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The Unscary, Real World Guide To SEO Copywriting: SEO Copywriting Tips For Writers, Publishers and Everyone Else
The Unscary, Real World Guide To SEO Copywriting: SEO Copywriting Tips For Writers, Publishers and Everyone Else
SEO Copywriting
SEO copywriting tips for writers, publishers and everyone else.
By Ian Lurie
ConversationMarketing.com
Portent.com
The Catch
I said search engines want easily categorized content. They rarely get it. And publication web sites are
often a mess because the writing in those publications is top-notch for print.
In print, eye-catching headlines and careful use of column inches are paramount.
Online, descriptive headlines and easily-scanned content is the highest priority.
So youre going to have to make adjustments.
Thats what this e-book is all about.
Home page
One click
Two clicks
Title tag
Headings
Copy
1: Text is Text
Search engines understand text. That means words I can cut-and-paste from my browser window into
MS Word or another text editor:
1: Text is Text
Graphical text - text created using Photoshop and then placed on your site as an image - is pretty, but
search engines cant read it.
Search engines do have video and image components now. But even those search tools determine the
relevance of a particular image or video primarily based on the text around it and the filename of the
image or video.
So remember rule 1: Text means editable, cut-and-pastable text.
If you cant click, drag, and then copy and paste text on a web page into MS Word, then chances are
search engines cant find it.
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Look at the title of any article on your site. Then write that title on a separate, blank sheet of paper. If a
complete stranger read that title, would they know what the article was about?
A headline that works in print often works because of the text around it. Online, your headline may
have to make sense all on its own. Can you tell me what the content of this article will be?
Mustang Gallops Into Sunset
Nope. How about this, instead?
Ford Mustang Wins Awards at Sunset Auto Show
See the difference? In print, you often keep your article titles short and punchy because of space
restrictions, and because youre trying to grab the attention of passersby at a newsstand, or the guy
whos reading over someones shoulder on the subway.
Online, youre trying to grab the attention of someone whos rapidly scanning a list of article titles in
their feed reader or on your home page. So descriptive is better.
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I wont go into the techie details of how that tag gets there. Youre a writer, not an HTML programmer,
and you shouldnt have to become one just to write web- and SEO-friendly copy.
I will tell you, though, that the title tag is allll the way at the top of the page hierarchy search engines
use to categorize content. Refer back to page 7 if you want to see that hierarchy again.
Your content management system must use the article title in the title tag (good) or let you type in a
custom title tag (even better). If it doesnt talk to your developers! As a copywriter you must have
control over the title.
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If someone searches for internet marketing strategy and sees this title tag, theyre very likely going to
click. If they see Conversation Marketing and nothing else, they wont click, because they have no idea
what theyre going to get.
Rule #2: An article title must clearly describe the article, on its own. The reader should not need to read
any other copy to understand the article topic and, if relevant, the opinion of the writer.
Write descriptive article titles.
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If you look at the page hierarchy on page 7, youll notice that headings are the second priority. Search
engines start with title tags (you read rule 2, right?) and then work their way down, using headings as a
page outline that describes the structure of your writing.
The concept of headings can be a little abstract, so Ill start with an example from a tool we all know and
love: Microsoft Word.
As a writer, you know you should create headings to break up a page of content (if you dont, just quietly
nod and read up on proper copywriting techniques later). But, you also know you can create the visual
equivalent of a heading, or an actual heading. I create the visual equivalent by making my heading
bold and bumping up the type size:
I created something that only looks like a heading. MS Word has no way to know whether I mean the
bold text to be a heading, or just plain old bold text. Structural higgledy-piggledy results.
Unscary, Real World SEO Copywriting
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Note that I can make a heading look any way I want by editing the style in Word. On the web, youve got
Cascading Style Sheets to do the same thing. Now if I use outline mode, Word knows what to do:
The word processor knows that This is my heading is at the top of the pages semantic structure.
Semantic structure simply means that text on the page includes information about the contents
structure.
By setting my heading to actually use the Heading 1 style, I added information to the page that tells
Word its at the top of the page hierarchy.
Thats a word processor. Now Ill show you how it works online.
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I could create this layout by making the headings bold. But then a search engine will see this:
Main Heading
Heres the first paragraph, with a bunch of content thats related directly to the main heading.
And heres the next paragraph.
Sub Heading
This is a subtopic, related to the main heading but then classified a bit more by a subheading.
Sub-heads make content easier to read.
You already know that this means: No semantic outline. Search engines use the semantic outline to
figure out a page or paragraphs focus. Without that outline, search engines probably wont accord as
much relevance to your page for a given topic.
Unscary, Real World SEO Copywriting
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Search engines immediately understand: The H1 element - the text between <h1> and </h1> - refers to
the entire page. The H2 element refers to a subtopic.
If I had many subtopics, Id just create an outline: All subtopics are H2 elements. All sub-subtopics are
H3 elements. And so on.
As I said before, your content management system may allow you to tag headings using a simple pointand-click tool. But, at worst, you have to remember <h1> and <h2>.
So, first half of this rule: Use Tagged Headings.
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If I write Todays Top News on a blank sheet of paper, do I really know the topic of the page? I know
its about news, from today, thats important. But whats the news about? Business? Medicine?
Politics? Hobbits? The squirrel acorn harvest? I have no idea. Neither will a search engine, or the
typical reader who visits your web site and rapidly scans the page. This is much better:
<h1>Todays Top Healthcare News</h1>
<p>Here at Harrisons Bike Shop, we offer great cycling apparel.</p>
<p>And heres the next paragraph.</p>
<h2>Other Healthcare Coverage</h2>
<p>Special for Fall! Get 20% off on every cycling jersey in stock!</p>
<p>Sub-heads make content easier to read.</p>
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By now you get what I mean by descriptive: Take the link text and write it on a blank sheet of paper.
Does it tell you about the page to which it links?
For example:
For more information on emergency preparedness quality metrics, click here.
That link tells me the page to which Im about to go is about click here. Of course I can read the rest of
the sentence. But my eye is drawn to the link first. Search engines take this to an extreme.
To a search engine, every link on the internet is a vote. More votes can mean greater authority for a
given topic. But the link text can define how those votes are applied. So the click here link tells a search
engine the target page is very relevant and an authority about click here. Hmmmm...
Try this instead:
For more information on emergency preparedness quality metrics, click here.
You can keep the click here. Usability studies show that people like to click the words click here. But
by creating a separate, descriptive link, I emphasize the authority of the target page for EPQM.
Putting the descriptive link first, I (arguably) reduce the importance of the second link. By separating it,
I (definitely) increase the value of the link.
Unscary, Real World SEO Copywriting
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5. Create Hubs.
Similar pages should link to and from a single, central hub page. That hub page can be
anything - an article, a special category page, or something else. But there must be a single hub
page.
Way back on page 6, I said site hierarchy matters. Link structures within your site can funnel the link
votes that search engines use to determine the authority and relevance of each page on your site.
If a page is 30 clicks away from your home page, it has less potential for a high ranking than a page
thats 1 click away. It also has less authority to confer back to other pages on the site.
If you have a site that grows steadily, youll add more and more pages of content. Inevitably, older
content will get pushed down in the site hierarchy. They then move further from the home page and
lose some of their authority within the site.
Thats unfair! It means great articles on huge, well-maintained publication site with tens of thousands
of pages could actually lose authority over time.
Heres how you even things out: Create hub pages. A hub page is a single, central page to which many
other relevant pages on your site link.
It can be an existing article or product page, or a category page. If you use an existing page, youll get
faster results than if you use a new one. Established pages will already be in the search indexes and
have authority upon which you can build. On the other hand, you can tailor a new page to be superoptimized.
How do you decide? Its actually pretty easy.
Unscary, Real World SEO Copywriting
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5. Create Hubs.
If you have a page that already has a strong ranking for a great key phrase, then make that page your
hub. For example, if I want to gain a high ranking for Google Analytics Consulting, I already have a
starting point:
Im not going to create a whole new page. Ill use this page as my hub.
If you dont have a page that ranks well for any of my target phrases, go ahead, create a new hub page.
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5. Create Hubs.
Say youre optimizing for buggy bumpers. You have one page on your site, written 6 months ago, thats
right on point. And its on page 2 of Google, so you know youre close to getting some real traffic. But
you need to get into the top 10, and right now that page is pretty lonely:
Buggy
Bumpers
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5. Create Hubs.
Create another page with more information on buggy bumpers. Then link from that page back to the
original buggy bumpers page, and vice-versa.
Buggy
Bumpers
More about
Buggy
Bumpers
Since links are votes, youve just added a vote for the buggy bumpers page. That page is giving some of
the votes, back, since it links back to the more about page, but still, youre gaining ground.
If you really know what youre doing, you can NoFollow the links from the original page to the new page. That
way, the new pages provide more link authority to the original page, which keeps all that authority in one place.
Do not do this if you dont understand it. This kind of link sculpting can potentially hurt your site in the
rankings.
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5. Create Hubs.
Over time, you add more pages. They all link to that one central buggy bumpers page. Those links are
all descriptive, too, so they lend a lot of authority to the hub page. That boosts the importance of the
page and creates a cluster of content thats all relevant to this one topic. Then, link to your hub page
from the home page, or from a page thats 1-2 clicks from the home page. That brings this entire cluster
of content up in the site hierarchy. Your site will gain relevance for the topic as a result.
Buggy
Bumpers
Buggy
Bumper Tips
More about
Buggy
Bumpers
Buggy
Bumper
Reviews
Even better, visitors will appreciate that they can find all of the buggy bumpers content in one place.
I am not suggesting you write reams of lousy content purely to move up in the search engines. Write good,
useful stuff. Your visitors will appreciate it, and theyll be more likely to buy, subscribe or return to your site.
Dont force the issue.
Rule #5: Similar pages should link to and from a single, central hub page. That hub page can be
anything - an article, a special category page, or something else. But there must be a single hub page.
Unscary, Real World SEO Copywriting
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People tend to search for topics using common phrases. I dont search for air travel prices or plane
tickets. I search for airfares. You dont search for Manhattan business news, you search for New York
business news.
You need to always be aware of common phrasing. This isnt about researching keywords. You must
never, ever research keywords before you write an article. Thats a surefire way to write lousy copy.
Instead:
1. Write your article.
2. Look at other news sources, blog posts and other user-generated content out on the web.
3. Note how folks are referring to your topic.
4. Stay consistent and use that phrasing.
Use standard phrasing in:
- Your article title
- Headings
- The article copy
- Links
And so on. Again, dont force the phrase into your writing. Just make sure that you use the right phrase
when youre otherwise going to refer to a particular topic.
Unscary, Real World SEO Copywriting
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Nowhere in that sentence do I see all-natural chocolate. Its almost there, but not quite. This is far
better:
All of our candies are made with tasty, all-natural chocolate!
See that? Same meaning, still flows nicely, but now all-natural chocolate is in there as a phrase. Thatll
help boost the sites relevance for the phrase.
And, if the phrase shows up in search results, the search engine will bold it. That makes the listing stand
out, and makes the reader more likely to click:
One last detail: Be aware of spacing. ClassicalMusic may be a great brand name, but if you want to rank
for Classical Music, youll have to space the words out. To a search engine, ClassicalMusic is one
word, and Classical Music is two.
You can space words out using a space, a hyphen (-) or a forward-slash. Search engines probably wont
interpret an underscore (_) as a space.
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Theres More.
Theres always more. This booklet distills 12 years testing and knowledge into 30 pages. So you can
imagine, Ive cut a few corners here and there.
I tried to keep this totally focused on pure copywriting. No techie stuff, no fancy stuff.
If you want to learn more, have a look at a few sites:
ConversationMarketing.com - Thats me.
SEOMoz.org - A great resource for learning SEO.
CopyBlogger.com - If youre a writer and youre writing online, read this blog.
I also suggest reading the classics:
Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy
Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy
But the best thing you can do is write every day. Writing isnt an inborn talent - its a skill you can
develop over time.
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Contacting Ian
E-mail: ian@portent.com
Twitter: @portentint
Blog: www.ConversationMarketing.com
If someone gave you a copy of this book, great! I told them they could. Pass it on.
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