Forging connections with potential clients is vital when it comes to driving interest and boosting sales. Creating these connections can be difficult at times. Furthermore, it’s one thing to want to create them and another to figure out how to establish them. One of the more effective avenues to creating these connections is through copywriting. You use words to speak to consumer emotions and try to convince them to take action after reading your words. It may seem simple to write something that you believe will resonate with your audience. However, there are core principles to follow to ensure that you can effectively convince them. In this post, we will discuss what SEO copywriting is and touch on a handful of best practices. These best practices will help you attract customers, convert leads, and drive more sales.
What is SEO Copywriting?
SEO copywriting combines standard SEO best practices that drive traffic with powerful words that persuade users to take action. You can find this type of copy in product pages on a website, emails, and different marketing materials.
SEO copywriting is different than SEO content writing. The main purpose of SEO content writing is to increase organic inbound traffic. SEO copywriting, on the other hand, is meant to convert leads. Furthermore, SEO copywriting is far shorter. A blog post can run in the neighborhood of 1,000 words. This is roughly double the length of most SEO copywriting.
However, it isn’t a stretch to say that the two go hand in hand. You can draft a blog post that includes a CTA designed with SEO copywriting concepts in mind. The language you use for the CTA is meant to entice users to click on what you’re offering.
SEO Copywriting Tips & Best Practices
Effective SEO copywriting is a mixture of a variety of factors, which we’re about to discuss. Ready? Let’s go!
Know Your Audience
The first step is to genuinely know and understand your audience. If you lack this information, it is impossible to compel them with your language since you don’t know who they are or how to cater to their preferences.
Identifying your audience for SEO copywriting follows the same processes you would when developing a targeted marketing campaign. In the most basic sense, you’re essentially developing a buyer persona. A buyer persona is a fictional representation of your ideal customer(s). Each persona is based on market research and your existing business data and customer profiles.
Conduct Keyword Research
Keyword research is an essential element of any successful SEO strategy.
Keyword research is the process of discovering the words that your target audience uses when searching for what you offer. It’s critical to identify the terms your target audience uses since these are the terms you’ll want to include in your SEO content.
This research is crucial because it helps uncover user intent behind the keywords your audience searches. Once you identify user intent and the associated keywords, you can then write copy that resonates with their needs.
Write for Your Audience
The ultimate goal of SEO copywriting is to encourage your audience to take action. As I’ve already mentioned, it’s essential that you always write with your audience in mind. Your audience is looking for solutions and you’re striving to show them that you’re their ideal solution.
For instance, let’s say you offer an all-in-one digital marketing tool. Your persona and keyword research let you know that your target audience frequently searches “easy-to-use digital marketing tools.” You will then want to incorporate this keyword phrase into your copy to speak directly to user intent in the hopes that they’ll complete your desired action because you’ve convinced them that you’re the best option to solve their problem.
Use Intent-Relevant Action Words
While it’s important to write for your audience’s intent, it’s also necessary to use intent-relevant action words. You want your copy to show why what you offer is the best solution, and then lead them to the action you want them to take.
All this really means is that you want your copy to drive your audience to pull the trigger and make a decision. There’s no need to get fancy here, phrases such as “Buy Now” or “Sign Up Here” will suffice.
Be Concise and Straightforward with Your SEO Copy
KISS: keep it simple, stupid!
The more difficult your copy is to read, the less likely it will convert. If your audience has to put in a sizable amount of effort to understand what you have to offer, you’ll likely lose them along the way. That being said, eliminate the fluff and get to the point.
This means doing away with jargon and complicated sentences. You’re better off including what is most relevant to the purpose of your copy. This is without question a difficult skill to develop. So it is helpful to consider what you would and wouldn’t like to see when browsing for solutions to your pain points and model your methodology off of that.
Test Until it Hurts
Something that you initially thought would perform well may not be as aligned with audience intent as you initially thought. This is why you must continuously test your copy and mix things up when what you’re doing stops converting. Continuous testing allows you to iterate on what you create to ensure that you satisfy the needs of your audience.
Testing also ensures that you’re maximizing your effectiveness. Your copy should help your audience realize that your solution is the best option out there.
When all is said and done, SEO copywriting comes together like this: the SEO aspect is the keywords you know align with your audience’s user intent and already have high traffic. The copywriting element is writing for the user intent behind the keywords that yield the most traffic.
When you employ this strategy, you’re directly showing your audience how you’ll solve their pain points and encourage them to become a customer.
