Copywriting SEO Techniques

Posted in Search Engine Optimisation on February 18, 2010

Copywriting SEO techniques simply means writing website copy that is optimised for the major search engines. In the good old days, this usually meant having a main keyword phrase that was simply included in the body of the article to a density of around 5%. Some even advocated a higher density of 10%! For a while this worked reasonably well. Today you need something completely different. Here are a few copywriting tips to help you get the search results you want.

1. Write naturally. Yes, you still need a main keyword phrase to wrap your article around, but don’t get obsessed about it. Forget about keyword density completely and you’ll write better copy. OK, use the keyword near the beginning of the first paragraph, and then three or four times more, but that’s it. Search engine optimisation is better served with a density of less than 1% these days, but don’t go checking it every sentence.
2. Perhaps you have heard of something called latent semantic indexing, also known as LSI. It sounds formidable, but it simply means theming your article so that the search engines know exactly what your page is about. You can use synonyms, or words that mean the same thing as your main keyword. You can use words and phrases that are closely associated with the main keyword. Doing copywriting SEO this way, you build a theme that cannot be mistaken. In this way your web page can only be about a specific topic, and the search engines will know it too.
3. Find theme words and phrases from your competitors. This is perhaps your best copywriting SEO tip. Look up the top 10 search results for the search terms you are trying to rank for. Examine the text of the pages. Note down any and all keywords that are related to the topic. Think laterally and make the list as big as possible. Make two lists in fact, one for single words, and one for phrases of two words or more. This will be your targeted search terms to use.
4. Think of it this way; Google Bing and Yahoo already think these pages are important for your main search phrase, so the words on the pages must be important to the topic. If you use the words in your own creative way, your page will be considered important too!
5. Copywriting actually flows more naturally and reads better when you prepare in this way. With a list of words and phrases to use in a natural and unforced way, you can quickly see where to add them and when. It becomes a writing aid that makes the article flow easily and smoothly.
6. Copywriting SEO is all about writing naturally, informatively and interestingly. When you use search terms in your web copy that are in the same general theme of your main keyword phrase, it’s difficult to go wrong, for you will have themed content. Do this and your SEO copywriting will improve – and the search engines will like it better too!