Search Engine Optimisation Made Simple
Effective Copywriting for Websites
As experts in search engine optimisation, we encounter all sorts of websites and one of the biggest problems we find is poorly written content. It is clear that a lot of people do not understand the difference between well written content and well optimised content.
A page can be optimised to show a certain result, but if your potential customer has not been shown the right content, they will simply walk away. You have to grab their attention from the start! From the first second they land on your website you need to interact with them as a customer, make them feel you know exactly what they are after.
The golden rule to remember is this, it may take only one quick click to find you, but it takes an equally quick click to leave you!
There are three simple copywriting rules that will ensure this doesn’t happen to you:
Rule One: Talk to your audience
The main purpose of copy is to influence the reader and the most simple and effective way to do this is to speak directly to your audience. Ensure that you always address them with words like “you” and “your”. This may seem simple and obvious but there are so many websites out there advertising that “Joe Bloggs can help businesses”. What they should be advertising is, “Joe Bloggs will help your business”, which is direct, straight to the point and grabs the reader’s attention.
Rule Two: Tell your audience what to do
Once your audience is engaged, you need to make them do what you want. Ninety-nine per cent of the time with a website, you want them to buy a product or service. Do not assume that informing a reader about how good a product is will result in a sale, you need to actively instruct your audience to do this! A call to action is the simplest instruction to write - “call our friendly team today on 01234 5678 9900”. Unbelievably, there are dozens of websites out there who are not even displaying their telephone number! Do not ever be afraid of being obvious. Ensure your audience knows exactly what they have to do to put money in your pocket.
Rule Three: Reinforce, Reinforce, Reinforce (or – “The Rule of Three”)
There are a lot of clever techniques used in copywriting, but by far the simplest, takes you back to GCSE English syllabus basics with “the rule of three”. Whilst attempting to influence your audience, use three pieces of evidence; if you tell someone that your product will make them faster and stronger, it will come across as lightweight. Tell them it will make them faster, stronger, healthier and better looking, then you will be coming on too strong. Aim for three superlatives, three selling points or three benefits and your message will be much more persuasive.
Finding the right balance
We touched on keyword density in the last edition of Optimise. This is very important because search engines need to be able to ‘see’ the important phrases you wish to be found for throughout the text on the page. In theory, this is quite straightforward: choose the phrases you want to be found for and include them through your text and in important places on the page (such as headings, subheadings, ALT tags, etc). However, in practice this is not always that straightforward.
What’s essential is to find the right balance between keyword-rich copy and putting across a simple, eye-catching message. Too much long-winded, repetitive text and your reader may be put off, too little text and the search engines won’t consider your website ‘important’ enough to rank highly. Finding this balance takes time and practice but it is well worth investing a good amount of effort as the rewards can be extremely beneficial.
Most website companies will concentrate specifically on the design aspect of the page. This is important too, but having well written copy is something that’s often overlooked.
Unfortunately, there’s no magic formula for this or a set of rules to follow. Each website’s content and message will change depending on the product or service. Again good copywriting comes with practice and time. Get other people to look at your work (not friends or family as they will tend to be overly complimentary!) and ask them for their initial reaction. If there are any doubts then refine, tweak and refine again until you’re happy.
Using correct grammar, punctuation and spelling is also vital; not only for search engines, but for prospective customers too. Nothing screams unprofessionalism more than a badly punctuated, misspelt home page. It sets a bad impression for your visitors and search engines will not reward you for this, especially if one of your main keyword phrases is spelt incorrectly. This can be disastrous!
As far as search engines go, don’t be overly concerned about adding too much text on a page. Remember that search engines ‘feed’ off the text present and, generally speaking, the more you have the more search engines can find to place you in their rankings. However, don’t just add text for the sake of it. Search engines are not likely to reward you if you’re repeating yourself unnecessarily. Your visitors will quickly become uninterested too. The key here is to make your copy original, interesting and informative. Treat a search engine like you would any other visitor of your website and they’ll reward you for it.