO tool Yoast has helpful recommendations on anchor text >>

Valuable

Google’s “EEAT” guidelines are meant to help you create content that is most valuable for readers. EEAT stands for expertise, experience, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.

Together, these guidelines are intended to make sure that the content that ranks higher in search is going to answer reader’s queries from a source that knows what its talking about. Think about it: you wouldn’t want to take medical advice from a fifteen-year-old who hasn’t gone to medical school, right?

Original

In the age of AI, this is crucial. Businesses that get left behind will be the ones that use ChatGPT to regurgitate what already exists online. AI can’t create new content. It can only cobble together content from what already exists, fundamentally making it unoriginal (not to mention, many businesses have found it creates content that is just flat out wrong).

Depending on the topic, you want to interview subject matter experts for quotes that only they could provide from their specific experiences. You could even add your own insight from your expertise, depending on the topic and your experience with it.

Essentially: what value can you add that no one else can add? What can you add to or build on the conversation that is happening on the Internet?

Your Turn! What other questions do you have about SEO? Let us know in the comments!

The post SEO Copywriting & Strategy 101: How to Write SEO appeared first on Filthy Rich Writer.

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Looking for closed captioning or a transcript? Watch the episode on YouTube!

A Sneak Peek at the Episode

[2:39] Amanda has worked for the last five years as a content strategist, and has recently been promoted to SEO management. She has experience of writing for a range of industries including travel insurance, home services, and education.

[4:10] Nicki reminds us how to tell the difference between copy and content writing.

[5:24] Content strategy is about understanding the goals of your client and the goals of the user, and being able to effectively marry both of those goals together. As a strategist, your work is much more data driven than if you were just writing the assignment.

[6:12] When putting together a content strategy, content is delivered in a way that ensures your target audience is consuming the messages that you want them to consume, at the time that you want them to. 

[7:13] Reverse engineering your goals can help you create an effective content strategy by working backwards to understand the content that helped customers convert.

[9:02] As a writer and an editor, you’re using language as your most powerful tool. As a strategist, you’re using data. 

[10:30] It takes the same amount of time to do the strategy as it does to do the writing. So if you think that you need to be doing both, then make sure you accommodate for that time, don’t overschedule yourself, and charge enough to make it worthwhile.

[11:37] Newer copywriters often think they have to learn it all but search engine optimization (SEO) and content strategy are specialties in their own right.

[13:30] Amanda has always used SEO to help her understand the user and communicate with them in ways that make sense to them. 

[15:18] Using SEO tools like Semrush or Moz can help you get a little bit deeper into the heads of the target audience you’re writing for. Amanda advises advocating for yourself and asking clients for the tools that you need so your work really shines.

[18:33] If you want to dig deeper into SEO or content strategy, there are many free courses available online to help you. Once you start educating yourself on SEO through the eyes of a writer, you’re going to naturally start strategizing your content differently.

[19:58] If you’re ever working with a strategist as a writer, ask them the “why” behind everything that they’re doing–it’ll help you write your assignment a lot better!

[21:08] Nicki warns us about ‘shiny object syndrome’ derailing our progress. Remember that if your primary goal is to build up your copywriting career, dedicating too much time to learning other skills will slow down your success in all of them. 

[23:14] Asking the right questions of the strategist or whoever prepared your assignment can help to strengthen your skills as a copywriter and make sure that you become an expert before adding on more services.

[26:38] SEO involves putting yourself in the user’s shoes to make sure content is valuable for the target audience. Technical SEO ensures visibility and functionality for the right audience. Finally, the writer’s role is to engage and convert visitors by offering relevant and inspiring content.

[33:54] Sometimes clients will want to focus on keyword density, but this is not more important than your user. Educating clients on the ins and outs of what you do and showing them successful examples can help them let go of a bit of control and trust you as the expert.

Must-Hear Takeaways

As a writer and an editor, you’re using language as your most powerful tool. As a strategist, you’re using data. So I think that that is the biggest differentiation.”  – Amanda

“From the strategist perspective, if I’m strategizing for this, it’s the same amount of time to do the strategy as it is to do the writing. So if you are thinking that you need to be doing both, then you need to really accommodate for that time and make sure that you don’t overschedule yourself and that you charge enough to make it worthwhile.” – Amanda

“You have to be your best advocate to enable yourself and empower yourself to do your work. And your clients do not know what you have, what you don’t have, what you know, what you don’t know and it’s okay to ask and to advocate for yourself to get the tools that you need so your work really shines.” – Amanda

Mentioned on this Episode

• What’s the Difference Between Copy and Content?
• #1 Secret for Copywriting Success
• LinkedIn SEO Keyword strategy course – a basic introduction to SEO keywords
• Here’s a basic course Amanda asks writers to take on her team. It’s less than 2 hours and it helps them think about keywords and how to use them to help understand the user when writing.
• Find out more about Amanda’s SEO agency 

Related Links

• What is Content Strategy? And How Is It Different from Copywriting?
• What You Need to Know About Being an “SEO Copywriter”

Tell us what you love about the podcast and what you hope to hear next! When you do, you can get access to an exclusive bonus recording featuring five wildly successful entrepreneurs who share what they do (and don’t!) look for when hiring copywriters. You do not want to miss it! 

Get all the details on how to get your recording here »

About the Build Your Business Podcast

Ready to turn your love of writing into a successful copywriting career?

Join professional copywriters Nicki Krawczyk and Kate Sitarz to get the tips, tools, and training to help you become a copywriter and build a thriving business of your own. Nicki and Kate have 20+ and 10+ years of experience, respectively, writing copy for multi-billion-dollar companies, solopreneurs, and every size business in between.

Whether you want to land an on-staff job, freelance full-time and work from wherever you want, or make extra money with a side hustle, the best place to start learning is right here.

See Previous Episode

Ep. 165: Terrible Advice New Copywriters Get All the Time

The post Episode 166: How Copywriters Can Add Content Strategy as a Service – with Amanda Hand appeared first on Filthy Rich Writer.

TUNE IN: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Stitcher

Looking for closed captioning or a transcript? Watch the episode on YouTube!

A Sneak Peek at the Episode

[1:50] When you’re starting out as a copywriter, it can be tempting to learn all of the skills related to copywriting, like SEO, graphic design, and website development. But if your goal is to establish yourself as a copywriter, then copywriting should be your main focus.

[4:39] Working on more than one project at the same time slows down progress on all of them. It can also lead to overwhelm and ultimately discourage you from working toward your main goal.

[8:15] People often think by offering more services they will be able to charge their clients more. But clients are usually happy to hire a number of experts because each one will know the ins and outs of their craft. Whatever your income goal is, you can create that by being a copywriter.

[9:34] When you get to the point of wondering what the next stage is for your copywriting career, take a step back to figure out what your actual goal is. You don’t have to do things like start an agency just because you see someone else doing it.

[11:40] While it’s perfectly fine to dig into something like design more, Nicki warns that it can often end up becoming a distraction and a form of resistance which stops you from stepping out of your comfort zone.

[15:00] When you’re scheduling tasks in your calendar, make sure you question whether they are actually moving you a step closer to your goal. Break down scarier tasks into smaller chunks and lower the pressure to make them more enjoyable.

[17:16] Sometimes we try to pursue other things to bring back that feeling of newness and excitement by learning something new. Try to focus on what you know is going to work to land clients (pitching!) and then do the rest in your free time.

[21:15] You can still pursue things that interest you but your copywriting business needs to be seeing consistent success before you start adding anything else. Take time to get clear on your goal and make sure that the majority of your time and effort is focused on where you want to go. 

[26:40] Nicki shares a story about how both Bill Gates and Steve Jobs thought the number one key to success was focus.

Must-Hear Takeaways

“What is your goal? Is it to earn more income? Is it to have more time? Is it to maintain that same level of income but be able to take 10 weeks of vacation? What is your actual desire and what are the possible ways to get there because I think we stop thinking about what we actually want and the different ways to get there and there isn’t necessarily one way to do it.” – Kate

“You need to keep a very careful eye on your time, your energy and your attention to make sure this ‘oh pursuing something new’ is not actually just resistance coming up and going ah look at this shiny object that’s going to distract you and keep you from getting out of your comfort zone and actually making progress on your copywriting career.” – Nicki

“You cannot give 100% of yourself to everything, so decide what goal is going to get what goal is going to get 95% of your professional self and then figure out what additional interest or whatever is going to get that 5%.” – Nicki

“Clients are totally fine hiring an expert in copywriting, an expert in design, and an expert in development. Often clients who are savvy know that it’s almost impossible to find someone who fits all of these roles and does them equally well.” – Kate

Mentioned on this Episode

• Copywriting & Design: Insights from a Global Design Leader – Ch’ien Chan

Related Links

• What Does a Copywriter NOT Do?
• Should I Combine Copywriting and Graphic Design Services?
• What Do Copywriters Actually Do?
• Fake Job Alert: What You Need to Know About Being an “SEO Copywriter”

Tell us what you love about the podcast and what you hope to hear next! When you do, you can get access to an exclusive bonus recording featuring five wildly successful entrepreneurs who share what they do (and don’t!) look for when hiring copywriters. You do not want to miss it! 

Get all the details on how to get your recording here »

About the Build Your Business Podcast

Ready to turn your love of writing into a successful copywriting career?

Join professional copywriters Nicki Krawczyk and Kate Sitarz to get the tips, tools, and training to help you become a copywriter and build a thriving business of your own. Nicki and Kate have 20+ and 10+ years of experience, respectively, writing copy for multi-billion-dollar companies, solopreneurs, and every size business in between.

Whether you want to land an on-staff job, freelance full-time and work from wherever you want, or make extra money with a side hustle, the best place to start learning is right here.

See Previous Episode

Ep. 161: 1 Copywriting Tactic You Should Avoid at All Costs

The post Episode 162: #1 Secret for Copywriting Success appeared first on Filthy Rich Writer.

SEO copywriting, as I’ve said before, is a bit of a misnomer: All good copywriting should already be some degree of SEO copywriting. But, that said, there are still a few steps to take that can make your copy—and more often your content—more likely to show up on a search engine results page. Use this SEO copywriting guide as a checklist as you’re writing and to check your work before submitting it to a client.

SEO Copywriting Checklist

You’ve likely heard the term “SEO copywriter” or seen it in job postings. To make sure we’re on the same page, SEO stands for search engine optimization. Organizations focus on SEO when they want a particular piece of content to rank at the top of the search engine results. (And by search engine, we’re talking Google since they still get the vast majority of traffic.)

For example, if you’re writing an article for a pet magazine about the best raincoats for dogs, you want that piece to appear at the top of search engine results page, otherwise known as the SERP. So, if someone searches “best raincoats for dogs,” you’d want your blog post to show within the first few results (otherwise, it’s unlikely anyone will see it to click it!).

It used to be that SEO copywriting meant just jamming as many keywords into an article as possible, with the end result that it usually sounded absurd.

Today, SEO copywriting is almost an unnecessary term. Good copywriting should automatically incorporate the kinds of words that people would naturally use (and search for) regarding a topic. And plenty of copywriting—banner ads, emails, to name just two mediums—doesn’t involve SEO at all!

When it comes to content writing (e.g. blog posts), there is more opportunity to focus on SEO. First, the piece is longer, so you’re likely to have subheads and larger chunks of text compared to many copywriting pieces.

However, to make your copy or content even more appealing for search engines, there are a few specific SEO copywriting best practices to use.

1. Choose One, Impactful Keyword/Phrase for the Page/Post

Don’t try to make a page rank (show up on a search engine results page) for a bunch of different terms; choose the one word/phrase that’s most important and focus your efforts on that one.

Also, when you use it, use it in exactly the same way. For example, if your keywords are “men’s sherpa-lined slippers,” don’t vary it by also using “men’s slippers” or even “men’s sherpa slippers.” You can use those in the post, but you may not get credit for those in your SEO score.

2. Put Your Keyword(s) in the First Paragraph of the Copy

This one is pretty straightforward: use your keyword in the first paragraph, and as close to the beginning as possible. The algorithms for search engines are mysterious, but the tips for good SEO copywriting aren’t.

3. Put the Keyword(s) in the H1 and SEO Title

Your keyword or keyword phrase should be in the H1 Title (the title of the page when someone clicks through), as well as in the SEO title (the title that shows up on the search engine results page). Your SEO title, sometimes referred to as meta title, and your page/post title do not have to be the same. They may be very similar, but it’s your chance to provide more information to search engines about your piece of content.

As with the first paragraph, aim to include keywords at the beginning of the title. This may not always be possible, but it’s worth trying for.

You should only ever have one H1. Each of your subheadings within the piece (if you have any) are H2s.

4. Put the Keyword(s) in at Least One Subhead

If your copy/content has subheadings, try to put your keyword in one of them, too. This isn’t absolutely necessary, particularly if you have a very short piece of content, but it can certainly help with your page ranking.

5. Get the Keyword Ratio Right

For best results, aim to get your keyword(s) in your post/copy two or three times per 400 words. Any more and search engines are going to ding you for keyword stuffing.

6. Put the Keyword in the Description

Meta descriptions are special tags within the code that designate copy as important for search engines. This is the copy that often shows up as somewhat of a “preview” on the search engine results page.

If someone is searching for say “SEO copywriting guide,” then it’s crucial the meta description includes that term and expands on what the post is so a user knows whether that’s the piece of content worth clicking on to answer their question.

Even if you’re not working within your client’s content management system (CMS), you can still provide this to your clients within your copy doc. Simply format your copy doc like this:

SEO PAGE TITLE

META DESCRIPTION

PAGE TITLE (H1)

After this, you can format your copy doc as you normally would. It can also be helpful to flag any subheads for your clients as H2, H3, etc. For example, on this page, “SEO copywriting checklist” and “Watch More” are H2s. They are subheads within the piece. Each of the 12 tips for SEO copywriting are H3s, because they fall under the SEO copywriting checklist H2.

7. Keep the Meta Title and Descriptions the Right Lengths

For best results, keep your meta description length around 150 characters and your meta title under 55 characters. Remember that these characters include spaces! Too much more copy and text will be truncated or search engines may skip using this text and pull from your content instead.

8. Put the Keyword(s) in the URL

If you have any influence over what the page/post’s URL will be, try to include the keyword(s) in that URL. So, in our slipper’s example, the ideal scenario would be something like “https://www.jimsshoeshop.com/mens-sherpa-lined-slippers.”

9. Eliminate Stop Words in the URL

Again, if you can influence the URL, be sure to eliminate unnecessary words in it, also referred to as “stop words.” These are the most common words in the English language. And, while there’s no definitive list, you can safely take out words like “the,” “is,” “at,” “and,” “for,” etc.

10. Include Images and Videos

Pages with images tend to rank higher in search engine results. Even if you can’t include an image within the post, choose an image to be the “featured image”—this will show up when the link is posted/shared on Facebook and some other types of social media.

If you have relevant videos that you can embed on the page, that’s an added bonus. As video increasingly becomes the preferred medium for content consumption, Google is prioritizing webpages that include video.

11. Include the Keyword(s) in the Alt Description

Because it can sometimes take longer for images to load than copy, all images can have an “alt description”—copy that shows up in place of the image until it loads. This alt description should be short and straightforward and describe the image. When possible, it should include the keyword(s). But, as with everything when it comes to writing for SEO, you want it to sound natural.

12. Include Links

Links to both pages/posts on the same site and links to other, authoritative site help to show your page and site’s legitimacy. Include at least one link in each page/post.

If you’re linking to a page other than your client’s site, make sure that link opens in a new window (if you’re helping your client on the back end) or make sure your client knows to have that link open in a new window. If you’re keeping users on your site, it’s fine for links to open in that window. But if you’re driving traffic away from the site, you don’t want them to abandon your site all together! So, have that content open in a new tab.

Watch More

On episode 93 of the Build Your Copywriting Business podcast, Nicki and Kate are digging deeper into the SEO copywriting myth. Find out why some (misguided) job postings include “SEO copywriter” in the description, why there’s so much more to SEO than keywords (think: site speed, mobile usability, and other technical aspects), and how you can provide top-performing copy without having to learn the ins and outs of SEO (and, trust us, there are a lot of ins and outs!).

Your Turn

What questions do you have about SEO copywriting that we haven’t yet answered? What else do you want in this SEO copywriting guide? Let us know in the comments below!

The post SEO Copywriting Guide for Search Result Ranking Success appeared first on Filthy Rich Writer.

For all the companies that are looking for “SEO copywriters,” you’d think it’s a super-specialized field. But the truth is, any copywriter worth their fees is an SEO copywriter—and most people looking for SEO copywriters have no idea what they’re actually asking for.

Despite all of the show about differentiating it from “regular copywriting,” what separates SEO copywriting is…very little. So little, in fact, that it may be a tell that companies who are asking for “SEO copywriters” don’t really know what they’re asking for.

What Is SEO?

Let’s back up a little bit. Search engine optimization (SEO) is improving a website so that it’s more visible when people search on sites like Google or Safari.

When you run a search, the search engine goes out into the internet, looks for pages that are relevant to the keywords you used in your search and serves up the best ones for you on the search results page.

Right now, the algorithms that search engines use to determine the accuracy of results are very sophisticated. So sophisticated, in fact, that no one outside of the search engine companies themselves, really understands how they work. But back when search engines were first being used, their criteria wasn’t quite as sophisticated.

One of the major criteria (again, quite a while ago) was how many times a keyword and/or words similar to it were used on a page. As you can imagine, what that meant was that people tried to game the system by cramming keywords into sentences as many times as they could. Think: “When it comes to optimizing for keywords and words that are important to searches, people would put as many keywords and important words in sentences so that keywords would be prevalent throughout a page and search engines looking for these keywords would find the keywords many times.”

But now, search engines are much savvier than that. (In fact, packing in keywords like that can even cause a search engine to penalize a site.) The trick to SEO nowadays? There is no trick—you can’t game the system. Search engines are looking for pages that are relevant to searches and useful to the searcher.

What Is SEO Copywriting?

Aside from a few webmaster tasks like adding meta tags, the best thing you can do as a copywriter is to make your copy beneficial to the reader. Which is…yeah, what copywriting is all about anyway.

So the truth about SEO copywriting…is that there’s no such thing as SEO copywriting.

Now, this is not to say that you shouldn’t pay attention to keywords. You should use them in a natural way throughout your copy. If you’re writing a webpage about how a company delivers digital backup services for data, you should naturally be using words like “digital backup,” “backup services,” and “data backup” in your copy. You can also pop over to Google’s keyword tool and you can also get suggestions for other keywords that are similar and might be worth including in your copy.

But the key to being an “SEO copywriter” today? Be a good copywriter. Write about the benefits to consumer and use words that the consumer would use. It certainly won’t hurt you to do a search and watch a few videos about how webmasters can use HTML to help search engines find a page, but the truth about being an “SEO copywriter” is simple. Be a good copywriter, use your skills, and you’re automatically an SEO copywriter.

What to Ask Prospective Clients About SEO Copywriter Positions

Now, just because you know that there is little difference between an SEO copywriter and a copywriter, doesn’t mean your clients know the difference.

So, you’re likely to see job postings for SEO copywriters. Most of these will not be clear about what the client is looking for (truth be told, the client may not be clear what they’re looking for). You may see bullets like “works keywords into key areas of content.” Great! Any copywriter will know how to take keywords and naturally work them into the writing.

First, if you have training as a copywriter, you can (and should!) absolutely apply to any job postings for SEO copywriters that you find intriguing. (Of course, do not use the easy apply button! Make your application stand out by showing you already know about the company and have ideas with how you can benefit their organization from day 1.)

But second, you need to ask your prospective client key questions that will help you determine if it’s a job you want to do. For example, you can ask:

• Is there a strategy team who is conducting keyword research or is that an expectation of this role?
• Is there a development team working on the more tech-based elements of SEO, such as site speed and mobile usability, or is that part of this role?
• What are your expectations for this role when it comes to the SEO component?

You want to make sure that you know what the role entails. If you have training and know how to conduct keyword research, maybe you decide it’s still a role you want to move forward with.

However, if you have no interest in doing keyword research or diving in to the more tech-y elements of SEO, that’s absolutely OK! We got into copywriting to write. There are plenty of companies who need and want an expert copywriter. Many companies are simply posting their wish-list job description to see what they’ll get.

Watch More: Factors That Impact SEO

Search engine optimization is an entire career on its own. There are so many factors that go into search engines ranking a page higher that have nothing to do with copywriting! These include, but aren’t limited to:

• Site speed
• Backlinks
• Mobile usability
• Meta tags
• Domain age
• Schema markup

Your Turn

Have you done any “SEO copywriting” in your career? What have your clients expected? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Fake Job Alert: What You Need to Know About Being an “SEO Copywriter” appeared first on Filthy Rich Writer.