What Is SEO Copywriting?
Establishing connections with prospects is important in generating interest and increasing sales. However, making these connections can be tricky at times, as it is one thing to want to make them and another to figure out how to make them.
One of the best ways to make these connections is by text writing where you use words to speak to consumers’ emotions and trick them into taking action after reading your words.
While it may seem easy to write something that you think will resonate with your audience, there are essential principles that you need to follow to ensure that you can effectively convince them. In this post, you will learn what SEO copywriting is and find best practices for the process that will help you attract customers, convert leads, and generate more sales.
What is SEO Copywriting?
SEO copywriting is the process of combining standard SEO best practices that drive traffic (such as keyword research) with compelling words that entice users to take certain actions, such as: B. Buy a product or subscribe to an email list. You can find this copy on product pages on a website, in emails, and in various marketing materials.
SEO copywriting is different from other SEO content that you may be familiar with, such as: B. Blogging as the end goal is to convert leads rather than generate organic traffic. In addition, SEO copywriting is shorter; Where a blog post contains nearly a thousand words, text content can contain less than half of them.
However, the two can go hand in hand. You can create a blog post that has a CTA created with SEO copywriting principles in mind and the words will entice users to click on what you are offering to learn more, such as: B. downloading a free e-book or other related source.
Here are some examples of types of content that can be created using SEO copywriting principles:
- Final checkout screens
- Product description
- Navigation instructions on site
- Advertising content
- Website copy
- Brand message
- CTA buttons
- Home pages
As with all types of SEO, it is important to understand best practices.
SEO copywriting tips and best practices
Strong copywriting is a combination of several factors that we will discuss below.
Know your audience.
The first step to successful copywriting is knowing your audience. Without this information, it’s impossible to force them into your writing because you don’t know who they are or how to address them.
Finding your target audience for SEO copywriting is done the same way as creating a targeted marketing campaign or any type of content you would create for your business: buyer personality research.
Buyer personalities are fictional representations of what your ideal customer looks like based on market research and your existing business data and customer profiles. HubSpot’s Make My Persona tool can help you with this as it takes you step-by-step through the process of describing who they are, identifying their main pain points, and finding solutions they seek based on their needs.
Do keyword research.
Keyword research is an important component of any SEO strategy.
To freshen up, keyword research means uncovering the words your target audience will use to find products and services that are similar to what you are offering, and using the keywords in your content to attract the same users to your website.
For copywriting, this research is vital as it will help you uncover the intent of the users behind the keywords that your target audience is looking for, so that you can write a copy that suits their needs.
Write for your audience.
The goal of copywriting is to get your audience to act. So, as mentioned above, it’s important to always write with your audience in mind. Your buyers are looking for solutions, so write to them why they are a solution.
For example, let’s say you offer an all-in-one marketing tool. Through your persona and keyword research, you know that your target audience often asks for “easy-to-use marketing tools”. You want to include this search term in your copy to speak directly to the user intent in the hopes that they will take the desired action (purchase your product) because you have convinced them that you are the most appropriate solution on theirs Needs.
Use intentional action words.
Just as it is important to write for your audience’s intent, it is also important to use intentional action words. You want your copy to let them know why what you have to offer is the best solution and then guide them to the action they should take.
This simply means that you want your copy to attract your audience to make a final decision by saying something like “Buy Now” or “Sign Up Here” at the end of your product descriptions.
Be precise and straightforward.
The harder it is to read your copy, the less likely it is that you will achieve your ultimate goal of converting users. If they take a significant effort to understand what you have to offer, you will likely lose them along the way.
This means avoiding jargon and wordiness and only include what is most relevant to what you are making a copy for. This ability can be difficult to develop. Therefore, it can be helpful to consider what you want and don’t want to see when looking for solutions to your vulnerabilities and model your strategy from them.
If I took this tip into account and took my own advice as I write this section, I would say simply this: leave no room for confusion or misunderstanding; be straightforward.
Continuous testing.
Something that you might have thought worked well might not match the audience’s intent as well as you thought it would. Continuous testing allows you to replicate your creation to make sure you meet consumer needs.
Testing also ensures that you are maximizing your effectiveness. Your copy is meant to help your audience seamlessly get to the solutions you provide with no extra effort, as your copy already explains everything.
An example of continuous testing could be creating multiple versions of CTAs, each with different copies, that you place on different web pages to see which produce better results.
All in all, SEO copywriting comes together like this: the SEO aspect is the keywords that you know match your target audience’s user intent and already have a lot of traffic, and the copywriting element is writing for the user intent behind the keywords, who have traffic.
By employing this strategy, you are showing your audience directly how to solve their weaknesses and entice them to become a customer.